As reported by Arshad Mehmood, Stanikzai’s bold appeal is the first public challenge from a senior Taliban leader against the policy, which has faced widespread condemnation both domestically and internationally.

Stanikzai voiced his frustration with the sweeping education bans, condemning the restrictions as both unjust and un-Islamic. He issued a direct and public appeal to Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, urging a change in the policy.

Activist urges Muslim leaders to confront Afghanistan’s government over its oppressive policies against girls and women

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders on Sunday not to legitimise the Afghan Taliban government and to "show true leadership" over their assault on women's rights.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders on Sunday to back efforts to make gender apartheid a crime under international law, and called on them to speak out against Afghanistan’s Taliban over its treatment of women and girls.

Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to back efforts to make gender apartheid a crime under international law.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said she was "overwhelmed" to be back in her native Pakistan on Saturday, as the prime minister launched a global summit on girls' education in the Islamic world.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai decried the state of women’s rights in Taliban-led Afghanistan as “gender apartheid.”

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A senior Taliban official has called for the reversal of the group's controversial ban on education for Afghan women and girls, describing the policy as unjust and un-Islamic.Sher Abbas Stanikzai, a senior political deputy at Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry,

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.