Taliban govt for women’s university ban against human rights - UPKO Women

25 December 2022

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KOTA KINABALU: UPKO Women is throwing its support behind Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek who on Friday urged the Taliban government to remove its restrictions on enrolment by women into higher learning institutions and universities in Afghanistan.

UPKO Women Exco Secretary Rowindy Lawrence Odong agreed that such policy is not only backward but also against human rights as it is driven by gender prejudice which is outright discriminatory.

“Our social fabric is undermined by gender biasness and its effects can be seen and felt all over the world.

“To allow such discriminatory government policies to be implemented anywhere in the world is like raising the white flag in the fight for human rights,” Rowindy said.

Citing further on ‘The Global Goals’ (a list of 17 issues that world leaders agreed to work on), Rowindy, who is also UPKO deputy information chief said gender bias if allowed to endure especially in areas of education will translate into a tremendous waste of the world’s human potential.

“Be it on a political, economic or social landscape, women should be given full access to their rights.

“It is especially concerning when women are restricted from the right to equal opportunity for such basic needs as education. To this end I feel that global societies are right to voice their concern on the distress that this causes and we in UPKO Women fully stand behind our Malaysian Education Minister on her call to urge the Taliban government to remove these restrictions at once,” Rowindy said.

In her statement on Friday, Fadhlina said the restrictions imposed by the Taliban actually prevent women in the country from accessing higher education.

Fadhlina added that measures to restrict the involvement of women in higher education institutions will eventually cause their participation in the workforce sector to be more limited.

As a result of the policy, she said, the Afghan government will only widen the competitive gap between genders in terms of quality job opportunities, economic and social status.

The Ministry of Education of Afghanistan a few days ago issued an order to all public and private universities in the country to suspend the admission of female students immediately.

The move, as reported by international news agencies, was made after the decision of the Afghan cabinet.

It was later criticized by various countries including the United Nations (UN).

Ends