Minister of Borders, Tribes and Tribal Affairs Noorullah Noori says Western countries are trying to create division among the people under the labels of madrassa and school, but he says they will not achieve their goals.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for more than 700 students in Kabul, Noori added: “Seeing school and madrassa as separate is a Western idea and a conspiracy of occupiers. This is a corrupt plot by the enemies of the religion of Allah and of Afghanistan.”

Noori stated that the government is committed to religious education, especially modern sciences, and considers the country’s progress impossible without them.

He emphasized that today, jihad and the defense of the homeland are carried out based on technology, and that necessary attention has been given to this area as well.

At the ceremony, Mohammad Ali Jan Ahmad, the Deputy Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs, described both religious and modern education as an obligation.

Jan Ahmad said: “Learning modern sciences is obligatory for religious affairs. If we acquire religious sciences to prepare ourselves to confront the infidels, then certainly modern sciences are also obligatory for us.”

The newly graduated students also called on the Islamic Emirate to provide more opportunities for them to continue their education.

Meanwhile, the ministry officials also said that during the past twenty years, efforts had been made to promote Western culture in Afghanistan.

Abdul Rahman Munir, the Deputy Minister for Counter-Narcotics at the Ministry of Interior, said on Saturday at the meeting of the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating Drugs (CARICC) in Uzbekistan that the cultivation, trafficking, and sale of narcotics in Afghanistan have “almost dropped to zero.”

Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, said in a statement that Munir described the Islamic Emirate’s ongoing counter-narcotics campaign in Afghanistan as “a milestone of achievements.”

At the meeting, Munir emphasized cooperation among member countries and called on them to assist Afghan farmers in creating alternative livelihood opportunities so that the phenomenon of narcotics can be completely eradicated from Afghanistan.

Australia on Saturday announced financial sanctions and travel bans on four senior officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), citing what it described as a worsening human rights situation in the country, particularly for women and girls.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the targeted officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law.”

Australia had been part of the NATO-led international mission in Afghanistan before withdrawing its troops in August 2021.

Wong said the sanctions target three IEA ministers and the IEA’s chief justice, accusing them of restricting women’s and girls’ access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and participation in public life.

The officials include Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice; Neda Mohammad Nadeem, Minister of Higher Education; Abdul Hakim Sharei, Minister of Justice; and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.

According to Wong, the measures fall under Australia’s new sanctions framework, which allows Canberra to “directly impose its own sanctions and travel bans to increase pressure on the Taliban (IEA), targeting the oppression of the Afghan people.”

Responding to the announcement, Saif-ul-Islam Khaibar, spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, criticized the sanctions.

He claimed that countries imposing such measures “are themselves violators of women’s rights” and called Australia’s move an insult to the religious and cultural values of Afghans.

Khaibar added that the IEA has “stopped rights violations of hundreds of thousands of women over the past four years.”