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IEA says ban on schools for girls is ‘temporary’ after OIC calls for decision to be reversed
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Thursday that the concerns, noted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) regarding the prohibition of women’s education, was understandable and that this was just a “temporary step” until the problem is resolved.
Mujahid said in a statement that the IEA appreciated the fact that the OIC called the meeting and said, “indeed the countries should continue to help the people of Afghanistan and no country should interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.”
“The Islamic Emirate requests all organizations, especially the OIC, to have a close understanding with the new government of Afghanistan,” the statement read.
This comes after the Executive Committee of the OIC met on Wednesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
According to a statement issued by the committee after the meeting, the OIC convened the extraordinary meeting to discuss the situation in Afghanistan “following the decisions taken by the de facto Afghan authorities to close down schools and universities to girls and women for an unspecified period and suspend women from working in all national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The organization said this was “in violation of the purposes of Islamic law and the methodology of the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad – May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Him.”
The committee noted the “deteriorating humanitarian, social, economic, and human rights conditions in Afghanistan”. They also said women and girls have the right “to access all levels of education, including university level,” adding that this “is a fundamental right in keeping with the teachings of the noble Islamic shariah.”
The committee also underscored the need to steer all efforts towards achieving Afghanistan’s development and the welfare of its people and reaffirmed its solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, and the commitment to help them establish peace, security, stability and development.
In addition, they welcomed efforts by the OIC General Secretariat, the Special Envoy of the OIC Secretary General to Afghanistan, and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) in engaging with the IEA authorities on issues of vital importance, “in accordance with the noble Islamic principles and values and relevant OIC resolutions”.
Among other statements, the OIC called for a second visit of the delegation of Muslim scholars to be arranged to engage with the highest officials of Afghanistan and again emphasized that education is a fundamental human right which all individuals must enjoy on the basis of equal opportunity and in a non-discriminatory manner, and not be deprived of.
The committee also expressed its “disappointment over the suspension of female education in Afghanistan and the decision ordering all national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to suspend female employees until further notice,” adding that it urges the IEA to “adhere to the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and the OIC Charter, and to abide by its obligations under international treaties and agreements, including their obligations under international human rights covenants, particularly regarding the rights of women, children, youth, the elderly and people with special needs.”
The statement went on to note that the OIC calls on the IEA to strive towards reopening schools and universities for girls and enable them to enroll in all levels of education and all specializations required by the Afghan people while it also underscored “the need to protect fundamental rights, including the right to life, security, dignity and the right to education for all Afghan women and girls in accordance with Islamic values and universal human rights standards.”
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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