Taliban says Afghan women can continue college, but not alongside men and only in Islamic dress


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
The Taliban on Sunday announced that Afghan women will be allowed to continue studying at universities, including post-graduate studies, but universities will be strictly segregated by gender and women must dress in burqas. "We will not allow boys and girls to study together," said Abdul Baqi Haqqani, higher education minister in the Taliban's new all-male government. "We will not allow co-education."
Haqqani also said the new government will review the subjects being taught, but added that he wants Afghan university graduates to be competitive with their peers in the region and the world.
The last time the Taliban governed Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they barred girls and women from education and most other aspects of public life. Once the U.S. toppled the Taliban and helped set up a new government, universities were coed and there was no dress code — though, The Associated Press notes, "the vast majority of female university students opted to wear headscarves in line with tradition." Haqqani said "we will start building on what exists today," not try to turn the clock back 20 years.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
When the Taliban seized power and in the months before, it tried to assure the world and fellow Afghans that it had changed over the past 20 years and would allow a more inclusive society, within limits. But women are barred from sports and the Taliban has banned and violently suppressed protests in the past week, including from women demanding greater rights.
There are "tens of thousands of urban Afghans who had until recently spent their adult lives in a country propped up by Western forces, surrounded by the liberal rhetoric that came alongside two decades of war," The Washington Post reports. "While the billions of dollars spent on the country's security forces and government vanished with the Taliban takeover, this generation of young Afghans determined to live in a more tolerant society could be one of the few enduring legacies of foreign intervention and investment here."
"The Taliban call us the 'American generation,' and they try to say we are not Muslims because we have been influenced by Western thoughts," Rohullah Raziqi, a local journalist in Kabul who has now joined the protests, told the Post. "But it's not true. I just believe in freedom."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.
-
Biden's first rodeo
cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
Biden's stumble
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
The daily gossip: Travis Kelce chats about Taylor Swift's Chiefs game visit, Hollywood writers thrilled with details of new contract as strike ends, and more
The daily gossip: September 27, 2023
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
Tuberville's military promotions block is upending lives, combat readiness, 3 military branch chiefs say
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Ukraine's counteroffensive is making incremental gains. Does it matter in the broader war?
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
US commissions first-ever Navy ship in a foreign port
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
British spy chief, Wagner video suggest Prigozhin is alive and freely 'floating around'
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
The US will soon finish destroying its last chemical weapons
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
Putin and Prigozhin offer rival explanations for Wagner's brief rebellion
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
The future of the Wagner Group is murky
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Wagner Group stops armed rebellion toward Moscow
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published