Senior Taliban official urges leadership to lift education ban on Afghan girls

Afghan girls attend a class in a school in Kandahar on September 26, 2021. (AFP/FILE)
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Updated 21 January 2025
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Senior Taliban official urges leadership to lift education ban on Afghan girls

  • More than 1.1 million girls have been denied access to formal education since 2021
  • Stanikzai headed Taliban team in talks that led to withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan

KABUL: A senior Taliban official has called on his leadership to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, a move that experts said on Tuesday voiced the public’s concerns and marked a new phenomenon for Afghanistan’s current regime.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Afghanistan’s acting deputy foreign minister, said in a speech over the weekend that the Taliban’s restrictions on girls’ and women’s education were not in line with Islamic Shariah law.

“Our expectation from the leaders of the Islamic Emirate is to open the doors of education. There is no excuse for this, and there never will be one,” Stanikzai said at an event in the Khost province.

Around 1.1 million girls have been denied access to formal education since September 2021, when the Taliban suspended secondary schools for girls.

It is part of a series of curbs that, in the three years since the Taliban took power, have increasingly restricted women’s access to education, the workplace and public spaces.

“In our population of 40 million, we are committing injustice against 20 million … The entire world is opposing us because of this problem. They criticize us for this same matter. The path we are currently following stems from personal attitudes, not Shariah.”

Stanikzai was the leader of a team of negotiators at the Taliban’s political office in Doha for talks that led to the complete withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan in 2021.

His latest remarks were one of the strongest public rebukes of a government policy that has furthered the international isolation of the Taliban.

“In Afghanistan, women’s rights are being taken away in the name of Islam. As Stanikzai … said, the decision to stop girls’ education is a matter of the nature of the Taliban, not a matter of Shariah. This is only a rural and tribal view that they present,” Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, senior adviser to the former president of Afghanistan, told Arab News.

“The issue that Mr. Stanikzai discussed is the voice of every Afghan and every Muslim. Women should be granted their rights. They should be allowed to study and get higher education.”

Amarkhil said if the current education ban were to continue, there would be grave consequences in Afghanistan.

“After 12 years, we will not have a single female doctor in the country because those who are there will not be able to continue working due to their age and the new generation will not be educated, or they will leave the country,” he said.

Stanikzai’s criticism was “significant,” said Kabul-based political expert Tameem Bahiss,

as it marked one of the first times that a senior member of the Taliban publicly criticized the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Similar criticisms have also come from Taliban’s acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who in 2023 made veiled remarks against Akhundzada on “monopolizing” power and “damaging the government” in Afghanistan.

“Publicly criticizing the leader’s decisions is a new phenomenon within the Taliban. Until now, we haven’t seen criticism of this magnitude,” Bahiss told Arab News.

“If criticism from a Taliban leader of such stature continues to grow, it will undoubtedly put significant pressure on Sheikh Hibatullah.”

Bahiss highlighted how Stanikzai had challenged Akhundzada’s decision by saying that the education policy reflected the leader’s personal sentiment, rather than being based on Islamic law.

“Such voices within the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are crucial as it transitions from an insurgency to a governing entity. Important decisions regarding the people’s affairs should involve all leaders’ input,” Bahiss said.

“We are seeing that such voices garner significant support, not only from the people of Afghanistan but also from within the Taliban ranks.”

With this new development within the Taliban and given Stanikzai’s status in the group, Bahiss said Akhundzada may tolerate the criticism.

“If this happens, it could encourage other leaders to publicly challenge Hibatullah’s decision to ban schools, potentially putting significant pressure on him and leading to the removal of the ban,” he said.


Pope sends condolences to victims of Texas floods

Updated 2 sec ago
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Pope sends condolences to victims of Texas floods

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo on Sunday sent condolences to the families of devastating floods in Texas which have left at least 50 people dead and nearly 30 more missing, many of them children.
“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in a summer camp in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas. We pray for them,” said the US-born pontiff following Angelus prayers.
Rescuers searched through the night to try to locate 27 girls and teenagers missing from a riverside summer camp after flash floods caused by torrential rains on Friday, when the Guadalupe River rose eight meters (26 feet) in just 45 minutes.
Nearly 300 millimeters of rain per hour suddenly fell, a third of the average annual rainfall.

Emergency at Afghan border as migrant returns from Iran surge ahead of deadline

Updated 12 min 21 sec ago
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Emergency at Afghan border as migrant returns from Iran surge ahead of deadline

  • Numbers of people crossing the border have surged since mid-June, with a peak of more than 43,000 people crossing at Islam Qala in western Herat province on July 1, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday

ISLAM QALA: Tens of thousands of Afghans streamed over the border from Iran in the days before a return deadline set for Sunday, the United Nations said, sparking an “emergency” situation at border points.
In late May, Iran said undocumented Afghans must leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people, out of the six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.
Numbers of people crossing the border have surged since mid-June, with a peak of more than 43,000 people crossing at Islam Qala in western Herat province on July 1, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.
The UN migration agency IOM said more than 250,000 Afghans returned from Iran in June.
UNICEF country representative Tajudeen Oyewale said this was an “emergency” situation in a country already facing a “chronic returnee crisis,” with 1.4 million Afghans returning from traditional hosts Iran and Pakistan this year.
“What is concerning is that 25 percent of all these returnees are children... because the demographics have shifted” from individual men to whole families, crossing the border with scant belongings and money, he told AFP on Thursday.
He noted Islam Qala could accommodate the vast numbers but was inadequately equipped in terms of services, saying, “When you start hitting more than 20,000 people (a day) that is completely beyond the planning scenario that we have.”
The agency has engaged emergency processes to ramp up water and sanitation systems built for 7-10,000 people a day, along with vaccinations, nutrition and child-friendly spaces.
Many people crossing reported pressure from authorities or even arrest and deportation.
“Some people are so afraid that they don’t leave the house themselves... They send their young children out just for a piece of bread, and even those children get arrested sometimes,” said 38-year-old Aref Atayi of the pressures Afghans face in Iran.
“Even if I have to beg in my own country, it’s still better than staying in a place where we’re treated like this,” he told AFP on Saturday, as he waited at the IOM-run reception center for some support to help his family resettle.
Massive foreign aid cuts have impacted the response to the crisis, with the UN, international non-governmental groups and Taliban officials calling for more funding to support the returnees.
The UN has warned the influx could destabilize the country already grappling with entrenched poverty, unemployment and climate change-related shocks and urged countries not to forcibly return Afghans.


Japan’s emperor begins a weeklong visit to Mongolia that will honor POWs

Updated 06 July 2025
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Japan’s emperor begins a weeklong visit to Mongolia that will honor POWs

  • The emperor said it’s part of his effort at atonement and remembrance of the tragedy of war fought in the name of his grandfather, Emperor Hirohito

TOKYO: Japan’s Emperor Naruhito began a weeklong visit to Mongolia on Sunday during which he plans to honor thousands of Japanese prisoners of World War II who were held under harsh conditions in the country.
Naruhito’s visit marks the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. In recent years, he has toured some of the places where the bloodiest battles and bombings occurred, including Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Hiroshima. The emperor has said it’s part of his effort at atonement and remembrance of the tragedy of war fought in the name of his grandfather, Emperor Hirohito.
While the vast majority of Japanese soldiers were taken to Siberia, around 12,000 to 14,000 ended up in Mongolia, which was fighting alongside the Soviets against Japan.
Most of the POWs were put to hard labor and construction work for the Mongolian government’s headquarters, a state university and a theater that are still preserved in the capital Ulaanbaatar. The prisoners toiled under harsh conditions and scarce food. Japanese records show about 1,700 of them died in Mongolia.
“As we mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war this year, we should never forget the pain and sorrow of the people,” Naruhito said last week. “I believe it is important to not forget those who died, deepen understanding of the wartime past and to nurture the peace-loving heart.”
Naruhito had previously visited Mongolia as crown prince in 2007.


Two Iran Guards killed clearing explosives after Israel war

Updated 06 July 2025
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Two Iran Guards killed clearing explosives after Israel war

  • Tasnim news agency, citing a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that “two members of the Guards were killed Sunday in Khorramabad while clearing the area of explosives left by the Zionist regime’s aggression”

TEHRAN: Two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed Sunday while attempting to defuse explosives in an area of the country’s west hit by Israeli strikes last month, Iranian media reported.
Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war sparked by an Israeli bombing campaign on June 13. The strikes, according to Israel, were aimed at preventing the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
Tasnim news agency, citing a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that “two members of the Guards were killed Sunday in Khorramabad while clearing the area of explosives left by the Zionist regime’s aggression.”
The Israeli strikes during the war killed key commanders of Iran’s armed forces, including Guards, as well as top nuclear scientists.
The strikes killed more than 900 people across Iran, its judiciary has said, while retaliatory Iranian missile barrages killed at least 28 people in Israel, according to official figures.
A ceasefire between the two arch-foes took effect on June 24.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the war broke out, state media reported, taking part in a religious ceremony in Tehran.
Iran announced the reopening of its airspace on Thursday, including over Tehran, which had been closed since the first day of the war.


Croatian right wing singer Marko Perkovic and fans perform pro Nazi salute at massive concert

Updated 06 July 2025
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Croatian right wing singer Marko Perkovic and fans perform pro Nazi salute at massive concert

  • Organizers said that half a million people attended Perkovic’s concert in the Croatian capital
  • The Nazi salute is punishable by law in Croatia, but courts have ruled Perkovic can use it as part of his song, the Croatian state television HRT said

ZAGREB: A hugely popular right-wing Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans performed a pro-Nazi World War II salute at a massive concert in Zagreb, drawing criticism.
One of Marko Perkovic’s most popular songs, played in the late Staurday concert, starts with the dreaded “For the homeland — Ready!” salute, used by Croatia’s Nazi-era puppet Ustasha regime that ran concentration camps at the time.
Perkovic, whose stage name is Thompson after a US-made machine gun, had previously said both the song and the salute focus on the 1991-95 ethnic war in Croatia, in which he fought using the American firearm, after the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. He says his controversial song is “a witness of an era.”
The 1990s conflict erupted when rebel minority Serbs, backed by neighboring Serbia, took up guns, intending to split from Croatia and unite with Serbia.
Perkovic’s immense popularity in Croatia reflects prevailing nationalist sentiments in the country 30 years after the war ended.
The WWII Ustasha troops in Croatia brutally killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascist Croats in a string of concentration camps in the country. Despite documented atrocities, some nationalists still view the Ustasha regime leaders as founders of the independent Croatian state.
Organizers said that half a million people attended Perkovic’s concert in the Croatian capital. Video footage aired by Croatian media showed many fans displaying pro-Nazi salutes earlier in the day.
The salute is punishable by law in Croatia, but courts have ruled Perkovic can use it as part of his song, the Croatian state television HRT said.
Perkovic has been banned from performing in some European cities over frequent pro-Nazi references and displays at his gigs.
Croatia’s Vecernji List daily wrote that the concert’s “supreme organization” has been overshadowed by the use of the salute of a regime that signed off on “mass executions of people.”
Regional N1 television noted that whatever the modern interpretations of the salute may be its roots are “undoubtedly” in the Ustasha regime era.
N1 said that while “Germans have made a clear cut” from anything Nazi-related “to prevent crooked interpretations and the return to a dark past ... Croatia is nowhere near that in 2025.”
In neighboring Serbia, populist President Aleksandar Vucic criticized Perkovic’s concerts as a display “of support for pro-Nazi values.” Former Serbian liberal leader Boris Tadic said it was a “great shame for Croatia” and “the European Union” because the concert “glorifies the killing of members of one nation, in this case Serbian.”
Croatia joined the EU in 2013.
Croatian police said Perkovic’s concert was the biggest ever in the country and an unseen security challenge, deploying thousands of officers.
No major incidents were reported.