Afghan men walk out of classes to support women banned from colleges as Taliban launches misogynist defence

‘Girls should learn, but not in areas that go against Islam and Afghan honour,’ says Taliban minister

Afghan women protest against new Taliban ban on women accessing University Education in Kabul (Getty Images)

Several men have walked out of classrooms and many professors in Afghanistan’s universities have resigned in protest against the Taliban’s hardline measure to not allow women students in educational institutions.

The Taliban’s education minister, however, has defended the regime’s decision to stop women from studying in colleges and universities by blaming female students for not donning the hijab properly and pursuing subjects of science that do not match “Afghanistan culture”.

“We told girls to have proper hijab but they didn’t and they wore dresses like they are going to a wedding ceremony,” the caretaker government’s education minister Nida Mohammad Nadim said.