When Ahmad returns to his university in Kabul on Monday morning after a long time, he does not know what he is seeing. “Normally there are fifty students in my class. But now there were only four of us. My female fellow students were not there at all,” says the 24-year-old Business Administration student over the phone. “They are afraid or have run out of money.”
Separate entrance
In a lecture hall further on, the hand of the strict Islamic Taliban is perhaps most visible: a curtain has been hung in the middle of the class to separate the male and female students. “We have already made a separate entrance for women, and we still have to buy extra curtains for some lecture halls,” says a university lecturer. In recent days, only a few dozen students showed up at the university every day.
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This week, private universities in Afghanistan were finally allowed to reopen since the Taliban took power. Public universities, like other government services, are still mostly closed. But everything is different under the new strict Islamic rulers: from now on female and male students have to be taught separately and enter the buildings at a different time.
Replacing teachers
Male teachers who teach women must be replaced by women in the near future. And if it is not possible to teach women – who have to wear a hijab at university – separately, then a curtain or cloth in the lecture hall should offer a solution. This is apparent from a list of new rules circulating at the universities. The separation of the men and women happened this week, according to Reuters news agency, not only in the capital Kabul, but also at universities in other major Afghan cities such as Kandahar and Herat.
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At another university in Kabul, the dean has been used to teaching male and female students separately for some time. This is due to the conservative course of this institution. But even here the students are now staying away. “Many students or their parents are out of work. They can no longer afford the costs,” he says.
scared and depressed
But there’s another reason, he says: “Students are scared and depressed. They don’t see a future here in Afghanistan. Why would they still go to university?” Some who could afford it took it all on the safe side and, according to the dean, already left for foreign countries before the Taliban took power.
An English teacher at a university language institute in Kabul has not seen anyone in his class this week. He usually supervises students who are almost graduating and who are going to work or want to do further studies. “Normally my classes are full of enthusiastic students around this time, but their perspective is completely gone now. I’m just really sad. I don’t know how else to say it.”
‘My plan? no plan’
Student Ahmad now also wants to leave Afghanistan. Even though he says he has invested all his savings in his education. He doesn’t care where. “Unfortunately, my plan for the future is that I no longer have a plan. I am still coming to university because I am very bored at home. I hope democratic countries see us and do not recognize the Taliban government.”
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