Page 9 - Taliban

Most UNSC members demand Taliban rescind decrees oppressing women, girls

More than two-thirds of the U.N. Security Council's members demanded Monday that the Taliban rescind all policies and decrees oppressing and discriminating against women and girls, including banning girls education above the sixth grade and women's right to work and move freely. A statement by 11 of the 15 council members condemned the Taliban's repression of women and girls since they took power in August 2021, and again insisted on their equal participation in public, political, economic, cultural and social life -- especially at all decision-making levels seeking to advance international engagement with Afghanistan's de facto rulers. Guyana's U.N. Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett read the statement, surrounding by ambassadors of the 10 other countries, before a closed council meeting on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' conference with more than 25 envoys to Afghanistan on Feb. 18-19 in Qatar's capital, Doha. Afghan civil society representatives, including women, ...

Taliban has set 'unacceptable' terms for meeting, says UN secy general

The Taliban set unacceptable conditions for attending a UN-sponsored meeting about Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday. Taliban demands included the exclusion of Afghan civil society members from the talks in Doha, Qatar, and treatment that amounted to official recognition of the Taliban as the country's legitimate rulers, Guterres said at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Qatar. The Taliban seized power in 2021, as US and NATO forces withdrew following two decades of war. No country recognises them as Afghanistan's government, and the UN has said that recognition is almost impossible while bans on female education and employment remain in place. The two-day meeting in Doha brought together member states and special envoys. But the Taliban didn't attend because their demands had not been met. I received a letter (from the Taliban) with a set of conditions to be present in this meeting that were not acceptable, Guterres told a news conference. These .

UN deputy secretary-general initiates women-centric talks in Afghanistan

According to The Khaama Press, Wignaraja maintains her role as the Regional Director for Asia-Pacific at the UN Development Office

'Taliban decrees on clothing, guardian leave Afghan women scared to go out'

Afghan women feel scared or unsafe leaving their homes alone because of Taliban decrees and enforcement campaigns on clothing and male guardians, according to a report from the UN mission in Afghanistan. The report, issued Friday, comes days before a UN-convened meeting in the Qatari capital is set to start, with member states and special envoys to Afghanistan to discuss engagement with the Taliban and the country's crises, including the human rights situation. The Taliban which took over Afghanistan in 2021 during the final weeks of US and NATO withdrawal from the country have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed despite initial promises of a more moderate rule. They are also restricting women's access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or don't have a male guardian, and arresting those who don't comply with the Taliban's interpretation of hijab, or Islam

Foreign aid drops sharply as Taliban abuses jeopardise Afghan health system

Human Rights Watch said on Monday that Afghanistan's public health system has been hit hard following a sharp reduction in foreign assistance, coupled with serious Taliban abuses against women and girls, jeopardising the right to healthcare of millions of Afghans. In a new report, the New York-based watchdog said this has left the Afghan population increasingly vulnerable to severe malnutrition and illness among other effects of inadequate medical care. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 drove millions into poverty and hunger after foreign aid stopped almost overnight. Sanctions against the Taliban rulers, a halt on bank transfers and frozen billions in Afghanistan's currency reserves, have cut off access to global institutions and the outside money that supported the aid-dependent economy before the withdrawal of US and NATO forces. In 2023, the World Food Programme warned that malnutrition rates in Afghanistan were at a record high with half the country suffering

UN expresses concerns over arbitrary detention of women, girls by Taliban

The experts also noted that females were detained in the provinces of Bamyan, Daikundi, Panjshir, Balkh, and Kunduz

US urges Taliban govt to take steps to gain international legitimacy

The spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, said Washington would continue to call on the 'Taliban' to take steps to gain international legitimacy

Pakistani Taliban pledge not to attack election rallies ahead of Feb 8 vote

The Pakistani Taliban pledged Thursday not to attack election rallies, saying their targets are limited to the military and security forces, as political parties and independent candidates ramp up their campaigns ahead of the Feb 8 vote. We have nothing to do with these elections and the parties participating in them, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said in a statement. Other militant groups have not made similar pledges, and some previous Pakistani elections have been marred by violence. Two-time former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bomb attack in 2007 minutes after she addressed an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Her son, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, is leading the campaign for her Pakistan People's Party. Thursday's rare pledge by the TTP came after the government approved the deployment of troops in sensitive constituencies after intelligence agencies warned that militants could target rallies, which are usually held outdoors in public ...

British-Indian student in soup after making 'Taliban' joke to blow up plane

An Indian-origin British student has appeared in Spanish court after joking about blowing up a plane

International organisations request Taliban to reopen schools for girls

International organisations have called for lifting the ban on girls' education, as for over two years now, girls have been barred from accessing education in Afghanistan, TOLO News reported

UN body in Afghanistan thanks India for aid in combating locust threat

Earlier, the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Agriculture also expressed gratitude for this assistance made through the Chabahar port

Taliban enforcing restrictions on single, unaccompanied Afghan women: UN

The Taliban are restricting Afghan women's access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or don't have a male guardian, according to a UN report published Monday. In one incident, officials from the Vice and Virtue Ministry advised a woman to get married if she wanted to keep her job at a health care facility, saying it was inappropriate for an unwed woman to work, it said. The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule. They have also shut down beauty parlors and started enforcing a dress code, arresting women who don't comply with their interpretation of hijab, or Islamic headscarf. In May 2022, the Taliban issued a decree calling for women to only show their eyes and recommending they wear the head-to-toe burqa, similar to restrictions during the Taliban's previous rule between .

4 survivors of Russian plane crash in Afghanistan in 'good health': Taliban

Video footage released by Mujahid's office showed the four men, some of whom had bruising visible on their faces and one with blood stains on his clothes, stepping off a helicopter with Taliban

UNDP report indicates worsening economic insecurity in Afghanistan

According to the UNDP report, currently, seven out of 10 people in Afghanistan are not able to meet their basic life requirements and face economic insecurity

Bus explodes in Afghanistan, killing at least 2 civilians and wounding 14

A minibus exploded in a mostly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, killing at least two civilians and wounding 14 others, a Taliban official said Saturday, the first attack in the country in 2024. Police spokesman Khalid Zadran said the explosion took place in the western part of the city, in the Dashti Barchi area. The cause remained unknown, but police launched an investigation, he said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group's affiliate in the region has in the past targeted Shiite schools, hospitals, and mosques in the same area. Last week during a press conference in Kabul, Taliban Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said there had been a 90 per cent decrease in attacks by the IS affiliate in the past year. The IS affiliate has been a major rival of the Taliban since the latter seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021. IS militants have struck in Kabul, in northern provinces and especially whereve

Pakistan police arrest 21 members of Taliban linked to deadly attacks

Pakistan's counterterrorism police said on Monday they arrested 21 members of outlawed militant group the Pakistani Taliban, which has been behind several deadly attacks across the country. Acting on intelligence information, the arrests were made in the eastern Punjab province over the past two weeks, the provincial Counterterrorism Department said in a statement. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. The Counterterrorism Department provided a list of the suspects, the cases against them and their alleged affiliation. But the list did not give details about the attacks the militants were allegedly involved in, including the number of casualties. The statement said that Mohammad Arshad, an alleged chief commander of the banned Baluch Nationalist Army which ..

War and empires

Today's anti-"woke" warriors in Congress likely would be surprised by the Boston University anthropologist Thomas Barfield's insightful Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History

Pak, Afghan Taliban to make renewed efforts to ease tensions over TTP

A senior Afghan Taliban leader is expected to arrive in Islamabad early next month, while a leading Pakistani cleric is set to visit Kabul in a fresh bid to reduce bilateral tensions over the outlawed terror group TTP, media reports said on Sunday. Pakistan has consistently called for Afghanistan's Taliban government to take decisive action against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and related militant groups operating from Afghan soil, including extraditing leaders responsible for attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban government, however, has been hesitant to comply because of historical alliances and ideological ties. The visits are part of efforts to reduce tensions between Kabul and Islamabad concerning the outlawed TTP, which intensified attacks against the security forces in Pakistan in the wake of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan more than two years ago. Mullah Sherin Akhund, a senior Afghan Taliban figure and governor of Kandahar province, is expected in Islamabad early ne

Displaced, crossing borders: Afghan people make tough journeys to survive

The barren desert plain among the mountains of eastern Afghanistan is filled with hundreds of thousands of people. Some live in tents. Others live out in the open, among the piles of the few belongings they managed to take as they were forced from neighbouring Pakistan. The sprawling camp of people returning to Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing is the latest facet of Afghans' long, painful search for a stable home. More than 40 years of war, violence and poverty in Afghanistan have created one of the world's most uprooted populations. Some 6 million Afghans are refugees outside the country. Another 3.5 million people are displaced within the country of 40 million, driven from their homes by war, earthquakes, drought or resources that are being depleted. Over the course of months, an Associated Press photographer travelled across Afghanistan from its eastern border with Pakistan to its western border with Iran, getting to know displaced people and returned refuges and

Afghan schoolgirls finishing sixth grade in tears under Taliban rule

Bahara Rustam, 13, took her last class at Bibi Razia School in Kabul on December 11 knowing it was the end of her education. Under Taliban rule, she is unlikely to step foot in a classroom again. In September 2021, a month after US and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan following two decades of war, the Taliban announced that girls were barred from studying beyond sixth grade. They extended this education ban to universities in December 2022. The Taliban have defied global condemnation and warnings that the restrictions will make it almost impossible for them to gain recognition as the country's legitimate rulers. Last week, UN special envoy Roza Otunbayeva expressed concern that a generation of Afghan girls is falling behind with each day that passes. Last week, an official in the Education Ministry said Afghan girls of all ages are allowed to study in religious schools known as madrassas, which have traditionally been boys-only. But Otunbayeva said it was unclear if there was