No university for Afghan women: BBC News Review

Education for all?

Not if you're a woman in Afghanistan.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil and I'm Sian make sure you watch

to the end to learn vocabulary about today's story.

And don't forget to subscribe to our channel,

like this video and try the quiz on our website. Now, the story.

A crime against humanity.

That's how a UN expert has described the Taliban's ban

on female education in Afghanistan.

This week universities have reopened.

But female students are not allowed back.

No access to education is one of the many restrictions

women are facing under the Taliban.

You've been looking at the headlines, Sian, what's the vocabulary?

We have 'barred', 'trickle back' and 'playing with'.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our first headline.

This is from Al Jazeera.

Afghanistan universities reopen but women still barred by Taliban.

So, universities in Afghanistan are open again after a break,

but only if you're a man - women are barred.

And that is the word we're looking at - 'barred'. What does it mean?

So OK, it might help to think of 'bar' as a noun,

which is a physical thing.

So, prisoners have bars on their windows to stop them escaping.

But here it's a verb, isn't it?

It is, yes. And it's used metaphorically.

So, the idea when you bar something is that you prevent it from happening.

Prevent something from going somewhere or someone from doing something.

Yeah, so 'barred' in the headline

means the Taliban have prevented or stopped women from going to university.

Yeah, we see this word used quite a lot.

What other contexts can we find it?

OK, so someone can be barred from a shop if they steal something.

Right, OK. So that's about preventing someone from doing something.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from Republic World.

Men trickle back to Afghan universities

after winter break, women remain barred by Taliban.

So, we see that word 'barred' again - meaning prevent that we just explained.

But we're interested in 'trickle back'

and that word 'trickle' is usually connected to water, isn't it?

Yeah, so imagine a small stream of water moving slowly - it trickles.

So, for example, if you cry a tear trickles down your cheek,

but we don't just use it to talk about water.

We could also use it to describe people or things moving gradually.

Yes. So, in this headline 'trickle' is used

with 'back' to describe Afghan men returning gradually to university.

Or children might trickle back to the classroom after their lunch break.

Yeah, and this word 'trickle' is used in other contexts as well. For example,

after an election the results trickle in - it means they arrive gradually,

and it's not until later that you know the full result.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This is from Press TV.

Banning women's education in Afghanistan is playing with future of nation.

We are looking at the word 'playing' which I'm sure everybody knows.

Play is about fun.

It's about games.

I play football. I play chess.

So what's going on here?

Well yeah. In those senses, playing is fun because games aren't serious,

but here we're talking about playing with people's futures.

So here, it's not fun,

it's much more serious. Yes, that's right.

So in the headline, by using the word 'playing', the headline writer shows

that they think that the Taliban does not take women's education seriously.

In a way it's a game to them.

Yeah, and we can use this play in the negative sense with other nouns.

So if someone plays with your career,

they're not taking your career seriously.

Yeah. Or someone can play with your feelings. Again,

it means they're not taking your feelings seriously

- it's a game for them. Let's look at that again.

We've had 'barred' - prevented.

'Trickle back' - gradually return.

and 'playing with something' - not treating something seriously.

Now, to keep learning more vocabulary like this,

check out this episode of 6 Minute English about women

in the workplace.

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