The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, on Thursday called on the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) to urgently launch a campaign to unite scholars in the Islamic world against the Taliban’s decision to ban women from getting an education.
According to a statement issued late Thursday by the OIC, Taha told the Fiqh Academy “to quickly launch a global campaign to unite scholars and religious authorities in the Islamic world against the Taliban government’s decision to prevent girls from education, including university education, and its other repercussions, and to explain the true teachings of Islam, which calls for the education of girls.”
According to the statement, Taha’s call came at the opening of the second meeting of the 2022 IIFA Bureau, held via video conferencing on Thursday, December 29, 2022.
The secretary-general chaired the meeting and said: “The decision of the Taliban government to prevent girls from education, including university education, and to dismiss female faculty members from their positions on the pretext that this contradicts Islamic law, was the latest challenge to be reviewed by the IIFA in addition to issues of minorities, escalating hostility to Muslims in Western countries, and other pressing issues”.
However, Taha stressed the priority of the Afghan dossier in the OIC and IIFA agendas. He also pointed out that the Taliban’s decision was not based on texts in Islamic law. He also indicated that a team of scholars visited Afghanistan in June and held extensive meetings with Taliban scholars and government leaders.
He also stressed that the Taliban’s decision to deprive Afghan females of education increases misconceptions spread about true Islam.
“It was agreed that Islam granted women all their rights, including the right to education and work, explaining that the Taliban’s decision deepens the fallacies that are spread from which Islam is free,” Taha said.
Taha’s remarks come amid growing outrage around the world at the Taliban’s increasing list of orders against women – the latest being a ban on females getting any education above grade six and the ban on women working for NGOs.
