Top Taliban leader says 'naughty women' should stay home

New Delhi: A senior Taliban official said in a first on-camera interview that women who protested the regime's curbs should stay home.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan's acting interior minister and the Taliban's co-deputy leader, however repeated the militant group's not-yet-fulfilled promise of allowing girls back into school, according to CNN.

Showing his face, Sirajuddin Haqqani told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Kabul that there would be "good new soon" referring to girls' education.

In March, Taliban broke their promises of secondary school for girls, hesitating to reconsider it since.

When asked about Afghan women's fear of going out, Haqqani said with a laugh that they keep naughty women at home.

After Amanpour pressed him to clarify the comment, he said 'naughty women' was a joke about women who question the regime.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted by the FBI and has been classified by the US State Department as a "specially designated global terrorist", with a$10 million bounty on his head.

Haqqani set some parameters for future of women and work, which is based on the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law.

"They are allowed to work within their own framework," he was quoted as saying.

Under Taliban regime, as Haqqani said girls were allowed up to grade 6. He added "work is continuing on a mechanism" to allow them above that grade.

Haqqani said that there would be 'good news' about girls' education very soon.

When asked whether all women have to cover their faces, he said hijab was not compulsory and Taliba was not forcing women to wear the hijab, but instead advising and preaching to them to do so.

Since the beginning of May, the regime reportedly forced them to wear a full veil in public and preferably a burqa.