KABUL: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said now is not the time for the international community to recognise the Taliban government, stressing that legitimacy depends on meeting key conditions, particularly restoring the rights of women and girls.
Hamid Karzai was Afghanistan’s first directly elected president, serving from December 2004 until September 2014 after initially becoming chairman of the interim administration established following the US-led intervention that toppled the Taliban government in late 2001.
Speaking to Bloomberg on Friday, Karzai said the Taliban must allow girls to return to school and women to resume work if it wants international recognition.
He said these were not simply his personal demands but conditions repeatedly raised by the United Nations and the wider international community.
Asked whether countries should begin normalising relations with the Taliban under the current circumstances, Karzai instead called for a process that brings Afghans together to determine the country’s future.
He said Afghanistan needed a system in which all citizens felt included, enjoyed their rights and could live, work and build their futures inside the country.
Conditions for Taliban recognition
Russia remains the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban administration.
Other countries have linked recognition to several conditions, including respect for human rights, an inclusive government involving women and different ethnic groups, counter-terrorism commitments and compliance with international obligations.
The Taliban has rejected such conditions as interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
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Karzai said he remained in contact with several Taliban leaders and had repeatedly discussed girls’ education and women’s employment with them.
According to the former president, some Taliban officials understood the importance of these issues and agreed with his position.
Afghanistan remains the only country where girls and women are barred from secondary and higher education, while restrictions have also sharply limited women’s employment opportunities.
Karzai said that despite these restrictions, he would not send his daughters abroad to continue their education.
He argued that doing so would amount to accepting the existing situation. Instead, he said he felt a responsibility as an Afghan citizen to work towards creating conditions in which his daughters and other Afghan girls could receive an education inside their own country.
