Situation in Afghanistan: Taliban announces university gender segregation policy, girls must comply with new dress code-BBC News

The Taliban have stated that they will not prevent women from receiving education and employment. However, since taking control on August 15th, all women except public health have been required to stay at home and stop working until the security situation improves.

The day before the higher education policy was released, the Taliban held a flag-raising ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Afghanistan to symbolize the start of their government.

The latest university policy is significantly different from the usual operations in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over. Prior to this, there was no dress code for female students, and colleges and universities taught male and female students together.

Haqqani believes that there is nothing wrong with the new policy. “We have no problems with ending mixed education,” he said. “The people in this country are Muslims and they will accept it.”

He said that where circumstances permit, female students will be taught by female teachers, and the classroom will maintain gender separation.

Some believe that the new regulations exclude women from the education system because universities do not provide resources for gender-segregated classrooms. But Haqqani insisted that there are enough female teachers in Afghanistan, and where there are no female teachers, there are other ways to solve this problem.

“It all depends on the capacity of the university,” he said. “We can also use male teachers to teach classes behind the curtain, or use technology.”

At the elementary and middle school levels, female students and male students will also have separate classes.

Haqqani stated that under the regulations, female students are required to wear hijabs, but did not specify whether it is mandatory to cover their faces.

In explaining the review of the subject content, Haqqani told reporters that the Taliban hoped to “create a rational Islamic curriculum that is consistent with our Islam, national and historical values, and can also compete with other countries. “

Before the new rules were announced, hundreds of women who supported the Taliban’s gender policy marched at Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Afghanistan.

Most of them wore black niqabs, held small Taliban flags, and listened to many speeches. Most of these speeches praised the new regime and criticized demonstrations in Afghanistan that demanded the protection of women’s rights.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the enrolment rate and literacy rate in Afghanistan, especially the two figures of girls and women, have been greatly increased.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the number of female students in primary schools in Afghanistan has grown from almost zero to 2.5 million in the 17 years since the Taliban’s fall.

The report also pointed out that the literacy rate of Afghan women has nearly doubled in 10 years and has reached 30%.

At the same time, the new Taliban government replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs previously established by the democratically elected government with the Ministry of Virtue.

During the last time the Taliban came to power, this worrying department was responsible for deploying religious police to the streets to enforce Sharia law. The practice of beating women for violations has made this department familiar to the outside world. These behaviors include wearing revealing clothes and going out without a male guardian.

Fearing the return of the Taliban, many well-known professional women have fled Afghanistan. For example, Afghanistan’s top pop singer Aryana Sayeed has left on an American airliner, while the famous film director Sahraa Karimi has left Ukraine.