Former President Hamid Karzai has said the Taliban’s continued ban on girls’ education and their restrictions on women’s rights is a serious barrier to both international recognition and the well-being of Afghan society, urging the Taliban to reopen schools and universities for women and girls.
“We want our girls to go to school. We want schools and universities in Afghanistan,” Karzai said in an interview with the Russian broadcaster RTVI. “We want our girls to participate fully. For all Afghans to be in Afghanistan, we must have hope for a better future and good relations with the outside world. This can be done already under the current government — the Taliban government — but we must keep these goals in mind.”
Karzai described the issue as fundamental to Afghanistan’s progress. “The issue of women’s rights and girls’ education is extremely important,” he said. “It is a very serious obstacle both to international recognition and to the well-being of the Afghan people.”
He added that a “vast majority of the Taliban” agree in principle with the need for girls’ education, and expressed hope that “progress can be made on this issue.”
Karzai, who led Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014, has remained in Kabul under Taliban rule. While denying that he is under house arrest, he acknowledged that Taliban authorities have delayed some of his foreign travel.
“The Taliban leadership recently approved one of my foreign trips,” he said. “I am not under house arrest. I can leave and return. At times, travel is delayed while the Taliban make decisions. It takes time, but it eventually happens.”
Karzai also expressed disappointment in regional powers, saying that countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and India had not coordinated a unified response to Afghanistan’s post-Western transition.
“After the U.S. withdrawal and the formation of the current government, we had high hopes that these countries would come together and address the vacuum,” he said. “But that didn’t happen. No coordinated regional initiative has taken shape.”
Karzai added that during the years of the republic, he referred to the Taliban as “brothers” and continues to use the same language when speaking of the Taliban’s critics, calling for reconciliation among all Afghans.
Separately, Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Karzai recently met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi during a visit to Rome.
