Taliban Names Religious School After Former Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar

The Taliban has named a religious-jihadi school in Shahrak district of Ghor province after Yahya Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas.

Mohammad Jalal, a Taliban official, said that this action shows solidarity with Gaza and keeping the struggle of Hamas leaders alive for future generations.

Mohammad Jalal is one of the people close to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister. Referring to the naming of this religious school after Yahya Sinwar, he wrote on social media platform X that this action shows solidarity with Gaza and the "heroism" of Hamas leaders.

Jalal wrote that Yahya Sinwar is an inspiration to Palestinian children and naming a religious school in Afghanistan after him will keep the struggles of Hamas leaders alive for generations.

Yahya Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas

Sources in Ghor Province told Afghanistan International that Rahmatullah Hijrat, a Taliban intelligence official in Panjshir, established this religious school in his hometown in the district center of Shahrak in Ghor Province.

This Taliban official has recently changed the name of this school to the "Martyr School of Ummat Yahya Al-Sinwar". On the board of this school, the administration of the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) is included, which shows that it operates under the supervision of the Taliban.

Sources said that more than 500 students are studying in this school.

During the last three years, on the one hand, the Taliban has closed girls' schools above the sixth grade and prohibited women from going to university, on the other hand, it has established thousands of religious and jihadist schools throughout Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Education of the Taliban has announced that the number of religious schools is massive now. According to the statistics of this ministry, more than three million students are educated in these religious centres. Social activists and experts have repeatedly expressed concern about the increase in religious schools due to the strengthening of extremism in the country.

Experts say that the Taliban brainwash children and students in religious schools and train them to be extremist and ideological.

In addition to establishing religious schools, the Taliban has also changed the system of education and higher education. Taliban has increased Islamic themes and removed some specialised themes.

"Common goal of Taliban and Hamas"

Although the nature of the war between Hamas and Israel and the bloody war of the Taliban in Afghanistan was different, these two militant groups have inspired each other. Taliban says it has common goals with the Hamas .

After the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, Ismail Haniyeh, the former leader of Hamas, called the group's consolidation and re-domination of the Taliban a "victory over America”. In a phone call with the Taliban's foreign minister, Haniyeh expressed hope that the Taliban would be able to "play a role in supporting their brothers in Palestine for the liberation of Jerusalem”.

During the past year, Ismail Haniyeh was killed, followed by Yahya Sinwar, his successor. The Taliban condemned their killing and the group's officials repeatedly praised Hamas' war.

In the past months, the Taliban has built the symbol of the "Al Aqsa" mosque in several areas of Kabul and in some provinces of Afghanistan. This group has also launched demonstrations in support of Hamas' war against Israel.