In March 2026, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education required public and private university students to sign a 14-article pledge to adhere to strict social and religious rules.

The pledge originally circulated in January 2024, but at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year, the Taliban made signing it mandatory for all university students. The first seven articles of the pledge include stipulations about participation in prayer five times per day, the length of students’ beards, hair styles, and dress. They also ban music and images that include living beings. Article six requires that students pledge that they are followers of Sunni Islam and adhere to Hanafi jurisprudence. Articles 10 to 13 compel students to accept Taliban rules and decrees and to cooperate with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Article 14 requires recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a Sharia system and requires students to refrain from associating with any other political groups. According to media reports, more than 10,000 Afghan students have been required to sign the pledge, including at Herat, Ghor, Balkh, and Kabul universities, and at Mihan Private University.

In addition to requiring students to sign the pledge, the Taliban increased the presence of officers from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on campus.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about state censorship and interference with institutional autonomy and academic freedom. While national officials have a right to express their views about the content of research, teaching, and discourse, they have an obligation to refrain from interference into the selection of that content. State censorship and threatened retaliation or sanctions against individuals or institutions undermine university autonomy, academic freedom, and democratic society generally.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
https://kabulnow.com/2026/05/taliban-require-private-university-students-to-pledge-adherence-to-the-hanafi-school/
https://kabulnow.com/2026/04/taliban-distribute-pledge-at-herat-university-students-required-to-follow-hanafi-school/
https://amu.tv/238788/
https://sedayedarya.tv/2026/03/31/taliban-require-students-to-sign-religious-and-behavioral-pledge/
https://zantimes.com/2026/04/07/stripping-students-of-religious-freedom-in-the-talibans-war-on-universities/