Afghanistan: Women allowed to attend university under Taliban rule, says acting education minister
- When the Taliban last ruled during the 1990s, girls and women were banned from education
- Women attending university will continue to be separated from men, said the Taliban’s Abdul Baqi Haqqani
Afghan women will be allowed to study at university but there would be a ban on mixed classes under their rule, the Taliban’s acting higher education minister said on Sunday.
The hardline Islamist group that stormed to power in mid-August after ousting the Western-back government have vowed to rule differently compared to their 1990s stint when girls and women were banned from education.
“The … people of Afghanistan will continue their higher education in the light of sharia law in safety without being in a mixed male and female environment,” Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting minister for higher education said at a meeting with elders, known as a Loya Jirga, on Sunday.
He said the Taliban want to “create a reasonable and Islamic curriculum that is in line with our Islamic, national and historical values and, on the other hand, be able to compete with other countries”.
Girls and boys will also be segregated at primary and secondary schools, which was already common throughout deeply conservative Afghanistan.