Former President Hamid Karzai calls for immediate return of girls to school in Afghanistan

Stresses that the education of girls “is in the interest” of the country and stresses that Afghanistan “cannot be an exception”

July 5. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has advocated for the immediate return to classes of girls in secondary courses, given the restrictions imposed by the Taliban, and has defended that education will allow the country to “advance” and reduce its dependence on aid international.

“These are issues and decisions of the Afghan people that require the current government to act so that Afghanistan moves forward with education so that the country can stand up instead of being a country that needs the world and from which people run,” he stressed. Karzai, who was in power between 2002 and 2014.

Thus, he stressed in an interview granted to the Emirati television channel Al Arabiya that “it is not necessary” to have a governance model in which the parties share power if the Taliban achieve the approval of the population and has argued that “the idea is to make Afghanistan belong to its people and make the government represent the people.

Karzai has emphasized that the return of female students to class is one of the ways through which the Taliban will be able to increase their level of approval and has pointed out that “it is in the interest of the Afghan people that Afghan women have an education” .

“The Muslim world as a whole works for girls to get an education. Islam highlights the education of girls and places a huge emphasis on education and learning, so Afghanistan cannot be an exception,” said the former president. .

In this sense, he has indicated that “Afghan women comply with the use of the hijab” and has pointed out that this “cannot be an excuse for not allowing girls to go to school.” “Some wear a burqa, some wear a scarf on their head, some do it in another way,” she has said, before stressing that “so much discussion about hijab is not necessary.”

“This is something that society does anyway. What is requested and what the country demands is that women be able to return to work. It is half of society, so it is extremely important,” he defended, before to add that “for the welfare of Afghanistan, any government that wants the country to do well understands that this cannot happen without women working shoulder to shoulder with men for a better future”.

Karzai’s words have come after several days of meetings by thousands of Afghan clerics to address the political and social situation and support the Taliban mandate, meetings that ended without a decision to reopen the classrooms.

The Taliban authorities have faced criticism for the closure of educational centers and the exclusion of female students from them, amid a battery of discriminatory measures against women that distance them from their jobs and govern aspects of their daily lives. .