Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have banned university education for women nationwide, as they continue to crush rights to education and freedom.

Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage.

The country’s Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, issued a letter to all government and private universities instructing for the rule to be enforced.

‘You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,’ it read.

The spokesman for the ministry, Ziaullah Hashimi, who tweeted the letter, confirmed the order in a text message.

The ban is just the latest in a series of restrictions as the Taliban has increasingly cracked down on female freedoms.

It comes less than three months after thousands of girls and women sat university entrance exams across the country, with many aspiring to choose teaching and medicine as future careers.

The universities are currently on winter break and due to reopen in March.

Although women had been allowed to continue their university education following the Taliban takeover on August 15 last year, it was provided that they learned in segregated classrooms and covered themselves according the group’s interpretation of Sharia law.