The Taliban’s Ministry of Education has removed 51 lessons on freedom, women’s rights, human rights, the national flag, motherhood, peace, and similar topics from Afghanistan’s school textbooks. The ministry justified the move by claiming that these subjects “contradict Islamic teachings and the group’s policies.”
A directive issued by the Taliban’s Directorate of Education in Kabul states that the decision follows instructions from the Ministry of Education to review curricula from grades one through twelve. The letter, dated Monday, October 14 (24 Mizan), confirms that the Taliban’s Prime Minister’s Office approved the removals, ordering provincial education directors to immediately eliminate the identified lessons from classroom instruction.
According to a copy of the letter obtained by Afghanistan International, all provincial education heads and teachers have been instructed to refrain from teaching these topics. The banned subjects include “Homeland,” “National Flag,” “Human Rights,” “Humanity,” “Women’s Rights,” “Mother,” “Democracy,” “Peace,” “Buddha Statues,” “Red Flower Festival,” and dozens of other similar lessons.
The ministry has also directed inspection teams from the Taliban’s Department of Invitation and Guidance (Da’wa and Irshad) to monitor the implementation of the order and to submit progress reports.
Since taking power, the Taliban have radically altered Afghanistan’s educational curriculum, increasing the number of religious subjects and establishing hundreds of new madrassas across the country. Officials of the group have repeatedly stated that they will remove all topics that they claim are “in conflict with Sharia and Afghan culture.”
The Taliban’s curricular changes have provoked deep concern among Afghans and the international community, who see the moves as an attempt to indoctrinate youth and erase civic, cultural, and human rights values from education.
Earlier, Foreign Policy magazine described the Taliban’s new education system as a “new Taliban army,” reporting that schools are being gradually transformed into Quranic seminaries. Similarly, reliable sources within the Ministry of Higher Education have told Afghanistan International that the Taliban have reduced the hours of core academic subjects while tripling the hours allocated to Islamic Culture courses.
Analysts warn that these policies amount to systematic ideological engineering, designed to shape a generation that will obey rather than question, and to replace education as a space of enlightenment with indoctrination under the guise of religion.
