Taliban reneged on promise to reopen Afghan girls’ schools: Blinken

Kabul [Afghanistan], April 30 (ANI): The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed his disappointment over the fact that the Taliban has failed to fulfil their promises about reopening schools for girls in Afghanistan.

Testifying before a Senate committee in Washington, Blinken said that the Taliban has been unable to keep their promise of granting Afghan girls over grade 6, access to education by withdrawing their decision of banning girls’ schools, reported Tolo News. “We have seen, including most recently, the Taliban fall back on its commitment that it had made to ensure that girls can go to school above the six grade,” said Blinken.

When asked by Senator Lindsey Graham about the presence of Daesh and al-Qaeda groups in Afghanistan, Blinken said that there is a very small number of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. In response to Senator Lindsey Graham, Blinken mentioned that the presence of Islamic groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda which stand in opposition to the Taliban has been rendered futile because they are small in number, reported Tolo News.

“ISIS-K is as you know is of course an enemy of the Taliban and the issue there is not the will of the Taliban to take them on, it is their capacity. When it comes to the al-Qaeda, the Arab al-Qaeda core, there are a very, very small number of people,” Blinken said. Further, an Afghan women’s rights activist, Shahla Arifi emphasized the importance of female education, highlighting the fact that Afghan women are the future of the country and yet they are being deprived of “educational, social and political rights.”

Earlier, Thomas West, the US special envoy for Afghanistan had expressed his concerns to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, over the ban of girls’ schools in a phone conversation. West even urged the Afghan government to pay heed to the religious scholars of the country and revoke the ban.

The worldwide condemnation of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has heightened, even more, after the Taliban decided to close all secondary schools for girls. Several activists and political parties have also urged the Taliban to reconsider the ban on secondary schools for girls. Earlier, the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) expressed their concern that the closing of secondary and high schools for girl students is a serious issue.

However, the Taliban’s Ministry of Education has assured that the schools for girls in grades 7-12 will be reopened in the near future. (ANI)