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Two women with Nikab (symbolic picture)
Photo: Boris Roessler / picture alliance / dpa
After taking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban issued strict rules for women at private universities.
In a long set of rules issued by the Islamist authorities responsible for higher education, women are only allowed to attend private universities with a face covering, the Nikab.
They must also be taught separately from men.
If a spatial separation is not possible, men and women must be separated by a curtain.
According to the document, classes with women should only be taught by women.
If that is not possible, lessons can also be given by an "old man" with a good character.
The regulations do not provide for a burqa obligation, but the nikab, a head and face covering, only leaves a narrow slit free for the eyes.
Too little female teaching staff
During the first Taliban rule in the 1990s, women and girls were largely excluded from education.
After the Allied invasion in 2001, private colleges and universities had sprung up in many cities in Afghanistan.
These should open again on Monday.
In the past 20 years the number of women in universities had risen sharply.
"It's practically a difficult plan, we don't have enough female teaching staff," a university professor told the AFP news agency.
"But the fact that they allow girls to attend schools and universities is a positive move."
The rules also stipulate that women must leave the classroom five minutes in advance and wait in special rooms until all men have left the building.
This is to avoid direct encounters.
him / AFP