After completely eradicating women from the education system, the Afghan Taliban have now turned their focus to silencing male professors who challenge their ideological and ethnic agenda.
Reports reveal that the Taliban have overhauled university curricula and forcibly removed dissenting academics. Deans who have challenged the imposed rules and expressed their disagreement with strict ideologies have been subjected to dismissal, intimidation and exile.
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Taliban supporters celebrate two-year anniversary of US withdrawal from Afghanistan, in Kandahar
(Photo: AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq)
Sources also suggest professors who oppose the Taliban's changes or fail to comply are being systematically labeled as ideological opponents.
In a stark display of their repression, 12 professors from Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University in Kunar province were dismissed, accused of being “Salafists.”
These individuals have been punished for advocating academic freedom and resisting the constraints imposed upon them.
Sources confirmed to The Media Line that among the dismissed professors were eight from the Faculty of Sharia, two from the Faculty of Agriculture and two from the Faculty of Education.
Growing concerns have been raised regarding the Taliban’s escalating revenge-seeking actions and ideological clashes against university professors and their curricula, as the group actively pursues a systematic approach to seek ideological revenge and promote the "Talibanization" of universities in Afghanistan.
The academic institutions, which were once safe spaces for independent thinking and intellectual development, are now being restructured to conform to the rigid beliefs of the Taliban.
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Taliban Ministry of Virtue and Vice officials, Herat Province
(Photo: Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
The Taliban appear to be planning an even larger purge to eliminate opposition and suppress any remaining voices of dissent, further eroding academic freedom in the country.
By undermining academic institutions, the Taliban have dismantled the foundations of critical thinking and intellectual diversity, leaving Afghanistan’s education system increasingly isolated, regressive and dominated by a single narrative.
In the past, the Taliban fired professors who went abroad, including about 50 professors in Balkh province, 300 in Herat and dozens in other provinces. Moreover, professors who had won scholarships to study abroad were substituted by Taliban-linked figures.
Many terrified educators and students look to exit the country, which has resulted in a continued drainage of the intellectual capital out of Afghanistan.
Abdul Majid, a senior professor at the Faculty of Sharia at Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University and one of the Salafi academics forced to resign, has since fled Afghanistan.
Now seeking refuge with his family, Majid expressed deep concern over the Taliban’s tightening grip on the education sector.
Speaking to The Media Line, he warned: “The outlook and prospect for Afghanistan's educational system are bleak and threatening. The hopes and motivations among students and professors are shrinking very fast, with many planning to leave the country.”
Majid highlighted that “many academics and students view the Taliban's approach to universities and academic institutions as an act of 'educational demolition,' transforming once-thriving centers of learning into mere madrassas (seminaries) aimed solely at propagating their ideology."
Majid referred to the Taliban's endless ideological confrontations and unprofessional behavior toward academics, saying, “They change curricula, engage in ideological confrontations and give priority to clerics over qualified educators. These practices, besides the lack of legal structure and clerical dominance, have driven many professors to leave universities.”
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Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, told The Media Line: “To advance their extremist agenda, the Taliban are systematically eliminating experienced academics from Afghanistan's educational institutions, replacing them with individuals lacking the necessary academic qualifications to indoctrinate the nation's youth.”
“The consequences of this policy are far-reaching. By promoting a curriculum designed to indoctrinate rather than educate, the Taliban is creating a new generation of youth who are more susceptible to extremist ideologies,” he added.
Nazary emphasized that "the youth, melded in this distorted educational system, could be easily lured by other terrorist groups to perpetuate the cycle of violence and radicalization around the globe."
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Women protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, against the Taliban's decision to ban them from attending university
(Photo: AFP)
Commenting on the PhD professors and intellectual students who have been leaving the country, Nazary said, “This brain drain takes away Afghanistan's finest brains—skilled and most educated—thereby causing innovation, research and other key sectors like education, health and technology to be put behind.”
“Without them,” he continued, “the country faces stagnation and a growing gap in international competitiveness, which will bequeath its next generation with less room for growth and self-sustainability.”
Kamal Alam, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an expert on Afghanistan, told The Media Line, “Anyone who has observed and warned against the notion of a ‘reformed Taliban’ will find their current actions unsurprising.”
Alam noted that the “Taliban remain a regressive, puritanical regime with limited education and a narrow interpretation of Islam.”
He emphasized that there is little evidence to suggest the Taliban can contribute positively to education, women’s rights or even the broader rights of men.
Alam further pointed out their inability to engage constructively with fellow Muslim counterparts on genuine Islamic principles at the international level, highlighting the group’s limitations.
“No progress or enlightenment can be expected from the Taliban’s oppressive methods, whether in academia, governance or their connections with terrorist organizations,” he concluded.
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Taliban forces celebrate two-year anniversary of US withdrawal from Afghanistan, in Kandahar
(Photo: AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq)
Qudrat Ullah Qudrat, a Paris-based Afghan student, told The Media Line, “The Taliban in Afghanistan have been strategically and methodically working to shape the minds of the younger generation by imposing their beliefs and values through the education system.”
Qudrat underlined that “this systematic takeover involves various actions, including infiltrating schools and universities, appointing sympathetic individuals to key educational positions, rewriting curricula to align with their extremist views and silencing dissenting voices or alternative perspectives.”
“This strategy perpetuates a cycle of violence and extremism, severely undermining Afghanistan’s prospects for peace and stability,” he added.
He confirmed that the Taliban have dismissed deans and other educators who disagree with their views, replacing them with loyalists, which has forced many talented academics to flee the country, “weakening Afghanistan’s future.”
Additionally, Qudrat highlighted “the Taliban’s deliberate targeting of specific religious groups, noting that such actions will further divide the country and exacerbate existing social conflicts, leaving Afghanistan more fractured and vulnerable.”
Qudrat also referenced and rephrased a recent statement by Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the acting head of the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, who implied that the academic qualifications of “Taliban fighters” should be determined by the number of mine-laying operations they have conducted.
Meanwhile, Dr. Khairullah Zadran, a senior official at the Afghan Ministry of Education, told The Media Line “that reports on targeting professors belonging to particular groups are baseless.”
He explained that “the curriculum is being revised to align with Islamic Sharia and maintained that Islam is not against modern education” and asserted that “every employee is free to resign for any reason, as no law prohibits it.”
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Afghan female students protest Taliban banning them from entering universities in Kabul
(Photo: Reuters)
According to Zadran, “Previous governments had given women too much freedom in education.” This, he said, resulted in “social and immoral problems.”
In response, Zadran said that the Taliban is working on a plan to bring back senior professors who left the country during earlier periods of instability.
By barring girls from secondary schools and universities, the Taliban are denying millions of young women the chance to learn and, in effect, denying the country their contributions to social, economic and cultural development.
In a further effort to erase women from both education and active participation in society, Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree this month banning women from attending medical and paramedical professional institutions.
The decision closes one of the last remaining pathways for women to access higher education in Afghanistan. It comes after the closure of universities to women in December 2022, which had already forced many into medical facilities as a last resort.