Good news for women.
The Taliban has announced that women in the country will be allowed to study at Universities, however, there are going to be some changes in the rules that were present under the government of Ashraf Ghani.
The Taliban’s Higher Education Minister said that women can go to Universities however they are not going to attend classes with men.
Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting minister for higher education said:
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.
Before in the 1990s, the Taliban did not allow women to go to schools and were banned to do a number of things.
Abdul Baqi Haqqani said that the Taliban currently want to create a reasonable and Islamic curriculum that is in line with their Islamic, National and Historical values.
Also, they have said that they want to compete with other countries.
Not only universities, girls and boys are going to be segregated at primary and secondary schools, which was already common.
The Taliban have also pledged to respect the progress that has been made in women’s rights, however, they are going to make some changes accordingly, considering that they have the Sharia law.
One of the mostly asked questions right now in the country is if women can get education and work at all levels and if they can be mixed with men.
On the other hand, many are questioning if the Taliban are going to do what they have promised.
When the meeting was carried out by Abdul Baqi Haqqani, there were no women.
A lecturer, who was not named, that worked at a city university during the last government, said:
The Taliban’s ministry of higher education consulted only male teachers and students on resuming the function of universities.
The fact that there were no women in the meeting, it shows that the Taliban still do not believe that women were capable of making such decisions.
University admission rates in Afghanistan sky rocketed under the regime of Ashraf Ghani.
Women were one of the many that benefited the ease of restrictions by former president Ghani.
Before the Taliban took over Afghanistan this year, multiple attacks on education centers were carried out in the country.
In result of those attacks, dozens of people were killed.
The Taliban said they did not carry out the attacks. Later on, a local chapter of the ISIS claimed the attacks on the education centers.
In the 90s, under the Taliban rule, women were not allowed to go to public events, they were not allowed to go out, brutal punishments were there and entertainment got banned.