A Taliban meeting on higher education policies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on 29 August 2021 AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan this year led to a radical makeover of the country, and science was no exception. Since the fall of the Afghan government, scores of academics have fled the country. Public universities have been shut. Some private universities remain open but classes are now segregated by gender.
“I was already afraid that I was on a list,” says Hammad*, an academic who fled Afghanistan earlier this year just before the US withdrew its troops. “I…
