Curtains bisecting rooms “like in hospitals”, cubicles with curtains fitted with jaalis, and separate shifts for ladies and men. quite a month after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, these are among the flowery plans involved by prominent public universities to implement the new regime’s gender segregation policy.
In the absence of any clear roadmap from the Taliban regime on the longer term of women’s education , public universities within the country like Kabul University, established in 1932, or the three-decade-old Kandahar University — with 26,000 and 10,000 students, respectively — face an anxious wait. There are nearly 12,000 women studying in Kabul University and 1,000 in Kandahar University, including 300 from other provinces accommodated within the dormitories.
Public universities can only reopen once they need the cash . We even have to recollect that public universities have more students in one class than private universities. privately universities, there are only about 10 to twenty students in each class and hence separating men and ladies in such classes is far simpler. we’ve about 100 to 150 students in one class. So it’s not that easy for us, especially in cases where there are only a few women in one class,” Kandahar University Chancellor Abdul Wahed Wasiq told The Indian Express.
There are about 40 public universities in Afghanistan. After the Taliban’s order banning co-education, public universities were asked by the Ministry of upper Education to submit their plans for reopening supported the local realities.
For now, most universities have proposed that ladies be allowed to attend classes from behind curtains or cubicles, or transferred to institutes in provinces they are available from.
Our plan is to carry classes separately for men and ladies wherever quite 15 women are in one class. to try to to this, we decide to introduce shifts: morning and afternoon. If there are but 15 women, we’ll purchase dividers, as they use in hospitals, to separate men from women within the classroom,” said Khairuddin Khairkhah, chancellor of Takhar University, which was established 30 years ago.
The Kandahar University chancellor said the difficulty has been deliberated upon within the institute’s academic council, following which an idea was forwarded to the govt , including an invitation to permit transfer of girls students to institutes in their own provinces.
“We have proposed this since a number of our women students have expressed interest in getting transferred. except for those that want to continue classes at Kandahar University, we’ll create a corner inside the classroom that’s separated by a curtain. These two or three or four women can sit during this corner, behind the curtain and that we will sew some jaali (a patch of net) of about 30 to 50 cm in measurement within the curtain in order that they will see the teacher, the category and therefore the board through it,” Wasiq said.
Like Takhar University, for classes with quite 15 women, Kandahar University has proposed to call students in shifts — morning for ladies and afternoon for men.
But implementing the proposals will put a strain on the finances of the cash-strapped institutes, a number of which haven’t been ready to pay salaries to teachers since Kabul fell to the Taliban. For now, Kandahar University has sought roughly $6,200 from the govt , Takhar University $19,000, and Helmund $12,000 to introduce the segregation measures, and for classroom furniture.
Undergraduate education in Afghanistan’s public universities is free. Students aren’t charged any tuition fee, and people living in hostels and dormitories are provided free food and lodging.
Meanwhile, a recent development at Kabul University has deepened worries that the Taliban administration’s approach leaves little or no room for institutional autonomy. A source within the university said the Taliban sacked its chancellor after the institute sought some flexibility in implementing the gender policy, like permitting women to take a seat in separate rows where putting up partitions appeared impractical.
“Kabul University runs around 560 programmes and has around 250 classes. We had told the govt (before the new Chancellor’s appointment) that splitting up classes and teaching women separately isn’t immediately feasible. It’s impossible to carve out separate spaces (for women) for everything. How can we do this for libraries and laboratories? Also, there’s an expectation that ladies should only be taught by women. Female teachers structure about 20% of the 900 faculty of Kabul University. How can 170 to 180 women teachers teach almost 12,000 female students? Splitting up classes means doubling teaching hours, so we’d like twice the amount of college members,” the source said, adding that the university, in its decide to the Ministry of upper Education, had suggested “gradual implementation” of the gender policy.
The Kabul University source said the Taliban, in its response to the proposal, reiterated the necessity to strictly enforce gender segregation. it’s also asked the university to think about shifting women students to their local provinces if it cannot hold separate classes for men and ladies under this circumstances. “But Kabul University has its own curriculum. So moving students to other institutions isn’t feasible,” the source added. The Indian Express couldn’t reach the new chancellor, Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, for comment.
The Kandahar and Helmand University Chancellors, however, said there’s no ban on men teaching women.
In the case of relatively newer universities like Helmand and Nimroz education Institute, the challenges in enforcing the diktat are steeper thanks to the smaller presence of girls — both students and teachers — on the rolls, also as infrastructure constraints like lack of classrooms and, in some cases, a permanent campus.
Helmand University Chancellor Abdul Rahman said, “Holding classes in two separate shifts for men and ladies doesn’t work for a university like ours since we’ve 235 women and over 2,000 men. We cannot accommodate all male students in one shift with just 23 classrooms. we’ve 107 teachers, all men. Our classrooms are still under construction. Since we don’t have enough classrooms to show women separately, we’ve proposed to the Ministry of upper Education to gradually implement the separation plan over five years. By then, we’ll find enough lecturers. Finding classrooms is that the first challenge and finding enough lecturers is that the second problem for our university.”
Rahman added that as short-term arrangements, the institute has sought funds for putting up partitions, aside from suggesting separate entry and exit gates for men and ladies .
At the Nimroz education Institute, which has 700 students, since there are only 10 classrooms, classes are held in two shifts. Mohammad Qasam, its Chancellor, said the permanent campus is being constructed. “To separate men and ladies , Nimroz University has proposed holding classes for ladies within the morning shift and men within the afternoon,” he said.
