Taliban obliges women to wear niqabs in private universities

The Taliban movement, which took control of Afghanistan, obliged women studying at private universities and colleges to wear a niqab during classes - a Muslim headdress covering the face with a slit for the eyes.

According to Report, the Taliban announced the decision on the eve of the new school year, which starts in Afghanistan on Monday.

Moreover, classes should be held separately for men and separately for women. In extreme cases, the part of the room with female students should be protected by a curtain.

The Taliban ordered that classes for female students should be conducted either by female teachers or by elderly men "with a good reputation in terms of behavior."

Besides, the Taliban movement insists that universities should have a separate entrance for women. They also ordered to take measures so that students of both sexes do not intersect during breaks between classes and when leaving educational institutions.

Notably, private colleges and universities admitting women have been actively developing in Afghanistan over the past 20 years - during the stay of foreign military contingents in the country.

Now the Taliban made the rules of university attendance more stringent for women: for example, as noted in the reports, in recent years in Kabul, few people wore niqabs: headdresses of this type were common, mainly in remote rural areas of Afghanistan.

At the same time, the Taliban made concessions compared to their time in power in the 1990s, when women often had to wear burkas instead of niqabs. They were allowed to receive only the most basic education and were utterly forbidden to leave the house without being accompanied by a male relative.