Taliban govt refutes reports of women being barred from Afghan universities

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban government in Afghanistan has refuted rumours regarding female students being barred from entering Afghan universities.

In a conversation with Geo News, the Afghan ministry of broadcasting and Kabul University administration officials said there is no restriction on female students attending universities. The university administration said that both female students and teachers are attending the university as usual. News of the purported ban on the entrance of women in Afghan universities was published by American newspaper, The New York Times.

“Tightening the Taliban’s restrictions on women, the group’s new chancellor for Kabul University announced on Monday that women would be indefinitely banned from the institution either as instructors or students,” The NYT reported Monday.

The publication cited a tweet by Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat as saying: “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. Islam first.”

However, the Kabul University administration said that The NYT’s report was based on a Tweet posted via a “fake Twitter account”. “These fake accounts are being used to mislead people with fake news,” the university said. It added that Ghairat “has no social media account”, and that any information sought must be obtained from the university website.