Taliban 'set conditions' to reopen primary schools for girls

Taliban leaders hinted on Monday that the Afghan schooling system may be reopened to girls at primary level in the near future, after blaming curriculums for not being 'appropriate'. 

Afghan Minister for Education Habibullah Agha said that primary schools are set to be "reopened soon" in a statement on Monday, while no mention was made of secondary and higher education. 

"There is no problem in their place in schools - there is a problem with the curriculums," said Azizullah Omar, a local leader in North-west Afghanistan to local media on Monday. 

"A committee has been tabled to reform the curriculums and make them appropriate, in accordance with religious scholarship," said Omar. 

Quiet rumblings from within the Taliban hierarchy to reopen schooling for girls and young women have been building up for months. 

In September, a senior member of the Taliban-run government called on Afghanistan's new rulers to reopen schools for girls beyond the sixth grade, saying there is no valid reason in Islam for the ban.

"It is very important that education must be provided to all, without any discrimination," said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister. 

"Women must get education, there is no Islamic prohibition for girls' education."

The Taliban government have imposed a hardline interpretation of Islam on Afghanistan since storming back to power in August 2021 after the withdrawal of the US and NATO forces that backed the previous governments.

Taliban leaders have repeatedly claimed they will reopen schools for girls once certain conditions have been met.

They say they lack the funds and time to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.

Taliban authorities made similar assurances during their first stint in power - from 1996 to 2001 - but girls' schools never opened in five years.