Since their return to power more than two years ago, the Taliban have transformed society by nullifying Afghanistan’s constitution and utilizing force to impose its directives without care for citizens’ consent or discontent. In particular, higher education and universities, which should remain safe from such external coercive interventions, have suffered extensive Taliban ideological and political intervention. This article discusses those impacts of Taliban rule.
Since the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021, extensive restrictions have been imposed on both public and private universities, including the following developments:
- Prohibition of female education
On December 21, 2022, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education sent a letter to all private and public universities announcing the prohibition of women’s education in universities. On January 28, 2023, a separate letter was sent to private universities stating that females were not allowed to participate in university entrance exams and that those institutions would face consequences for any violations of this directive. Furthermore, female professors and staff were not permitted to teach or work in universities based on the policy prohibiting women from employment in offices.
2. Academic institutions put under the control of mullahs
The Ministry of Higher Education gave key positions to the members of the Taliban who lack academic experience or those whose only education was at religious schools. Previously, these important ministry positions were perceived as academic posts, and officeholders were chosen based on their academic stature. For example, deputy ministers in the Ministry of Higher Education were people who had academic experience. As well, university administrations were controlled by the faculty.
Now, the leadership of the Ministry of Higher Education as well as all public universities, including Kabul University, have been taken over by mullahs. Consequently, decision-making in academic affairs is in the hands of mullahs, which means that university professors and staff are obliged to implement Taliban directives.
3. Increase in the amount of Islamic studies in curricula
During the Islamic Republic era (2001-2021), eight credits of Islamic studies or the equivalent to one credit per semester in an undergraduate program, were taught out of a usual total of 120 credits. The Taliban tripled this amount, mandating that universities teach 24 credits of Islamic studies during undergraduate programs. This directive has been enforced since April of 2022. During an upcoming university curriculum review, that number is expected to increase to 32 credits of Islamic studies, or more than one quarter of all credits for an undergraduate program.
4. Establishment of ‘Guidance and Invitation Committees’ in universities
Aiming to Islamize the education system, the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education has mandated that all public and private universities establish a new office called Amiryat-e Irshad wa daawat or the “Guidance and Invitation Committee.” A mullah leads this committee in each university and is responsible for the Taliban understanding of how sharia is implemented within each university. The committee demands that all professors, staff, and students participate in preaching sessions and congregational prayers. According to the sources inside the universities, individuals appointed as members of these committees within private universities now hold greater authority over university staff and students than anyone else because of their appointment by the Ministry of Higher Education and the fact that they are paid by the Taliban.
Additionally, the ministry has requested private universities to empty their libraries of books that the Taliban think is contrary to the Hanafi jurisprudence and replace them with books on Islamic studies.
5. Imposition of the Taliban Dress Codes
Although the Taliban have not issued specific official directives for universities regarding dress codes and facial hair, the Taliban’s general directives to the public as well as oral warnings from Taliban religious police have compelled professors and staff to adhere to the dress code favoured by the Taliban. With no job security, professors and staff have little choice. Those same pressures have also forced students to conform with Taliban-style clothing directives and to grow long beards, as shaving beards is seen as worse than the most heinous of crimes.
The Taliban aren’t finished but are about to implement even more changes, including the following:
1. Curriculum Review
Neda Mohammad Nadim, a Taliban member appointed as the caretaker of the Ministry of Higher Education in November 2022, announced changes to the curriculum based on “Islamic sharia and international standards.” According to the Taliban, religious subjects haven’t previously been adequately included in university curricula. Over the past two years, the Taliban have focused on establishing sharia faculties in universities and revising educational curricula, which continues. This plan aims to modify course outlines so they align with Taliban readings for the Islamization of higher education.
As part of this transformation, even technical subjects such as computer science, medicine, and civil engineering will be Islamized.
2. Mastery of Pashto Language by Professors
As per the Recruitment of Faculty Members in Higher Education Institutions Act, released by the Taliban this year, university faculty must be proficient in the country’s official languages. Universeity sources indicate that the Taliban are making employment contingent upon faculty members’ proficiency in Pashto. In the past, mastery of any official language sufficed, and the teaching language depended on the number of people who spoke Pashto or Farsi-Dari at the universities.
As well, the Taliban have prohibited university professors from using certain Farsi-Dari terms, calling them “foreign terminology,” a reference to the shared terminologies between Persian speakers in Iran and Afghanistan. This act has yet to be fully implemented, but it’s expected that the Taliban will eventually enforce all its rules. Upon full implementation, universities will exclude professors who primarily speak Persian, creating room for the employment of Pashto speakers who generally also know some Persian.
The restrictions already implemented as well as those that are in the process of being imposed will dramatically change the country’s higher education system. The immediate and short-term impacts of Taliban policies are evident in the expulsion of more than half the country’s student population — women – as well as clerics taking management positions, a sharp decline in student and faculty motivation, the weakening of the private sector in higher education, and the exodus of a significant number of university professors, particularly from Kabul University.
In the medium term, we will witness universities losing their specialized and academic nature to become centres for training radical Islamist forces. Additionally, the continued trend of purging universities of academic staff and specialists and replacing them with Taliban members, as well as the spread of religious schools means that future university applicants will primarily be Taliban-educated youth. As free-thinking students lose interest in attending universities, many many private educational institutions will close.
The long-term consequences of the Taliban’s transformation of universities will be profound, multidimensional, and, in some cases, irreversible. Universities’ ideological transformation will destroy the country’s scientific and specialized capacity for development and progress. It will rob the country of the opportunity to nurture millions of specialized human resources. As well, we will witness the spread of Islamic radicalism in the country and the region.
*Omid Sharafat is the pseudonym of a former university professor in Kabul and a researcher of international relations.
