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Taliban deputy says there’s no excuse for education ban on Afghan women and girls

Sher Abbas Stanikzai urged the group’s leaders ‘to open the doors of education … we are committing an injustice’

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Afghan women and girls face a lot of discrimination under the Taliban. File photo: AFP

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

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Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the foreign ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern 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”.

The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women.

In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban.

There are reports that the authorities have stopped medical training and courses for Afghan women. This young woman has been dismissed from the private hospital where she was gaining practical experience. Photo: EPA-EFE
There are reports that the authorities have stopped medical training and courses for Afghan women. This young woman has been dismissed from the private hospital where she was gaining practical experience. Photo: EPA-EFE

“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” said Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X.

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