Taliban Official Calls for Lifting Ban on Girls’ and Women’s Education in Afghanistan
A senior Taliban official has urged the movement’s leaders to lift the ban on the education of Afghan girls and women, stating that “there is no reason for this,” in a rare public criticism of government policy. Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the political deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made these remarks during a speech on Saturday in Khost province in southeastern Afghanistan.
He told the audience at a religious ceremony in a school that “there is no reason to deny women and girls an education,” according to a report by the Associated Press on Sunday.
Stanikzai added: “There was no justification for this in the past, and there should never be any justification for it.” The government had prohibited the education of girls after the sixth grade.
In a video posted on his official account on the X platform, Stanikzai said, “We again demand the leadership to open the doors to education.” He added, “We are committing an unjust act against 20 million people out of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not an Islamic trait, but our personal choice or nature.” It is worth noting that Stanikzai had previously led the Taliban team during the negotiations that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
The Afghan government had banned females from education beyond the sixth grade, and reports in September indicated that the authorities had also halted medical training for women and educational courses designed for them in this field.
In Afghanistan, women and girls can only receive medical care from female doctors and specialists. So far, the authorities have not confirmed the ban on medical training.
In the video posted on his official account, Stanikzai said, “We again call on the leadership to open the doors to education. We are committing injustice against 20 million people out of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but is a result of our personal choices or nature.”
