Taliban: The Taliban government has removed books written by women from Afghanistan’s university teaching system as part of a new ban, which has also outlawed the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment.
Some 140 books by women including titles such as Safety in the Chemical Labouratory, were among 680 books identified as being of concern due to anti-Sharia and Taliban policies. Universities were further instructed that they could no longer teach 18 subjects, with a Taliban official stating these conflicted with the principles of Sharia and the system’s policy.
The decree is the latest in a series of restrictions the Taliban have introduced since returning to power in 2021. Also, Fibre-optic internet was banned in at least 10 provinces on the orders of the Taliban’s supreme leader, in a move officials said was intended to prevent immorality.
While these rules affect many aspects of daily life, women and girls have been particularly hard-hit. They remain barred from accessing education beyond the sixth grade, with one of their last avenues for further training removed in late 2024, when midwifery courses were quietly closed.
Now, even university subjects about women have been targeted. Six of the 18 banned courses are specifically focused on women, including Gender and Development, The Role of Women in Communication, and Women’s Sociology. The Taliban government claims it respects women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.
A member of the committee reviewing the books confirmed the ban on books written by women. Zakia Adeli, the former deputy minister of justice before the Taliban’s return and one of the authors whose works have been banned, said she was unsurprised by the move.
Ziaur Rahman Aryubi, the deputy academic director of the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education, said in a letter to universities that the decisions were made by a panel of ‘religious scholars and experts.’ As well as books by women, the ban appears to have targeted works by Iranian authors or publishers.
One member of the book review panel told tthat, it was designed to ‘prevent the infiltration of Iranian content’ into the Afghan curriculum. In the 50-page list sent to all universities, 679 titles appear, 310 of which are either authored by Iranian writers or published in Iran.
Two sources, including a member of the book review committee, told that the decision aimed to prevent Iranian influence through the curriculum. Relations between the two neighbouring countries have been tense in recent years over issues such as water rights. Iran has also forced more than 1.5 million Afghans who had been living there to return to Afghanistan since January amid rising anti-Afghan sentiment.
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