The Taliban started off its second reign in Afghanistan by banning co-education in the Herat province of the country.
As per the ‘fatwa’ issued by the fundamentalist organisation, male and female students will not be allowed to attend classes together in private and government universities, Khaama Press agency reported on Saturday.
Taliban Bans Co-education
This is the first fatwa issued by the Taliban officially. As per reports, the decision was taken by the regime after a meeting with Herat province’s university professors, owners of private colleges. The meeting reportedly lasted for three hours.
Taliban representative, Mullah Farid reportedly said that there is no-alternative to banning co-education. He called girls and boys attending classes together as the ‘root cause of all evils in the society’. He added that female teachers can teach only female students.
As per media reports, the universities in Afghanistan have mostly had gender-based classes. In many schools as well, girls and boys are divided into two different classrooms. Following the Taliban’s orders will not pose much struggle for government institutions. Although, the private universities are reported to have fewer female students so making special arrangements for their classes can be a challenge.
The Herat province of Afghanistan has over 40,000 students with only 2,000 professors, according to report.
The fatwa comes days after the Taliban spokesperson claimed during the press conference that women will be allowed to get education and they will have rights under the Islamic law.
Even though the Taliban promised to give women their right to work, reports surfaced about a journalist Shabnam Dawran being fired from her workplace. After Taliban entered Kabul on August 15, Dawran was reportedly asked to not report to work at RTA Pashto news channel.
The Taliban had earlier banned education for girls and many are fearing the same to happen again. As per reports, many Afghanis are burning educational certificates of the women and girls in their family to protect them from the fundamentalists.
