Male, Female Students Segregated By Curtain As Some Afghanistan Universities Reopen

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, students have begun returning to the universities for the first time since the fall of its national government, with females now separated from their male peers by curtains or boards in every classroom.

On Sunday, the Taliban ordered women attending private Afghan universities to wear an abaya robe and niqab to cover most of their faces. Classes must also be segregated by sex, divided by a curtain or boards down the middle of a classroom, Reuters reported.

Photographs shared by Avicenna University in Kabul have widely circulated on social media. They reveal a gray curtain separating female students from their male peers, with the girls donning long robes and head coverings.

Even before the Taliban invaded Afghanistan, female students sat separately from males in classrooms but were not physically divided.

Burqas and niqabs have also significantly disappeared from the streets of Kabul in recent years and were more commonly worn only by women living in smaller cities and towns, according to India.com.

According to the Taliban higher education ministry's directive, female students have to study separately from men and end their lessons five minutes later than their counterparts, ordered to stay in waiting rooms until all their male colleagues have left the building to prevent them from interacting.

Universities have also been told to open job posts for women professors to teach female students. However, if it is not viable, institutions must instead hire older male educators holding a good record of behavior, WION noted.

The newly installed Taliban regime has been campaigning for reforms in recent weeks, vowing to honor women's rights under Islamic law. Under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, women were barred access to education or any job opportunity.

How girls and women will be treated in Taliban's Afghanistan is closely being monitored by foreign superpowers, who are demanding for the Islamist militant movement to respect women's rights in return for vital aid and diplomatic engagement.

The Taliban is yet to form a government more than three weeks following the fall of Kabul.

Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund has been selected by senior Taliban officials as the new head of state. His administration is set to be installed on Wednesday at the earliest although it may also see some delays, according to sources.