The Taliban administration has reinstated Uzbek language on the signboard of Jawzjan University following a wave of criticism over its removal. On Thursday morning, November 19, a new sign was installed that includes Uzbek alongside Pashto.<\/p>\n
A photo of the updated signboard shows the university\u2019s name written in both Pashto and Uzbek. Just a week earlier, the Taliban had unilaterally removed Uzbek from the original signage.<\/p>\n
The initial decision sparked widespread backlash from Uzbek-speaking residents and cultural activists, who viewed the move as a sign of disrespect towards local languages and cultures. Many described it as another example of the administration\u2019s monolingual policies.<\/p>\n
Former senator and daughter of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Rahela Dostum, responded to the reinstatement by emphasizing that respecting linguistic and cultural diversity is a fundamental responsibility for any individual or institution in the country.<\/p>\n
While the Taliban\u2019s move to reintroduce Uzbek was seen as a step toward rectification, analysts say the decision came only after public pressure and does not necessarily reflect a consistent policy shift regarding linguistic minorities.<\/p>\n
Over the past four years, the Taliban have repeatedly been accused of systematically excluding the Persian, Uzbek, and Turkmen languages from Afghanistan\u2019s educational and administrative systems. From removing Persian-language signs to destroying cultural heritage linked to Persian-speaking poets and writers, the group\u2019s actions have fueled concerns about linguistic and cultural discrimination.<\/p>\n
In addition to the new signboard, Taliban Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadim visited Jawzjan and met with university students, in what is seen as an effort to ease public discontent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taliban reinstates Uzbek on Jawzjan University sign following public backlash over earlier removal, amid ongoing concerns over linguistic discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-important-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}