Taliban minister flees after condemning ban on women's education - report
Senior Taliban official Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai has reportedly left Afghanistan after publicly opposing the regime's ban on women's education.
Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, may have been forced to flee the country after criticising the government’s ban on higher education for girls, The Guardian reported on Monday.
Stanikzai was speaking at a graduation ceremony in Afghanistan's Khost province in January when he expressed his request for the government to “open the doors of knowledge.”
“There is no excuse for this – not now and not in the future,” Stanikzai said.
The minister explained that during Mohammed’s time, men and women were allowed to pursue education equally, stating that “there were such remarkable women that if I were to elaborate on their contributions, it would take a considerable amount of time.”
Stanikzai went on to state that barring women from education went against Islam, saying, “The Prophet said: Whoever has two or three wives and does not maintain justice among them will be resurrected on the Day of Judgement in a state where half of their body will be paralyzed."
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“We are being unjust to 20 million people. We have deprived women of their rights,” he added.
Stanikzai is currently in Dubai
According to The Guardian, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, allegedly issued a travel ban and ordered for the minister to be arrested after the speech.
Stanikzai has confirmed to local media that he was in Dubai, though he claimed it was for health reasons.
Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, women’s rights to education, work, or even appearing in public have been systemically reduced.