Afghanistan: women will be able to study, but separated from men | The Taliban movement wants to be more flexible than when it reigned more than twenty years ago

Afghan women will be able to study at university but co-education will be prohibitedsaid Taliban Minister of Higher Education Abdul Bqi Haqqani. The radical Islamist group that seized power in mid-August after overthrowing the Afghan government has vowed to act differently than it did. in its previous period between 1996 and 2001, when girls and women were not allowed to go to school.

“The Afghan people will continue to pursue higher education according to the rules of Sharia (Islamic law) which prohibits mixed classes”Haqqani said in a meeting with older men known as loya jirga on Sunday. The minister said the Taliban demand “to create a reasonable educational program that conforms to our Islamic, national and historical values.”

Young people of both sexes will be separated in primary and secondary schools, which is common in a country as conservative as Afghanistan. The Taliban advocate respect for advances in women’s rights, but only according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

No women were present at Sunday’s meeting in Kabul, which was attended by other senior Taliban officials. The insurgent movement minister “only spoke to male teachers and students,” said a student who worked in the university town under the last government. The young woman, who requested anonymity, said it shows “the systematic prevention of women’s participation in decision-making” and “the distance between the words of the Taliban and their actions”.

During their previous repressive regime, the Taliban excluded women from public life, entertainment was prohibited, and terrible punishments such as stoning to death were imposed on adulterers.