H.E. Mullah Abdulhakim Shari, Minister of Justice of the current Afghan authority, received a delegation of the Ummah’s scholars on the morning of Saturday, Safar 16, 1445, corresponding to September 2, 2023, at the Ministry’s headquarters in the capital, Kabul.

His Excellency the Minister began the meeting by thanking the delegation of scholars for this second visit to Afghanistan led by H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the Academy, and by praising the delegation’s concerns with the Afghan people and their desire for stability, progress and development, noting that the Islamic Emirate is advancing towards more achievements, thanks to Allah the Almighty, and then thanked the supplications and advice of the scholars of the Ummah.

For his part, H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, head of the delegation, expressed their sincere thanks and appreciation to the Afghan authority for its warm welcome and generous hospitality. His Excellency also expressed the delegation’s pleasure at the achievements and changes Afghanistan has witnessed over the past two years, praising in particular the stable situation, security and economic growth, noting also the authority’s wise decision to open religious schools at all levels for girls and boys. He also expressed the delegation’s great satisfaction at seeing girls and boys strolling through the streets of Kabul, their schoolbags on their backs, as they arrived at the Ministry’s headquarters. His Excellency concluded his speech by stressing the importance of enabling girls to receive an education, both religious and secular, at all stages and in all fields, bearing in mind that education in Islam, both religious and secular, is a sacred legal right for girls and boys. It is not permissible for anyone to deprive any of its types, if beneficial, of any kind, for endowing women and men with useful sciences is one of the great responsibilities that fathers and mothers, society and the state will have to assume on the Day of Judgment. Therefore, the scholars of the Ummah around the world call upon the responsible authorities of the Emirate to allow girls and boys to return to their studies in schools and universities as soon as possible, in order to continue their education and qualification in all fields of education that the Afghan people need, including medicine, engineering, architecture, nursing, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and other useful sciences. They explain that “the sciences and knowledge with which women and men must be endowed include the religious sciences and the sciences of the world, and it is not permissible to deprive them of any type of science, for Shariah has not made any distinction between the sciences when it commanded it to be sought and acquired, according the authentic hadiths” : “It has not differentiated between men and women, nor between levels of education, and so it is not permissible to differentiate between them, nor to deprive a woman or a man of them, especially as the Afghan Muslim community is increasingly in need of the world’s sciences, due to the difficult circumstances it has experienced over the past forty years of war. His Excellency then concluded his speech by underlining the willingness of OIC member states to allow the ruling authority to benefit from its experience in the field of women’s education, in line with the principle of cooperation in righteousness and piety, and the desired Islamic integration.

The floor was given over to speeches and comments by the eminent scholars taking part, all of whom stressed the importance of redoubling efforts to enable Afghan girls and boys to receive education, both religious and worldly, and at all levels, in the hope of enhancing the progress, stability, rebirth and advancement of the Afghan people.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister appealed to the delegation to reassure the Muslim world about the situation of the Afghan people and the urgent need to stand by them and provide support and assistance to this people who have suffered the scourges of war, unrest and conflict. His Excellency also asked the delegation to work towards the reopening of embassies and diplomatic missions in Kabul.