Taliban say girls, women may study in no-men classrooms

The higher education minister laid out the new policies at a news conference on September 12

Taliban’s acting Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani. File

The higher education minister in the new Taliban government says women can study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but that classrooms will be gender-segregated and that Islamic dress is compulsory.

The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, laid out the new policies at a news conference on September 12, several days after Afghanistan’s new rulers formed an all-male, all-Taliban government.

Haqqani said female university students would be required to wear a hijab but did not elaborate on whether this only meant a compulsory headscarf or a mandatory face covering also.