Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s Herat province have ordered public and private universities that girls will no longer be allowed to sit in the same class with boys.
Kabul. The first fatwa has been issued by the Taliban. Khama News reported that Taliban officials in Herat province of Afghanistan have ordered government and private universities that girls will no longer be allowed to sit in the same class with boys. In a three-hour meeting between university lecturers, owners of private institutions and Taliban officials, it was said that continuing co-education was no substitute and justified and should be abolished. Afghanistan has a mix system of co-education and segregation, with schools conducting separate classes, while co-education is implemented in government and private universities and institutions across the country.
Lecturers in Herat province have argued that government universities and institutions can administer classes separately, but private institutions cannot provide separate classes due to the limited number of female students. The head of higher education of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mullah Farid, who was representing the Taliban at the meeting in Herat, has said that co-education should be abolished as the system is the root of all evil in society.
Farid suggested as an alternative that female lecturers or elderly men who are virtuous are allowed to teach female students and there is no substitute or justification for co-education. Lecturers in Herat said that since private institutions cannot afford separate classes, thousands of girls could be deprived of higher education. The province has about 40,000 students and 2,000 lecturers in private and government universities and institutions.
