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1970s Afghan university stats and present Taliban restrictions?
While current Taliban bans are real and women were 60% of Kabul University students in the '70s, presenting Kabul's urban elite as nationwide reality is misleading. The Reel contrasts 1970s Afghan women's educational status with current Taliban restrictions banning women from showing their faces or speaking in public. PBS and The Guardian confirm that 2024 Taliban decrees ban women from public speech and bare faces, and that women made up over 60 percent of Kabul University students in the 1970s. However, PBS and the New York Post document that these progressive freedoms were restricted to an urban elite in Kabul, while female education remained rare across rural Afghanistan.
- 1 claim checked
- 3 sources
- Checked 26 Oct 2026
- Main source: ‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public | Taliban | The Guardian
▶The Reel we checked
@georgian.orthodox
AFGHANISTAN: THEN AND NOW When Kabul’s Women Studied, Worked and Walked Freely Look at photographs of Kabul in the 1960s and 1970s, and many people barely…
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“In the '70s, Afghan women made up over sixty percent of university students. ... Equal rights weren't a dream. They were reality.”
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What we checked
What the Reel doesn't tell you
- The 60% university statistic and progressive lifestyles of the 1970s were confined to Kabul University and an urban elite, whereas female education was rare across rural Afghanistan.
- The Guardian reports that the Taliban enacted vice and virtue laws requiring women to cover their faces and prohibiting them from speaking in public.
- PBS reports that female education in 1970s Afghanistan was largely confined to Kabul, while traditional practices prevailed in rural areas.
Short version
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