Foreign ministers from several Muslim-majority countries are planning to go to Kabul in part to urge the Taliban to recognise that the exclusion of women and girls from education is a distortion of the Islamic faith.
The proposal has the support of western diplomats, who recognise that calls from them concerning universal values are going to have less traction with the Taliban than if the request comes from leaders of largely Islamic states.
The Taliban have debarred girls from going to secondary school since they took power in mid-August, producing a variety of reasons for doing so, and occasionally suggesting the ban is temporary.