Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed displeasure on Tuesday over the Taliban’s ban on women attending university but said the best approach remained engagement with Afghanistan’s rulers.
“I’m disappointed by the decision that was taken today,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on a visit to Washington.
But he said: “I still think the easiest path to our goal — despite having a lot of setbacks when it comes to women’s education and other things — is through Kabul and through the interim government.”
Bilawal warned of further instability in Afghanistan and the rise of the Islamic State group as an alternative to the Taliban.
“Is the alternative for us to imagine that we can somehow artificially stitch together an alternate opposition that can command the same sort of legitimacy?”
The Taliban, who had promised a softer approach than during their 1996-2001 regime, banned university education for women on Tuesday, after already closing secondary schools for girls.
The United States, whose troop withdrawal from Afghanistan last year precipitated the collapse of the Western-backed government, warned that the Taliban decision could permanently end any hopes for a positive relationship between the two sides.
However, Bilawal stressed the importance of ensuring economic support “to create the political space required for those within the Afghan regime who actually believe that they should deliver” on human rights issues.
