Mohammad Nabi Omari, the Taliban’s Deputy Minister of Interior, was moved to tears while speaking about the group’s strict restrictions on girls’ education, imposed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

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In a video accessed by WION, Omari is seen breaking down during a speech on the closure of girls’ schools. He urged for their reopening, stating: “All I know is that even if [girls’ education] is not a religious obligation or tradition, it is at least permissible.” After making this remark, he became visibly emotional.

A local source in Khost province told that Omari delivered the speech on Monday, 27 January, at a gathering in the Aisha Siddiqa girls’ school.

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During his address, Omari pleaded: “May God guide us. Religious studies are allowed, so modern sciences should also be permitted.” He warned that the Taliban’s extreme policies could result in future generations being “Muslim in name only.”

Who Is Omari?

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Mawlawi Mohammad Nabi Omari is a key member of the Haqqani Network and currently serves as the First Deputy Minister for Security Affairs at the Ministry of Interior in the Taliban's government. Prior to his current position, he served as the Governor of Khost province from November 2021 to October 2022. 

He first joined the Taliban in 1996 and worked as chief of security in Qalat, Zabul province, as well as radio operator in the chief of communications office in Kabul. He later worked for the head of the Taliban’s borders department, who maintained a direct reporting line to the then-Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. 

Following the U.S. ouster of the Taliban in 2001, Mawlawi Nabi Omari returned to Khost and engaging in used car sales before being captured by U.S. forces. He was held in the Bagram Detention Facility before being transferred to the Guantanamo Detention Facility, Cuba, in October 2002. 

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His Guantanamo file outlines maintained “strong operational ties to al-Qaeda” and that he was a member of a “joint al Qaeda/Taliban cell in Khost.” 

In 2014, he was released from Guantanamo in a prisoner exchange between the United States and the Taliban, a deal which involved four other senior Taliban members from Guantanamo, commonly known as the "Taliban Five" in exchange for the release of a U.S. sergeant, Bowe Bergdahl.

Upon his release, he was relocated to Doha, Qatar, where he served as a member of the Taliban’s Political Office and its negotiating team until August 2021