A Kabul University student says Taliban Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem slapped and questioned him for wearing an Uzbek cap, calling it political. The student says the cap reflects his culture.
A student at Kabul University has alleged that Taliban Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem interrogated and struck him for wearing a traditional Uzbek cap on campus.
Hebatullah Yaqoboghlu, a student of Uzbek language and literature, told Afghanistan International that Taliban authorities had recently instructed students to wear caps. Some students, he said, chose to wear traditional Uzbek headwear.
According to the student, a group of students were voluntarily collecting rubbish on campus on Wednesday when a vehicle carrying the Taliban minister stopped nearby.
He claimed that Nadeem’s guards initially questioned the students about their caps, after which the minister himself interrogated them.
“We thought the minister might appreciate our efforts, but instead he took a student’s cap and threw it on the ground,” he said.
The student said the minister described the cap as a political symbol, claiming it was associated with Manzoor Pashteen and had no connection to Afghanistan.
Manzoor Pashteen is a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement in Pakistan and a critic of the Taliban.
Yaqoboghlu said Nadeem asked why he was wearing the cap and whether he had been instructed by someone else. “I told him I have worn this cap since childhood and that it is part of our culture,” he said.
He added that, on Nadeem’s orders, he removed the mask he was wearing, after which the minister slapped him.
“My pain is not from the slap, but from the fact that even my cap is not tolerated in this country,” he said. “It was not my face that hurt, but my heart.”
The student also claimed that his student ID was confiscated and that he was expelled from the university.
The incident has drawn criticism. Rahila Dostum, a former senator and daughter of former vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, described the minister’s behaviour as “ugly, discriminatory and insulting”.
She said disrespecting cultural identity has no place in any system and warned that such actions leave a troubling mark on the Taliban’s record.
Anwar Sadat, a former labour minister, also criticised Nadeem, calling him a “terrorist” and accusing him of ethnically motivated behaviour.
He claimed that Nadeem had previously been involved in violence and destruction in northern Afghanistan and added that efforts to reach political understanding with the Taliban would not succeed while figures such as Nadeem and Hibatullah Akhundzada remain in power.
