By order of the "Taliban", the niqab is obligatory in the universities of Afghanistan

File photo of a woman wearing the niqab in Afghanistan.

A decree issued by the new Taliban regime on the eve of the reopening of private universities in Afghanistan stated that female students would have to wear a black cloak and a niqab and would follow classes in non-mixed classes. This building, according to the decree published by the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education.

Universities will be required to "hire female teachers" or attempt to hire "elderly professors" after checking their good morals, the decree said.

When the Taliban first came to power between 1996 and 2001, a rule prohibiting the mixing of males and females prevented women from studying.

The wearing of the burqa was then mandatory.

The file of women's rights arouses the interest of the international community, after the "Taliban" seized power on August 15, following a lightning military attack.

With regard to the non-mixed classes, "it will be complicated in practice, there are not enough female teachers or classrooms to separate females from males," a university professor told AFP, who asked not to be identified.

"But just allowing girls to go to school and university is in itself an important and positive step," he added.

Before the Taliban's return, Afghan female students could attend co-ed classes and participate in seminars given by men.

Over the past twenty years, schools and universities in Afghanistan were not spared the violence that shook the country and witnessed several bloody attacks, some of which were claimed by the terrorist organization ISIS.

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