Taliban lets women study — with limits
KABUL, Afghanistan — Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at postgraduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, the higher education minister in the new Taliban government said Sunday.
Abdul Baqi Haqqani laid out the new policies at a news conference, several days after Afghanistan’s new rulers formed an allmale government.
The world has been watching closely to see to what extent the Taliban might act differently from its first time in power, in the late 1990s. During that era, girls and women were denied an education and were excluded from public life.
Taliban leaders have suggested they have changed, including in their attitudes toward women. However, they have used violence in recent days against female protesters demanding equal rights.
Haqqani said the Taliban did not want to turn the clock back 20 years. “We will start building on what exists today,” he said.
However, female university students will face restrictions under the Taliban, including a compulsory dress code. Haqqani said hijabs will be mandatory but did not specify if this meant compulsory head scarves or also compulsory face coverings.
Gender segregation will also be enforced, he said. “We will not allow boys and girls to study together,” he said. “We will not allow coeducation.”
Haqqani said the subjects being taught would also be reviewed. Though he did not elaborate, he said he wanted graduates to be competitive with university graduates in the region and the rest of the world.
In an interview on Afghanistan’s Tolo news network, Taliban spokesman Syed Zekrullah Hashimi said women should give birth and raise children. While the Taliban has not ruled out participation of women in government, he said, “it’s not necessary that women be in the Cabinet.”
The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, the day it overran the capital, Kabul. Leaders initially promised inclusiveness and a general amnesty for its former opponents, but many Afghans remain fearful of the new rulers. Taliban police officials have beaten Afghan journalists and violently dispersed women’s protests. An all-male government has been formed despite earlier mentions of broader representation.
The new higher education policy signals a change from the accepted practice before the Taliban takeover. Universities were coed, with men and women studying side by side, and female students did not have to abide by a dress code. However, the vast majority of female university students opted to wear head scarves.
In elementary and high schools, boys and girls were taught separately, even before the Taliban came to power. In high schools, girls had to wear tunics reaching to their knees and white head scarves.