Afghanistan’s Kabul In one of the harshest public criticisms of a policy that has contributed to the rulers’ worldwide isolation, the Taliban’s acting deputy foreign minister urged his senior leadership to open schools for Afghan females.
Before U.S. forces left Afghanistan in 2021, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai commanded a group of negotiators at the Taliban’s political office in Doha. He stated in a speech over the weekend that limits on women’s and girls’ education were against Islamic Sharia law.
In reference to the Taliban’s moniker for its government, local station Tolo reported that he remarked, “We ask the leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education.”
According to the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), women and men could both access knowledge during his time.
He went on to say, “We are committing injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million today,” alluding to Afghanistan’s female population.
The Taliban official’s remarks were among the harshest public criticisms of the school closures in recent years. Taliban insiders and diplomats previously told Reuters that the supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada had implemented the closures despite internal dissent.
According to the Taliban’s understanding of Afghan culture and Islamic law, women’s rights are respected.
After making a dramatic U-turn on their pledge to open high schools for girls in 2022, they have stated that they are developing a strategy to reopen the schools, but they have not provided a date. By the end of 2022, universities were closed to female students.
Western officials have stated that any path toward formal recognition of the Taliban is barred unless their practices on women are changed. The measures have drawn widespread worldwide criticism, particularly from Islamic experts.
A request for clarification on Stanekzai’s comments was not immediately answered by a Taliban administration spokesman in Kandahar, the southern city where Haibatullah is based.