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. Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province.

A senior Taliban government official has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls during a speech at a religious school in southeastern Khost province on Saturday, as reported by news agency The Associated Press (AP).

The rare public rebuke from Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, comes amid persistent international calls for Afghanistan’s rulers to permit girls’ education in secondary school