Taliban to Drop Opposition to Girls’ Education, Minister Says

The Afghan education minister said that the insurgent group no longer opposes girls attending school.

File this one in the “believe it when you see it” pile. Education Minister Farooq Wardak’s claim that the Taliban has ended its resistance to female education is being met with skepticism across the country, with other legislators claiming that the extremist Muslim group would never accept equal rights for men and women. Opposition to female education is widespread in Afghan society, but the Kabul government has been negotiating with the Taliban to end the country’s ten-year insurgency and according to Wardak, the issue of girls’ schooling is an area in which the militants are willing to compromise. Schools that accept girls as students have been regular targets for attack in recent years.