RASC News Agency: A recent wave of accusations has emerged from a group of students at Balkh University who boldly assert that the faculty members harbor strong anti-Persian sentiments. According to these students, their academic theses, meticulously crafted with significant effort, have been met with rejection solely due to the inclusion of Persian terms like “university” and “faculty.”
Seeking to shed light on their experiences, at least six students have stepped forward, preferring to remain anonymous and share their grievances with the media.
Overwhelmingly frustrated by the dismissive attitudes of the faculty members, they lament that their theses are disregarded without any consideration for their content, solely based on the presence of Persian words such as “university” and “faculty.”
One student vividly described this disdainful behavior as a blatant manifestation of anti-Persianism, exclaiming, I poured three arduous months of hard work into my thesis, only to have it summarily judged based on its very first page.
Another student from Balkh University poignantly remarked, In the wake of the Taliban’s rise to power, the professors have become even more rigid in these matters. Writing about the university now makes us feel alienated from them.
It is essential to note that following the Taliban’s assumption of control in Afghanistan, the Persian word for “university” was deliberately erased from all educational institution signage throughout the country.Consequently, the Taliban faced persistent accusations of harboring an anti-Persian stance. This issue is not novel, as the Taliban, predominantly Pashto speakers, as well as the former governments under Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai, were widely known for their opposition to the use of the Persian language. During the republican regime, the Ministry of Higher Education replaced all university names with Pashto equivalents, effectively eliminating the Persian terms.
