Resignation of 11 Herat University Medical Professors in Protest Against Detention Over Short Beards

Previously, eight of these professors had been detained for one hour in a container belonging to the Vice and Virtue authorities and were released following the intervention of doctors. With this action, half of the faculty’s teaching staff—11 out of 22 professors—have left their positions. Meanwhile, 10 other professors had already resigned over the past two years for similar reasons.

The mass resignation comes amid what is described as the gradual collapse of Afghanistan’s higher education system, where ideological interference and the morality police are directly undermining the quality of specialized medical education. The loss of half the teaching staff at a vital faculty not only threatens the future of the country’s healthcare system but also indicates the emergence of organized resistance among academics against the Taliban’s day-to-day interference.