Afghanistan: Taliban says closure of girls' schools 'temporary', not 'permanent'

Kabul: The Taliban has claimed that the decision to close the girls' schools above sixth grade across the country was only "temporary", and not a "permanent ban", Khaleej Times reported on Sunday.

The spokesman of Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi said, "This suspension is a temporary suspension, and it is not a permanent ban, it has never been called a ban."

Defending the Taliban, he said that the strict views of most Afghan people on the issue of education and women caused the girls' schools to remain closed.

"There is a large percentage of society that has very strict ideas of what women can do and what they cannot do, and for that reason, the government is trying to take an approach that is gradual, it takes those people that do not understand some of the basic Islamic rights of Afghan citizens or of any human being, and the human rights, to try to convince them. It is due to lack of knowledge of that part of the society," he said.

Balkhi added that they are trying to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, girls who have been prevented from going to school for more than eleven months are asking the Taliban to reopen schools for them.

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been criticised heavily across the world for a decree banning girls from school above grade sixth.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report highlighted that women's rights have eroded in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. (UNI)