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. Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province. He told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn't be one at all. The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women. In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals. Authorities have yet to confirm the medical training ban. We call on the leadership again to open the doors of education," said Stanikzai in a video shared by his official account on the social platform X.