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The Taliban’s foreign minister faced questions on Afghan girls and women being banned from education and work as he sat down for a rare press conference in Delhi on Sunday, attended by women journalists.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, a UN-sanctioned leader and senior minister in the Taliban’s de facto regime in Afghanistan, claimed education of girls and women was not “haram”, or declared forbidden under laws governing Islam, and has been postponed until the next order of the country’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where the government has banned girls and women from their basic rights, including being seen in public parks, gymnasiums, mosques, markets and salons.

The Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls and freedom of expression have drawn criticism from rights groups and foreign governments since the former insurgents resumed control of Afghanistan in 2021. Taliban officials have previously claimed they respected women’s rights in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic law. But they have also tightened controls on women’s access to public life, barring them from university and high school.

“At present we have 10 million students attending schools and other educational institutes, of which, 2.8 million are women and girls. In religious seminaries, this educational opportunity is available all the way to the graduation level. There are certain limitations in specific parts, but that does not mean that we oppose education,” Mr Muttaqi told a group of more than 50 journalists gathered at the embassy of Afghanistan in the heart of the Indian capital.

“We have not declared it religiously ‘haram’, but it has been postponed until the second order,” he said after being questioned on curbing the basic rights of nearly half of Afghanistan’s population. He also claimed that Afghanistan was witnessing peace and all necessary changes would be introduced with time.

Journalists were not allowed to counter the Taliban minister’s claims.

In the past, videos shared on social media showed women students being chased by the Taliban government’s “vice and virtue” personnel outside the gates of a prominent university as they demanded entry. Afghan women were also whipped by the Taliban for protesting for their right to education. Amnesty International said in a report that the lives of Afghan women and girls were being destroyed by a “suffocating” crackdown by the Taliban since they took power.

The controversial press conference was held just a day after massive outrage over the Taliban’s exclusion of women journalists from a male-only gathering for a press conference in Delhi on Friday.

Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi attends a press conference in New Delhi (Reuters)

The women journalists, including this reporter for The Independent, who had gathered outside the Afghan embassy in Delhi on Friday, were stopped by security staff and Delhi police officials from attending the event despite multiple requests.

Mr Muttaqi said on Sunday the exclusion of women from the press conference was a “technical issue” and that their list for “selected journalists” was curated at a short notice.

The Taliban’s enforcement of Sharia rule in Afghanistan has been the main roadblock to their international recognition. Shortly after taking control of Kabul, they banned girls over sixth grade from attending schools and rolled out another ban on women from attending colleges and universities.