Taliban has no money to run universities

There is a big dilemma: how to help Afghanistan without helping the Taliban. Any financial assistance to the universities that are run on Sharia-based law and Taliban diktat would further help the agenda of the regressi

New Delhi, Feb 14: To run a country, it requires more than arms and regressive ideology. The Taliban is realizing now that it is easier to wage war than run a country. The latest development wherein nearly three dozen universities and other institutions are shut as they don't have enough funds to run them is an indication that the country is in deep economic trouble.

The local news agency Tolo News reports that the public and private universities affected by the economic crisis have also been affected by the controversial decision wherein Taliban banned women students. The donations or financial aids that would have come to these educational institutes have been stopped after the decision.

Interestingly enough, after the decision of the Taliban government to ban women students from schools and colleges, several of the institutions stopped their activities in Afghanistan in protest. This has sent a strong message to the global community which was fooled by the early overtures from the Taliban government that it would not be so regressive.

Now there is a big dilemma: how to help Afghanistan without helping the Taliban. Any financial assistance to the universities that are run on Sharia-based law and Taliban diktat would further help the agenda of the regressive regime of Taliban in the country.

35 varsities to be closed

When the madrasa-educated Taliban fighters took over the government in Afghanistan, they had no idea how to run the country. Once the finances started dwindling, the educational institutions were left on their own to fend for themselves. As the reports from Afghanistan claim, Taliban's ban on women education has severe consequences, especially as foreign aid has stopped in protest.

Reports of 35 universities to be closed soon if Taliban does not abandon its stand on women education are all over the media. As it appears universities in Afghanistan are facing double challenges, one is in the form of no funds to operate and the second, the Taliban diktat against women education.

The decision to hold back women from education is a major talking point among the international organizations who were offering one or the other sort of financial aid to Afghanistan. Even UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the decision to ban women from education in the country and termed it "broken promise" from the Taliban.

Guterres was quoted saying that it is quite troubling to see what Taliban is doing to its women and quite difficult to imagine how a country can develop.