The minister of upper training within the Taliban authorities on Thursday defended his resolution to ban girls from universities — a decree that had triggered a world backlash.

Discussing the matter for the primary time in public, Nida Mohammad Nadim stated the ban issued earlier this week was obligatory to forestall the blending of genders in universities and since he believes some topics being taught violated the rules of Islam. He stated the ban was in place till additional discover.

In an interview with Afghan tv, Mr Nadim pushed again towards the widespread worldwide condemnation, together with from Muslim-majority international locations corresponding to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Mr Nadim stated that foreigners ought to cease interfering in Afghanistan’s inside affairs.

Earlier on Thursday, the international ministers of the G7 group of states urged the Taliban to rescind the ban, warning that “gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity”.

The ministers warned after a digital assembly that “Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban”. The G7 group consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

A former provincial governor, police chief and army commander, Mr Nadim was appointed minister in October by the supreme Taliban chief and beforehand pledged to stamp out secular education. Mr Nadim opposes feminine training, saying it’s towards Islamic and Afghan values.

Other causes he gave for the college ban had been girls’s failure to watch a costume code and the research of sure topics and programs.

“We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn’t and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony,” he stated.

“Girls were studying agriculture and engineering, but this didn’t match Afghan culture. Girls should learn, but not in areas that go against Islam and Afghan honour.”

He added that work was below method to repair these points and universities would reopen for girls as soon as they had been resolved. The Taliban made comparable guarantees about highschool entry for women, saying lessons would resume for them as soon as “technical issues” round uniforms and transport had been sorted out, however women stay shut out of school rooms.

The Taliban tried to repair what he claimed had been issues they inherited from the earlier administration since their takeover final 12 months. He alleged that folks weren’t following guidelines and that this justified the college ban.

In Afghanistan, there was some home opposition to the college ban, together with from a number of cricketers. Cricket is a massively fashionable sport within the nation, and gamers have tons of of hundreds of followers on social media.

Another present of assist for feminine college college students got here at Nangarhar Medical University. Local media reported that male college students walked out in solidarity and refused to sit down for exams till girls’s college entry was reinstated.

Despite initially promising a extra average rule respecting rights for girls and minorities, the Taliban have broadly applied their interpretation of Islamic regulation, or Sharia, since they seized energy in August 2021.

They have banned women from center faculty and highschool, barred girls from most fields of employment and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public. Women are additionally banned from parks and gymnasiums.

At the identical time, Afghan society, whereas largely conventional, has more and more embraced the training of women and girls over the previous twenty years.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated on Thursday that the ban was “neither Islamic nor humane”. Speaking at a joint information convention together with his Yemeni counterpart, he referred to as on the Taliban to reverse their resolution.

“What harm is there in women’s education? What harm does it do to Afghanistan?” Mr Cavusoglu stated. “Is there an Islamic explanation? On the contrary, our religion, Islam, is not against education, on the contrary, it encourages education and science.”

Saudi Arabia, which till 2019 enforced sweeping restrictions on girls’s journey, employment and different essential features of their each day lives, together with driving, additionally urged the Taliban to vary course.

The Saudi international ministry expressed “astonishment and regret” at Afghan girls being denied a college training. In a press release late on Wednesday, the ministry stated the choice was “astonishing in all Islamic countries”.

Previously, Qatar, which has engaged with the Taliban authorities, additionally condemned the choice.

In the capital of Kabul, about two dozen girls marched within the streets on Thursday, chanting in Dari for freedom and equality. “All or none. Don’t be afraid. We are together,” they chanted.

In video obtained by The Associated Press, one girl stated Taliban safety forces used violence to disperse the group.

“The girls were beaten and whipped,” she stated. “They also brought military women with them, whipping the girls. We ran away, some girls were arrested. I don’t know what will happen.”

Girls have been banned from faculty past the sixth grade for the reason that Taliban’s return.

In north-eastern Takhar province, teenage women stated the Taliban on Thursday pressured them out of a personal training coaching centre and instructed them they not had the fitting to check. One pupil, 15-year-old Zuhal, stated the women had been overwhelmed.

Another, 19-year-old Maryam, stated whereas crying: “This training centre was our hope. What can these girls do? They were full of hope and coming here to learn. It is really a pity. (The Taliban) have taken all our hopes. They closed schools, universities, and the training centre, which was very small.”