Former president Hamid Karzai said Afghan girls must return to schools and women must be allowed to work, and he emphasized there must be no compromise in this regard.

Karzai, in an interview with CNN aired on Monday, said Afghan girls must return to school when they are reopened in March. “That has to happen. There is no excuse there,” he said.

Karzai said the right to education and to work has been granted by Islam to women and no compromise can be made in this regard.

Karzai’s remarks follow statements by officials of the Islamic Emirate who said all schools will be reopened in the new solar year across the country.

“If the international community and US pay the salaries of teachers or not, we, as the government, will open schools in the spring and this decision does not link with the demands of the US and international community,” said Aziz Ahmad Reyan, head of the publications and public relations department of the Ministry of Education.

The US special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West earlier said the US and international community will pay the salaries of teachers in Afghanistan if all girls’ schools are reopened across the country.

Since the collapse of the previous government on August 15 last year, girls’ secondary schools have remained closed in most parts of the country.

Karzai also said he and Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation in the previous government, will not be members of any government. “Dr Abdullah and I do not want to be in the government. We have had our time. We have done our part for the country. So there is no need for us in the government and we should not be in any government that comes into the future,” he said.