KABUL: Students across Afghanistan have started returning to university for the first time since the Taliban stormed to power, and in some cases, females have been separated from their male peers by curtains or boards down the middle of the classroom.
Photographs shared by Avicenna University in Kabul, and widely circulated on social media, show a grey curtain running down the centre of the classroom, with female students wearing long robes and head coverings but their faces visible.
Several teachers said there was uncertainty over what rules would be imposed under the Taliban, who have yet to form a government more than three weeks after they seized Kabul with barely a shot fired in anger.
Their return to power has alarmed some women, who fear they will lose the rights they fought for in the last two decades, in the face of resistance from many families and officials in the deeply conservative Muslim country.
Further, questions of Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs have been raised after the chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Faiz Hameed visited Kabul unannounced to meet Taliban leaders. Officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said that no country will be allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, Khaama News reported.
The officials have named the US and Pakistan in particular, but have acknowledged that no country of the world will be given the opportunity to meddle in Afghanistan's affairs. The Pakistani government has not commented on the purpose of Hameed's visit to Afghanistan.
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