Senior Taliban official urges reversal of education ban on Afghan girls
In a rare public rebuke, a senior Taliban figure has called on the group’s leadership to end the ban on education for women and girls in Afghanistan.
The Taliban foreign ministry political deputy Sher Abbas Stanikzai made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in south-eastern Afghanistan’s 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”.
After seizing power in 2021, the Taliban government instated a ban on females accessing education after the sixth grade.
Mr Stanikzai asserted the ongoing prohibition against female education had no religious justification.
“We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights,” Mr Stanikzai said in a video shared by his official account on social media.
“This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature.”
Comments dismissed as bid to ‘rebrand’ Taliban
Mr Stanikzai was once the head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
It is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve an education.
He made similar remarks in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months before the introduction of a university ban.
“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” he said, marking the first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
However, Afghan women’s rights advocates warned against viewing it as a turning point.
Zubaida Akbar, an activist with the women’s human rights organisation Femena, said the remarks were likely a strategic move to bolster credibility for the Taliban internationally.
“The Taliban deputy’s remarks about there being no excuse for the education bans on Afghan women and girls reflects desperation,” Ms Akbar told the ABC.
“They think making these statements is a strategic move to rebrand themselves as progressive.”
Crisis Group analyst Ibraheem Bahiss said Mr Stanikzai had periodically made statements deeming education to be the right of all Afghan women and girls.
“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,” Mr Bahiss said.
Susan Hutchinson, executive director of the NGO Azadi-e Zan (Free Woman), who has helped several women’s rights defenders from Afghanistan, said Mr Stanikzai’s comments alone are not enough to lead to a lift in the ban.
“Mr Stanikzai is one of the more progressive of the Taliban leaders and is often criticised by his peers for his stand on women’s freedoms,” Ms Hutchinson explained.
“The lack of educational access is a serious issue for the Afghan economy and overall welfare of the country,” she added.
Last September, there were reports the Taliban had also stopped medical training and courses for women.
In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals.
Taliban Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban.
