By Kreshma Fakhri
On Tuesday, December 20, the Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban told all public and private universities to prevent women from studying until further notice.
The letter, which was signed by Neda Mohammad Nadim, the Taliban minister of higher education, states that “According to Resolution No. 28 of the Acting Cabinet, the education of the female student is suspended until further notice.”
Meanwhile, Neda Mohammad Nadim said on his Twitter page that the decision was made by the leadership of the Taliban. According to him, the Taliban leaders ordered that women be banned from universities after “religious scholars of the country studied and examined the curriculum and environment of the universities in terms of sharia and presented their report to Mullah Haibatullah.”
Nadim also explained that the ruling means universities will remain closed to female students until, according to him, a religious environment is provided for girls. The Taliban minister of higher education states, “We will soon build a higher education curriculum and sharia environment according to our culture.”
The news of women being forbidden to attend universities comes days after Hasht-e-Subh obtained a report prepared by the Taliban’s Committee for Reviewing the School Education Curriculum that recommended making the school curriculum compatible with Taliban ideology. In particular, the committee believes that photos of people and animals, drawings, paintings and all cultural items should be removed. In addition, the committee believes that any discussion of democracy or human rights, and the freedom of women should be banned.
The report also demands wholesale revisions about the role of women in the education curriculum, including that the new system should teach women’s social role from the perspective of Islam and that teachers should not encourage women’s work outside home. And everything should be taught through the prism of Taliban ideology.
The ban on women attending university is the latest in a series of measures that are effectively closing off all avenues for women to take part in society, and especially the educational system. Since the Taliban regained power, they repeatedly changed their explanation as to why girls are banned from continuing their education. In September 2021, the Ministry of Education opened schools for boys and girls up to grade 6 but did not allow girls in higher grades. Taliban spokesmen and diplomats insisted the ban is temporary until the group develops a mechanism for allowing girls beyond grade 6 in schools. (That was the same explanation the Taliban provided for the closure of girls’ schools when they were last in power in the nineties. However, the girls’ school never did reopen, at least not until after the Taliban regime fell in 2001.)
In March 2022, Noorullah Munir, then the Taliban ministry of education, had planned to open girls’ schools, which was abruptly canceled by conservative clerics around the Taliban supreme leader in Kandahar.
Then, in September 2022, the Taliban minister of education issued a new reason for banning girls from education beyond grade 6 when he stated that such a prohibition is because it is in accordance with the Afghan people’s culture, which is supposedly against sending their daughters to school. The minister’s remark provoked widespread condemnation across the country, as both fathers and mothers called for the Taliban to open the schools to their daughters.
Recently, the Taliban sent a letter to girls’ schools in Kandahar and asked them to expel all girls older than 13. This is yet another indicator of how the Taliban leadership is hostile to girls’ education, which was also extended to women in universities. When the latest group of high school graduates in 33 provinces had to take entrance exams containing fields determined by the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, they discovered that the Taliban had removed journalism, economics, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and engineering from the list of elective fields for girls in their first entrance exam.
At least 13 programs were removed from the girls’ selection form at Kandahar University, according to a source who spoke to Zan Times under the condition of anonymity. The source explains that “13 fields have been eliminated, including law and political science, computer science, journalism, public administration, engineering, economics, mining exploration, and agriculture, leaving girls with only medicine, education, and sharia.”
In addition, the Taliban have deprived most women of the right to work, the ability to travel without maharam, participation in social and political activities, going to amusement parks, and other freedoms. And every day the scope of these restrictions is increased. Recently, the Taliban introduced new rules against businesswomen trading and dealing with male clients and employers, which effectively makes it impossible for women to continue to make a living by their trades. The Taliban are also imposing their regressive clothing requirements on both men and women, and are even stopping people at checkpoints to interrogate them on their knowledge of daily prayers.
There is one conclusion from all those edicts, especially those aimed at the educational sector: the Taliban are again determined to outlaw anything, including modern education, that creates a separation between the people and the religious dogma of the Taliban. Instead, the Taliban are taking measures to change the educational curriculum in accordance with their misogynist interpretation of the religion.
