The Taliban say that education in Afghanistan should be based on “Islamic” culture.
Washington:
In a rare interview broadcast by CNN on Monday, Afghanistan’s interior minister promised “very good news” soon on the return of girls to secondary schools.
In late March, the Taliban, who took power after US forces withdrew from the country last August, closed high schools and colleges for girls just hours after reopening.
The unexpected reversal ordered by the Taliban and the country’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada angered many Afghans and the international community.
Interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said, “I want to make some clarifications. There is no one to oppose education for women.”
He argued that girls may already be going to primary school. “Above that grade, work continues on a mechanism” to allow girls to attend secondary school, she said in her first television interview.
“Very soon you will hear great news about this issue,” he said.
Haqqani indicated that “tantra” was linked to the school dress code, explaining that education should be based on Afghan “culture” and “Islamic rules and principles”, and on the issue of women wearing the hijab “more broadly”. should be referenced.
After returning to power, the Taliban demanded that women wear at least a hijab, a scarf covering the head but revealing the face.
But since the beginning of May they have forced them Wear a full veil in public and preferably a burqaWhich became mandatory when he first ran the country between 1996 and 2001.
“If someone is giving to their daughters or sisters, they do so on the basis of complete faith,” he said.
“We must establish conditions so that we can ensure their respect and safety. We are working to ensure that.”
The Haqqani network, founded by his late father and which he now heads, is accused of carrying out some of the most violent attacks by the Taliban in Afghanistan in the past 20 years.
Sirajuddin Haqqani himself is still on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, offering a $10 million bounty for any information that may have led to his arrest.
On CNN, the minister said that “the past 20 years were a state of defensive fighting and war” but that he wanted the future to “have good relations with the United States and the international community.”
“We don’t see them as the enemy,” he said, adding that the Taliban intends to honor the deal signed with Washington in 2020 in which they re-designate Afghanistan for terrorists targeting Americans. Pledged not to let it become a shelter.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)