Afghan students will have to take additional compulsory courses in Islamic studies in their university course, education ministry officials announced Tuesday (August 16th) in Kabul.
The latter have also given no sign for the reopening of secondary schools for girls, closed since March by the Taliban in power for a year.
Exodus of the educational elite
“
We are adding five additional religious subjects to the existing eight
” at the university, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, Minister of Higher Education, said at a press conference.
He cited in particular Islamic history, politics and governance, while specifying that the number of compulsory religion classes would increase from one to three per week.
While many conservative clerics among the fundamentalist Taliban movement are reserved with regard to modern education, the Taliban will not order any removal of subjects from the current curriculum in universities, assured the minister.
Read alsoAfghanistan: the Taliban order the closure of secondary schools to girls
Some universities, however, have modified courses on music or sculpture, very sensitive subjects under the strict interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law) by the Taliban.
The exodus of the Afghan educational elite, especially teachers, has also led to the de facto elimination of many subjects.
Asked about the reopening of secondary schools for girls, officials raised the issue of rural areas, having for months justified maintaining the closure on technical and financial issues.
Severe restrictions on girls
According to Abdulkhaliq Sadiq, a senior official in the Ministry of Education, families in rural areas are still not convinced of the need to send girls to secondary school.
"
We are trying to develop a sound policy in coordination with our leaders...so that people in rural areas are also convinced
," he said at the same press conference.
Meanwhile, without a high school diploma, teenage girls will not be able to sit future university entrance exams.
Read alsoSingle-sex classes, wearing the niqab: Afghan students authorized to return to university under several conditions
Under the first Taliban regime (1996-2001), primary and secondary schools for girls were never reopened.
Since their return to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on girls and women to conform to their austere vision of Islam, virtually excluding them from public life.
Young women have the right to go to university, but some have dropped out because of the cost, and others because their families fear seeing them in public in a country under Taliban rule.
The international community has made the right to education an essential condition for the official recognition of the Taliban government, which no country has so far recognized.