AhlulBayt News Agency: While hundreds of university professors in Afghanistan, particularly Shia teachers and female academics, have been excluded from the higher education system or forced into unemployment in recent years, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education has hired three Pakistani professors to teach at Kabul University. The ministry has also received a four-year budget allocation from the Afghan government to cover their salaries and expenses.
According to a written document obtained by the media, the Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban government has employed three Pakistani professors for Kabul University and secured funding for their salaries and expenses for four years from the Afghan government. This decision has been confirmed by Mohammad Hassan, the head of the Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education.
The document reveals that Kabul University plans to hire three foreign professors for the upcoming academic term: Dr. Tazagul, Mohammad Altaf Khan, and Afridi. Sources say these individuals are citizens of Pakistan, with two of them teaching in person and one teaching online at the university.
This decision comes at a time when, according to some professors at Kabul University, dozens of experienced Afghan faculty members, especially Shia professors, have been dismissed or forced to leave their positions in recent years. Additionally, since the Taliban's return to power, female professors in Afghanistan have been widely banned from teaching and effectively forced into inactivity.
Some university professors have called this move "unfair" and warned that replacing native academic staff with foreign professors could severely harm the intellectual independence of universities and the future of Afghanistan’s higher education system. According to them, the halt in academic promotions, ideological pressures, and ethnic and religious restrictions have led to the widespread exodus of the country’s academic elite.
This is not the first time Pakistani professors have been employed at Afghan universities. There have been previous reports of Pakistani religious instructors and teachers being invited to Kabul University.
According to unofficial statistics, since the political changes of 2021, hundreds of university professors, especially among Shia and female academics, have been removed from Afghanistan's higher education system or have left the country. This has raised widespread concerns within the academic and intellectual community.
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