The Taliban’s acting education minister said on Sunday that Afghan women will be able to study at the university, but mixed classes will be banned.
“The … people of Afghanistan will continue their higher education in the light of Sharia law without protecting themselves without being in a mixed male and female environment,” Abdul Baqi Haqqani said at a meeting with elders, according to the France-Presse Agency.
He added 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, can compete with other countries.”
Men and women will also be separated in primary and secondary schools, which was already a common practice in Afghanistan.
No woman attended the Sunday meeting with the elders in Kabul, AFP reported.
The ban on mixed-class classes comes as the Taliban set out how it plans to govern after taking control of the capital Kabul more than two weeks ago.
There is growing concern that the Taliban will return to their brutal treatment of women and girls that was common when the militant group previously ruled the country.
The Taliban have said they will respect advances in women’s rights, but only in accordance with a strict interpretation of Islamic law, AFP noted.
Taliban leaders have called on women to join government offices and said they will allow women to continue their education and have professional careers.
Taliban spokeswoman Zabihullah Mujahid told NBC News last week that women will have “all the rights that Islam promises,” adding that they can be doctors, teachers, be educated and work to benefit society. “.
Admission rates to the university have risen in the last 20 years since the US invasion, AFP reported. During this period, Afghan women have gone to school alongside men and participated in seminars led by male teachers.