Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities stopped around 100 women from travelling to the United Arab Emirates after receiving sponsorships for university education, a billionaire businessman said.
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, head of a Dubai-based conglomerate, said that he planned to sponsor the female students to attend university and a plane he had paid for had been due to fly them to the UAE on Wednesday morning.
“Taliban government refused to allow the girls who were coming to study here – a hundred girls sponsored by me – they refused them to board the plane and already we have paid for the aircraft, we have organised everything for them here, accommodation, education, transportation security,” he said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
The businessman included audio of one of the Afghan students who said that she had been accompanied by a male relative but airport authorities in Kabul had stopped her and others from boarding the flight.
The Taliban administration has closed universities and high schools to female students in Afghanistan.
They allow Afghans to leave the country but usually require Afghan women travelling long distances and abroad to be accompanied by a male relative such as their husband, father or brother.
