Address A77, Bamyan, Afghanistan | ||
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Bamiyan University (Persian: پوهنتون بامیان, established approximately 1994 or 1997) is in Bamiyan Province, central Afghanistan, part of the Hazara-populated region known as the Hazarajat.
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Pre-Taliban
Bamiyan University was initiated around 1994 (another source indicates 1997) with the support of the Hazara political party Hezb-i-Wahdat. Before the Taliban takeover of the area, there were 400-500 male and female students at Bamiyan University, under 40 professors. In the mid-1990s, its facilities were simple, consisting of a few mud huts.
Taliban era
The university was closed by the Taliban after their capture of the city of Bamiyan in September 1998. Two buildings were stripped for scrap, while the third was used as a Taliban barracks and communications center. This third building was destroyed by U.S. airstrikes at the start of the War in Afghanistan in 2001.
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Under the American and New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Teams, the university was refurbished. Construction was, at one point, delayed due to the need to clear landmines, leading to student protests. A number of Afghans who had taken refuge in Iran returned to Bamiyan; of that group several female intellectuals became lecturers at the university.