Acting Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem said on Sunday that religious scholars are researching the education of girls and once the process has been completed a decision on whether to reopen universities, or not, will be announced.

Speaking at an event to announce the achievements of the ministry over the past year, Nadeem said that girls’ education is a “sensitive issue” that cannot be resolved in a few weeks or months.

“Research by scholars is ongoing. If, as a result of scholars’ research, it is proved that female education is permissible in this way, it will certainly be allowed. And if the result of the research is that it should remain suspended, it will remain suspended,” he said.

Nadeem stated that if anyone has evidence that girls’ education in this way is permissible according to Hanafi jurisprudence, they can share it with the authorities.

“If someone claims that this type of education is allowed in a certain book, there is no need for the media, come to the ministry and share it with us. I believe that this issue will be resolved,” he said.

Officials of the ministry also stated that in the past one year, 131 educational curriculums, including 89 for bachelor’s level, 35 for master’s level, and 7 for doctoral level, were reviewed and sent to the relevant institutions for approval.

According to them, in the past week year, 11 doctoral programs, 26 master’s programs and 13 new faculties were established in public universities.

They said that last year more than 51,000 students graduated from universities across the country and currently around 190,000 people are studying in public universities.

The European Union has provided 13 million euros for malnutrition treatment and community-based education in Afghanistan, the United Nations’ children agency (UNICEF) announced Sunday.

Over 78,000 children in Afghanistan will benefit from additional funding for nutrition and Education in Emergencies from the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), UNICEF said in a statement.

With this €13 million contribution, UNICEF will procure 62,000 cartons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and train 1,600 health workers to treat severe acute malnutrition among children under five. Additionally, UNICEF will improve the quality of learning in 275 community-based education classes to enable 9,500 children (61 per cent girls) to access primary education.

In Afghanistan, 23.7 million people – over half of them children – require humanitarian assistance this year. In 2024, nearly 2.9 million children are expected to face acute malnutrition. More than 850,000 of them will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition – a life-threatening condition, UNICEF said.

Education in Afghanistan also remains in crisis. According to the 2023 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, more than half of children do not attend primary school.

“The malnutrition rates in Afghanistan – especially amongst children – show that Afghanistan is facing an emergency. The EU will continue to work with longstanding humanitarian partners like UNICEF to provide urgently needed support, including nutrition and education in emergencies. Even amidst one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, children have the right to quality education that will help them build a better future,” said François Goemans, Head of EU humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

The two-year intervention will target about 69,000 children under the age of five for malnutrition treatment across 27 provinces of Afghanistan. It will help nearly 9,500 children and adolescents in four provinces continue their education through community-based learning, developing foundational skills, including social and emotional competencies for positive psychological development. The project will also enable emergency teaching and learning supplies to be delivered to children in need across all 34 provinces.

“We appreciate the continued partnership with EU humanitarian aid, which will help us get RUTF into some of the nutrition treatment facilities where children are most in need and train the frontline health workers administering this treatment in communities,” said Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan. “This funding will also enable children to continue attending community-based education classes and provide the materials students and educators need for a successful classroom.”

In the past four years, EU humanitarian aid has allowed UNICEF to provide safe water systems, community-based education, life-saving child protection and health services, emergency cash transfers, and malnutrition treatment for children.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Sunday it is concerned by the promotion of a morality law by the Islamic Emirate this week that had wide-ranging and far-reaching restrictions on personal conduct and one that provides morality police with broad powers of enforcement.

This week the Islamic Emirate announced the ratification of a “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”, with 35 articles detailing significant restrictions on the Afghan population with arbitrary and potentially severe enforcement mechanisms, UNAMA said in a statement.

“It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNAMA.

“It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation,” she said.

The text has worrying impacts on religious freedoms by ignoring the full diversity of Afghanistan’s religious communities, and places more restrictions that will impact the work of journalists and media, UNAMA stated.

“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.

“The international community has been seeking, in good faith, to constructively engage with the de facto authorities. The world wants to see Afghanistan on the path of peace and prosperity, where all Afghans have a stake in their future, are citizens with rights and not just subjects to be disciplined. Further restricting the rights of the Afghan people and holding them in constant fear will make achieving this goal even harder,” Otunbayeva said.

UNAMA stated it is studying the newly ratified law and its implications for the Afghan people, as well as its potential impact on United Nations and other vital humanitarian assistance for the country.

UNAMA is also seeking clarification from the Islamic Emirate on a number of articles and on plans for enforcement.

Based on its initial review, two articles in the law do constitute positive steps, namely outlawing the mistreatment of orphans as well as “prohibiting the practice of Bacha Bazi, a pedophilic practice of using young boys for personal entertainment and sexual abuse,” the statement read.

UNAMA however said it reiterates that Afghanistan as a state remains party to seven key international human rights instruments. “Security Council Resolution 2681 (2023) also called on the Taliban (IEA) to swiftly reverse the policies and practices that restrict the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the statement read.

On Wednesday, the ministry of justice announced that Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), had approved a law on the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice.

The law has four chapters and 35 articles, Barakatullah Rasouli, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, said.

He said that the law regulates the affairs of the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and duties and powers of Muhtasibs (inspectors/morality police).

However, the Islamic Emirate does not always consider UNAMA’s reactions and reports to be accurate.

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