ISTANBUL: Turkey on Thursday urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to reverse their decision barring women from university education, calling it “neither Islamic nor humane.”

The ban by the Taliban, who promised a softer rule when they returned to power after two decades of war last year, drew global condemnation after its announcement late Tuesday. “This ban is neither Islamic nor humane,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a televised press conference. “We do not find it right. God willing, the (Taliban) will reverse this decision,” he said. “What harm does the education of women do to humanity?”

Iran, which borders Turkey and Afghanistan, also expressed displeasure at the Taliban’s action.

Tehran “regrets” the news and hopes that officials in Afghanistan “quickly pave the way for the resumption of education for female school and university studies at all levels,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

Iran has high levels of female education but is itself facing international outrage for its deadly clampdown and arrest of thousands in anti-regime protests sparked by opposition to a strict female dress code.

Afghanistan’s ban on higher education comes less than three months after thousands of girls and young women sat university entrance exams across the country, aspiring to continue their education. The universities are currently on winter break and due to reopen in March.

Most teenage girls across the country have already been banned from secondary school education, severely limiting university intake.

The United States condemned the decision “in the strongest terms” while Britain said it was a “grave step backwards”.