Reverse the de factor ban on girls’ education: Malala to Taliban govt

A Taliban fighter checks commuters along a road in Injil district of Herat Province on Tuesday. Pic/AFP

Pakistani Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has called on the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan to re-open secondary schools for girls with immediate effect. She put forward this demand in an open letter addressed to the new rulers of the war-torn nation.

"To the Taliban authorities, reverse the de factor ban on girls' education and re-open girls' secondary schools immediately," Yousafzai and other Afghan women rights activists wrote in the open letter. The Pakistani activist was shot in the head by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in her hometown of Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2012 for being the promoter and supporter of female education. Her open letter comes after a month since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Since then, the Taliban has maintained that they will be allowing girl education. However, they have allowed only boys education institutions to open.

Iraq PM announces arrest of IS terrorist

Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced the arrest of a key Islamic State (IS) terrorist allegedly responsible for a Baghdad bombing five years ago that killed hundreds of people. Al-Kadhimi said on Twitter that the Iraqi Intelligence Service carried out an operation outside the country to arrest Ghazwan al-Zawbai, nicknamed Abu Ubaidah Baghdad, reports Xinhua news agency.

US ambassador to Afghan steps down

Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation since September 2018, has stepped down, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced. Taking to Twitter on Monday night, Blinken said, "Thank you to Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad for decades of tireless service to the United States. Pleased to welcome Thomas West to the role of Special Representative for Afghanistan."

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever