The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister called on his senior leadership to open schools for Afghan girls, among the strongest public rebukes of a policy that has contributed to the international isolation of its rulers.

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.

"The next terrorist attack will be 100 percent fully funded by the American taxpayer," Representative Tim Burchett said.

President Biden spoke by phone Sunday with the families of three Americans held by the Taliban, Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi.

India and Afghanistan have taken a significant step in securing their first high-level bilateral engagement. No foreign government, including India, officially recognizes the Taliban regime.

Activist urges Muslim leaders to confront Afghanistan’s government over its oppressive policies against girls and women

GENEVA — The Taliban must provide Ryan Corbett, an American held in Afghanistan for nearly two years, with immediate medical care to prevent irreparable harm to his health or even his death, a United Nations expert said Thursday.

The Taliban's foreign office said they saw India as a "significant regional and economic partner" after meeting with its most senior foreign ministry official, the highest level talks with Delhi since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

The president has decided not to surrender Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, whom the U.S. alleges worked for Osama bin Laden, unless the Taliban turns over missing American Mahmoud Habibi.

The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister called on his senior leadership to open schools for Afghan girls, among the strongest public rebukes of a policy that has contributed to the international isolation of its rulers.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai decried the state of women’s rights in Taliban-led Afghanistan as “gender apartheid.”

"Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not see women as human beings," she told an international summit hosted by Pakistan on girls education in Islamic countries. Ms Yousafzai told Muslim leaders there was "nothing Islamic" about the Taliban's policies which include banning female education and stopping women from working.