Taliban takeover deepens Afghan healthcare crisis

Women protested and cried outside universities as the ban was enforced. More and more countries have condemned the decision, with the UN urging a reversal.

Taliban ought to fear ISIS-K: Afghan journalist Ali Latifi

There has been global outrage over the Taliban's announcement to ban women from universities. In our first edition for 2023, we meet the Afghan women who are bravely protesting against the decree.

The Australian cricket team was going to play against their Afghan counterparts in the United Arab Emirates, however, Australia pulled out of the series over the Taliban's further restrictions on women's rights.

The Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country. The higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.

Ismail Mashalm, the man who tore up his academic records on television to protest the ban on the education of women and girls, was detained for "provocative actions."

Since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021, thousands of Afghan families have found refuge in neighbouring Pakistan. Many Afghans decided to flee their country in order for their daughters to have an education, the Taliban having imposed a ban on secondary and higher education for girls. Pakistan does not offer real prospects of integration or employment to refugees.

Over 2,000 Afghan asylum seekers are living under "miserable" conditions in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Human Rights Watch advocacy group. Some evacuees have been waiting for resettlement for over a year.

Nearly 400 Afghan women who are UN employees have now been banned from working for the organization by the Taliban. Previously, those working with the UN were exempt from the ban.

US President Joe Biden's administration defended the decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan in 2021. It followed almost two decades in the country, and led almost immediately to the Taliban reclaiming power.

The UN accused the Taliban of forcing it to choose between abiding by its principles and serving Afghans. The Taliban told the UN it could not employ women in the country; so the UN is considering its mission's future.

In August 2021, when the US hurriedly pulled out of Afghanistan, it organised an airlift to evacuate those who had worked with NATO forces and found themselves threatened by the Taliban.