Continuing a revocation of women’s rights Republicans aspire to, the Afghanistan government run by the Taliban banned women from taking entrance exams at private colleges and universities as it expands its elimination of women’s education in the country, Reuters reports. The new regulation bars private universities from allowing women to apply for admission and told schools to ban female students from attending classes “until further notice.”
Unlike in the US where students sit for standardized exams and apply to colleges based on those scores, most private universities in Afghanistan have individual open testing sessions for admission to individual schools. Admission may be based solely on scores on that test, regardless of previous scholastic credentials like a high school diploma, because many schools in Afghanistan are unregulated.
Since assuming control of the government and despite giving assurances to the international community, the Taliban has instituted a series of restrictions of women’s rights, including closing schools for girls and barring girls from seeking anything other than an elementary education. It’s also barred most women from the workforce and banned female workers from foreign non-governmental organizations.