The State Department this week announced new visa restrictions on current and former Taliban officials who were involved in the decision to ban women and girls from higher education.
The Taliban last week doubled down on their ban on women in girls’ college, warning universities not to allow Afghan women to take entrance exams.
Officials also banned foreign and Afghan women from working in non-governmental organizations in December, a move humanitarian groups have warned could exacerbate the country’s current economic crisis.
Taliban soldiers stand guard in Panjshir province, northeastern Afghanistan, on Wednesday, September 8, 2021.
(AP Photo/Mohammad Asif Khan)
“Through these decisions, the Taliban have once again shown their contempt for the welfare of the Afghan people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“The Taliban cannot expect the respect and support of the international community until they respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Afghans, including women and girls.”
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Women and girls in Afghanistan have seen their freedoms eroded after the United States withdrew from the country in August 2021.
Amanah Nashenas, 45, an Afghan teacher, collects books at a school in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, December 22, 2022.
(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Taliban officials, adhering to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, have also imposed restrictions on women traveling outside the home without a male chaperone, barred women from working outside certain industries, and barred girls from dating. middle and high school.
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UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths called the ban on women humanitarian workers a “potential death blow” to many programs that have buoyed Afghanistan’s struggling economy over the past year and a half.
“Afghanistan is having a wild winter, its second under the Taliban,” he said at a news conference this week. “Last winter we managed to survive. I don’t know if we can do it indefinitely, not with all these bans.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
