The Taliban’s minister of higher education claims his ministry has removed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution from Afghanistan’s university curriculum, saying the country’s higher education system is now “Islamic.”
Neda Mohammad Nadeem made the claim at the International Conference on Evaluation and Strengthening of Quality Assurance Systems in Higher Education, held in Herat. He claimed that under previous governments, universities promoted “moral corruption” and taught material he described as “in conflict with Islamic values and beliefs.”
In a statement, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education said leadership delegations from public and private universities, along with 29 scholars and researchers from India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkey, Bangladesh, Britain, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, attended the conference.
Some academics and researchers say the Taliban are seeking to erase modern knowledge and scientific material from the education system and replace it with subjects aligned with their ideology. They warned the Taliban’s approach amounts to indoctrination aimed at radicalizing students.
Last month, the ministry announced it had reviewed subjects taught at universities and higher education institutes in line with what it called “Sharia principles and the policies of the system.”
According to a ministry document seen by Amu, the review led to the removal of 18 subjects across various fields deemed “in conflict with Sharia and system policy.” Another 201 subjects were identified as having “relative problems” and will continue to be taught in revised form, the ministry said.
Darwin, a 19th-century British naturalist, is best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection, which established that all species share common ancestry. The theory remains a cornerstone of modern biology and is widely recognized in scientific education worldwide.
