Taliban remove 51 subjects from school curriculum, including ‘Women’s Rights’ etc

[duluxe]

Photo from a school in central Afghanistan. File photo.


Sources said on Thursday that the Taliban’s Education Ministry has removed 51 subjects from school curricula on the orders of their chief minister Hassan Akhund.

Sources said that letters issued by the ministry describe the subjects as “anti-Islamic.”

Among the titles struck from grades 1 through 12 are: “Imam Ali (may God honor his face),” “National Flag,” “Freedom,” “National Unity,” “Teacher’s Day,” “Mother’s Day,” “National Anthem,” “Women’s Rights,” “Human Rights,” “Customs,” “Humanitarianism,” “Spring,” “Jirga,” “Folklore,” “Public Prices,” “The Buddha Statues of Bamiyan,” “The Role of Social Media in Public Awareness,” “Democracy,” “U.N. Human Rights Commission,” “Peace,” and “Individual and Social Independence.”

Taliban have not publicly commented on the reported changes.

The move follows earlier revisions to higher education programs. In a letter obtained by Amu TV this month, Zia ur-Rahman Aryoubi, the Taliban’s deputy minister for academics, wrote to university administrators that 18 subjects had been removed from various fields of study for “contradicting Sharia and government policy.”

Another 201 subjects, the letter said, would be taught only after “critical review and revision” to align them with Taliban interpretations of Islamic principles.

In April, at the start of the academic year, Taliban had already eliminated courses such as art, civic education, culture, patriotism and life skills, which covered human rights, democracy, citizenship, constitutional law, civil liberties, historical figures and Afghan cultural traditions.

Rights groups and education experts say the purges reflect the Taliban’s broader effort to impose a rigid ideological framework on schools and universities, narrowing opportunities for critical learning and erasing references to civic rights, diversity and Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.