A senior Taliban figure urged the group’s leader to cancel Ban on education for Afghan women and girlsSaying they have no excuse, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.
Sher Abbas Stanekzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in the country’s southeastern Khost province.
He told the audience at a religious school ceremony that there was no reason to deprive women and girls of education, “just as there was no justification for this in the past, and there should be no justification at all.”
The government prohibited females from education beyond the sixth grade. Last September, there were reports that the authorities had stopped medical training and courses for women.
In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. The authorities have not yet confirmed the ban on medical training.
Stanikzai said in a video clip posted on his official account on the social media platform They have all their rights, and this is not in Islamic law, but rather it is our personal choice or nature.”
Stanekzai was previously the head of the Taliban team in the talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Ibrahim Norouzi/AFP
This is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve an education. He made similar statements in September 2022, a year after schools were closed for girls and months before the ban was imposed on universities.
But the latest comments represent his first call for policy change and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.
Ibrahim Bahis, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia Program, said Stanikzai periodically made statements describing girls’ education as a right for all Afghan women.
“But this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that it is openly calling for a policy change and questioning the legitimacy of the current approach,” Buhais said.
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 United Nations said recognition is almost impossible while the ban on female education and employment remains in place and women cannot go out in public without a male guardian.
No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan, but countries such as Russia are working to build relations with them.
India is also working to develop its relations with the Afghan authorities.
In Dubai earlier this month, a meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Mistry and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaki demonstrated their deep cooperation.