Mark R. Whittington, a renowned space exploration author, has discussed Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite that how best can help Afghan women who are banned from education by the Taliban, the Hill reported.
Elon Musk is a multimillionaire entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of SpaceX. Starlink is a group of satellites that provide internet, voice and text communications directly from space and has revolutionized how people communicate with one another. The project was started in 2019 by SpaceX successfully.
The Starlink system can offer access to high-speed Internet in remote areas without installing cables or constructing a significant amount of new infrastructure.
Mark stated that Afghanistan is now in a situation that needs Starlin the most. He further argues that this has been the consequence of the abrupt military withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, which led to the brutal suppression of women in the country.
On the other hand, people need access to the internet in most parts of the country, mainly rural areas. As a result, “Starlink can provide internet access in rural regions of the country, and the system could turn all of Afghanistan into an online school that the Taliban would find difficult, if not possible, to stop.”
Mark’s opinion on Starlink comes following the Taliban’s decreed ban on women’s education in Afghanistan as the best possible alternative to prevent further women’s isolation from the public.
The De facto authorities have decreed a ban on women’s education in Afghanistan since December last year and subsequently banned them from working in national and international organizations. In addition, the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education issued a new decree banning female students’ enrollment from all public and private universities in Afghanistan.
He also stated that the report shows that Afghan females started taking classes in an online university in the United States called the University of the People and another in the UK called Future to learn to bypass the recent decree on education.
The system has worked successfully in countries indulged in conflict and political unrest. For example, Starlink has provided Ukraine with a crucial weapon in its war against Russia and helped the Iranian resistance in its opposition to the authoritarian regime.
He concluded that restoring the American moral authority, which had been lost due to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, is beyond evaluation. However, the US should still use Starlink in collaboration with SpaceX to support Afghan women’s education despite the current regime. Starlink should be made available through this cooperation to the growing number of Afghan women and all other advocacy groups.
