The decision to ban women from educational institutes was announced by the Taliban officials in December and it drew widespread condemnation from foreign governments and the United Nations.
The Taliban had promised in the 2020 Doha Agreement on the terms of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that they would not harbor al-Qaeda members. Nearly a year after the U.S. military s chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, al-Zawahri s killing raises questions about the involvement of Taliban.
The Taliban has banned girls in Afghanistan from attending school past the sixth grade, signaling fundamental divisions between hard-liners and moderates.
The Taliban leadership in Afghanistan has applauded the UN Security Council's decision to exempt a number of high-ranking Taliban officials from the travel ban.