New Delhi: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s statement saying that he won’t send his daughter to school abroad has gone viral. The statement comes against the backdrop of Taliban’s ongoing ban on girls’ education beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan.
“As a father, it is my responsibility to provide them with the best education. The best one can have. Especially for girls. But as a citizen of Afghanistan, it is also my responsibility to have my own country ready for educating girls in our own environment, in our own culture, in our own historical perspective, in our own languages,” Karzai said. “If I take my daughter out abroad, it will mean we have given up on this right.”
Taliban’s ban has kept 2.4 million girls out of secondary schools and universities since 2021.
“Today, Afghanistan stands out tragically as the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is strictly forbidden to girls and women,” said UNESCO. “Since seizing power, they have implemented more than 70 decrees violating the rights of girls and women — especially their right to education.”
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Convincing Taliban?
Karzai, 68, has been advocating for the immediate reopening of schools and universities for girls. He said that he has been speaking to Taliban officials urging them to ease the restrictions “whenever the opportunity comes.”
“I have been repeatedly speaking to them and telling them of the importance of education for Afghanistan, of the importance of Afghan women, half the society, getting back to work,” Karzai said during a Bloomberg interview. “Many of them understand, appreciate and agree with me.”
Karzai also spoke about his life under Taliban and his decision to stay in Afghanistan despite the restrictions on his movement.
“I can’t leave home without letting the Taliban authorities know that I am leaving somewhere. And then if they agree, they provide the security, and the escort, to take me there,” Karzai added in the interview.
He is the former president who led Afghanistan through the US-backed political transition after the Taliban’s first regime was removed in 2001. Karzai first served as an interim leader in 2001 until he was “popularly” elected as president in 2004 and remained in office until 2014.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)