Afghanistan universities reopen after winter break but women still banned

Afghanistan universities reopened today after the winter break, but only men returned to the institutions, with the Taliban's ban on women in higher education still in place, as per a report in Al-Jazeera.

The decision to ban women from educational institutes was announced by the Taliban officials in December and it drew widespread condemnation from foreign governments and the United Nations.

"You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice," Minister for Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem said in a letter issued to all government and private universities last year.

The Taliban officials were also asked to "immediately" withdraw the choice by the UN mission in Afghanistan. However, nothing fruitful was achieved out of it. 

The Taliban enforced the restriction, claiming that female students disregarded a stringent dress code and a necessity to be



accompanied to and from university campus by a male relative. The majority of colleges and universities had already implemented gender-specific entrances, classrooms and policies permitting only older men or women professors to teach female students, according to the outlet. 

As per the report in Al-Jazeera, Taliban officials have cited a number of reasons for the closure, ranging from a lack of funds to the time required to redesign the curriculum in accordance with Islamic principles. Citing Taliban members, news agency AFP said that the Islamic experts and scholars who counsel Afghanistan's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhunzada are "deeply skeptical" of modern education for women.

The university ban is one of many restrictions placed on women since the Taliban regime retook control in August 2021. Women in the country have also been banned from going to parks, gyms, fairs and must cover themselves in public. Many have also been removed from their government jobs.