KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Militants broke into the home of an Afghan headmaster and beheaded him while forcing his wife and eight children to watch, the latest in a spate of attacks blamed on the Taliban that has forced many schools to close.

The insurgents claim that educating girls is against Islam and they oppose government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion.

Four armed men stabbed Malim Abdul Habib, 45, eight times before decapitating him in the courtyard of his home in the town of Qalat late Tuesday, according to a provincial government spokesman, Ali Khail, and a cousin of the victim, Dr. Esanullah.

Habib was slain after he refused to go with the militants to meet their commander, Dr. Esanullah, who like many Afghans uses one name, said.

The assailants made Habib’s wife and four sons and four daughters, aged 2 to 22, watch but did not hurt them physically, Mr. Khail said.

The militants then fled, and Habib’s wife called the police, he said. Investigators were questioning three people who were guests in the victim’s home.

The government condemned the killing. Masood Khalili, the Afghan ambassador to Turkey, where President Karzai was visiting yesterday, called the attack a “disgusting action by the enemies of Afghanistan.”

Habib was the headmaster and a teacher at Shaikh Mathi Baba high school, attended by 1,300 boys and girls. It is located in Zabul, a remote mountainous province populated mainly by Pashtuns that borders Pakistan and is a hotbed of Taliban militancy.

Zabul province’s education director, Nabi Khushal, blamed the Taliban for the killing, saying the insurgents have put up posters around Qalat demanding that schools for girls be closed and threatening to kill teachers.

“Only the Taliban are against girls being educated,” he said. “The Taliban often attack our teachers and beat them. But this is the first time one has been killed in this province.”

Dr. Esanullah said Habib resumed his more then 20-year teaching career two years ago, after the Taliban threatened him while he was working for a group helping the disabled. Since then, the Taliban told him twice to stop teaching.

Hundreds of students and teachers attended Habib’s funeral yesterday.

Taliban spokesmen and commanders in the region, one of the most volatile in Afghanistan, could not immediately be reached for comment.