A senior Taliban leader has publicly criticized his government’s policy of banning female education in Afghanistan, calling it a “personal choice” rather than an interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia.
The rare public rebuke by Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Abbas Stanikzai comes amid persistent international calls for Afghanistan’s rulers to allow girls’ education in secondary schools and beyond, as well as lift restrictions on women’s access to public life at large. Has come.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, and their reclusive leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has introduced his strict interpretation of Sharia to rule the conflict-torn country through dozens of orders, mainly banning students from the sixth grade onwards. This includes curtailing girls’ access to education and banning most of it. Women in workplaces and public life at large.
“We call on the leadership of the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] Making education accessible to all,” Stanikzai said at a religious seminary graduation ceremony in the Afghan border province of Khost. “There is no justification for denying it, just as there was no justification for it in the past, and there should absolutely be no,” he said in a speech broadcast on Afghan Tolo news on Sunday after the ceremony the day before.
Stanikzai suggested that the world is criticizing the Taliban’s restrictions on women and “that’s the problem” they have with the Afghan government, which is not officially recognized by any country, due to the predominantly female population. Also regarding his behaviour.
“Today, we are committing injustice against 20 million people out of a total population of 40 million. We have taken away all their rights by closing the doors of schools and universities to them, giving them compensation in personal disputes and preventing them from choosing their husbands, Stanikzai said.
Are we really following Sharia? …The path we are currently following is guided by personal choice, not Sharia,” he said.
Stanikzai has publicly spoken out against restrictions on female education, but his latest relatively harsh comments represent the first direct challenge to the orders issued by Akhudzada from his base in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, which primarily target women. We do.
The Taliban took power after years of launching insurgent attacks against US-led international forces, which eventually withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021. The withdrawal was the result of talks between then-President Donald Trump’s administration and the Taliban in February 2020 under Stanikzai. Leading the rebels in discussions.
In a speech earlier this month, Stanikzai described Trump, who is set to return to the U.S. presidency on Monday, as a “decisive” and “courageous” American leader, saying he would continue to support Afghanistan under the new Trump administration. Predicted changes in Washington’s policies towards.
“We are hopeful that he will take positive steps forward. If God wishes, we will also come forward. “We want to build good relations with the international community and Western countries,” Stanikzai said.
The United Nations and global human rights defenders have consistently condemned the Taliban’s restrictions on women.
Last August, the Taliban announced a new law on the promotion of virtuality and prevention of evil, which bars women from traveling or using public transportation without a male guardian. The law requires women and girls to cover their faces in public and bans them from singing in public or making their voices heard outside the home.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, documented “an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls” in his report. The Taliban banned Bennett from entering the country in September.
