Taliban Prohibits Co-Education, Bans Men From Teaching Women

By Akinwale Kasali

The Taliban rule in Afghanistan has declared that henceforth gender-segregated education will be the norm at Afghanistan Universities.

Making this prohibition of Co-education in the country, the Taliban said co-education is un-Islamic and against the country’s national and traditional values.

The Taliban Higher Education Minister, Shaikh Abdul Baqi Haqqani, at a Press Conference Sunday, September 13, in Kabul, Afghanistan’s Capital, said that, “Co-education conflicts with the principles of Islam and, on the other hand, it is in conflict with national values and is against the customs and traditions of Afghans”.

Haqqani added that If the Universities have the capacity, campuses should be segregated by gender, if that is not possible, the Universities should establish alternate class timing or ensure a partition between male and female students in the classrooms.

The group wants to hire female lecturers for female students, but if that was impossible, men will be allowed to teach women as long as the classes follow sharia rules, he added.

He explained that they had fought in the past two decades for the establishment of the “Islamic system.”

Observers of Afghanistan  as well as the nation’s female population, have been nervously waiting to hear what the Taliban’s new education policy would be.