The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, urged the leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education for everyone.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony of a madrasa in Khost province, he said, “The path we are currently following stems from… pic.twitter.com/doj1AoIvT6
— TOLOnews English (@TOLONewsEnglish) January 19, 2025
Taliban!!! Nooooo!!!
You were the chosen one!
It was said you were to destroy women, not join them!
AP:
A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.
Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province.
He told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn’t be one at all.”
The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports 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 medical training ban.
“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” said Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X. “We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature.”
Stanikzai was once the head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
…
Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia program, said Stanikzai had periodically made statements calling girls’ education a right of all Afghan women.
“However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for a change in policy and questioned the legitimacy of the current approach,” Bahiss said.
Yeah, I’m thinking this isn’t going to fly.
This guy is breaking the law by questioning the ban on women’s education.
“Just as education for girls is banned, questioning it is also banned” —Taliban Minister of Education.
Afghanistan is ruled by sharia law under Taliban!
pic.twitter.com/Z5VxD45HoL— Azat (@AzatAlsalim) September 1, 2024