RASC News Agency: In a staged ceremony at Herat University attended exclusively by male faculty and students Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, proclaimed that the goal of education under Taliban rule is not to train militants or jihadists, but rather to produce professionals such as doctors and engineers to solve Afghanistan’s social challenges. This announcement, delivered on Tuesday, May 27, is part of the Taliban’s ongoing effort to rebrand their regime domestically and internationally as a government committed to progress. According to Taliban-controlled state media, Nadeem called on students to resist “division” and instead “preserve unity” among the student body an appeal laced with the regime’s authoritarian undertones.
“We don’t want you to become mujahideen or join security forces,” Nadeem said. “Your duty is to serve society through knowledge and professionalism.” Yet this messaging reeks of hypocrisy. While the Taliban claim to value education, their regime has systematically dismantled access to education for women and girls across the country, enforcing a nationwide ban on female secondary and higher education. Afghanistani women are no longer allowed to attend universities, teach in classrooms, or even be present on campuses effectively erasing them from the intellectual and professional future of the country. Notably, Nadeem’s speech took place in an all-male gathering, reflecting the Taliban’s deeply exclusionary vision of society in which women have no public role. His remarks, centered around the notion of a secure and unified Afghanistan, were made even as the regime continues to enforce brutal restrictions on women’s movement, employment, dress, and education. The Taliban’s concept of “peace and unity” thus translates into submission, fear, and silence particularly for the women they have rendered invisible.
In recent months, Nadeem has visited several provinces under Taliban control, delivering similar remarks aimed at positioning academic study as the new “jihad.” But analysts argue that such language is part of a broader propaganda strategy: an attempt to legitimize Taliban rule while masking its systematic destruction of human rights, especially for women. Behind the scenes, the Taliban’s education system serves as a tool of indoctrination rather than enlightenment. Curricula are being rewritten to reflect extremist ideologies, scientific and secular subjects are being purged or repressed, and teaching staff are being selected based on loyalty to the regime rather than academic merit. The reality is that the Taliban’s so-called educational reform is neither inclusive nor transformative. Instead, it reflects a broader vision of state control one that seeks to institutionalize gender apartheid and weaponize ignorance as a tool for maintaining power.
While Taliban officials continue to exploit platforms for public relations, international watchdogs and Afghanistani civil society warn that no genuine educational progress can occur under a regime that systematically bans girls from learning. Global silence, they argue, would only embolden the Taliban to further entrench this dystopian status quo.
