A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

In a rare public rebuke, the foreign ministry deputy calls on the Taliban's leadership to end the ban on education for Afghan women and girls.

A senior Taliban government official has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls during a speech at a religious school in southeastern Khost province on Saturday, as reported by news agency The Associated Press (AP).

The rare public rebuke from Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, comes amid persistent international calls for Afghanistan’s rulers to permit girls’ education in secondary school