Afghanistan's public universities opened on Wednesday for the first time since the Taliban took over the country last year, with female students joining their male counterparts heading back to campus.

The Taliban administration has not officially announced its plan for female university students, but education officials said women were permitted to attend classes on the condition that they were separated from male students.

A Reuters witness in the eastern city of Jalalabad saw female students entering via a separate door at Nangarhar University, one of the large government universities opening this week.