Former President Hamid Karzai in an interview with German Magazine, Spiegel, has said that the Taliban’s policy to bar Afghan girls from attending school was made on Pakistan’s orders rather than in accordance with Islamic law.
According to Hamid Karzai, Pakistan ordered the ban on girls’ schools. He stated that the Taliban cannot erase the people’s accomplishments over the previous 2 decades in an interview with the German magazine Spiegel.
Karzai stated that denying girls the opportunity to attend school will result in an impoverished Afghanistan, isolated, and incapable of standing on its own feet.
Former President Karzai added that “the goal of Pakistan is a defenseless, weak and poor Afghanistan that does not pose any problem to Pakistan.”
This is as Taliban officials have stated that efforts are being made to reopen the schools. Taliban officials claim that there are continuous talks among the group’s leadership to reopen secondary and high schools for girls, however, they have never formally stated why they have banned them.
In addition, Karzai stated that some Taliban officials are in favor of reopening girls’ schools.
“Millions of boys and girls have received an education, Afghanistan’s society has evolved, and they have had access to media freedom,” he said. “Even the Taliban cannot easily take this back from the Afghans.”
Following the overthrow of the Taliban, Karzai served as president of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014.