(CNN)A flimsy gray curtain divides a university classroom in Kabul in two -- on one side sit the male students, on the other the female students, wearing hijabs.

It's a glimpse into what education could look like in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, as some students returned to classrooms for the start of the new school semester this week .

The last time the Taliban were in power, from 1996 to 2001, women and girls were banned from education and work. After the militants were removed in 2001, women were free to go to university and jobs.

Now the Taliban are back. While their current leadership has insisted women will play a prominent role in society and that their regime will be "inclusive," doubts remain over whether this rhetoric will match reality.

Photos shared on social media of the first university classrooms to open following the US withdrawal include women -- but with striking differences.

In addition to the classroom divisions, universities must designate a separate praying area for women.

Waheed Roshan, vice chancellor of the private Bakhtar University in Kabul, said the institution would comply with the proposal but added that for many colleges the logistics would be challenging.

He told CNN that Bakhtar -- where about 20% of the 2,000 students are girls -- could hold classes for boys and girls in separate shifts. But other colleges might struggle with putting partitions inside their classrooms, Roshan said.

'Better to stay at home'

There was a mixed response from female students to the education changes. Sahar, 21, who is studying political science, told CNN she was happy that the Taliban had not banned girls from attending higher education, but described the new rules as extreme.
"There are so many female students in Kabul who grew up in a free environment where they had the opportunity to choose what to wear and which university to attend or whether to sit in a classroom with the boys or not, but now it would be too difficult for them to adapt to these extreme rules," she said.

Sahar said that even before the Taliban took over, girls wore modest clothes and that she did not see the necessity for further restrictions. She also said she would try to resume her studies under the new rules, but wasn't sure if she could continue for long.

Ziba, another student in her early 20s in Kabul, said that she was planning to abandon hopes of graduating from the university due to the security situation and because the Taliban might impose stricter conditions in the future. She said that it was better to stay at home.

Ziba asked CNN not to use her real name.

But Mina Qasem, 19, who graduated from high school last year, said that she was excited to start university. "I will put on any type of hijab they ask me to wear as long as they keep the universities open for the girls. I am so excited to start my next chapter of life and my sister who is going to finish high school this year will also apply for one of the private universities at the end of the year."

Mina said that if girls wanted to have a voice in the future, they had to get educated whatever the circumstances.

A CNN contributor outside Afghanistan has not been named for safety reasons. CNN's Sheena McKenzie contributed to this report.

ValCon888:
They act holier than thou but still end up marrying 12yr old girls. Their society is not any better than what's obtainable in the West.
Hypocrisy at its peak.

ANTONINEUTRON:
In one word. Suffer

CampussNews:
Update from

Students across Afghanistan have started returning to university for the first time since the Taliban stormed to power, and in some cases females have been separated from their male peers by curtains or boards down the middle of the classroom, [url][/url] reports.

What happens in universities and schools across the country is being closely watched by foreign powers, who want the Islamist militant movement to respect the rights of women in return for vital aid and diplomatic engagement.

When it last ruled from 1996-2001, the group banned girls from school and women from university and work.

Despite assurances in recent weeks that women's rights would be honoured in accordance with Islamic law, it is unclear what that will mean in practice.

Teachers and students at universities in Afghanistan's largest cities - Kabul, Kandahar and Herat - told Reuters that female students were being segregated in class, taught separately or restricted to certain parts of the campus.

"Putting up curtains is not acceptable," Anjila, a 21-year-old student at Kabul University who returned to find her classroom partitioned, told Reuters by telephone.

"I really felt terrible when I entered the class ... We are gradually going back to 20 years ago."

Even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Anjila said female students sat separately from males. But classrooms were not physically divided, [url][/url] has learnt.

A document outlining guidelines for resuming class circulated by an association of private universities in Afghanistan listed measures such as the mandatory wearing of hijabs and separate entrances for female students.

It also said female teachers should be hired to teach female students, and that females should be taught separately or, in smaller classes, segregated by a curtain.

It was unclear if the document, seen by Reuters, represented official Taliban policy. The group's spokesperson did not immediately comment on the document, on photographs of divided classrooms or on how universities would be run.

The Taliban said last week that schooling should resume but that males and females should be separated.

A senior Taliban official told Reuters that classroom dividers such as curtains were "completely acceptable", and that given Afghanistan's "limited resources and manpower" it was best to "have the same teacher teaching both sides of a class."

Photographs shared by Avicenna University in Kabul, and widely circulated on social media, show a grey curtain running down the centre of the classroom, with female students wearing long robes and head coverings but their faces visible.

Several teachers said there was uncertainty over what rules would be imposed under the Taliban, who have yet to form a government more than three weeks after they seized Kabul with barely a shot fired in anger.

Their return to power has alarmed some women, who fear they will lose the rights they fought for in the last two decades, in the face of resistance from many families and officials in the deeply conservative Muslim country.

A journalism professor at Herat University in the west of the country told Reuters he decided to split his one-hour class into two halves, first teaching females and then males.

Of 120 students enrolled for his course, less than a quarter showed up at school on Monday. A number of students and teachers have fled the country, and the fate of the country's thriving private media sector has suddenly been thrown into doubt.

"Students were very nervous today," he said. "I told them to just keep coming and keep studying and in the coming days the new government will set the rules."

Sher Azam, a 37-year-old teacher at a private university in Kabul, said his institute had given teachers the option of holding separate classes for men and women, or partitioning classrooms with curtains and boards.

But he was worried about how many students would come back, given the economic crisis the Taliban's victory has triggered.

"I don't know how many students will return to school, because there are financial problems and some students are coming from families who have lost their jobs".

https:///see-how-male-and-female-students-sit-in-afghanistan-school/

Haakeem:

Like isaac and rebecka in the bible right? I am not in support of the nonsence talibhan are doing,but you are indirectly insulting all the muslims.

gulfer:
So what gender is the teacher and is there a barricade between her/him to protect the female/male students from getting too close to the teacher or vice versa

Aboks:
Islam is Slavery

Take note all you head slammers

Goldbw122:
Rules will not kill these people.