Afghan universities reopened on Monday after a winter break, but only men returned to class with a \u201cheartbreaking\u201d ban by the Taliban authorities on women in higher education still in force.
\nThe university ban is one of several restrictions imposed on women since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 and has sparked global outrage \u2014 including across the Muslim world.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to see boys going to the university while we have to stay at home,\u201d said Rahela, 22, from the central province of Ghor.
\n\u201cThis is gender discrimination against girls because Islam allows us to pursue higher education. Nobody should stop us from learning.\u201d
\nThe Taliban government imposed the ban after accusing women students of ignoring a strict dress code and a requirement to be accompanied by a male relative to and from campus.
\nMost universities had already introduced gender-segregated entrances and classrooms, as well as allowing women to be taught only by female professors or elderly men.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s painful to see that thousands of girls are deprived of education today,\u201d Mohammad Haseeb Habibzadah, a student of computer science at Herat university, told AFP.
\n\u201cWe are trying to address this issue by talking to lecturers and other students so that there can be a way where boys and girls could study and progress together.\u201d
\nEjatullah Nejati, an engineering student at Kabul University, Afghanistan\u2019s largest, said it was a fundamental right of women to study.
\n\u201cEven if they attend classes on separate days, it\u2019s not a problem. They have a right to education and that right should be given to them,\u201d he said as he entered the university campus.
\nGovernment fear
\nWaheeda Durrani, a journalism student in Herat until she was barred from university last year, said the Taliban government wanted women to remain uneducated.
\n\u201cIf Afghan girls and women get educated, they will never accept a government that exploits Islam and the Koran,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cThey will stand for their rights. That\u2019s the fear the government has.\u201d
\nAt the capital\u2019s private Rana university, male students trickled back to classes on Monday.
\n\u201cMy sister, unfortunately, cannot come to the university. She is trying to study at home,\u201d said Ebratullah Rahimi, another journalism student.
\nPosters dating from before the ban showing how women needed to dress were still on display in the university corridors.
\nSeveral Taliban officials say the ban on women\u2019s education is temporary but, despite promises, they have failed to reopen secondary schools for girls, which have been closed for more than a year.
\nThe authorities have wheeled out a litany of excuses for the closure, from a lack of funds to the time needed to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.
\nThe reality, according to some Taliban officials, is that the ultra-conservative clerics advising Afghanistan\u2019s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada are deeply sceptical of modern education for women.
\nTaliban authorities have effectively squeezed women out of public life since retaking power.
\nWomen have been removed from many government jobs or are paid a fraction of their former salary to stay at home.
\nThey are also barred from going to parks, fairs, gyms and public baths, and must cover up in public.
\nRights groups have condemned the restrictions, which the United Nations called \u201cgender-based apartheid\u201d.
\nThe international community has made the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition of the Taliban government.
\nNo country has so far officially recognised the Taliban as Afghanistan\u2019s legitimate rulers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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