Kabul - The young Afghan woman, Hadia

Wahidi, is still under the influence of the shock left by the government's decision in her country to close public and private universities to female students.

She is about to finish her first year of university studying medicine.

"When I heard the news, my ears did not believe it. It was shocking to me and all my colleagues," Waheedi told Al-Jazeera Net.

And about her future after being denied an education, she said, "I do not think of leaving my country because my financial situation does not allow it, but my female colleagues are seriously considering that to complete their studies outside Afghanistan."

Waheedy chose to study medicine to fulfill her dream of serving her people, "who need female doctors as well as male doctors," and added, "But we suffer from discrimination."

And she called on the international community to stand by the Afghan female students to overcome "this crisis."

"The Taliban must take into account our legitimate rights and back down from the decision," she said.

She added, "It is not stated in the Holy Qur'an that girls cannot study except for the sixth grade. They must respect our right to education. We are now like prisoners in our homes and we are going through a difficult psychological situation."

Hadia Wahidi lost her chance to study medicine, which she dreamed of to serve her country (Al-Jazeera)

Protests away from the eyes of security

On Tuesday, the Afghan government led by the Taliban decided to close public and private universities to female students, without explaining the reasons.

This step comes about 16 months after the movement's return to power in Kabul.

And 18 university professors submitted their resignations due to the closure of universities in the face of girls, and it is expected that the state of anger in the educational sector will increase with other resignations in the coming days.

Although the decision came as a surprise to a wide segment of the Afghan people, some activists and human rights defenders expected it, according to them, including Zahra Kazemi, who said that the Taliban's closure of schools a year ago in front of girls was a preparation for the closure of universities.

University students affected by the decision and human rights defenders organized a protest in a place far from the eyes of the security services, to condemn the Afghan government's decision, in the presence of a number of local and foreign media.

"We wanted to demonstrate in the street, but they did not allow us, so we protested here in this closed place, for fear of security prosecution," Kazemi told Al Jazeera.

The participants in the sit-in chanted slogans denouncing the government's decision, and raised banners calling on the Taliban to back down from closing universities as "a catastrophe for the future of the country," after preventing female students from the sixth grade to high school.


'Taliban concept'

The Afghan government did not comment or justify the decision to close universities to girls, but political observers mention that the movement did it previously during its first rule of the country between 1996 and 2001.

"We respect the decision of the Islamic Emirate to close schools and universities, but when we look from a legal point of view, modern education is a necessity for the Afghan people, and the emirate must review its decision and open the doors of schools and universities to girls," said political analyst close to the Afghan government, Hamdallah Samim, to Al Jazeera.

Afghan political analysts rule out that the decision is a political card by the Taliban movement to pressure the international community to recognize it or its government, or to release Afghanistan's frozen funds in Washington and Europe.

The government has also closed religious schools for girls throughout Afghanistan, funded by the state treasury.

They believe that the Afghan government is based on a religious concept of its own that is not consistent with the views of the majority of Muslim scholars.

According to Taliban sources, four of the most important leaders close to the leader of the Taliban movement are behind the closure of girls' schools and universities.

The Loya Jirga, the largest meeting of the Taliban movement, voted by a large majority in favor of girls' education, but the leadership of the movement decided to close universities in their faces (Reuters)

Wide endorsement not implemented

According to official statistics, the number of students in public and private universities is about 500,000, a third of whom are girls.

While private universities accommodate about 200 thousand students.

There are 40 public universities in Afghanistan, and about 140 private universities, of which 48 are in the capital, Kabul alone.

With the arrival of the Taliban to power, about 40% of private universities were closed for reasons that were said to be financial, while some sources indicate that the refusal of girls' education is the reason for declaring the universities bankrupt.

The United Nations and several countries condemned the decision, calling on the Afghan government to reverse it and open the doors of universities and schools to girls.

Al-Jazeera tried to get a response from the Afghan government about its recent measures, but to no avail.

However, confirmed information says that the decision does not enjoy support within the Taliban movement. The meeting of the so-called "Loya Jirga" (a general conference of the movement), which was attended by about 3,500 people, most of them supporters of the Taliban, about 5 months ago, the percentage of votes for the return of girls to school was more than 95%, without implementing the decision or even publishing its approval rating.