Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi says both the Muslim world and Western countries have urged the Taliban administration to reopen schools for girls, acknowledging that their continued closure is a problem.
Asked in an interview with senior BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet whether the message from the international community was reaching Taliban leaders, Muttaqi said it was, and that all countries had called on the Taliban to allow Afghan girls to return to school.
However, he added that Afghanistan should not be viewed solely through a Western lens.
Muttaqi also acknowledged during the interview that the closure of girls’ schools remains a problem.
At the same time, the Taliban foreign minister said that the Western perspective should not be the standard by which Afghanistan is judged, stressing that not everything has been banned for women.
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the country’s human rights crisis has become increasingly structural and systematic.
While Taliban officials describe the closure of schools above sixth grade and universities to girls as temporary and until further notice, human rights activists and international organisations have described the policy as “gender apartheid” and the deliberate exclusion of more than half of society.
Taliban claims versus the human rights situation
In his interview with Lyse Doucet, Muttaqi claimed that around three million girls were still studying at primary schools and religious seminaries, while tens of thousands of women continued to work in healthcare, education and small businesses.
Citing these figures, he sought to argue that the international community was overlooking realities inside Afghanistan.
However, reports by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan present a different picture.
Denial of education
More than 2.5 million girls have been deprived of their basic right to secondary and higher education.
Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are barred from education beyond primary school.
Restrictions on employment and financial independence
The dismantling of independent institutions, restrictions on women working for the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, and the closure of businesses such as women’s beauty salons have severely damaged women’s financial independence.
International figures indicate that women’s formal employment has fallen below 10%.
Restrictions on freedom of movement
Successive orders imposing mandatory dress rules and banning travel without a male mahram have severely restricted women’s access to public spaces.
Systematic human rights violations and lack of accountability
Human rights concerns in Afghanistan under Taliban rule extend beyond restrictions on women.
Multiple reports by human rights organisations have documented arbitrary arrests, torture, retaliatory killings of former government security personnel, and severe repression of protesters and journalists.
Civil society activists say the central issue is not only the restrictions themselves, but also the absence of a transparent legal and judicial framework through which victims can seek justice.
Courts operate according to strict interpretations without meaningful accountability, while oversight bodies such as the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission have been completely dissolved.
Women who have protested in the streets of Kabul and other cities have faced harsh responses, ranging from night-time arrests and forced confessions to psychological pressure on their families.
Critics say this approach shows that even the fundamental right to peaceful assembly and protest has effectively been denied.
Diplomatic deadlock and international response
The international community and the United Nations have repeatedly said that recognition of the Taliban government is directly linked to improvements in human rights and an end to the repression of women.
The Taliban, however, describes women’s rights as an internal matter connected to traditional and religious values.
UN experts argue that this justification is being used to disregard Afghanistan’s international obligations under human rights treaties.
The human rights crisis in Afghanistan has also deepened the country’s humanitarian and economic problems.
By excluding women from education and economic life, sustainable development has been severely undermined, while a new generation of girls is growing up without a clear prospect for the future.
What Taliban officials describe as a temporary suspension is viewed by human rights observers as a deliberate policy aimed at confining women to their homes and removing them from public life.
They warn that this approach poses profound challenges to Afghanistan’s international legitimacy and its social future.
