The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister has urged senior leaders to reopen schools for Afghan girls, marking one of the strongest public critiques of a policy that has deepened the

Sher Abbas Stanikzai urges the Taliban to reconsider its ban on girls' education, citing no religious basis for it.

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 in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province.

A senior Taliban government official has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls during a speech at a religious school in southeastern Khost province on Saturday, as reported by news agency The Associated Press (AP).