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Tag: Taliban news

  • From India to Israel, US weapons getting used to assault its allies

    After Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, butchered its residents and took a whole bunch as hostages, movies captured the horror and the celebration in Gaza. What was identified by consultants was the flashing of American weapons, particularly what they mentioned had been M14 assault rifles, within the celebratory movies.

    A outstanding American politician has questioned if US-made weapons had been utilized by the Palestinian terrorist outfit Hamas and sought a probe to search out out if the supply of the weapons was Afghanistan or Ukraine.

    India, too, has been reporting the usage of US-made arms and ammunition by terrorists in Kashmir.

    What is paradoxical right here is that each India and Israel are allies of the United States.

    But how are weapons manufactured within the US discovering their means into the palms of terrorist organizations just like the Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Hamas within the Palestinian territory?

    Click right here for the Israel-Hamas battle dwell updates

    US DUMPED WEAPONS IN AFGHANISTAN

    War is a giant enterprise, however it’s a bloody enterprise leading to 1000’s of deaths the world over. The largest producer and exporter of arms and defence tools, the United States, is on the centre of that huge enterprise.

    Arms exports by the US elevated by 14 per cent between 2013–17 and 2018–22 and it accounted for 40 per cent of the worldwide arms exports within the 2018–22 interval, in keeping with a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in March 2023.

    As it has been supplying weapons to Ukraine amid the nation’s battle with Russia, the US has all through its historical past been offering weapons to varied theatres of battle.

    The US battle in Afghanistan in opposition to the Taliban after the 9/11 assaults was one other such navy theatre the place it poured in arms and defence tools price billions of {dollars}.

    But Afghanistan has by no means been a straightforward territory for any overseas power. Like the Soviet Russia assault in 1988, the US-led Nato marketing campaign too turned untenable.

    In February 2020, then US President Donald Trump signed a peace cope with the Taliban and that included a deadline of May 2021 by when all overseas troops can be withdrawn from Afghanistan. President Joe Biden, Trump’s successor, additionally dedicated to the withdrawal of troops however prolonged the deadline to August 31.

    The withdrawal of overseas troops was chaotic, to say the least. The Taliban militia had taken management of most components of Afghanistan by then and within the rush to go away the war-battered nation, US troops left behind weapons and defence tools of over $7 billion. Those later discovered their means into the palms of the Taliban.

    “US-funded equipment valued at $7.12 billion was in the inventory of the former Afghan government when it collapsed, much of which has since been seized by the Taliban,” the US Department of Defence mentioned in its report in August 2022. The trove included navy plane, floor automobiles, weapons, and different navy tools, the report mentioned.

    Among the defence tools had been Black Hawks and different helicopters, US Humvees and ScanEagle navy drones.

    Then there have been refined weapons like M16 assault rifles and M4 carbines, which had landed with anti-India and anti-Israel forces. These are what’s now being turned in opposition to the 2 nations.

    AMERICAN WEAPONS IN KASHMIR

    During final 12 months’s Raisina Dialogue, then Army Chief General MM Naravane mentioned India was seeing an increase within the variety of weapons and different navy tools from Afghanistan being seized in Kashmir.

    Pakistan-backed terrorists working within the Kashmir Valley had been discovered to be utilizing steel-core bullets and night-vision glasses left behind by the US-led Nato troops in Afghanistan. American armour-piercing bullets have been utilized in encounters with Indian safety forces and so they breached the bulletproof jackets of troopers.

    In January, NBC News reported quoting Indian officers that Pakistan-backed terrorists had been armed with M4s, M16s and different US-made arms and ammunition. The officers informed NBC News that it may very well be due to the US-funded weapons that fell into the palms of the Taliban after the rushed American exit from Afghanistan.

    It was in 2020 that US-made refined M-series carbine rifles started surfacing in Kashmir.

    It got here as a priority for the Indian safety institution as these are extra refined than the AK-series rifles, which have been the mainstay of the terrorists.

    Experts have hinted at Pakistan supplying the M4 carbines, that are utilized by its troops.

    There are thriving weapons bazars in Pakistan, together with the one in Darra Adam Khel, close to Peshawar.

    And it isn’t that Frankenstein’s Monster has spared Pakistan. In September this 12 months, Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, mentioned that US navy tools, from firearms to night-vision goggles, had reached the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has not too long ago overrun a number of villages in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and seized the military headquarters in Chitral.

    The seizure of US-made weapons in Kashmir elevated after what consultants trace on the Taliban buying and selling the weapons on the black market, a cost the Islamic militia has denied.

    Most of the weapons recovered in Kashmir are from Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the NBC News report mentioned.

    DID HAMAS USE AMERICAN GUNS IN ISRAEL ATTACK?

    Is it the identical that occurred in Israel as Hamas terrorists went on a massacre? It appears probably and a number of other consultants are asking for an in depth investigation.

    US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in a publish on X recommended that Hamas could have used American weapons for its assault on Israel. The Republican member of the House of Representatives sought an intensive investigation into the supply of the weapons utilized by Hamas.

    Jim Ferguson, a British politician, too tweeted a photograph of Taliban militants with American weapons and linked it to the Hamas assault on Israel.

    “A high-ranking Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander said US weapons left in Afghanistan by the Biden administration were found in the hands of Palestinian groups active in the Gaza Strip,” posted Ferguson.

    The Israel Defence Forces on October 5, simply two days forward of the Hamas assault that killed over 500 Israelis, tweeted a photograph of an M-16 rifle that they had recovered from two terrorists who attacked an Israeli safety forces car.

    The M-16 is a classy assault rifle manufactured within the US, which was equipped to Afghanistan.

    The fear has been persisting for months now.

    In May this 12 months, Newsweek quoted an unnamed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander saying the nation was involved that weapons equipped to Ukraine by the US and different western nations might find yourself with Israel’s enemies within the Middle East.

    The Israeli commander was significantly nervous about Iran and informed Newsweek, “â€æWe are very worried that some of these capabilities are going to fall to Hezbollah and Hamas’ hands.”

    The Israeli commander mentioned among the US-made small arms seized in Afghanistan have already been seen with Palestinian terrorist teams working within the Gaza Strip.

    Several movies on social media platforms present individuals within the Gaza Strip celebrating the assault on Israel with weapons, which consultants recognized as American weapons, together with M16 and M4 rifles.

    The use of American weapons in opposition to US allies is a grave concern. It stays to be seen how the US will tackle this situation. The incidents additionally function a stark reminder of the widespread and unpredictable penalties of arms proliferation.

    Published On:

    Oct 10, 2023

  • We now not seize…: Taliban invitations folks to go to Afghanistan in new video

    The Taliban’s Public Relations Department on Thursday shared a video inviting vacationers internationally to go to Afghanistan, saying that they’d be “100 per cent safe since the war is over” and that the Taliban wouldn’t seize them for “ransom”.

    The Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021, described the nation because the “real land of the free and the home of the brave, unlike the Americans”.

    The Taliban’s PR Department wrote on X (previously Twitter), “A rugged country inhabited by muscular men and traditional women. You will be 100 per cent safe since the war is over and we no longer capturing tourists for ransom.”

    The video was a montage of drone photographs of Afghanistan’s landscapes, which have been in comparison with totally different colors, similar to pink, inexperienced, white, and black.

    Several web customers, amused by the publish, commented beneath asking if it was actually secure for them to go to Afghanistan. Others left sarcastic feedback on the publish.

    One web consumer requested, “Is it a nice honeymoon destination?” and to this, the Taliban’s PR crew mentioned, “Absolutely Mr Boob. We have tremendous hiking trails for honeymoon couples to trek through our rugged mountains. The same trekking path that was used by our masculine fighters during the war.”

    Another consumer mentioned, “What’s the ransom for an Indian these days?”

    To this, the Taliban’s PR Department mentioned, “Mr Aishwary, as we mentioned, we are no longer in the kidnapping business. As long as you respect the local culture and customs and do not engage in homosexual activity, you will be just fine.”

    The Taliban’s name for vacationers comes regardless of quite a few journey advisories warning towards visiting the nation resulting from ongoing safety considerations.

    The US Department of State, as an example, has issued a Level 4 journey advisory for Afghanistan, advising residents to not journey to the nation resulting from armed battle, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping.

    Similarly, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advises towards all journey to Afghanistan, citing a particularly unstable safety state of affairs and a excessive menace of terrorist assaults all through the nation.

    Published On:

    Sep 17, 2023

  • China turns into first to call new Afghan ambassador below Taliban

    China turned the primary nation on Wednesday to formally title a brand new ambassador to Afghanistan because the Taliban takeover, after its envoy offered credentials at a ceremony in Kabul.

    The Taliban haven’t been formally recognised by any overseas authorities, and Beijing didn’t point out whether or not Wednesday’s appointment signalled any wider steps in direction of formal recognition of the Taliban.

    “This is the normal rotation of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, and is intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation between China and Afghanistan,” China’s overseas ministry mentioned in a press release. “China’s policy towards Afghanistan is clear and consistent.”

    A Taliban administration overseas ministry spokesman instructed Reuters new envoy Zhao Xing was the primary ambassador from any nation to take up the put up since August 2021, when the Taliban took over as U.S.-led overseas forces withdrew after 20 years.

    Mohammad Hassan Akhund, performing prime minister within the Taliban administration, had accepted the brand new envoy’s credentials in a ceremony, the Taliban administration’s deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, mentioned in a press release.

    The Taliban administration spokesperson’s workplace printed pictures of a ceremony at Afghanistan’s presidential palace on Wednesday at which the ambassador was acquired by officers, together with Akhund and the performing overseas minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.

    China’s earlier ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, took up the function in 2019 and completed his tenure final month.

    There are different diplomats in Kabul with the title of ambassador, however all of them took up their posts earlier than the Taliban takeover.

    Other international locations and our bodies, reminiscent of Pakistan and the European Union, have since despatched senior diplomats to guide diplomatic missions utilizing the title ‘cost d’affaires’, which doesn’t require presenting ambassadorial credentials to the host nation.

    The Taliban entered the capital on Aug. 15, 2021, because the Afghan safety forces, arrange with years of Western assist, disintegrated and U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani fled.

    Edited By:

    Sudeep Lavania

    Published On:

    Sep 13, 2023

  • Afghan girls protest towards Taliban’s magnificence parlour ban

    By Agence France-Presse: Since seizing energy in August 2021, the Taliban authorities has barred women and girls from excessive colleges and universities, banned them from parks, funfairs and gymnasiums, and ordered them to cowl up in public.

    The order issued final month forces the closure of 1000’s of magnificence parlours nationwide run by girls — typically the one supply of revenue for households — and outlaws one of many few remaining alternatives for them to socialize away from residence.

    VIDEO: ðŸ‡æðŸ‡ë Afghan girls protest towards magnificence parlour ban

    A bunch of girls protest in Kabul towards an order by Taliban authorities to close magnificence parlours throughout the nation, the most recent curb to squeeze them out of public life pic.twitter.com/MGGFpJgXOY
    — AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 19, 2023

    “Don’t take my bread and water,” learn an indication carried by one of many protesters on Butcher Street, which boasts a focus of the capital’s salons.

    Public protests are uncommon in Afghanistan — and incessantly dispersed by pressure — however AFP noticed round 50 girls collaborating in Wednesday’s gathering, rapidly attracting the eye of safety personnel.

    Protesters later shared movies and pictures with journalists that confirmed authorities utilizing a firehose to disperse them as pictures could possibly be heard within the background.

    ALSO READ | Viral video: Afghan woman’s brave attraction for schooling wins the Internet

    “Today we arranged this protest to talk and negotiate,” stated a salon employee, whose identify has not been printed by AFP for safety causes.

    “But today, no one came to talk to us, to listen to us. They didn’t pay any attention to us and after a while they dispersed us by aerial firing and water cannon.”

    The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the protest breakup.

    “Reports of the forceful suppression of a peaceful protest by women against the ban on beauty salons – the latest denial of women’s rights in #Afghanistan – are deeply concerning,” it stated in a tweet.

    Reports of the forceful suppression of a peaceable protest by girls towards the ban on magnificence salons – the most recent denial of girls’s rights in #Afghanistan – are deeply regarding.
    Afghans have the precise to specific views free from violence. De facto authorities should uphold this.
    — UNAMA News (@UNAMAnews) July 19, 2023

    “Afghans have the right to express views free from violence. De facto authorities must uphold this.”

    In late June the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice gave salons a month to shut down, saying the grace interval would permit them to make use of up inventory.

    It stated it made the order as a result of extravagant sums spent on makeovers precipitated hardship for poor households, and that some remedies on the salons have been un-Islamic.

    Too a lot make-up prevented girls from correct ablutions for prayer, the ministry stated, whereas eyelash extensions and hair weaving have been additionally forbidden.

    A replica of the order seen by AFP stated it was “based on verbal instruction from the supreme leader” Hibatullah Akhundzada.

    SAFE PLACE

    Beauty parlours mushroomed throughout Kabul and different Afghan cities within the 20 years that United States-led forces occupied the nation.

    They have been seen as a secure place to collect and socialise away from males and offered very important enterprise alternatives for girls.

    ALSO READ | Taliban suspends actions of Swedish help teams on burning of Quran

    A report back to the UN’s Human Rights Council final month by Richard Bennett, the particular rapporteur for Afghanistan, stated the plight of girls and ladies within the nation “was among the worst in the world”.

    “Grave, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule, which also gives rise to concerns that they may be responsible for gender apartheid,” Bennett stated.

    Akhundzada, who hardly ever seems in public and guidelines by decree from the Taliban’s birthplace in Kandahar, stated final month Afghan girls have been being saved from “traditional oppressions” by the adoption of Islamic governance and their standing as “free and dignified human beings” restored.

    He stated in a press release marking the Eid al-Adha vacation that steps had been taken to supply girls with a “comfortable and prosperous life according to Islamic Sharia”.

    Women have additionally principally been barred from working for the UN or NGOs, and 1000’s have been sacked from authorities jobs or are being paid to remain at residence.

  • Taliban fighters level weapons at Afghan ladies, inform them to go dwelling after college ban

    Taliban fighters are reportedly pointing weapons at younger Afghan ladies and telling them to return dwelling from universities after the Taliban rulers enforced a nationwide college ban on ladies.

    New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 23, 2022 15:09 IST

    Taliban fighters show their flag as they patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August, 2021. (Photo: AP)

    By India Today Web Desk: Taliban fighters are pointing weapons at younger Afghan ladies and telling them to go dwelling after they enforced a country-wide college ban this week. The college ban is the newest edict cracking down on ladies’s rights and freedoms, drawing sturdy worldwide condemnation.

    Despite initially promising a extra average rule respecting rights for girls and minorities, the Taliban have extensively applied their strict interpretation of Islamic regulation since seizing management of the nation final yr.

    READ | Taliban bar ladies from college training in Afghanistan

    They banned women from center college and highschool, restricted ladies from most employment, and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public. Women had been additionally banned from parks and gymnasiums and prevented from travelling and not using a male family member.

    If this picture doesn’t break you, I don’t know what’s going to.

    Despite Taliban banning feminine college training, this younger girl stood exterior Kabul University at present, hoping that they might nonetheless let her in. The Taliban barbwired the primary gate & solely allowed male college students to enter. pic.twitter.com/TawZk8iFE6
    — Shabnam Nasimi (@NasimiShabnam) December 22, 2022

    Now, Taliban fighters are taking to the streets and pointing weapons at younger ladies and forcing them to stroll again dwelling from universities, The Independent reported.

    ALSO READ | We preserve naughty ladies at dwelling, say Taliban

    “A female student told me this morning that as she was heading to Kardan university in Kabul, the boys were allowed to enter the gates but the Taliban pointed their guns at the girls and told them to go home,” stated Shabnam Nasimi, the previous coverage particular adviser to the minister for Afghan resettlement and minister for refugees.

    A day after of the Taliban BANNED feminine college training, ladies & women have come out on the streets of Kabul protesting towards the decree.

    They chant —“Either for everyone or for no one. One for all, all for one”

    Amplify their voices.pic.twitter.com/mWbf5Mtcr2
    — Shabnam Nasimi (@NasimiShabnam) December 22, 2022

    The minister additional stated that Taliban fighters have barbwired the primary gate and solely allowed male college students to enter Kabul college.

    ALSO READ | Veiled ladies, armed males: Life in Afghanistan beneath Taliban rule

    However, many courageous younger ladies have taken to the streets towards the newest Taliban order with the mantra: Either for everybody or for nobody. One for all, all for one.

    Human Rights Watch has referred to as the Taliban transfer “a shameful decision” that makes clear the shortage of respect for “the fundamental rights of Afghans.”

    Published On:

    Dec 23, 2022

  • Taliban bar ladies from college training in Afghanistan

    Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered an indefinite ban on college training for the nation’s ladies, the ministry of upper training mentioned in a letter issued to all authorities and personal universities.

    The ban on larger training comes simply three months after 1000’s of ladies throughout the nation took college entrance exams (File)

    By India Today Web Desk: The Taliban’s larger training ministry has ordered an indefinite ban on college training for ladies in Afghanistan within the newest edict cracking down on ladies’s rights and freedoms, drawing sturdy worldwide condemnation.

    The announcement got here because the United Nations Security Council met in New York and the US State Department introduced the discharge of two Americans detained by the Taliban.

    Despite initially promising a extra reasonable rule respecting rights for ladies and minorities, the Taliban have broadly applied their strict interpretation of Islamic legislation since seizing management of the nation final 12 months.

    They banned ladies from center college and highschool, restricted ladies from most employment, and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public.

    Women have been additionally banned from parks and gymnasiums and prevented from travelling and not using a male family member.

    A letter, confirmed by a spokesperson for the upper training ministry, instructed Afghan private and non-private universities to droop entry to feminine college students instantly, in accordance with a Cabinet resolution.

    Read | Has the Taliban Veil over Afghanistan turn into darker, impenetrable?

    ‘CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT’

    The ban on larger training comes weeks after Afghan ladies sat college entrance exams throughout the nation. Until now, some ladies had been allowed to proceed their college research, however in gender-segregated lecture rooms.

    Students attend a category with women and men separated by a curtain at a personal college in Kabul (Photo: AFP)

    “I can’t fulfil my dreams, my hopes. Everything is disappearing before my eyes, and I can’t do anything about it,” mentioned a third-year journalism and communication pupil at Nangarhar University. She didn’t wish to be recognized for worry of reprisals.

    “Is being a girl a crime? If that’s the case, I wish I wasn’t a girl,” she added.

    “My father had dreams for me that his daughter would become a talented journalist in the future. That is now destroyed. So, you tell me, how will a person feel in this situation?”

    Read | Taliban’s curbs on ladies’s freedom might quantity to crimes towards humanity: UN rights knowledgeable

    Human Rights Watch known as the transfer “a shameful decision” that makes clear the Taliban’s lack of respect for “the fundamental rights of Afghans.”

    A shameful transfer. The Taliban have banned ladies in Afghanistan from attending universities.

    This is the most recent in a sequence of insurance policies which have restricted the essential rights of ladies and ladies. pic.twitter.com/qVPBNkxOib
    — Human Rights Watch (@hrw) December 20, 2022

    Foreign governments, together with the United States, have mentioned {that a} change in insurance policies on ladies’s training is required earlier than it might contemplate formally recognising the Taliban-run administration, which can be topic to heavy sanctions.

    “The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedom of women and girls,” US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood advised the council, describing the transfer as “absolutely indefensible.”

    Former US envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, mentioned: “The announcement regarding women’s banishment from higher education by a faction within the Taliban is shocking and incomprehensible.”

    Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward mentioned the suspension was “another egregious curtailment of women’s rights and a deep and profound disappointment for every single female student.”

    “It is also another step by the Taliban away from a self-reliant and prosperous Afghanistan,” she advised the council.

    Read | ‘We are erased’: Afghan ladies demand motion at United Nations

    ‘BROKEN PROMISES’

    In March, the Taliban drew criticism from many international governments and a few Afghans for making a U-turn on alerts that every one ladies’ excessive faculties could be opened.

    UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned the transfer on Tuesday was “clearly another broken promise from the Taliban”.

    “It’s another very troubling movement and it’s difficult to imagine how the country can develop and deal with all of the challenges that it has without active participation of women and the education of women,” he mentioned.

    Shortly earlier than the announcement on universities, UN particular envoy for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva mentioned the closure of excessive faculties had “undermined” the Taliban administration’s relationship with the worldwide neighborhood and was “extremely unpopular among Afghans and even within the Taliban leadership”.

    “As long as girls remain excluded from school and the de facto authorities continue to disregard other stated concerns of the international community, we remain at something of an impasse,” she mentioned.

    One mom of a college pupil, who requested to not be named for safety causes, mentioned her daughter known as her in tears when she heard of the letter, fearing she might not proceed her medical research in Kabul.

    “The pain that not only I … and [other] mothers have in our hearts, can not be described,” she mentioned.

    “We are all feeling this pain.”

    (With company enter)

    Read | We hold naughty ladies at residence, say Taliban as they promise ‘excellent news quickly’

    Published On:

    Dec 21, 2022

  • Chaos and confusion after Taliban orders exams for Afghan women stored out of college

    Confusion prevails in Afghanistan after Taliban ordered college women, who’ve been stored out of energy for a number of months, had been abruptly requested to take commencement exams.

    New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 12, 2022 13:39 IST

    It remains to be not clear what number of teenage women would be capable to take the examination. (Photo: AFP)

    By India Today Web Desk: Taliban Ministry of Education has allowed women to take their highschool commencement examination this week although they’ve been stored out of school rooms since final 12 months. Chaos and confusion prevailed as college women, banned from attending courses, had been abruptly requested to take their assessments.

    The determination applies to 31 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces the place the winter college break begins in late December, AP reported.

    READ | Taliban’s curbs on girls’s freedom might quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity: UN

    According to The Independent, woman college students of a faculty in Kabul had been requested to take their commencement exams on Wednesday, months after Taliban closed college gates on them and their futures after they took over the reins of the nation.

    “These girls have been fighting for months to attend school and this is a moment of shock even for them,” a faculty official was quoted as saying by The Independent.

    It remains to be not clear what number of teenage women would be capable to take the examination.

    ALSO READ | Veiled girls, armed males: Life in Afghanistan beneath Taliban rule

    The three provinces — Kandahar, Helmand and Nimroz — the place this determination doesn’t apply have a unique timetable for the college 12 months and highschool commencement exams sometimes happen there later.

    “This is ridiculous. We spent a whole year under tension and stress and haven’t read a single page of our textbooks,” 18-yer-old Najela was quoted as saying by the AP.

    Taliban overran Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and Nato forces had been within the closing weeks of their pullout from the nation after 20 years of conflict. Despite initially promising extra reasonable rule and ladies’s and minority rights, they’ve restricted rights and freedoms and extensively applied their harsh interpretation of Islamic regulation or Sharia.

    ALSO READ | Taliban decides in opposition to opening colleges to Afghan women

    They have banned women from center college and highschool, restricted girls from most employment, and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public. Women are additionally banned from parks, gyms, and funfairs.

    Women haven’t been denied entry from universities beneath the Taliban and the implication of the newest improvement is that Afghan women who acquire a highschool diploma after Wednesday’s examination would be capable to apply for universities.

    Girls who can not attend or who fail Wednesday’s examination can be allowed to retake the check in mid-March, after the winter trip. The Taliban therapy of ladies and women in Afghanistan has come beneath heavy criticism. Earlier this month, a group of UN consultants mentioned it might quantity to a criminal offense in opposition to humanity and ought to be investigated and prosecuted beneath worldwide regulation, an allegation rejected by Taliban.

    Published On:

    Dec 12, 2022

  • Afghanistan: Taliban morality ministry ban girls from parks

    Afghan girls will not be allowed in parks, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s morality ministry mentioned, partly as a result of that they had not been assembly its interpretation of Islamic apparel throughout their visits.

    Mohammad Akif Muhajir, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, made the feedback in an interview with native media and, when requested in regards to the restrictions, referred Reuters to audio of the interview.

    “For the last 14 or 15 months we were trying to provide an environment according to Sharia (Islamic law) and our culture for women to go to the parks,” he mentioned.

    “Unfortunately, the owners of parks didn’t co-operate with us very well, and also the women didn’t observe hijab as was suggested. For now, the decision has been taken that they are banned,” he mentioned, referring to the group’s interpretation of the Islamic gown code for ladies.

    Almost all girls in Afghanistan put on a head scarf, or hijab, in public. However, the Taliban have mentioned girls ought to put on lengthy flowing garments that cowl their our bodies and likewise cowl their faces, such because the all-enveloping burqa. Some girls in Kabul and different city centres don’t cowl their faces in public and others put on a surgical face masks.

    Western governments have mentioned the Taliban must reverse its course on girls’s rights, together with a U-turn on indicators they might open women’ excessive faculties, for any path in the direction of formal recognition of the Taliban authorities.

    It was not clear how lengthy the park restrictions would final and whether or not they can be prolonged throughout Afghanistan.

    Park operators in western Herat and northern Balkh and Badkahshan provinces mentioned that they had not been requested to cease girls getting into but.

    Some girls in these provinces instructed Reuters they have been watching the restrictions in Kabul carefully and have been apprehensive they may be utilized in different provinces.

    “Here they haven’t restricted women and girls yet but you will never know when they change their minds,” mentioned a girl in Badakhshan who requested to stay nameless. The Taliban say they respect girls’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic legislation.

  • Taliban free of Guantanamo, claims exchanged for American 

    A senior Taliban detainee held for years at Guantanamo Bay stated Monday he was launched and handed over earlier within the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in change for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan.

    Bashir Noorzai, a infamous drug lord and member of the Taliban, advised reporters in Kabul that he spent 17 years and 6 months within the U.S. detention middle at Guantanamo Bay, and that he was the final Taliban prisoner there.

    The Taliban-appointed overseas minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, additionally spoke on the press convention alongside Noorzai and welcomed the change, saying it marked the beginning of a “new era” in U.S.-Taliban relations.

    Muttaqi stated the launched American was Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran and civilian contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, 2020.

    Frerichs was final seen in a video distributed earlier this yr, pleading for his launch in order that he might be reunited together with his household, in accordance with a recording posted by The New Yorker journal on the time.

    There was no impartial affirmation or phrase from Washington on Frerichs’ launch.

    “This can be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the United States, this can open a new door for talks between both countries,” Muttaqi stated on the Kabul presser.

    “This act shows us that all problems can be solved through talks and I thank both sides’ teams who worked so hard for this to happen,” Muttaqi added.

    Frerichs, of Lombard, Illinois, was believed to be held by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani community, and U.S. officers throughout two presidential administrations had tried unsuccessfully to get him house.

    In the video, which marked the primary time Frerichs was seen since his abduction, he says it was filmed final November.

    Videos of hostages are generally launched to point out proof that they’re alive and to facilitate negotiations for a launch, although it was not instantly clear if that was the case right here.

    The New Yorker stated it obtained the clip from an unidentified particular person in Afghanistan.

    At the time, the FBI declined to touch upon the video’s authenticity, however a sister of Frerichs, Charlene Cakora, issued a press release thanking the Taliban for releasing the video and describing it as “public confirmation of our family’s long-held belief that he is alive after more than two years in captivity.”

    Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August final yr, the Taliban have demanded the United States launch Noorzai in change for Frerichs amid expectations of such exchanges for U.S. residents held in Afghanistan.

    However, there was no public signal of Washington shifting ahead on any type of prisoner commerce or change.

    The Taliban additionally posted a quick video Monday on social media displaying Noorzai’s arrival on the Kabul airport the place he was welcomed by prime Taliban officers, together with Muttaqi. At the press convention, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a reference to the Taliban — in Kabul.

    “I pray for more success of the Taliban,” he added. “I hope this exchange can lead to peace between Afghanistan and America, because an American was released and I am also free now.”

    Noorzai made no point out of his therapy at Guantanamo Bay, the detention middle used to deal with Muslim militants, together with al-Qaida fighters, the Taliban and suspects captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere following the September 11, 2001 terrorist assaults within the U.S.

    The facility grew to become the main focus of worldwide controversy over alleged violations of the authorized rights of detainees underneath the Geneva Conventions and accusations of torture or abusive therapy of detainees by U.S. authorities.

    After 9/11, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban who had harbored al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his followers. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011.

  • Woman arrested after accusing Taliban official of rape

    The Taliban introduced they’ve arrested and can quickly sentence an Afghan lady who appeared in a video on social media earlier this week and stated a senior Taliban official compelled her into marriage and raped her repeatedly.

    In the video, the lady, who recognized herself solely by her first title Elaha, wept as she described being crushed and raped by former Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Saeed Khosti. She stated she was talking from an house in Kabul the place the Taliban had confined her after she tried to flee the nation, and she or he pleaded for rescue.

    “These may be my last words. He will kill me, but it is better to die once than to die every time,” she stated.

    Late Wednesday, a day after the video surfaced, the Taliban-run Supreme Court stated in a tweet that Elaha had been arrested for defamation on orders of the chief justice Abdul Hakeem Haqqani. Without mentioning any trial happening, it stated she would “soon be sentenced according to Sharia law.”

    “No one is allowed to harm the name of Mujahideen or defame the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the 20-years of holy jihad,” it stated, referring to the Taliban and their conflict in opposition to U.S.-led troops and the U.S.-allied authorities, which the hardline insurgents toppled simply over a yr in the past.

    Since the Taliban takeover of the nation in August 2021, Afghan girls activists, in addition to Amnesty International, have reported a rise in compelled marriages of ladies — together with circumstances the place Taliban officers coerced girls into marriage by intimidating them or their households.

    In the video, Elaha recognized herself as a medical scholar at Kabul University and the daughter of an intelligence service common beneath the previous authorities. She stated Khosti had compelled her into marriage six months in the past, when he nonetheless held the spokesman submit. Khosti tried to marry her sister to a different Taliban official, however her household efficiently fled, she stated.

    “Saeed Khosti beat me a lot. Every night he raped me,” she stated, breaking into tears.

    She stated she tried to flee to neighboring Pakistan, however the Taliban arrested her on the border crossing and introduced her again to Kabul and confined her to an house there. After they introduced her again, she heard a Taliban member telling Khosti that she had lived beneath the previous authorities for 20 years and needs to be stoned to dying as an infidel, she stated.In tweets Wednesday, Khosti confirmed that he had married Elaha, however he denied mistreating her. “I assure you that I have not done anything illegal,” he wrote. In current months, Khosti was transferred out of his spokesman submit and it’s not clear what his new place is.

    Khosti stated he divorced her after discovering she “has a problem in her faith” and he accused her of insulting Islam’s holy e-book, the Quran. Elaha’s video was extensively shared on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp teams, sparking a wave of requires assist and denunciations of the Taliban from girls activists.

    Since seizing energy, the Taliban have imposed rising restrictions on girls. They have prevented many ladies from working, barred teenage women from college and required girls in public to cowl themselves utterly besides for his or her eyes. The world has refused to acknowledge the Taliban’s rule, demanding it respect human rights and present tolerance for different teams.