Female students join male peers as Afghan universities reopen

JALALABAD: Afghanistan’s public universities opened on Wednesday for the first time since the Taliban took over the country last year, with female students joining their male counterparts heading back to campus.

The Taliban administration has not officially announced its plan for female university students, but education officials told Reuters women were permitted to attend classes on the condition that they were separated from male students.

A Reuters witness in the eastern city of Jalalabad saw female students entering via a separate door at Nangarhar University, one of the large government universities opening this week.

Under their previous rule from 1996 to 2001, the hardline Islamist Taliban barred women and girls from education. The group says it has changed since resuming power on Aug. 15 as foreign forces withdrew. But it has been vague on its plans and high school-aged girls in many provinces have still not been allowed to return to school.

Some private universities have reopened, but in many cases female students have not been able to return to class. A female medical student at Nangarhar University who asked not be named for security reasons said that classes had already been separated by gender, but it was not clear if they were still able to be taught by male lecturers or interact outside the classroom with male students.

“Only our studying shifts are separated, although we have been told not to walk around the university until the boys’ time is complete,” she said. “Despite all the changes and conditions, I still want to continue because my education should not be incomplete,” she added.

The international community has made education of girls and women a key part of its demands as the Taliban seek more foreign aid and the unfreezing of overseas assets.

Aid groups have raised the alarm that the stalled financial system and a stark drop in foreign funding that used to form the backbone of the economy are creating a humanitarian catastrophe in the country, already battered by decades of war.