Taliban denies banning women from university

The Taliban has denied banning women from Kabul University, following outrage over tweets attributed to the newly-elected chancellor, Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat.

Ghairat’s tweets that sparked the crisis indicated that women would not be allowed to go to university, either to work or study.

But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told U.S. news site Axios on Friday that “the account (of the university counselor) is fake,” adding that “women have the right to education and work while wearing the hijab.. Work is still under way to formulate a mechanism in this regard.”

On Monday, a Twitter account posted tweets that it claimed were by Ghairat’s adviser, warning that women would be banned from working or studying at universities “until there is a true Muslim environment for all”.

Kabul University wrote on Tuesday through its “Facebook” account that this account is “fake” and that Ghairat “does not have virtual pages under this name”.

The university said that the accounts claiming to belong to the chancellor were spreading false news and rumors in order to confuse and mislead the public and the academic community.

On Wednesday, Ghairat’s Twitter account posted new tweets, in which it said the user was a 20-year-old law and political science student who was posing as the new consultant; to “awaken Afghans, and the world to pressure the Taliban to open schools and universities,” and to “stand up to the Taliban’s brutal and inhumane policies.”

Axios was unable to verify the account. But by Friday, the account was no longer on Twitter.

The University of Kabul did not respond to the site’s requests for comment on the matter.

Women and girls in Afghanistan expressed fears that the hard-won rights to education, employment and other freedoms could be lost, and that the repressive rule they experienced when the Taliban were in power in the 1990s could be restored.

Taliban officials said earlier this month that females can complete university education, but class segregation and headscarves should be mandatory.