According to the Taliban, girls may receive education only up to age eight, and schools for girls must teach only lessons on the Koran. UN spokesperson Sarah Russell said that these restrictions violate an agreement formed between the UN and the Taliban last May in which the Taliban promised to create a joint consultative committee to discuss issues such as female education. The Taliban refuses to honor the agreement, despite numerous UN requests. In a related development, European Union officials announced a freeze on new funding for humanitarian aid projects in Kabul to protest the Taliban's treatment of women. Doctors and humanitarian workers in Afghanistan report that more and more women in Afghanistan are committing suicide in response to the Taliban's laws banning women from working, going to school, or leaving their homes without a close male relative.
Most women commit suicide by taking caustic soda, causing a slow, painful death.
Many other women suffer from depression and other mental illnesses. Most of the women treated at Kabul's mental hospital are former government workers who are no longer allowed to work. Seventy-one percent of the women said their physical health had declined in the past two years, because women are not allowed to see male doctors unless chaperoned, and few female doctors are permitted to work.