Amid UN criticism, Taliban identify new schooling minister

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban appointed a brand new schooling minister for Afghanistan, days after the United Nations referred to as on the nation’s new rulers to reopen colleges for ladies past sixth grade.

Since seizing energy in Afghanistan simply over a yr in the past, the Taliban have restricted the rights of ladies to schooling, regardless of preliminary guarantees on the contrary. The United Nations estimates that greater than 1,000,000 women have been barred from attending most of center college and highschool over the previous yr.

The appointment, which got here late on Tuesday and was introduced by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujaihid, named Habibullah Agha, the present head of Kandahar Provincial Council, as the brand new schooling minister, changing Noorullah Munir. The primary Taliban-appointed schooling minister was Hemat Akhundzada, who was within the submit till final September.

No data was out there on Agha.

A yr because the Taliban took over the nation because the Western-backed authorities and navy crumbled, the U.N. has stated it was more and more involved that Taliban restrictions on women’ schooling, in addition to different measures curbing fundamental freedoms, would deepen Afghanistan’s financial disaster and result in larger insecurity, poverty, and isolation.

“It is a tragic, shameful, and completely avoidable anniversary,” stated Markus Potzel, appearing head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.

The Taliban say they’re engaged on a plan to open secondary colleges for ladies however haven’t given a timeframe. Nonetheless, hard-liners seem to carry sway within the Taliban-run authorities and girls are required to cowl themselves from head to toe in public, with solely their eyes displaying.

Whereas nonetheless schooling minister, Munir was quoted as saying on a latest journey to southern Uruzgan province that folks in rural areas don’t wish to ship their daughters to high school, describing it as a “cultural difficulty.“

The Taliban additionally introduced that Mullah Mohammad Mohsin Hashimi, till now the Taliban’s deputy inside minister, would change into the governor for northern Panjshir province, the place an anti-Taliban opposition power remains to be lively.

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