As a sign of solidarity, men studying at a university in Afghanistan walked out of their exam after the Taliban announced their women classmates have been banned from attending university.
On Tuesday Dec. 20, the Taliban ordered all higher education institutions in Afghanistan to ban women from attending classes.
The announcement came just a few months after students had completed university entrance exams.
In some parts of Afghanistan, men have stood up with their women classmates to protest the recent ban.
Video footage shared widely on social media showed male students from the medical department at Nangarhar University walking out of a classroom as their women classmates clapped.
The men had walked away from an exam to “show of solidarity with the female students” and “to protest the Taliban ban on girls’ education”, according to journalist Abdulhaq Omeri.
Another video from the same university shows men and women students protesting outside the school.
Meanwhile professors in Afghanistan have also shown support by resigning.
Women students in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul have told Reuters armed Taliban forces are preventing them from entering university premises.
“We went to university, the Taliban were at the gate and told us ‘you are not allowed to enter the university until further notice’… everyone was crying,” a woman student told Reuters.
Women’s rights organizations and the international community has condemned the Taliban’s mounting restrictions on women and girls.
At the moment, only elementary schools are opened to girls, but classes are segregated starting from fourth grade.
