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Khalilzad says Stanikzai’s call for policy change is a ‘promising development’
On Monday, Khalilzad welcomed his stance and said Stanikzai is an important IEA official, who played a key role in the Doha negotiations.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US special envoy for Afghanistan, said Monday that the deputy foreign minister Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai’s remarks on the violation of women’s rights was a “promising development”.
On Saturday, Stanikzai criticized the ban on education of women and girls and appealed to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) leader to scrap the ban on education for women.
“We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education,” he said.
He called the exclusion of girls from education an “injustice” on the part of the Islamic Emirate against 20 million of the 40 million people in Afghanistan.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony at a religious school in Khost, Stanikzai said that the Islamic Emirate’s stance was not in accordance with Sharia.
He said: “Today we are doing injustice to 20 million of the 40 million people. Will we not rise on the Day of Judgment paralyzed and having denied all rights? The right of inheritance is not given to girls. The right to choose a husband is not given.
“We get girls married in Baad practice. We don’t allow education. We don’t allow them to go to the mosque. The doors of the universities and schools are closed. We don’t even let them go to madrassa. Are we acting in accordance with the Sharia?”
“Another issue is that the whole world has a problem with us on this issue. They criticize us about it. But the path we have taken is a matter of our own liking, not the Sharia,” he said.
It is not the first time he has said that women and girls deserve to have an education. He made similar remarks in September 2022, a year after schools closed for girls and months and before the introduction of a university ban.
But the latest comments marked his first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to the Islamic Emirate’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Stanikzai is a senior member of the IEA and headed up peace talks in Doha, Qatar, prior to the collapse of the former government.
As special envoy for Afghanistan, Khalilzad was lead negotiator during these talks.
On Monday, Khalilzad welcomed his stance and said Stanikzai is an important IEA official, who played a key role in the Doha negotiations.
He asked other Afghan religious scholars and leaders of the Islamic Emirate who privately oppose the ban on girls’ education to make their opposition public.
He also emphasized that schools and universities should be reopened by the beginning of the new solar year, in late March.
Khalilzad also welcomed the positions of Muslim scholars at the recent Islamabad International Conference which focused on girls education in Muslim societies.
It was at this conference that scholars said a ban on women’s education was against the teaching of Islam.
Tajik authorities say their border guards clashed with militants who crossed into Tajikistan’s Khatlon region from Afghanistan on Tuesday night.
Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement that militants intended to carry out an armed attack on one of the border outposts.
Three militants were killed and two Tajik soldiers died in the clash. From the scene, three firearms—an M-16 rifle and a Kalashnikov assault rifle—three foreign-made pistols equipped with suppressors, ten hand grenades, one night-vision device, explosives, and other military equipment were seized, according to the committee.
This was the third reported attack from Afghanistan into Tajikistan in the past month, with the previous ones targeting Chinese nationals.
The Islamic Emirate previously said it assured Tajikistan it was ready to tighten border security and conduct joint investigations.
Business
Afghanistan’s first aluminum can factory launched in Herat with $120 million investment
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, laid the foundation stone of the “Pamir” aluminum can production company at the industrial parks of Herat on Thursday.
Afghanistan’s first aluminum can manufacturing plant was officially launched on Thursday in Herat province, marking a significant step toward industrial development and economic self-reliance.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, laid the foundation stone of the “Pamir” aluminum can production company at the industrial parks of Herat on Thursday.
According to officials, the Pamir factory is the first of its kind in Afghanistan and is being established with an investment of $120 million. The project will be built on 16 jeribs of land within Herat’s industrial zones.
Once completed, the factory is expected to create employment opportunities for around 1,700 Afghan citizens. Officials say the project will play a key role in boosting domestic production, reducing reliance on imports, and strengthening the national economy.
Authorities described the launch of the project as a clear sign of growing investment in the industrial sector and ongoing efforts to promote economic self-sufficiency in the country.
Latest News
Medvedev: IEA posed less threat to Russia than western-backed groups
He added that such organisations have consistently pursued one objective: “to break apart the multiethnic people of Russia.”
Russia’s Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) caused less harm to Russia than Western-backed civic organisations that, he claims, sought to undermine the country’s unity.
In an article published in the Russian journal Rodina, Medvedev wrote that while the IEA had long been designated as a terrorist organisation, its actions did not inflict the same level of damage on Russia as what he described as Western-supported institutions operating under the banner of academic or humanitarian work.
“Let us be honest: the Taliban (IEA) movement, long listed as a terrorist organisation, has caused modern Russia far less damage than all those pseudo-scientific institutions whose aim is to dismantle our country under the guise of aiding the oppressed,” Medvedev stated.
He added that such organisations have consistently pursued one objective: “to break apart the multiethnic people of Russia.”
Medvedev’s remarks come amid a shift in Russia’s official stance toward Afghanistan. In April, Russia’s Supreme Court suspended the ban on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had previously been included on the country’s list of terrorist organisations.
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