Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, spoke out against the government’s ban on girls attending secondary schools and higher education, during a graduation ceremony in Khost province on January 20, according to a report
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Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai. AFP File
A senior Taliban minister who advocated for lifting the ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan seems to have been forced to flee the country, according to a report.
According to The Guardian report, Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, spoke out against the government’s ban on girls attending secondary schools and higher education, during a graduation ceremony in Khost province, near the Afghan-Pakistani border, on January 20.
“There is no excuse for this – not now and not in the future,” The Guardian quoted Stanikzai as saying.
“We are being unjust to 20 million people,” he added.
He said that during the time of the prophet Muhammad, the doors of knowledge were open for both men and women.
“There were such remarkable women that if I were to elaborate on their contributions, it would take a considerable amount of time,” Stanikzai was quoted as saying.
After his speech and reports of his criticisms, the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada reportedly ordered the minister’s arrest and imposed a travel