Taliban rename University of Burhanuddin Rabbani as Kabul Education University

The Taliban interim government has been imposing new rules in Afghanistan since it took over the war-torn country. In the latest development, a government university in Afghanistan named after former Afghan President and founder of Afghanistan's second-biggest political party Burhanuddin Rabbani, has been renamed by the Taliban, according to ANI. The Taliban on Monday, 20 September, changed the name of University of Burhanuddin Rabbani to Kabul Education University. 

The Ministry of Higher Education has released an official directive which reads, 'universities are the intellectual assets of Afghanistan and should not be named after political or ethnic leaders', ANI reported citing The Khaama Press News Agency's report. The directive further reads, "lingual, regiona, and ethnic discrimination have prevailed in Afghanistan in the past two decades and national places were named based on those". In 2009, the government university in Afghanistan which was named after Burhanuddin Rabbani after he was killed in a suicide attack in his home, has been now renamed by the Taliban. 

Other decision taken by Taliban

After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, they changed the name of Hamid Karzai International Airport to Kabul International Airport. Similarly, the name of Maoud square was renamed as Public health square in Kabul. They also closed the Ministry of Women Affairs in Afghanistan, replacing it with a ministry for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice". The Taliban had put up a new signboard outside the women’s affairs ministry, which read, "Ministry for Preaching and Guidance and the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice". The Taliban had also removed Uzbek from official language status.

The Taliban gained power over Afghanistan on 15 August. Since then, the Taliban have been imposing new rules that curtail the freedom of women. It is pertinent to mention here that the Taliban had promised to form an "inclusive" government to run Afghanistan, however, it declared an all-male 33-member cabinet. Despite several protests demanding inclusion in government, no woman was included in the cabinet. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, chief of the Taliban's powerful decision-making body 'Rehbari Shura', has been named the head of the interim government. 

(Image: AP)

(Inputs from ANI)