 From 1973 to 1979, he was Director of Archaeology and Preservation of Historical Monuments of Afghanistan as well as the Director General of the Archaeology Institute of Kabul.Tarzi was exiled to France in 1979, where he assumed the post of Professor of Eastern Archaeology at the University of Strasbourg.He later directed the excavations in Bamiyan and Hadda on the sites of Tape Shotor and Tape Tope Kalan.