KABUL, Dec  20, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The Taliban authorities on Tuesday ordered

an indefinite ban on university education for Afghan girls, the ministry of
higher education said in a letter issued to all government and private
universities.

       "You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending
education of females until further notice," said the letter signed by Minister
for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.

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

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

       After the takeover of the country by the hardline Islamists in August last
year, 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.