Ex-Afghan president Karzai believes Taliban will allow girls back to school

In an interview with FRANCE 24, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai urged the Biden administration to rescind a decision to allocate half the $7 billion in Afghan assets frozen in the US to families of victims of the 9/11 attacks. He said the money belongs to the Afghan people and that dedicating it to other purposes was "wrong".

The former president said that before any international recognition of the Taliban, there was a first of all a need for Afghans from all walks of life to come together and discuss the future of the country. Karzai said he and former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah had formally asked the Taliban to call a traditional assembly known as a loya jirga and that they were still hoping this would happen.

The former leader said there should be "no compromise" about the full return of girls to school and women to the workplace. Schools are currently scheduled to reopen next month. Karzai expressed confidence that the Taliban would indeed allow girls to go back to school.

Finally, Karzai told us that back in mid-August of 2021, he had negotiated a peaceful transition mechanism with the Taliban and then-president Ashraf Ghani, but that this fell apart when Ghani fled the country. 

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