RASC News Agency: In yet another brazen attack on women’s rights and educational integrity, the Taliban regime has officially terminated the employment and financial benefits of all female university professors across Afghanistan. According to credible sources within the Ministry of Higher Education now under Taliban control this decision was enacted through an official directive issued on Sunday, May 11, signaling a disturbing escalation in the group’s campaign to erase women from the academic and professional landscape. A female professor, who provided media with a list containing her name and those of several affected colleagues, confirmed the devastating news. “Not only have we been summarily dismissed from our positions,” she said, “but every right, salary, and benefit we previously earned has been stripped away with no explanation only silence and repression.” Once esteemed members of Afghanistan’s academic institutions, these women now find themselves not only unemployed but entirely disenfranchised.
This radical move follows a broader pattern of gender apartheid instituted by the Taliban since their return to power in August 2021. Initially, although women were barred from attending classes and holding public-facing roles, the regime maintained the appearance of compliance with international expectations by continuing to pay some suspended female employees. That pretense has now been dropped. The regime has made its intentions clear: women, in their view, have no place in Afghanistan’s intellectual or public future. This directive comes amid an already catastrophic economic environment. Afghanistan is mired in deepening poverty, high unemployment, and systemic deprivation, with women bearing the brunt of the collapse. The sudden removal of salaries from hundreds of female educators many of whom were the sole breadwinners for their families has plunged countless households into economic despair and social insecurity.
“This is not just the removal of teachers from classrooms,” said a Kabul-based human rights observer. “It is the deliberate destruction of Afghanistan’s academic infrastructure. It is the decapitation of intellectual life by a regime that fears educated women more than it fears international isolation.” Critics argue that this action serves a dual purpose for the Taliban: first, it eliminates a generation of independent, educated women who symbolize resistance to authoritarianism; second, it sends a chilling message to younger Afghanistani women and girls that education is a path to nowhere under Taliban rule. The implications for Afghanistan’s future are staggering. Without female educators, universities lose half their intellectual capital and mentorship capacity. Without representation, young women are denied role models and equal academic opportunities. And without resistance, the Taliban’s theocratic project of patriarchal domination proceeds unimpeded.
International human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the Taliban’s treatment of women, labeling it a clear violation of multiple conventions and global standards. However, despite widespread criticism, tangible international action remains weak and fragmented offering the Taliban de facto impunity. “This is not governance,” said one former female professor. “This is a systematic erasure of women from the soul of the nation. And the world, by staying silent, becomes complicit.” As the Taliban tighten their grip on every sector of public life, it becomes increasingly evident that their model of rule is based not on leadership or service but on control, suppression, and fear. The academic and moral collapse now unfolding in Afghanistan is not a consequence of war it is the result of deliberate, ideological tyranny.
