Senior Taliban official calls for end of ban on education for women and girls

A group of young girls on the first day of the new school year in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2023 (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

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, Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the foreign ministry, made the remarks during a speech in south-eastern Khost province.