Crime

Taliban ban university education for Afghan women

Published

2 years ago

December 21, 2022

Taliban celebrate anniversary of foreign withdrawal at former U.S. base

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have banned university education for women nationwide, provoking condemnation from the United States and the United Nations over another assault on human rights.

Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage.

“You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice,” Minister for Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem said in a letter issued to all government and private universities.

The spokesman for the ministry, Ziaullah Hashimi, who tweeted the letter, confirmed the order in a text message to AFP.

Washington condemned the decision “in the strongest terms.”

“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan. This decision will come with consequences for the Taliban,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

“No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply alarmed” by the ban, his spokesman said Tuesday.

“The secretary-general reiterates that the denial of education not only violates the equal rights of women and girls but will have a devastating impact on the country’s future,” Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

The ban on higher education comes less than three months after thousands of girls and women sat for university entrance exams across the country, with many aspiring to choose teaching and medicine as future careers.

The universities are currently on winter break and due to reopen in March.

After the takeover of the country by the Taliban, universities were forced to implement new rules including gender-segregated classrooms and entrances, while women were only permitted to be taught by women professors or old men.

Most teenage girls across the country have already been banned from secondary school education, severely limiting university intake.

Journalism student Madina, who wanted only her first name published, struggled to comprehend the weight of Tuesday’s order.

“I have nothing to say. Not only me but all my friends have no words to express our feelings,” the 18-year-old told AFP in Kabul.

“Everyone is thinking about the unknown future ahead of them. They buried our dreams.”

The country was returning to “dark days”, added medicine student Rhea in the capital, who asked that her name be changed.

“When we were hoping to make progress, they are removing us from society,” the 26-year-old said.

– ‘A fundamental human right’ –
The Taliban adheres to an austere version of Islam, with the movement’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle of Afghan clerics against modern education, especially for girls and women.

But they are at odds with many officials in Kabul and among their rank and file, who had hoped girls would be allowed to continue learning following the takeover.

“There are serious differences in the Taliban ranks on girls’ education, and the latest decision will increase these differences,” a Taliban commander based in northwest Pakistan told AFP on condition of anonymity.

In a cruel U-turn, the Taliban in March blocked girls from returning to secondary schools on the morning they were supposed to reopen.

Several Taliban officials say the secondary education ban is only temporary, but they have also wheeled out a litany of excuses for the closure — from a lack of funds to the time needed to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.

Since the ban, many teenage girls have been married off early — often to much older men of their father’s choice.

Several families interviewed by AFP last month said that coupled with economic pressure, the school ban meant that securing their daughters’ future through marriage was better than them sitting idle at home.

– International pressure –
Women have also been pushed out of many government jobs — or are being paid a slashed salary to stay at home. They are also barred from travelling without a male relative and must cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa.

In November, they were prohibited from going to parks, funfairs, gyms and public baths.

The international community has made the right to education for all women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition of the Taliban regime.

“The international community has not and will not forget Afghan women and girls,” the UN Security Council said in a statement in September.

However, Pakistan, Afghanistan’s neighbour, said Tuesday that engagement with the Taliban was still the best path forward.

“I’m disappointed by the decision that was taken today,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on a visit to Washington.

But he said: “I still think the easiest path to our goal — despite having a lot of setbacks when it comes to women’s education and other things — is through Kabul and through the interim government.”

In the 20 years between the Taliban’s two reigns, girls were allowed to go to school and women were able to seek employment in all sectors, though the country remained socially conservative.

The authorities have also returned to public floggings and executions of men and women in recent weeks as they implement an extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Crime

2 ladies docked for allegedly obtaining money by fraud

Published

4 weeks ago

December 16, 2024

Saadatu Sahabo

The police in Lagos have dragged two women, Mmesuma Ofunna, and Blessing Adimekwe, before an Ojo Magistrates’ Court in Lagos, over alleged obtaining money by false pretence.

Ofunna, 22, and Adimekwe, 25, were arraigned before the Magistrate, Mr L K J Layeni, on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing and conduct likely to breach peace.

They each, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The prosecutor, ASP Simon Uche, told the court that the defendants conspired with others now at large, to commit the offence on Oct. 26 at the Okokomaiko area of Ojo.

He alleged that they had obtained the sum of N70, 000 from one Faith Ahamefule, with a promise not to post her nude photo on social media.

The prosecutor alleged that the defendants later posted the nude photo of the nominal complainant on social media, knowing that their promise was false.

He alleged that they stole the N70, 0000, thereby conducting themselves in a manner likely to breach public peace.

The offence contravenes the provisions of sections 168(d), 287, 314, and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

The court granted the defendants bails in the sum of N500, 000 each, with two sureties each in like sum.

He adjourned the case until Jan. 8, 2025 for mention.

Crime

Mechanic jailed 15 months for pickpocketing passengers

Published

4 weeks ago

December 16, 2024

Saadatu Sahabo

A Jos Magistrates’ Court on Monday, sentenced a 26-year-old Mechanic, Sadiq Umar to 15 months imprisonment for pickpocketing from passengers.

The Magistrate, Shawomi Bokkos, summarily tried and sentenced the convict after he pleaded guilty to the charge.

Bokkos in his judgment, ordered the convict to pay an option of N100, 000 fine or spend one year in prison.

He also asked him to pay a compensation of N15, 000 or an additional three months in prison in default.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Ijuptil Thiawur, told the court that the case was reported on Nov.16, at the “A” Division Police station by Moses Pam, Alexander Bakshak and Simon Justice the complaints.

Thiawur said that the convict attempted to steal from them before he was caught in the act and when the driver stopped the vehicle to search him he fled but was caught.

The Police said that the offence contravened the Plateau Penal Code Law.

Crime

Police detain 2 suspected fraudsters, reject N66m bribe in Lagos

Published

4 weeks ago

December 16, 2024

Saadatu Sahabo

Police rescue 14 passengers from bandits in Jibia

The Zone-2 Police Command in Lagos says it has detained two suspected international fraudsters that allegedly specialised in forging foreign certificates in Lagos and Ghana.

The AIG in charge of the zone, Adegoke Fayaode, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

Fayoade said that the suspects allegedly offered N66m to the operatives with a view to free them but the offer was turned down.

NAN reports that the same zone operatives rejected a N174m bribe offered by a suspect in November to set him free.

Fayoade said that the suspects simply identified as Elvis, 23 and Kelly, 24, allegedly specialised in forging certificates of different nations and African Universities and defrauding their unsuspecting victims on the internet.

He said that the suspects have succeeded in acquiring exotic cars and erecting mansions in different parts of the country with the proceeds of their loot.

The AIG pointed out that luck ran out of the suspects after detectives at the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Zone received credible information from Nigerians in diaspora concerning some group of boys that specialised in forging foreign certificates.

According to him, on getting the information, he detailed the anti-corruption unit to investigate it and arrest the suspects without delay.

Fayoade said that based on his directives, the detectives stormed Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos waiting for the arrival of the suspects, whom they trailed to a five star hotel at Osapa-London in Lekki Area.

He said that the operatives arrested the suspects at a bus stop while they were about to escape secretly from the hotel, after monitoring their activities.

“Searching their luggage, one certificate of Blue Crest College, Ghana, belonging to Elvis and a student identity card of Academic City College belonging to Kelly were recovered.

“Further search revealed a transcript of an academic record from Blue Crest University belonging to Elvis.

“A letter of English proficiency from the said college and a letter of recommendation from the same Blue Crest College were recovered,” he said.

The AIG said that the suspects made useful statements to the police and confessed that they never got any admission into the school, stressing that they only procured the degree certificates through the help of a female Nigerian resident in Ghana.

“The suspects further confessed that the major aim of doing that is to enable them to get Ghana resident permit, which they got.

“The resident permit is showing them also as a student of Academic City University and that none of them has ever been admitted in the school.

“They claimed they paid a total of 26,000 Ghana Cedis for all the documents procured.

“They confessed that they procured all the documents to evade arrest in Ghana since they don’t have any means of livelihood.

Whenever police intercepted them, they showed their passports that they were students in Ghana.”

Fayoade said that the suspects were also allegedly involved in online romance scam, provision of foreign bank accounts for fraudulent transactions on the internet through what they call ‘Facebook bombing’.

He said the suspects presented themselves as an American soldier by name Captain Donald Rowe, serving in Syria, whom they impersonated on Instagram, using his name to defraud innocent persons.

The AIG said that while detectives were making frantic efforts to get more credible information from the suspects, they started negotiating to bribe the operatives for them to be set free.

“I directed my men to play along and recover the money as an exhibit. Subsequently, the detectives played along and the suspects paid them a sum of N66m, which they collected and kept as an exhibit.

“The Nigeria Police authorities have written to the Ghana embassy to get more information about the result and their suspected partners in Ghana said to be spearheading the fraud.

Fayoade said that they had also spread their dragnets through the International Police, Interpol, to round up their foreign accomplices.