Acting Minister of Interior Affairs Sirajuddin Haqqani says Afghanistan is an independent country and the world should understand this and stop interfering in its internal affairs.

In a meeting with a number of representatives of the Union of Afghans based in European countries, Haqqani emphasized that the issue of education is a part of the country’s internal issues and that the Islamic Emirate will not work on the orders of other countries.

“After several decades of hard struggle, Afghans have achieved their basic ideals of freedom, ownership of the homeland, and the establishment of the Islamic system, and all parties should take advantage of the opportunity created for the settlement and development of the country. Education is our internal issue. We pave the ground ourselves because this is our own children’s problem and no one is as kind to our children as we are,” the ministry quoted him as saying in a statement.

He said the IEA wants positive interaction with the international community based on mutual respect, stating that the IEA will never interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and expects them to respect the sovereignty of Afghanistan.

The delegation of the Union of Afghans based in Europe, which includes a number of academic and cultural figures, recently came to Kabul and had separate meetings with officials of the Islamic Emirate at different levels.

This delegation also met with the Acting Minister of Education and made suggestions to the Ministry regarding the improvement of the educational situation.

“The discussion was about how we can convince the leadership of the Islamic Emirate that closing girls’ schools is in fact a non-national process, and people are offended by the system, distance themselves, and it leads half of the society to isolation,” said Hekmatullah Hekmat, a member of the board of the Union of Afghans based in Europe.