Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, the new Taliban-appointed chancellor of Kabul University, tweeted on Monday that women are now prohibited from studying or teaching at the school.
“I give you my words as chancellor of Kabul University, as long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work,” he said. “Islam first.”
This is a reversal from earlier in the month, when the Taliban said Afghan women could stay enrolled at universities, as long as they wore burqas and were segregated from male students [The Week].
Ghairat was appointed to the job of leading one of the country’s main universities last week. He has no prior experience in academia, although he said in a series of tweets that he has been a key member of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission and led the Al-Hijra Institute for three years [Bloomberg].
