Curtain dividers are now being used to separate male and female students in Afghanistan as schools open for the first time since the Taliban return to power.
This is what the Taliban led Afghanistan seems to be like, as the group has also made it compulsory for women to wear hijabs when in public.
According to Reuters, as students returned to school since to United States, most of the classes were empty.
The Taliban-run Ministry of Education has approved a proposal submitted by Afghanistan’s union of colleges to separate of male and female students.
According to the proposal, male and female students must enter their classrooms through separate entrances and combined classes are only allowed when the number of female students is fewer than 15; the classroom must thereafter in some form, separate the students.
The proposal further suggested that schools should provide a separate area for women to pray and female lecturers should be employed for female students or trusted elderly professors should be appointed to educate female students.
Waheed Roshan, vice chancellor of Bakhtar University in Kabul, said the institution would comply with the proposal but added that it would be challenging for many colleges to apply the logistics of the new proposal.
A senior Taliban official said the dividers are “completely acceptable” and with the nation’s “limited resources and manpower”, it was best to “have the same teacher teaching both sides of a class”, Reuter reported.
Recently, when the Taliban returned to power, the group insisted that women would play a prominent role in the society and the regime would be “inclusive”, but doubts remain as it does not match the current reality.
What happens in universities and schools across Afghanistan is closely watched by the international community as the last time the Taliban were in power from 1996-2001, women were not allowed to attend schools, universities or work.