Afghanistan Universities Resume With The Separation Of Curtains

According to the Taliban order, women must finish their classes five minutes earlier than men so that they do not mingle outside.

In Afghanistan, a local news agency reported that university classes began in the country but with a "curtain of separation". Aamaj News on Monday showed a glimpse on Twitter of male and female students seated in a classroom with curtains between them.

This is the result of the educational draft introduced by the Taliban, who are now in power in Afghanistan, through their diktat. Earlier, the Taliban stated in several interviews that they have no problem with women education, "but they should study with a hijab".

In a lengthy order issued on Saturday, the Taliban ordered women attending private Afghan universities to wear an abaya robe and a niqab that covered most of their face. They also said that classes should be separated by sex, or at least separated by a curtain.

The Taliban diktat said that female students should only be tutored by other women, but if that was not possible, good-natured "old men" could fill the position. According to the Taliban order, women must finish their classes five minutes earlier than men so that they do not mingle outside. The curtains have become a barrier for the students. "It is not acceptable to hang curtains," Anjila, a 21-year-old student at Kabul University who returned to find her classroom segregated, told Reuters over phone.

"I felt really horrible when I got into the class ... we're slowly going back to 20 years ago," she added. Apparently according to the Taliban, the order applies to private colleges and universities, which have multiplied since the end of their first government in 2001. 

A journalism professor at Herat University told Reuters that he had decided to split his hour-long class in half, teaching women first and then men. Of 120 students who had enrolled for his course, less than a quarter showed up at school on Monday.