A senior Taliban figure has urged the group's leader to disband restricting the education of Afghan women and girlssaying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.
Sher Abbas Stanikzai, deputy political chief at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the comments in a speech on Saturday in the southeastern province of Khost.
He told an audience at a religious school event that there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no reason for it in the past and there shouldn't be one.” at all
The government has banned women from education after the sixth grade. Last September, there were reports that authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women.
In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the ban on medical training.
“We are asking the presidency to once again open the doors of education,” Stanikzai said in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X. justice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, removing This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or our nature.”
Stanikzai was once the leader of the Taliban team in negotiations that led to the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Ebrahim Noroozi / AP
This is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve education. He made similar comments in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months and before a university ban was introduced.
But the latest comments marked his first call for policy change and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with the Crisis Group's South Asia program, said Stanikzai had made statements from time to time calling for girls' education as a right for all Afghan women.
“However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for policy change and questioning the validity of the current approach,” said Bahiss.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban on the education of women and girls.
She was speaking at a conference hosted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League.
The UN has said that recognition is almost impossible while restrictions on female education and employment remain in place and women cannot go out in public without a male escort.
No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, but countries such as Russia have been building ties with them.
India has also been developing relations with the Afghan authorities.
In Dubai earlier this month, a meeting between India's top diplomat, Vikram Mistri, and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi showed their deep cooperation.
