Women have been allowed to resume university studies in Afghanistan, however, it's reported that the Taliban has made a strict rule of segregating men and women in classrooms.
Universities are 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, Reuters reports.
When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, the group banned girls from school and women from university and work.
Images taken by journalists in Kabul’s Ibn-e Sina University have circulated on social media, showing male and female students sat in the same room but separated by a curtain during the first day of the new semester.
Female students are required to wear the abaya robe and niqab covering and enter via a separate entrance to male students.
According to guidance published by the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, female students are also set to remain in "waiting rooms" between classes so as not to encounter male students.
Per The Times, the guidance also sets out that female students must only be taught by female teachers, although "old male teachers who have a good record of behavior" may also teach if a female teacher is not available.
The Taliban said last week that schooling should resume but that males and females should be separated.
Per Reuters, senior Taliban official said 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."
In a Twitter thread, chairperson of the Afghanistan International Human Rights Commission Shaharzad Akbar said she had received reports that the Taliban was only letting women in "health, education & some relief organizations" attend work.
She said the Taliban required them to be accompanied by a "male family member".
"Women defenders, journalists, prosecutors & judges, local government officials live with fear & uncertainty, many anxious about what the next days/weeks hold as they watch the erasure of women from public & steps for formation of a new, male-led & dominated 'government'," she tweeted.