ISLAMABAD
\nA senior member of the Taliban-run government in Afghanistan on Tuesday called on Afghanistan\u2019s new rulers to reopen schools for girls beyond the sixth grade, saying there is no valid reason in Islam for the ban.
\nThe appeal from Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, came during a top Taliban gathering in Kabul. It was a rare moderate voice amid the harsh measures imposed by the Taliban since they overran the country and seized power in August 2021.
\nThe measures include banning girls from middle school and high school despite initial promises to the contrary. Women are required to cover themselves from head to toe in public, with only their eyes showing.
\nThe Taliban have said they are working on a plan to open secondary schools for girls but have not given a timeframe.
\nThe United Nations has called the ban \u201cshameful\u201d and the international community has been wary of officially recognizing the Taliban, fearing a return to the same harsh rule the Taliban imposed when they were last in power in the late 1990s.
\n\u201cIt is very important that education must be provided to all, without any discrimination,\u201d Stanikzai said. \u201cWomen must get education, there is no Islamic prohibition for girls\u2019 education.\u201d
\n\u201cLet\u2019s not provide opportunities for others to create a gap between the government and people,\u201d he added. \u201cIf there are technical issues, that needs to be resolved, and schools for girls must be opened.\u201d
\nStill, it was unclear if and how much Stanikzai could sway hard-liners, who appear to hold the reins in the Taliban administration.
\nStanikzai was once head of the Taliban team in talks that led to the 2020 agreement in Qatar between the Taliban and the United States that included the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
\nHis remarks follow the Taliban appointment of a new education minister, days after the UN called on them to reopen schools for girls. The UN estimates that more than 1 million girls have been barred from attending most of middle school and high school over the past year.
\nA year after the Taliban took over the country as the Western-backed government and military crumbled, the UN says it is increasingly concerned that restrictions on girls\u2019 education, as well as other measures curtailing basic freedoms, would deepen Afghanistan\u2019s economic crisis and lead to greater insecurity, poverty, and isolation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD A senior member of the Taliban-run government in Afghanistan on Tuesday called on Afghanistan\u2019s new rulers to reopen schools for girls beyond the sixth grade, saying there is no valid reason in Islam for the ban. The appeal from Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, came during a top Taliban gathering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-286042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n