The Taliban government has removed books written by women from the university teaching system in Afghanistan as part of a new ban which has also outlawed the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment.
Some 140 books by women - including titles like Safety in the Chemical Laboratory - were among 680 books found to be of concern due to anti-Sharia and Taliban policies.
The universities were further told they were no longer allowed to teach 18 subjects, with a Taliban official saying they were in conflict with the principles of Sharia and the system's policy.
The decree is the latest in a series of restrictions which the Taliban have brought in since returning to power four years ago.
Just this week, fibre-optic internet was banned in at least 10 provinces on the orders of the Taliban's supreme leader in a move officials said was to prevent immorality.
While the rules have impacted many aspects of life, women and girls have been particularly hard-hit: they are barred from accessing education over the sixth grade, with one of their last routes to further training cut off in late 2024, when midwifery courses were quietly shuttered.
Now even university subjects about women have been targeted: six of the 18 banned are specifically about women, including Gender and Development, The Role of Women in Communication, and Women's Sociology.
The Taliban government's decrees claim to respect women's rights according to their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.
A member of the committee reviewing the books confirmed the ban on books written by women, noting that all books authored by women are not allowed to be taught. Zakia Adeli, the former deputy minister of justice prior to the Taliban's return and one of the authors on the banned list, expressed her lack of surprise at the move.
Foreign works are also impacted, as the ban has taken aim at books published by Iranian authors or publishers, aiming to prevent the infiltration of Iranian content into the Afghan curriculum. The list of banned titles includes 310 written by or associated with Iranian scholars.
Lecturers worry that the removal of these books will create a substantial void in higher education as they often serve as the primary link to the global academic community.