In yet another display of the Taliban’s deepening repression, the group’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, dismissed critical questions about the regime’s ongoing ban on girls’ education and the cancellation of a planned diplomatic trip to India, labeling both as “minor” concerns.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul on Monday, Mujahid refused to clarify whether the Taliban’s newly announced national development strategy would include any provisions for girls’ education beyond the primary level or allow women access to universities. He vaguely noted that the document addresses education only in general terms, offering no commitment to reversing the sweeping bans imposed since the group’s return to power.
The press briefing came just a day after the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee confirmed that India had withdrawn its request for a travel exemption for Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, whose visit to New Delhi had been scheduled for August 27–29. Mujahid once again dismissed the diplomatic setback as “minor.”
The regime’s contempt for women was further underscored during the same event when the microphone of a female journalist was abruptly cut off as she attempted to ask a question. Under the Taliban’s harsh interpretation of their so-called “Promotion of Virtue” law, even women’s voices are deemed “awrah”, intimate and inappropriate in public, leading to widespread restrictions on female participation in media and public life.
Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have systematically dismantled women’s rights; banning girls from secondary and university education, and more recently, extending this prohibition to religious studies by decree from the group’s supreme leader. The move has triggered outrage among Afghans, human rights advocates, and the international community, who accuse the Taliban of pushing Afghanistan back into an era of gender apartheid.
Mujahid’s dismissal of these issues as “minor” highlights the regime’s unwillingness to engage with the growing humanitarian and human rights crises it has caused, particularly its war on women and girls.
