介绍： Taliban begins to enforce education ban, leaving Afghan women with tears and anger

Taliban security forces fanned out to some universities and informal learning centers in Kabul, teachers said, enforcing an edict that appears to have banned most females from any education beyond the sixth grade.

The move wa...

介绍： Taliban begins to enforce education ban, leaving Afghan women with tears and anger

Taliban security forces fanned out to some universities and informal learning centers in Kabul, teachers said, enforcing an edict that appears to have banned most females from any education beyond the sixth grade.

The move was expected — and dreaded — by observers as the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Haibutullah Akhundzada imposes his vision of an Afghanistan which is ultra-conservative, even by the hardline group's standards.

Since coming to power in August 2021, the Taliban have overseen a hodgepodge of education policies. They allow girls to attend school until the sixth grade, when primary school ends.

But they have prevented most girls from attending formal secondary school education, reneging on a promise to allow them back to class in March, when the scholastic year began. Some girls in distant provinces still attended high school, however, and another, unknown number were attending informal classes in tuition centers.

And in a quirk of contradictory decision-making, the former minister of higher education Abdul Baqi Haqqani allowed women to attend universities, albeit under strict conditions, including wearing face coverings and abiding by strict segregation.

But in October, Haqqani was replaced with known hardliner, Nida Mohammad Nadim, who had expressed his opposition to women receiving an education. He is known to be close to Akhundzada.

The edict, issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, said women were suspended from attending public and private centers of higher education until further notice. Taliban officials have not responded to multiple requests to explain the move.

edict /ˈiː.dɪkt/ n. 法令，命令

quirk /kwɝːk/ n.（偶然发生的）奇事，巧合；怪癖

a quirk of fate天缘巧合