Taliban Minister Says Afghan Youth No Longer Need Religious Education Abroad
Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban administration’s Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, has claimed that sufficient opportunities for religious education have been established within Afghanistan, eliminating the need for young Afghans to travel abroad to study Islamic sciences.
He made the remarks during a meeting with Sheikh Abdul Hafiz, head of a so-called ‘Jihadi Madrasa’ in Badakhshan province. Abdul Kabir emphasized that educational institutions, in addition to their regular activities, must convey the Taliban administration’s message and its purported development plans to the public and help guide society accordingly.
Sheikh Abdul Hafiz welcomed growing interest among the youth in the Taliban-run religious schools in Badakhshan, noting that the number of seminary students in these institutions is on the rise. He stressed that a direct connection between the people and the Taliban’s institutions would help strengthen what he referred to as the ‘Islamic system.’
While the Taliban administration continues to prioritize the expansion of its affiliated religious institutions, numerous experts and human rights activists have voiced grave concerns over the quality of education, extreme educational restrictions, and the decline of the broader academic system in the country.
More than three years after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, the country’s educational infrastructure has suffered a structural collapse, drastically limiting learning opportunities for thousands of students—particularly girls. In this context, the unilateral focus on promoting religious education within the Taliban’s ideological framework presents new challenges for Afghanistan’s younger generation.
