Taliban Allows Women to Study at All Levels

Kabul, MINA – Taliban announced Sunday that women in Afghanistan can pursue education at all levels in any field, but classes will be segregated and there will be a mandatory dress code.

“There will be no obstacle for girls to continue their education,” Abdul Baqi Haqqani, acting education minister in the Taliban’s interim government, said at a news conference in the capital Kabul, Anadolu Agency reported.

Haqqani said women would be free to study even to postgraduate level, but there would be gender-segregated or completely segregated classes at universities because shared education goes against Islamic and Afghan traditions.

“The most important thing is that female students wear headscarves,” Haqqani said, without elaborating on whether she meant the regular headscarf or the full-face covering.

If the university had the capacity, then there would be completely separate classes and even buildings, for girls and boys.

Male teachers will teach boys and girls will be taught by female teachers.

Haqqani explained that if there were not enough female teachers, male teachers would teach girls from behind a curtain.

While acknowledging that his ministry is facing financial difficulties, he claimed that the interim administration is working on a strategy to invite Afghan academics living abroad to take up positions at local universities.

Haqqani, who took office without taking the formal oath, stressed that the Taliban was willing to work with the international community in the field of education.

He added that the interim administration will pay special attention to members of the Taliban who did not have access to education in the past. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)