The Taliban has “utterly forbidden” clapping at Kandahar University, Zan Times has learned. It’s one of a series of edicts issued by the Taliban that are seemingly designed to strip the university, its staff, and students of all outward signs of joy or happiness.
Abdulbasit*, a graduate student at the university’s faculty of economics, says that the head of the faculty warned everyone of the new rule of no clapping at graduation ceremonies. The Taliban demanded that all events be organized according to its harsh interpretation of Islam, and, in an edict, declared that “clapping is utterly forbidden.”
The Taliban also stated that graduating students can’t wear the white clothes and caps they traditionally wear to their graduation ceremonies, says Abdulbasit.
Furthermore, their ceremonial outfits can’t be signed by classmates or professors. Abdulbasit is frustrated at the new restrictions, pointing out that such inscribed outfits are kept as souvenirs of their graduation days.
Those seemingly pedantic clothing and clapping edicts were part of a larger series of rules that will transform the university. The Taliban has forbidden all male employees and professors from having any contact with female professors and students. The new rules came in a written order issued by the directorate of advice and propaganda. The Taliban ordered that the university create separate routes for men and women to enter the university, including separate doors.
The order also calls on all professors and administrative staff to attend group prayers at the university and that all campus offices and faculties be shuttered during prayer time.
An employee of Kandahar University, who asks not to be named, tells Zan Times that the Taliban first verbally conveyed its new restrictions to employees and staff then sent an official letter to the university president on Saturday, December 3. The graduation clothing and clapping rules aren’t the one edicts aimed at personal appearances: the Taliban also says it is now mandatory for all male faculty and staff to wear beards and turbans. Those who do not follow their growing list of rules may be fired, the order warned.
In recent months, the Taliban has significantly expanded its edicts aimed at separating men from women in public and demanding Taliban-approved uniformity in terms of clothing. Women can no longer enter universities in many provinces unless they wear burqas or other full covering dress deemed acceptable to the Taliban. And in Daikundi, business women can no longer interact with male clients or employees.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
