Nasir Ahmad Faiq, the acting permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations, has recently announced that the Taliban group is strangers to Persian.
Mr. Faiq made these statements on Sunday (July 12) in response to the Taliban’s move to restrict the use of Persian in the group’s offices, saying that the Taliban mostly studied in jihadi schools outside Afghanistan in Urdu and Pashto and were not familiar with Persian.
He further emphasized that Persian and Pashto have always been used in government correspondence.
The permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations added that giving preference to one language over another is a policy of divisive groups that are against the unity of the Afghan people.
This is despite previous reports about restricting the use of Persian in Taliban administrative correspondence.
According to these reports, the Taliban Ministry of Interior has ordered that all correspondence in all provinces except Badakhshan and Bamyan be conducted in Pashto.
This move by the Taliban has been met with widespread public and political reactions.
It is worth noting that the Taliban had previously taken action in some cases, including the removal of Persian words.