During an event on Aug. 6, Sher Mohammed Abad Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, purportedly called on the education ministry to establish favorable conditions for education to thrive within the country.
During an event on Aug. 6, Sher Mohammed Abad Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, purportedly called on the education ministry to establish favorable conditions for education to thrive within the country.
While the Taliban expresses the significance of education for Afghanistan’s development, a report suggests that they are implementing a ban on girls’ education beyond Class 3.
As per a Khaama Press report, Sher Mohammed Abad Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, highlighted that education is indispensable for the country’s progress.
During an event on Aug. 6, Stanikzai purportedly called on the education ministry to establish favorable conditions for education to thrive within the country. He emphasized that Afghanistan has lagged in terms of education, according to the report.
Just a day earlier, on Saturday, BBC Persian reported that in specific Afghan provinces under Taliban control, local officials have imposed a ban on girls aged 10 and above attending primary school.
Representatives from the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Education conveyed to school principals and administrators of short-term training programs in Ghazni province that girls above the age of 10 are no longer permitted to enroll in primary schools.
As per the report, in multiple provinces, officials from the Ministry for Preaching and Guidance, formerly known as the Women’s Affairs Ministry, have reportedly segregated girls by age and directed school principals to dismiss female students beyond the third grade and send them home.
After the fall of Kabul and the withdrawal of the US and NATO-led government from Afghanistan, the Taliban introduced a series of strict measures. In September 2021, they imposed a ban on girls seeking secondary education, mandating that high schools admit only boys.
In a subsequent development last December, the Taliban escalated their constraints by prohibiting women attending colleges and universities from pursuing higher education. This resulted in the suspension of university studies for thousands of women indefinitely.
The United Nations has recently attributed the heightened restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan, particularly in areas of education and employment, to the governance of the Taliban in recent months.
