Taliban must achieve trust of their own people first: Former Afghan President Karzai

Former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has expressed concern over the education ban on girls’ education imposed by the Taliban and said such a step could push the country further backwards. He also said the regime must ensure that all sections of the population feel represented by the government.

“We must make sure that all the Afghan people see themselves as belonging to this country and represented by the government, and that we take all the necessary steps to prove to the rest of the world that we mean well for Afghanistan,” former president Karzai said in an interview with America’s National Public Radio. Karzai also expressed concerns on the ban on education of girls in the country and emphasised that it has caused the entire nation to fall behind, Khaama Press reported.

Last year in August, when the Taliban took control of Kabul, the previous government fell and tens of thousands of Afghans fled their homeland. Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, was not one of them. As per Khaama Press, Karzai called on the US to assist the Afghan people by unfreezing the country’s frozen foreign reserves, as he described the evacuation process and withdrawal of US forces very dishonorable.

The situation of human rights in Afghanistan has also worsened since the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s return to power in August last year. Taliban has imposed draconian restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement for women and girls. The Taliban’s decision to ban female students above grade six from going to school has drawn widespread criticism at the national and international levels.

Further, the Taliban regime has also curtailed women’s rights and freedoms with women largely excluded from the workforce due to the economic crisis and restrictions. As a result of this, women and girls in Afghanistan are facing a human rights crisis, deprived of the fundamental rights to non-discrimination, education, work, public participation and health. Afghan women are staring at a bleak future due to a number of restrictions imposed by the Taliban governing aspects of their lives.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), women and girls are blocked from accessing health care as well. Reports suggest that women and girls facing violence have no escape route. Allowing girls into schools and other educational institutes has been one of the main demands of the international community. The majority of countries have refused to formally recognize the Taliban amid worries over their treatment of girls and women and other human rights issues.

Women are no longer allowed to travel unless accompanied by men related to them and are being curtailed from wearing make-up as well as their reproductive rights. Although the fighting in the country has ended, serious human rights violations continue unabated. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)