The president of Turkiye has condemned the Taliban government’s ban on higher education for women in Afghanistan, calling it “un-Islamic”.
Last month, the Afghan Taliban government decided to suspend university education for women and to enact a blanket ban on women’s education. That decision drew international condemnation, including from across the Muslim world and its political and religious leaders.
In a televised address on Wednesday addressing an international conference on ombudsmanship in the capital Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the condemnation, saying the ruling is “inhumane and un-Islamic”.
“There is no such thing in our religion,” Erdogan said. “No one should define such a prohibition on the basis of Islam. Islam does not accept such a thing. On the contrary, we are members of a religion that says ‘seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave’.”
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He assured that he and the Turkish Foreign Ministry will “personally monitor” the status of women’s education in Afghanistan and will not give up, promising to monitor the issue until it is resolved.
On the same day as Erdogan’s remarks, Turkiye launched its extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which called on the Afghan interim government to review the ban on women’s education and their work within non-governmental organizations . the education sector.
The OIC had also announced its decision to send a religious delegation led by the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) to advocate for women’s education – including at the university level – as a fundamental right in line with the “noble Islamic sharia’.
Despite the blanket ban, schools continue to operate and educate girls in Afghanistan, as the severity of restrictions reportedly varies depending on the province or territory.
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