The European Union strongly condemned the Taliban's decisioꦐn to🙈 ban women and girls from pursuing medical education in Afghanistan.
As per media reports, the Taliban has directed both private and public i🉐nstitutions to cease offering medical courses to women.
The EU described this move as a "grave violation of women's rights and their fundamental right💝 to educatio🌸n".
Neither the Taliban nor its Ministry of Public Health have officially ꦇcommented on the ban.
The directive, the reports suggest, follows the𒐪 Taliban’s broader pattern of restricting female education since regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
In September 2021, the Talib🦄an halted girls’ education beyond grade six. In December 2022, they extended their ban to universities.
Medical education, nursing and midwifery have been one of the few educational streams available to women in Afghanistan since the Tali😼ban's return 🌟to power.
However, the BBC and other med🐻ia outlets report, the Taliban has now ordered the closure of five educational institutions and halted medical training for women indefinitely.
On Wednesday, women in nu🦹rsing and midwifery programs were also 💦told not to resume classes.
The EU denounced the latest decree as "an unjustified assault on women𝕴's educational oppꦛortunities" and described it as yet another "heinous violation of fundamental human rights".
In a statement, it expressed deep conc🌱ern about the far-reachingᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ consequences of this decision and warned that it would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and further increase the suffering of its people.
Although there is no formal announcement by the Taliban in this regard, two health ministry ofܫficials con꧑firmed the ban to BBC Afghan on condition of anonymity.
Videos shared with the news channel show women trainees in tears upon hearing the news. Speaking to AFP, a public health ministry official revealed that health officials met wit🍬h heads of educational institutions in Kabul on Monday to relay 🐽the new directive.
"There is no official letter, but the directors of institu🔯tes were informed in a meeting that women and girls cannot study anymore in their institut🗹es," the officials said.
"They were not provided with any de🦄tails or justification and were simply told of the order from the supreme leader, and asked to implement it."
Since the Taliban's resurgence in 2021, the extremist government has implemented a series🌠 of harsh measures to suppress women under the guise of Islamic 🐽law.
In August 2023, the Taliban introduced new directives requiring Afghan women to cover their faces and bodies in public, as well as in the presence of n🍬on-Muslim males and females.
Other restrictions include a ban on women singing,✃ reading or reciting in public as female voices are considered "intimate".
Women are also forbidden from looking at men who are no༒t their relatives.
Afghan w💯omen have seen their rights systematically stripped away since the𝐆 Taliban's return to power.
Baꦰns on education, employment and even public speech have forced women into a daily existence marked by fear and uncertainty. They vi🍎ew it as the erasure of their presence from public life.
