Page 14 - Taliban

Taliban uses tasers to break up Afghan women protesting beauty salon ban

Dozens of Afghan women protested a beauty salon ban on Wednesday after the Taliban ordered their closure nationwide. Security forces used fire hoses, tasers and shot their guns into the air to break up the protest. The Taliban said earlier this month they were giving all salons in Afghanistan one month to wind down their businesses and close shop, drawing concern from international officials worried about the impact on female entrepreneurs. The Taliban say they are outlawing salons allegedly because they offer services forbidden by Islam and cause economic hardship for grooms' families during wedding festivities. The ruling came from the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment. In a rare sign of public opposition to Taliban orders, dozens of beauticians and makeup artists gathered in the capital of Kabul to protest the ban. W

Banned salons because they offered forbidden services: Afghan Taliban

Women's beauty salons were banned in Afghanistan because they offered services forbidden by Islam and caused economic hardships for grooms' families during wedding festivities, the Taliban said Thursday. The explanation came days after the group confirmed they were giving all salons in the country one month to wind down their businesses and close shop, drawing concern from international officials worried about the impact on female entrepreneurs. The ruling is the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment. In a video clip released Thursday, Sadiq Akif Mahjer, the spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, listed a series of services salons offered that he said went against Islam. Those included eyebrow shaping, the use of other people's hair to augment a woman's natural hair and the application of makeup, which would interfere with the ablutions required befo

Taliban bans women's beauty salons in Afghanistan, gives 1 month to wind up

It's the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment

Since Taliban takeover, over 1,000 civilians were killed in attacks: UN

The United Nations said Tuesday it has documented a significant level of civilians killed and wounded in attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover despite a stark reduction in casualties compared to previous years of war and insurgency. According to a new report by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, since the takeover in mid-August 2021 and until the end of May, there were 3,774 civilian casualties, including 1,095 people killed in violence in the country. That compares with 8,820 civilian casualties including 3,035 killed in just 2020, according to an earlier U.N. report. The Taliban seized the country in August 2021 while U.S. and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war. According to the U.N. report, three-quarters of the attacks since the Taliban seized power were with improvised explosive devices in populated areas, including places of worship, schools and markets, the report said. Among those killed w

Since Taliban's takeover, more than 1,000 civilians were killed, says UN

The United Nations said Tuesday it has documented a significant level of civilians killed and wounded in attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover despite a stark reduction in casualties compared to previous years of war and insurgency. According to a new report by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, since the takeover in mid-August 2021 and until the end of May, there were 3,774 civilian casualties, including 1,095 people killed in violence in the country. That compares with 8,820 civilian casualties including 3,035 killed in just 2020, according to an earlier U.N. report. The Taliban seized the country in August 2021 while U.S. and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war. According to the U.N. report, three-quarters of the attacks since the Taliban seized power were with improvised explosive devices in populated areas, including places of worship, schools and markets, the report said. Among those killed w

Taliban leader claims women provided with comfortable, prosperous life

The supreme leader of the Taliban released a message on Sunday claiming that his government has taken the necessary steps for the betterment of women's lives in Afghanistan, where women are banned from public life and work and girls' education is severely curtailed. The statement from Hibatullah Akhundzada was made public ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday, which will be celebrated later this week in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries. Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, rarely appears in public or leaves the Taliban heartland in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province. He surrounds himself with other religious scholars and allies who oppose education and work for women. In his Eid message Akhundzada said that under the rule of the Islamic Emirate, concrete measures have been taken to save women from many traditional oppressions, including forced marriages, "and their Shariah rights have been protected. Moreover, necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half o

Women's public presence in Afghanistan totally erased by Taliban: UN

Irene Khan said in a report that women's rights groups play an important role in the struggle for gender equality and in promoting the agency of women

On terror firma

Shahbaz Taseer's book is a gripping account of his abduction by Islamic militants in Lahore and years of captivity under the Taliban in Afghanistan-a nightmare from which he miraculously emerged alive

Taliban's treatment of Afghan women may amount to gender apartheid: UN

An United Nations expert on Monday said the Taliban's treatment of Afghanistan's women and girls may amount to gender apartheid

Pak-Afghan rift widens after Taliban minister trashes Durand line as border

New Delhi, June 19: The Taliban administration's Defence Minister Maulvi Muhammad Yaqub Mujahid has said that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, called the Durand Line, is merely a 'line'

Hundreds of Afghans languish in Albania in a prolonged US visa process

Almost two years since he fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban takeover, Firooz Mashoof is still haunted by the memory of his last day in Kabul the bus that took him to the airport, getting on a packed plane and taking off as gunfire echoed across the city. The last thing I saw were the mountains around Kabul and the dreary sunset as the Qatar Airways took off, he said. Today, thousands of miles from his homeland, the 35-year-old photojournalist and former employee of the Afghan soccer federation, is languishing in warm and sunny Albania. With each passing day, his anxiety grows over the delay in the promised US visa, casting a shadow on his dreams of a new beginning in America. For hundreds of others like him, it's an emotional roller coaster. Some try to find work and live with a semblance of normalcy but the concern and fear for families back home permeates their days even in welcoming Albania. They are hopeful, despite the prolonged bureaucracy, and look to a new life. In

Taliban seeks further aid from UN for Afghan people in different fields

Hanif while describing the humanitarian aid as vital but not enough, said that the United Nations should launch development projects in Afghanistan

UN in talks with Taliban over handover of education programmes, classes

As per UNICEF, it had received assurances from the Taliban's Education Ministry that its community-based classes, which educate 500,000 students, would continue while they discussed the matter

Taliban back to exclusionary, Pashtun-centred policies of late 90s: Report

An annual report by the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team for the UNSC Committee has criticized what it considers the return of Taliban to exclusionary policies

Taliban slam 'baseless and biased' UN report suggesting rifts within ranks

The Taliban condemned on Sunday a baseless and biased report from the UN Security Council highlighting rifts within the group's ranks. The last seven months have seen a greater shift of power from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and the base of the group's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. A report issued earlier in June by the UN Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said that the Taliban governance structures remain highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive toward all forms of opposition. It also said Kandahar's return as the seat of power like it was during the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s circumvents senior Taliban ministers in Kabul, the centre of the current government, because of the way decisions are made. Key figures, such as the Taliban's main spokesman, have set up offices in the south of Kandahar. Monumental decrees such as those excluding women and girls from education

Threat of terrorism from Taliban rising in Afghanistan, region: UN report

The link between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan remains strong and symbiotic, according to a UN report which said the ability of terrorist groups to freely manoeuvre under the Taliban de facto authorities in Afghanistan is raising the threat of terrorism in the country and the region. The fourteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council said that contrary to statements to not allow Afghan soil to be used for attacks against other countries, the Taliban have harboured and allowed active support of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. While maintaining links to numerous terrorist entities, the Taliban have lobbied member states for counter-terrorism assistance in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Khorasan Province (ISIL-K), which it perceives as its principal rival. The link between the Taliban and both Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains

UNICEF concerned by Taliban move to bar int'l NGOs from education sector

UNICEF said on Thursday it is deeply concerned by reports of the Taliban pushing out international organizations from Afghanistan's education sector and ordering them to hand over their activities to local nongovernmental groups. It's the latest restriction on NGOs operating in the country after the ban imposed in December on Afghan female staff, allegedly because they weren't wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly and weren't complying with gender segregation in the workplace. In April, the ban was extended to the UN. A WhatsApp voice note, purportedly from a senior education official in Kabul, says all international organisations have a one-month deadline to transfer their education work to local groups. The Education Ministry was not immediately available to verify the voice note, but aid agency officials told The Associated Press they are aware of the message and are taking it seriously. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak t

No infiltration of Taliban into Kashmir post-Kabul fall: GOC Chinar Corps

The apprehensions about the influx of Taliban fighters into Kashmir after the fall of Kabul in 2021 did not materialise and no Afghani Taliban has infiltrated into the valley, a senior Army officer has said here. General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Chinar Corps Lieutenant General A D S Aujla also said that due to the ongoing internal crisis in Pakistan, there are no major worries regarding Kashmir but the armed forces have to remain alert to thwart any attempts to push in infiltrators, narcotics or weapons. "As far as the apprehensions which were there post Taliban 2.0 are concerned, we could see the manifestations (of concern) on this side as well in Kashmir but it never happened," Lt Gen Aujla told PTI in an interview on Wednesday. A certain amount of chatter and a certain amount of signature was being reported on the other side in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), but it never translated into reality onto this side, he said. "So, there was no infiltration of any Afghani Taliban..

Here's how a covert relationship with Taliban backfired for US ally Pak

"Pakistan saw the Taliban as deeply connected to the TTP and able to persuade it to stop its attacks"

Afghanistan's acting FM Amir Khan Muttaqi terms world's sanctions 'cruel'

Muttaqi said, "The world countries should listen, they should not pursue their cases under the pretext that these people are being harmed here"