Habib-ur-Rahman Sayyaf says takeover of Da’wat University harms youth’s future
Habib-ur-Rahman Sayyaf, the son of Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, has described the Taliban administration’s intervention in Da’wat University as a blow to higher education and the future of Afghanistan’s youth, saying the move has put an academic institution at risk of political takeover.
In a post on X on Saturday, 28 Sunbula, he said the Taliban administration had dismissed the university’s president and administrative officials and, without the consent of the administration and the university’s founders, unilaterally appointed a new leadership structure.
According to him, the takeover of an academic institution without the consent of its administration and founders runs counter to Islamic rulings and the laws governing private institutions. Sayyaf added that the Taliban administration had not provided any valid legal justification for the move.
Sayyaf warned that universities should not become victims of political disputes and that academic institutions should not be turned into arenas for the exercise of power and political score-settling. He said the incident was not merely an intervention in a private institution, but an “open enmity” toward knowledge, culture, academic institutions and the future of Afghanistan’s young generation.
He also wrote that a country in which academic centres are placed under intervention and takeover without a valid reason, instead of receiving support and strengthening, cannot create the conditions for the scientific and cultural development of the next generation.
Da’wat University is one of Afghanistan’s private higher education institutions, and the incident comes as the Taliban administration’s intervention in educational and university affairs has repeatedly drawn criticism in recent years.
