The Foreign Ministry of the Interim Afghan Government has clarified that Deputy Minister Sayed Abbas Stanikzai has not left the country and is actually resting due to illness.

The statement from the ministry said that Stanikzai will be resting for a ‘few days’. Reports have also claimed that Stanikzai has tested positive for Covid-19 and is isolating to recover.

Speculation had begun that Stanikzai, a senior Taliban leader, could have fled from the country after he openly confronted a policy made by the senior leadership.

Speaking at a seminary last week, Stanikzai had called for the policy of the ban on the education of women to be reversed.

He added that the ban on women’s education was based on personal interpretation and did not necessarily have a basis in Sharia.

“In the time of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women,” he had said.

Stanikzai had gone on to add that women made up half of Afghanistan 40 million population and the ban was effectively excluding them from society.

The statement made headlines as rebukes of senior leaders are not a common occurrence in the strict hierarchy of the Afghan Taliban, who seized the country in 2021 almost immediately after the US forces withdrew from the country.

Stanikzai’s remarks also carried weight as he is a senior Taliban leader, and was even part of the negotiation team that held talks with US in Doha before the withdrawal.

Taliban have imposed a ban on the education of women beyond grade six. The policy has attracted much criticism from across the world.