RASC News Agency: A newly issued school directive mandates that students across Afghanistan adhere to the Taliban’s officially sanctioned dress code for the 1404 academic year. The directive, published on Thursday, February 27, requires all students to comply with the newly prescribed uniform. According to the notice, students in grades one through nine must wear blue tunics and trousers, paired with white caps. Meanwhile, students in grades ten through twelve are required to don white tunics and trousers, along with traditional turbans (lungis). This decision aligns with a nine-article decree previously signed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which designates white tunics, trousers, turbans, and caps as the official uniform for all public and private schools.
The decree has provoked widespread backlash, with many Afghanistanis arguing that beyond altering the national curriculum and imposing a strict dress code, the Taliban are systematically reshaping the country’s education system to serve their ideological agenda. Critics warn that Afghanistan is being transformed into an extensive religious seminary one that suppresses non-Pashtun communities and silences dissent, prioritizing clerics and extremist ideologues.
Observers note that while the Taliban have successfully shut the doors of schools and universities to women, they have deliberately kept them open for men only to repurpose these institutions into rigid religious Madrassas. Their ultimate goal, critics argue, is to eliminate modern education altogether, enforcing an insular society where ideological conformity is prioritized over intellectual growth.
