A senior Taliban leader has publicly challenged his government’s ban on female education, calling it a “personal choice” rather than an interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, made the remarks during a graduation ceremony in the Afghan border province of Khost.
The criticism comes amid international calls for Afghanistan’s rulers to permit girls’ education and remove restrictions on women’s access to public life. The Taliban seized power in 2021 and has introduced strict Sharia law, limiting girls’ education to sixth grade and prohibiting most women from workplaces and public life.
Stanikzai said that denying education to women is an injustice against the Afghan population, which he estimated at around 20 million people. He claimed that the Taliban’s actions are guided by “personal choice” rather than Islamic principles, sparking a rare public challenge to the government’s edicts.
The criticism has sparked renewed international condemnation of the Taliban’s restrictions on women. The United Nations and human rights defenders have long denounced the ban as a form of institutionalized discrimination against women and girls.
Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-minister-urges-leadership-to-lift-afghan-female-education-ban-/7942251.html