Taliban safety forces have used a water cannon to disperse crowds protesting towards the ban on college schooling for ladies, witnesses mentioned, as the choice by the federal government continued to trigger anger in Afghanistan and past.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned feminine college students from attending universities efficient instantly. Women have since demonstrated in main cities in a uncommon signal of home protest for the reason that Taliban seized energy final 12 months.

According to witnesses within the western metropolis of Herat, about two dozen girls had been heading to the provincial governor’s home on Saturday to protest towards the ban, chanting: “Education is our right,” after they had been pushed again by safety forces firing the water cannon.

Video shared with the Associated Press reveals the ladies screaming and hiding in a facet road to flee the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”

One of the protest organisers, Maryam, mentioned between 100 and 150 girls took half within the protest, shifting in small teams from completely different elements of town towards a central assembly level. She didn’t give her final title for concern of reprisals.

“There was security on every street, every square, armoured vehicles and armed men,” she mentioned.

“When we started our protest, in Tariqi Park, the Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us. But we continued our protest. They increased their security presence. Around 11am they brought out the water cannon.”

A spokesman for the provincial governor, Hamidullah Mutawakil, claimed there have been solely 4 or 5 protesters. “They had no agenda, they just came here to make a film,” he mentioned, with out mentioning the violence towards the ladies or the usage of the water cannon.

There has been widespread worldwide condemnation of the college ban, together with from Muslim-majority nations comparable to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in addition to warnings from the US and the G7 that the coverage may have penalties for the Taliban.

An official within the Taliban authorities, minister of upper schooling Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke concerning the ban for the primary time on Thursday in an interview with Afghan state tv.

He mentioned the ban was obligatory to stop the blending of genders in universities and since some topics being taught violated the rules of Islam.

He mentioned the ban could be in place till additional discover.

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

They have banned women from center college 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.

Afghan society, whereas largely conventional, had more and more embraced the schooling of women and girls over the previous 20 years.

Also on Saturday, within the south-western Pakistani metropolis of Quetta, dozens of Afghan refugee college students protested towards the ban on feminine greater schooling of their homeland and demanded the speedy reopening of campuses for ladies.

One of them, Bibi Haseena, learn a poem depicting the grim state of affairs for Afghan women searching for an schooling. She mentioned was sad about graduating exterior her nation when a whole bunch of hundreds of Afghan girls and women had been being disadvantaged of an schooling.