© AFPA protester holds a placard calling for education for Afghan women during a demonstration outside the US embassy in Athens, Greece on Saturday.
Afghan women will be allowed to study at university but there would be a ban on mixed classes under their rule, the Taliban's acting higher education minister said on Sunday.
The hardline Islamist group that stormed to power in mid-August after ousting the Western-back government have vowed to rule differently compared to their 1990s stint when girls and women were banned from education.
"The ... people of Afghanistan will continue their higher education in the light of sharia law in safety without being in a mixed male and female environment," Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the Taliban's acting minister for higher education said at a meeting with elders, known as a Loya Jirga, on Sunday.
He said the Taliban want to "create a reasonable and Islamic curriculum that is in line with our Islamic, national and historical values and, on the other hand, be able to compete with other countries".Girls and boys will also be segregated at primary and secondary schools, which was already common throughout deeply conservative Afghanistan.The group have pledged to respect progress made in women's rights, but only according to their strict interpretation of Islamic law.Whether women can work, get education at all levels and be able to mix with men have been some of the most pressing questions.
But the Taliban rebranding is being treated with scepticism, with many questioning whether the group will stick to its pledges.
No women were present at the meeting in Kabul on Sunday, which included other senior Taliban officials.
"The Taliban's ministry of higher education consulted only male teachers and students on resuming the function of universities," said a lecturer, who worked at a city university during the last government.She said that showed "the systematic prevention of women's participation in decision making" and "a gap between the Taliban's commitments and actions".University admission rates have risen over the past 20 years, particularly among women who have studied side by side with men and attended seminars with male professors.
But a spate of attacks on education centres in recent months, killing dozens, had caused panic.
The Taliban denied being behind the attacks, some of which were claimed by the local chapter of Islamic State.
During their previous brutal rule, the Taliban excluded women from public life, entertainment was banned and brutal punishments were imposed - such as stoning to death for adultery.The Taliban have yet to announce their government, saying they would wait until after the departure of US and foreign forces.
Comment: It's the new and improved moderate Taliban! From
Sputnik:
After the Taliban takeover, the Islamic group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid vowed to crack down on the production of narcotics, saying "nobody can be involved" in the heroin trade, which has been a key source of funding for the group.
Afghanistan's new rulers, the Taliban, while ostensibly seeking to portray a more moderate image by Western standards has vowed to police poppy cultivation more heavily.
Leaders of the Islamist group, which took control of the country in the wake of US and NATO forces pulling out, have been telling farmers in the southern province of Kandahar to stop cultivating opium poppies, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing local residents. Farmers are unhappy but have no choice but to comply should the Taliban begin to enforce the ban, the outlet cites a Kandahar grower as saying.
...
"If the Taliban prohibit the cultivation of poppy, people will die from starvation, especially when international aid stops. We still hope they will let us grow poppies. Nothing can compensate for the income we get from growing poppies," a poppy farmer in the Chora district of Uruzgan was quoted as saying.
Perhaps this image makeover has more to do with acceptance within the international community rather than an actual rebooted morality.
From RT:
NATO member Turkey is reportedly nearing a deal to recognize Afghanistan's Taliban government and operate the Kabul airport in partnership with Qatar, paving the way for the Islamist group to attract foreign aid and investment.
The agreement is awaiting approval by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will be finalized once Washington's exit is completed, the Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on Saturday, citing two unidentified people familiar with the negotiations.
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One apparent sticking point in Ankara's talks with the Taliban has been the issue of who will provide airport security. "How can we give the security to you (the Taliban)?" Erdogan told reporters on Saturday. "How would we explain it to the world if you took over security and there is another bloodbath there? This is not an easy job."
The MEE report indicated that Turkey would provide security through a private contractor, manned by former Turkish soldiers and police. And Turkish special forces would operate in plainclothes to protect the country's citizens within the airport's perimeter.
In return, the Taliban would be recognized by Ankara as Afghanistan's legitimate government.
R.C.