Five years after the Taliban retook Afghanistan, male students at Kabul University and other institutions describe a collapsing education system marked by beatings for minor rule breaches, mandatory religious lectures, and inexperienced teachers.
Beaten for wearing trousers
Hashmat, a student at Kabul University, says he checks his face each morning for the beard he has been ordered to grow. Male students must grow facial hair and wear traditional Afghan clothes; those who fall short are punished. He recently saw a classmate beaten for wearing trousers. “They look at you before they listen to you. If your appearance is wrong, you are already in trouble before the class begins,” he says.
Mandatory religious lectures replace academic courses
Students are required to attend religious lectures and pray in public daily, sometimes for two hours. The lectures cover Islam, conduct, and obedience and are not optional. Hashmat says they are held during time that would otherwise be used for regular academic courses. “I am missing my actual classes to sit in a lecture about obeying. That is what they [the Taliban] think education is for. Everyone talks about the girls who were banned, but nobody talks about what is happening to the boys who were allowed to stay.”
Disappearance of debate and questioning
Another student, Qader, studying in central Afghanistan, says the problem extends beyond weak teaching to the disappearance of debate. “We are expected to listen, not to question. Since the fall of Kabul, the university has lost its purpose. It feels more like a madrassa now — a place where curiosity is banned and remaining silent ordered.”
Underqualified lecturers and declining enrolment
Hashmat studies journalism but says his lecturer struggles to use PowerPoint. “He is teaching us about the modern world while struggling to use PowerPoint in the class. How can you teach journalism technology if you do not understand what technology is?” His account matches those of over 20 students interviewed by phone across seven provinces. According to Unesco, Afghanistan’s higher-education sector contracted sharply between 2019 and 2024, with female enrolment down to zero by 2024 and male enrolment falling from 310,369 to 188,957.
Experienced professors replaced by Taliban loyalists
Experienced professors have left the country, stopped teaching, or been pushed aside. Ideologically aligned Taliban lecturers have been hired in their place. In some departments, recent graduates and even undergraduates are teaching. Hashmat points to one lecturer who finished his own degree only two years earlier. “Now he is standing in front of us. It is clear he does not know more than we do.”
Students feel education no longer leads to work
A former Kabul University professor, who requested anonymity fearing retaliation, confirms the loss of qualified lecturers has weakened universities. Hashmat says two of his younger brothers dropped out of school, no longer believing education would help them find jobs. “They do not believe education will help them any more. I am reaching the same conclusion and find it hard to attend classes.”
Journalism students called 'Satan'
Even on campus, journalism students face hostility. Many independent news outlets have closed. Hashmat says he and his classmates have been called shaitan (Satan) by their teachers. “We are studying journalism in a country where journalism barely exists. What are we being trained for?” He says many classmates attend because their families expect it, but have already given up internally. “I keep going because I do not know what else to do. But every day it gets harder to believe it means something. The Taliban war on the battlefields has stopped, but their war on education continues in silence.”
