In one of the strongest public criticisms in recent years, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister, has called on his senior leadership to lift restrictions on girls' education in Afghanistan. During a speech over the weekend, Stanekzai stated that the Taliban's policy of restricting education for girls and women was not in line with Islamic Sharia law, urging the leadership to open schools for girls.

Stanekzai, who previously led the Taliban's political office in Doha, emphasized that the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and that the current policy was unjust toward the country's female population. "Today, out of a population of forty million, we are committing injustice against twenty million people," he said, referring to Afghan women.

His remarks have sparked attention as one of the strongest rebukes from a senior Taliban official regarding the ongoing school closures. While the Taliban’s supreme spiritual leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, has enforced these restrictions, internal divisions on the matter have been reported, with some diplomats and Taliban sources expressing concern about the policy's impact.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, they have reversed promises to open high schools for girls, and by the end of 2022, they closed universities to female students. Despite claims that they are working on plans to reopen schools, no concrete timeline has been provided, and the policies have been widely criticized by international organizations and Islamic scholars.

The Taliban's stance on women's education has become a significant point of contention globally, with Western diplomats stating that formal recognition of the Taliban administration is unlikely without changes to their policies regarding women’s rights.