Kabul [Afghanistan], March 9 : Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called upon the Taliban regime to allow girls back into schools and universities, and stressed that the active involvement of both men and women is essential to Afghanistan's future, reported Khaama Press.
"Once again... on the eve of the new academic year, I urge the interim Islamic government to open the doors of schools and universities to girls across the country to pave the way for the advancement and prosperity of the nation," the former president of Afghanistan said in a message on Friday in honor of International Women's Day.
Additionally, he said that women's employment and education must receive significant attention in order to achieve progress, development, and freedom from dependence, as well as to provide the foundation for the development of the nation, reported Khaama Press.
According to Karzai, International Women's Day is a time to recognize the accomplishments of women in all spheres of life and to remember their efforts for peace and unity.
The former President emphasized that women's education and experience are now widely recognized as essential to the public good due to their positive contributions to society's development and the raising of the next generation.
The Human Rights Watch recently highlighted in a report that since the Taliban took control in August 2021, it has imposed a brutal crackdown on women and girls, violating rights in every aspect of their lives, including their ability to study, work, live free from violence, access health care, participate in public life, move freely, or even just walk in the park.
"These abuses continue to escalate and are blatant violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which Afghanistan ratified in 2003," it said.
Notably, many governments across the world have denounced the Taliban's full-scale attack on the rights of Afghan women and girls."While the International Criminal Court is investigating Taliban atrocity crimes, the ICJ offers governments that have expressed their solidarity with Afghan women another practical way to put Taliban abuses under judicial scrutiny - one which, as illustrated in other recent cases, can produce measures that could have a positive impact," the report stated.
In the immediate aftermath of August 2021, the Taliban banned girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade and imposed strict rules requiring women to wear hijabs and to travel only with a male chaperone.
They closed down beauty salons and blocked women from working with domestic and international non-governmental aid groups, sparking international outrage on the matter.
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