“We understand the benefits of education and the doors it opens for growth and development. We are not against it and we know that it is the right of men and women,” Acting Education Minister Sheikh Mawlawi Noorullah Moneer told Nikkei Asia in an interview.
“It is also our responsibility to provide them the platform to exercise that right as a human.”
Asked what that would look like, however, he offered only vague answers.
Moneer said the Taliban government is working on a “concise policy that will take everybody’s views into account. That is why its implementation is taking time.
“The Islamic Emirate is working on a mechanism that is in accordance with Shariah law and beneficial to everyone in the country.”
The Taliban’s last-minute decision to keep girls out of school – made the night before they were due to return on March 23 – has drawn widespread international condemnation.
The World Bank suspended US$600 million worth of projects that were meant to support health care, education and other sectors. The US also cancelled talks in Doha, Qatar that were supposed to address Afghanistan’s economic woes.
US State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said, “We have cancelled some of our engagements, including planned meetings in Doha around the Doha Forum, and have made clear that we see this decision as a potential turning point in our engagement.”
Moneer acknowledged these pressures and the potential costs in terms of aid for paying salaries and funding projects, but said the Taliban were willing to make these sacrifices to maintain unity.
The postponement of girls’ education appears to have been a compromise to appease the rural and tribal roots of the Taliban movement.
While most urban centres had welcomed the reopening for high school girls, much of rural Afghanistan was reluctant, especially in the Pashtun areas, according to Moneer.
“It is after 40 years of war that we finally have a single government that is controlling the entire country. So we need time,” he said. “It is not possible that everything should happen at the same time.”
But that is little solace for girls like 17-year-old Farwa, who said she was “shattered” when she arrived at school last month, only to be turned away.
“They don’t care about us or our dreams,” Farwa said. “All they care about is Islamic laws and preventing girls from going to school.”
The Taliban have made other moves that limit women’s freedom in recent weeks. On March 27, it ordered Afghan airlines to stop women from boarding flights without a male guardian.
Another edict issued by the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice ministry has enforced gender segregation in public parks, asking women to use them on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, while the remaining days are reserved for men.
When asked when the schools will reopen for girls, Moneer replied, “There is hope we will start very soon, inshallah.”