Taliban ban books written by women from Afghan universities
The Taliban government abolished books written by women from the university teaching system in Afghanistan as a part of a new ban that prohibits human rights and sexual harassment teaching.
140 women, including titles such as “security in the chemical laboratory”, were among the 680 books that were found to be “concern” due to “anti -Sharia and Taliban policies”.
Universities were told that they were no longer allowed to teach 18 subjects, and a Taliban official said that they were “clashed with the principles of Sharia and the policy of the system.”
The decree is the last of a series of restrictions brought by the Taliban since he returned to power four years ago.
Only this week, the fiber optic internet was banned in at least 10 states by order of the Taliban’s highest leader, and the authorities were to prevent immorality.
Although the rules have an impact on many aspects of life, women and girls were particularly difficult: it is forbidden to access education in one of the last ways when midwifery courses were quietly burying more education in the late 2024 and the sixth grade.
Now even university issues related to women are targeted: six of the banned 18 are particularly related to women, including gender and development, the role of women in communication and women’s sociology.
The Taliban government said he respected women’s rights in accordance with the interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.
A member of the committee, who reviewed the books, confirmed the ban on the book written by women who said to BBC Afghan “not all of the books written by women is not allowed to be taught”.
Before the return of Taliban, former Deputy Minister of Justice Zakia Adeli and one of the writers who found their books on the banned list was surprised.
“Considering what Taliban has done in the last four years, it was not difficult to expect them to make changes to the curriculum.” He said.
“Considering the Taliban’s enemy mentality and policies, it is natural to suppress their views, ideas and writings when women are not allowed to work.”
New instructions seen by BBC Afghan were published in late August.
The Taliban Government Deputy Academic Director of the Ministry of Higher Education Ziaur Rahman Aryubi said that in a letter to universities, the decisions were given by the panel “Religious Academics and Experts”.
In addition to women’s books, Ban seems to have targeted the books of Iranian writers or publishers, a member of the Book Review panel, BBC, designed to “prevent leakage of Iran content”.
The 50 -page list sent to all universities in Afghanistan is written by 310 Iranian writers or published in Iran.
Two different people, including one of the book review committee, said that the decision to “prevent leakage of Iran content” through the curriculum to the BBC Afghan.
Neighboring countries have not had an easy relationship with conflicting problems such as water rights in recent years. Iran also forced more than 1.5 million Afghan who lived in the country In the midst of the increasing anti-Afghan feeling, across the border since January.
The decision, however, worried and worried some lecturers with a professor in an institution who spoke about the condition of anonymity, and said he was afraid that it would be almost impossible to fill the gap.
“The books of Iranian writers and translators serve as the primary connection between Afghanistan’s universities and the global academic community. Starts create an important gap in higher education.” He said.
A professor at the University of Kabul told the BBC that they had to prepare the textbook sections themselves, taking into account the work and non -works imposed by the Taliban government under these circumstances.
However, the important question is whether these sections can be prepared according to global standards.
BBC approached the Ministry of Education for comment.
