Afghan professor tears up diplomas on live TV to protest Taliban ban on women’s education

After the Taliban announced that they had banned women from universities in Afghanistan, a Kabul professor tore up the originals of his multiple Masters and Doctorate degrees live on television in an emotional protest. As his voice quivered with emotion and his eyes swelled up he cried, “From today, I don’t need these diplomas anymore because this country is no place for an education. If my sister and my mother can’t study, then I don’t accept this education.” According to CNN, the man is Ismail Mashal, the founder of the private Mashal University in Kabul and also a lecturer at Kabul University. 

“Today, if my sister and my mother cannot study, what use are these education [degrees] to me? Here you go, I am tearing my original documents. I was a lecturer and I taught [students], but this country is no longer a place for education,” he said tearfully according to the Guardian.  “Until you allow my sister and mother [back into universities], I will not teach,” he added. His powerful, emotional protest struck a chord with many including Shabnam Nasimi, the former policy adviser to the Minister for Afghan Resettlement & Minister for Refugees, based in the UK who retweeted the viral clip.  “Astonishing scenes as a Kabul university professor destroys his diplomas on live TV in Afghanistan,” tweeted Nasimi.

Many male professors have resigned from their jobs despite their passion for teaching. Baktash Amini, an assistant professor in the physics faculty at Kabul University, quit after the ban on women in universities. “The night [the] Taliban closed the doors of universities to Afghan women, I received many messages and calls from my students. I cannot find the words to describe their situation. I am an academic and the only way I could express protest was by [leaving] a system that discriminates against women,” he says. He added that he resigned from his “dream job” on 21 December. Many women in the country have also come out in protest of the ban. On December 20 university education for all female students had been suspended and back in March girls were banned from attending secondary school. Female students told BBC that their dreams have been crushed. "They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future," one Kabul University student said."How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it."