In the years since the Taliban's return to Kabul in 2021, Hamid Karzai — the man who spent thirteen years constructing Afghanistan's post-Taliban state — has made the quiet, consequential choice to remain. He did not flee, as many of his contemporaries did, but instead stayed to inhabit the strange position of a former architect living inside the structure that replaced his own. From that unlikely perch, he has turned his remaining moral authority toward a single cause: the right of Afghan girls to attend school — a right the Taliban has systematically extinguished. His presence in Kabul is it
Karzai, Who Ousted Taliban, Now Pleads With Them to Reopen Schools
Afghanistan's girls are barred from secondary education under Taliban rule, denying millions access to schooling and future opportunities.
The architect of the post-Taliban order now lives within it
Mark
Why did Karzai stay? He could have left like so many others.
Mimi
Because leaving would have meant abandoning the argument. Once you're gone, you're just another voice from exile. He stayed to be present, to be a reminder of what was lost.
Mark
But staying means living under their rule. Doesn't that compromise him?
Mimi
It does. That's the tension he's living in. He's not free to speak without risk, but he's also not so far away that he can be ignored. It's a precarious position.
Mark
His daughter is still in Afghanistan. That's a powerful statement.
Mimi
It is. It says: I believe this country can change, and I'm betting my family's future on it. But it also means his daughter is living under the same restrictions as every other girl. He's not protecting her by keeping her there—he's making a political choice with her life.
Mark
What does he actually want from the Taliban?
Mimi
He wants them to reopen secondary schools for girls. It's specific, concrete, achievable. He's not asking them to abandon their ideology or step down. He's asking them to let girls learn.
Mark
And if they don't listen?
Mimi
Then he remains in Kabul, still asking, still present, still a living contradiction to their rule. The asking itself becomes the resistance.
El Pulso
- Millions of Afghan girls have been barred from secondary education since 2021, their classrooms closed by decree and their futures quietly dismantled by ideology.
- Karzai, the man who built the government the Taliban dismantled, now lives under their rule — tolerated but not trusted, dissenting but not protected.
- Rather than securing his daughter's education abroad as Afghan elites have done, Karzai has kept her in Kabul, turning a personal sacrifice into a public demand for the regime to reverse its school ban.
- The international community remains divided over whether to recognize the Taliban, with Karzai warning that legitimacy granted without democratic reform would effectively endorse the erasure of women from Afghan public life.
- What Karzai is asking for is not dramatic — just open schools, just let girls learn — and yet that modest request has become one of the most contested political demands in the country.
In the years since the Taliban's return to Kabul in 2021, Hamid Karzai — the man who spent thirteen years constructing Afghanistan's post-Taliban state — has made the quiet, consequential choice to remain. He did not flee, as many of his contemporaries did, but instead stayed to inhabit the strange position of a former architect living inside the structure that replaced his own. From that unlikely perch, he has turned his remaining moral authority toward a single cause: the right of Afghan girls to attend school — a right the Taliban has systematically extinguished. His presence in Kabul is itself an argument, a refusal to let the old order simply dissolve into silence.
Hamid Karzai spent thirteen years building a government designed to hold the Taliban at bay — negotiating with warlords, cultivating international alliances, assembling the machinery of a modern Afghan state. In the summer of 2021, it collapsed in weeks. The Taliban returned to Kabul, and Karzai faced a choice that few former heads of state ever confront: leave the country, or stay and live under the rule of the movement he had spent his presidency opposing.
He chose to stay. Today he remains in Kabul — the architect of the post-Taliban order now residing within the Taliban's reimposed system. But he has not gone quiet. He has become an unlikely advocate, pressing the regime on what he considers the most urgent injustice of its rule: the ban on secondary education for girls. Millions of Afghan girls who were in school just years ago now sit at home, their futures narrowed by decree, the possibility of becoming doctors or teachers simply evaporated.
Karzai has refused to send his own daughter abroad — a choice that carries both personal and political weight. Where many Afghan elites have secured their families' futures outside the country, he has kept his daughter in Afghanistan and used that decision as a platform from which to demand the Taliban reverse course. The argument is direct: reopen the schools.
This places him in a precarious position — not in exile, so still vulnerable; not cooperative with the regime, so without its favor. He is a figure of the old order, tolerated but not trusted, using whatever platform remains to voice dissent on behalf of millions who cannot.
On the question of international recognition, Karzai has joined others in warning against legitimizing the Taliban without fundamental reforms. Recognition, he argues, would signal that a government can erase half its population from public life and still be treated as a legitimate state. What he is asking for is not dramatic — just schools reopened, just girls allowed to learn. It is a modest request from a man who once commanded a nation, now directed at the movement that took it from him.
Hamid Karzai spent thirteen years building a government designed to keep the Taliban out of power. He negotiated with warlords, worked with international allies, and constructed the machinery of a modern Afghan state. Then, in 2021, it all collapsed in weeks. The Taliban returned to Kabul, and Karzai faced a choice that few former leaders ever have to make: flee the country or stay and live under the rule of the very movement he had spent his presidency opposing.
He chose to stay. Today, Karzai remains in Kabul, a living symbol of Afghanistan's reversal—the architect of the post-Taliban order now residing within the Taliban's reimposed system. But he has not gone quiet. Instead, he has become an unlikely supplicant, using whatever influence and moral authority he retains to press the Taliban on a single, urgent issue: the education of Afghanistan's girls.
The Taliban's ban on secondary education for girls represents one of the most sweeping restrictions on female opportunity in the modern world. Millions of Afghan girls who were in school just years ago now sit at home, their education halted, their futures narrowed by decree. The impact is not abstract. It is felt in every household where a daughter has been pulled from the classroom, where textbooks gather dust, where the possibility of becoming a doctor, a teacher, or an engineer has simply evaporated.
Karzai has refused to send his own daughter abroad, a decision that carries both personal weight and political meaning. He could have done what many other Afghan elites have done—secured his family's safety and education outside the country. Instead, he has kept his daughter in Afghanistan and used that choice as a platform from which to demand that the Taliban reverse course. His argument is direct: reopen the schools. Let girls learn. The former president has become an advocate, pressing the regime that now controls his country to abandon one of its most ideologically central policies.
This position puts Karzai in a precarious space. He is not in exile, which means he remains vulnerable to the Taliban's whims. He is not fully cooperative with the regime, which means he cannot expect its protection or favor. He is instead a figure of the old order, tolerated but not trusted, using the small platform he retains to voice dissent on behalf of millions who have no voice at all.
The question of whether the Taliban should be recognized by the international community remains contested. Karzai has joined others in warning against legitimizing the regime without fundamental changes—particularly on issues like girls' education and democratic governance. Recognition, he and others argue, would effectively reward the Taliban for policies that have devastated Afghan society. It would signal to the world that such restrictions are acceptable, that ideology can override human rights, that a government can simply erase half its population from public life and still be treated as a legitimate state actor.
What makes Karzai's position so striking is its ordinariness. He is not calling for military intervention or international invasion. He is not demanding the impossible. He is simply asking for schools to reopen, for girls to be allowed to learn, for the future to remain possible for the next generation of Afghan women. It is a modest request from a man who once commanded a nation, now directed at the movement that has taken that nation from him. Whether the Taliban will listen remains uncertain. What is certain is that Karzai has chosen to stay and ask, rather than leave and forget.
Citas Notables
Karzai has warned that international recognition of the Taliban should not occur without fundamental changes, particularly on girls' education and democratic governance— Hamid Karzai, former Afghan President
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Politics & Governance