Acting higher education minister of the new regime said on Sunday that the Taliban will allow Afghan women to study at university but there would be a ban on mixed classes under their rule.
According to reports, the hardline Islamist group that took over the rule of the country in mid-August after ousting the Western-back government has vowed to rule differently compared to their 1990s stint when girls and women were banned from education.
Acting education minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani 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."
Haqqani said that the Taliban want to create a reasonable and Islamic curriculum that is in line with our Islamic, national and historical values and, on the other hand, be able to compete with other countries.
Girls and boys will also be segregated at primary and secondary schools This was already common throughout deeply conservative Afghanistan.
The group has pledged to respect progress made in women's rights, but only according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law, stated latest reports on Afghanistan situation.
No women were present at the meeting in Kabul on Sunday, which included other senior Taliban officials.
A lecturer, who 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."
She said that "the systematic prevention of women's participation in decision making" and "a gap between the Taliban's commitments and actions".
Earlier, during their previous brutal rule, the Taliban excluded women from public life, entertainment was banned and brutal punishments were imposed — such as stoning to death for adultery.
