Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has reiterated that the Taliban’s decision to deprive Afghan women and girls from education is “against teachings of Islam” and a wrong decision. He said this in a joint press conference with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, on Sunday in Tehran.
“We stress on the need to form an inclusive and broad based government in Afghanistan for restoring stability, peace, and development in the country,” Irna, an Iranian news agency, quoted the Iranian minister as saying at the press conference.
Moreover, Abdollahian said that the Islamic Republic of Iran was ready to cooperate with the Taliban administration and provide the required education facilities, including text books and logistics, for re-opening schools and universities to women in Afghanistan.
Shortly after returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban banned girls from secondary schools, and in December last year, it ordered a ban on women from universities, which the group defended as “necessary to prevent the mixing of genders.”
Despite international condemnations, the Taliban leadership have refused to change course on restrictions on women and girls.
As lately as last yesterday, the group’s Ministry of Higher Education barred female students from taking part in the countrywide university entrance exams in the coming spring.
In latest efforts to pressure the Taliban for reversing its restrictions on women’s rights, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, began a seven-day trip on Sunday to Pakistan, Germany, and Switzerland to work out a “unified regional and international response” to the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls’ rights.
