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Taliban say women can study at university but classes must be segregated

13 September 2021 04:00 (UTC +04:00)

Women in Afghanistan will be allowed to study in universities as the country seeks to rebuild after decades of war but gender-segregation and Islamic dress code will be mandatory, the Taliban's new Higher Education minister said on Sunday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said the new Taliban government, named last week, would "start building the country on what exists today" and did not want to turn the clock back 20 years to when the movement was last in power.

He said female students would be taught by women wherever possible and classrooms would remain separated, in accordance with the movement's interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

"Thanks to God we have a high number of women teachers. We will not face any problems in this. All efforts will be made to find and provide women teachers for female students," he told a news conference in Kabul.