Afghan activist Pashtana Durrani, who fled to the US, is skeptical of Taliban’s claims

Afghan Activist Pashtana Durrani, Who Fled To The US, Is Skeptical Of Taliban’s Claims | GZERO World

The Taliban claims they will allow women and children to go to school, but that reality has not been realized, says Afghan education activist Pashtana Durrani.

The last time that she spoke with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World, she was in hiding, moving location to location, in order to avoid the Taliban as they took over the country. Now safely in the US after fleeing Afghanistan in October, she is working as a senior fellow at Wellesley College and continuing her work on girls education in the country she fled. Her nonprofit, LEARN, has started emergency relief programs for women and children facing malnutrition and starvation.

“I'll believe them when they open schools for girls. I will believe them when they open working spaces for girls. I'll believe them when they actually walk the talk instead of them claiming whatever they do,” she said in a new interview on GZERO World.

More from GZERO Media

Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben Gvir shake hands as the Israeli government approve Netanyahu's proposal to reappoint Itamar Ben-Gvir as minister of National Security, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusaelm, March 19, 2025
REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon

Israel’s Knesset on Tuesday approved its 2025 budget by a vote of 66 to 52, days before a March 31 deadline that would have otherwise triggered an election.

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

23 billion: India said on Tuesday that it’s open to cutting more than half of its tariffs against US imports – equivalent to $23 billion – in the first phase of a trade deal the two nations are negotiating.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a press conference, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 25, 2025.
REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

The United States announced on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine have verbally agreed to a Black Sea ceasefire and a moratorium on energy infrastructure strikes. In a pair of statements, the White House said it will help Russia regain access to agriculture and fertilizer markets and that it remains committed to returning forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.

Members of the Lawyers from Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church(LAJAVUC)attend a press conference as the Tokyo District Court issued a dissolution order to the Unification Church, the religious group formerly called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Tokyo on March 25, 2025.

On Tuesday, a Tokyo court revoked the legal status of the Unification Church in Japan, ordering the sect known as the Moonies to disband following a government problem spurred by the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

Across America, Walmart is supporting communities by working with small businesses, like beyondGREEN, in San Antonio, TX. Since becoming a Walmart supplier in 2023, the Texas-based company built a new factory and hired over 100 employees. Across the country, Walmart’s $350 billion investment in products made, grown, or assembled in America supports the creation of over 750,000 US jobs. Learn how Walmart’s investment in US manufacturing helps small businesses grow.

Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, in collaboration with Nobel Prize winner David Baker, Seoul National University Professor Minkyung Baek, MIT Professor Bonnie Berger, and University of Pennsylvania Professor Gregory Bowman, have developed Seq2Symm, an AI model that can predict protein structures 80,000 times faster than previous methods. Understanding these structures is key to breakthroughs in medicine, disease research, and synthetic biology. Seq2Symm’s open-source technology will help scientists accelerate drug discovery, better understand diseases like Alzheimer’s, and develop new bioengineered materials. By making protein research faster and more accessible, Microsoft is helping unlock life’s biggest mysteries. Learn more here.