Siblings’ future separated after Taliban university ban

Kabul, Afghanistan (AFP):

Marwa was just a few months away from becoming the first woman in her Afghan family to go to university — instead, she will watch achingly as her brother goes without her.

Women have been “temporarily” banned from attending university in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The Taliban cite the lack of proper dress code and regulations for the ban they say is not permanent.

The 19-year-old had recently passed an entrance exam to start a nursing degree at a medical university in the Afghan capital from March.

She was thrilled to be joining her brother Hamid, in attending the campus each day.

“I wanted my sister to achieve her goals along with me — to succeed and move ahead,” said Hamid, 20, a student of business administration at a higher education institute in Kabul.

“Despite several problems, she had studied until the 12th grade, but what can we say now?”

While the hardline Taliban base their policy on an ultra conservative interpretation of Islamic law, the overwhelming majority of Islamic scholars and experts believe there is nothing in Islam that bars women from pursuing higher education or independent careers.

The ban by the hardline government, which seized power in August last year, has sparked global outrage, including from Muslim nations who deemed it against Islam.

Marwa and Hamid come from an impoverished family but their parents had supported their pursuit of higher education.

With dreams of becoming a midwife, Marwa had planned to visit remote areas of Afghanistan where women remain deprived of health services.

“I wanted to serve women in faraway places so that we never witness the loss of a mother’s life during childbirth,” she said.

Instead she will now stay home to teach her six younger siblings, while her father, the family’s sole breadwinner, earns money as a vegetable vendor.

Marwa’s mother, holding her newborn baby in her arms, said she felt history repeating itself.

Two decades ago she was forced to quit her studies during the Taliban’s first regime between 1996 and 2001.

“I’m happy that my son is able to pursue his goals, but I’m also heartbroken that my daughter is unable to do the same,” said Zainab, 40.

“If my daughter does not achieve her goals, she’ll have a miserable future like mine.”