The Ministry of Higher Education of the caretaker government has recently announced that 18 subjects have been removed from Afghanistan’s academic curriculum, and the teaching of 66 other subjects will only be permitted after “revisions” and “reforms.”
The ministry stated that the reason for this decision is the “inconsistency of certain subjects with the principles of Sharia and the policy of the Islamic Emirate,” and conveyed it through an official letter to public and private universities.
According to the letter, subjects such as Afghanistan’s Constitutional Law, Women’s Sociology, Good Governance, Human Rights and Democracy, History of Religions, Moral Philosophy, Sexual Harassment, and The Role of Women in Public Communication have been completely removed from the curriculum. The ministry argued that these subjects contradict the religious and political views of the government.
Additionally, the teaching of 66 other subjects in the fields of political science, law, international relations, sociology, psychology, and media is conditional on revision and modification.
The letter specifies that this list includes topics such as Public and Islamic International Law, Fundamentals of Foreign Policy, History of Western Political Thought, International Security, Non-Governmental Organizations and Civil Society, Demography, Human Development, General Psychology, Psychopathology, Media Literacy, and Theories of International Relations.
It was emphasized that universities are obliged to stop teaching the banned subjects, while the conditional ones must be taught “critically and reformatively.”
It is worth noting that since the return of the current government to power, numerous restrictions have been imposed on education in the country, with many academic disciplines and subjects either entirely removed or placed under severe limitations.
It should also be mentioned that in August 2022, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the current government, ordered the creation of a “Curriculum Review Directorate” to initiate the process of “Islamicization” of academic content.
Furthermore, in August 2024, Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific research journals that monitors the state of universities, reported—citing a 78-page document—that some artistic and cultural disciplines, including music and visual arts, are to be removed from university programs in Afghanistan and replaced with agricultural and religious subjects.
