The Taliban has dismissed hundreds of female professors from public universities across Afghanistan, in a move that also affected some male staff but primarily targeted women.
The move has sent shockwaves through the academic community and extinguished remaining hopes for the restoration of women’s roles in Afghanistan’s higher education system.
The dismissals have been communicated unofficially and without written notice, according to multiple academics who spoke to Zan Times under pseudonyms for fear of retribution. Najia, a professor with two decades of experience at Balkh University in northern Afghanistan, said she learned of her termination on Monday, May 12, after sending a routine inquiry to her department head about an academic article.
“I received no reply, so I called,” she said. “He told me, ‘I have bad news. You are among those dismissed.’ I couldn’t control my tears. I have taught for 23 years, never taken maternity leave, never missed a term.”
Najia’s case is one of hundreds across the country. Most professors were not formally notified; instead, they found their positions eliminated by word of mouth or after being barred from entering university grounds.
In Kabul University alone, over 60 positions held by women have been eliminated, according to former faculty members. Departments such as literature, psychology, veterinary science, and foreign languages have seen the majority of their female staff dismissed. “In many faculties, only two or three women remain, and even they have been told their posts will be reopened for male applicants,” said Shahnaz, a professor at Kabul University.
The wave of terminations is the latest blow to women academics, who have faced increasing restrictions since the Taliban banned women from university campuses in December 2022. In the months that followed, many female professors were forced to stay at their homes and paid only a fraction of their former salaries. Since June 2024, the Taliban has slashed the salaries of female government workers who were removed from active duty, including women academics. Once earning over 40,000 Afghanis per month, many professors received a flat 5,000 Afghanis regardless of rank or experience.
To protest this policy, a petition signed by more than 100 female professors from 34 provinces was submitted to Taliban leadership in September 2024. The letter emphasised the long-term harm of dismantling decades of investment in academic women, warning that “training a university lecturer takes 30 years,” and that the forced removals and decrease of salaries were causing both financial and psychological distress. The Ministry of Higher Education has not responded, and sources say the minister has refused to sign or acknowledge the letter.
While the Taliban initially claimed that women’s education was only temporarily suspended pending the creation of a “safe and Islamic environment,” the subsequent two years have seen the erosion of nearly all female participation in higher education and public administration.
Zarghona, a 32-year-old lecturer from Kandahar province in the south, said she has been forced into low-skilled work after being banned from her university post. “Now I register patients in a hospital,” she said. “It’s not what I studied for, but I have no choice.”
Others, such as Fatima, 46, a scholar with a master’s degree and multiple academic publications, now work as tailors to support their families. “I spent ten years teaching social sciences and guiding students’ theses,” she said. “Now I sit behind a sewing machine from morning to night, just to forget the days slipping by.”
Afghanistan’s academic sector has been severely undermined by Taliban policies, with nearly one in four professors at the country’s three largest universities—Kabul, Herat, and Balkh—leaving the country since the group’s return to power, according to the BBC.
Those who remain say they face not only professional ruin, but growing hostility from society. “Even former male colleagues no longer greet us the same way,” said Soheila, a former lecturer in the north. “Some look away. Others say, ‘These days will pass,’ but it’s hard to believe that anymore.”
Names have been changed for security reasons. Khadija Haidary is Zan Times journalist.
