Taliban allow women to go to university, but separated from men

The women of Afghanistan will be allowed to study at the university, but mixed classes will be banned under their mandate, the Taliban minister of higher education said.

The radical Islamist group that took power in mid-August after removing the pro-Western government from power, has promised to act differently than it did in its previous period in power – between 1996 and 2001 – when at girls and women were forbidden to go to school.

“The town of Afghanistan will continue to have higher education according to the rules of sharia (Islamic law) that vetoes mixed classes”, Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani said at a meeting with older men, known as the loya jirga, on Sunday.

He said that the Taliban require “reasonable educational program that is consistent with our Islamic, national and historical values, and on the other hand, is capable of competing with other countries.”

Young men and women will be segregated in primary and secondary schools, which was common in a country as conservative as Afghanistan.

The Taliban advocate respecting advances in women’s rights, but only according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Whether women will be able to work, educate themselves at high levels, and mingle with men are some of the questions most often asked by observers. But the change in the attitude of the Taliban is taken with skepticism, and many wonder if they will keep their promises.

No women were present at Sunday’s meeting in Kabul, which was attended by other senior Taliban officials.

The Taliban minister “only spoke with male teachers and students,” said a student who worked in the university city during the last government.

She said that shows “the systematic prevention on the participation of women in decisions” and “the distance between the words of the Taliban and their actions”.

College admissions increased in the last 20 years of Western presence, especially among women who study alongside men and attend seminars taught by male professors.

But a series of attacks on educational centers in recent months, resulting in dozens of deaths, generated panic among the population.

The Taliban denied being behind the attacks, some of which were claimed by the local arm of the Islamic State.

During Taliban’s previous repressive government, women were excluded from public life, entertainment was forbidden, and terrible punishments such as stoning to death were imposed for adulteresses.