Taliban ban women from Kabul university

A tweet by the chancellor, Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, says: “I give you my words as chancellor of Kabul University: as long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.”

Mr. Ghairat was made chancellor by the new Taliban government “A 34-year-old devotee of the movement who has referred to the country’s schools as ‘centers for prostitution.’ ” He replaced the former president of Kabul University, the country’s premier college, two weeks ago. 

The new policy harkens back to the 1990s when the Taliban were first in power and prohibited women and girls from getting an education, working, and being in public unless accompanied by a male relative.

The current regime had voiced widely reported public assurances that women would be allowed to study, work, and participate in government this time.

“There is no hope, the entire higher education system is collapsing,” Hamid Obaidi, the former spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education who was also a lecturer at the Journalism School of Kabul University, told the Times. “Everything was ruined.”