“Merely Postponed”: Zakir Naik Defends Taliban Ban on Girls’ Education, Draws Condemnation From Three Countries

Zakir Naik says the Taliban has only postponed girls’ secondary education, but critics in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan call it a ban in all but name

PGurus Newsdesk

November 2, 2026

Girls have been barred from school after Class 6 since 2021, yet Naik calls media reports “propaganda” and claims women study Islamic PhDs

Five Years Out of School Is Not a “Delay”: Zakir Naik Faces Backlash for Backing Taliban Restrictions on Afghan Girls

For more than five years, Afghan girls have been locked out of classrooms. Zakir Naik says it is only a delay.

In a video circulating on social media, the Malaysia-based radical Islamic preacher, who left India, defended the Taliban’s restrictions on girls’ schooling. He said the regime had merely postponed secondary and higher education for girls, citing security concerns and a shortage of female teachers. “Everything that comes in the media is not true,” Naik said. He claimed to have discussed the policy with Taliban representatives, and added: “So if someone delays the education till they have the right teacher, there is no problem at all.”

He dismissed media reports of a ban as “propaganda.” Girls, he said, can study up to Class 6, and Afghan women are pursuing master’s degrees and PhDs in Islamic studies. He offered no independently verifiable figures to show the scale of any such opportunities.

The record contradicts him. The Taliban barred teenage girls from education soon after returning to power in August 2021, and females remain barred after sixth grade. A delay of more than five years, with no end date, is a ban by any honest definition. Naik’s defence also leaves out an obvious point: if teacher shortages were the problem, Kabul could train and hire women instead of shutting the schools.

The Taliban’s own ranks have not been unanimous. In a rare public rebuke in January 2025, senior Foreign Ministry official Sher Abbas Stanikzai said there was no justification for denying girls and women an education. Naik is defending a policy that some within the Taliban have publicly said cannot be defended.

The backlash has been swift and cross-border. Journalists, activists, academics and ordinary citizens in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have criticised his remarks. Malala Yousafzai’s father condemned them, warning that such talk risks legitimising the Taliban’s systematic restrictions on women and calling the situation a “grave injustice.” Malala herself was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, and has called the regime’s policies “gender apartheid.” Exiled Afghan MP Mariam Solaimankhil took a sarcastic swipe at his logic, calling it “brilliant.” Other critics dared Naik to move to Afghanistan and live under Taliban rule if he believes in its policies.

Naik’s argument also runs against a broad body of Muslim opinion. At a girls’ education summit in Islamabad in January 2025, Saudi cleric Muhammad al-Issa of the Muslim World League said those who call girls’ education un-Islamic are wrong. Pakistani clerics have said the ban is contrary to Islamic principles, and India’s All India Ulema Board has said it violates the teachings of Islam.

The picture is stark. Muslim scholars, a Nobel laureate and even a Taliban official have all said no justification exists. One preacher, speaking from outside Afghanistan, is offering one.

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