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Afghan students returning to college this week are already seeing the influence of the new Taliban leadership, which grabbed power when U.S. forces withdrew from the country last month. Female students have been segregated from their male peers, Reuters reported, with some classrooms divided by curtains or wooden boards.
Teachers and students in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat told Reuters that in some places women were being taught apart from men or confined to certain areas of campus. One professor told Reuters that his private institution in Kabul had given teachers the option of partitioning their classrooms or holding separate classes for men and women.
The guidelines for resuming classes were laid out in a document circulated among private universities, though it wasn’t clear if they represented official Taliban policy. Other measures included mandatory hijabs and separate entrances for female students, Reuters reported.
It’s a worrisome development for those who fear that the Taliban’s return to power will reverse the social and educational gains Afghan women have made over the past two decades. During the Taliban’s last reign, from 1996 to 2001, girls were banned from school and women were forbidden to attend university or hold jobs. This time the Taliban has vowed to respect women’s rights “within Islamic law,” whatever that might mean in practice.
Though the universities were open last week, attendance was way down. A journalism professor at Herat University told Reuters that fewer than a quarter of the 120 students enrolled in his class showed up.
