UK MP Says Turning Back on Women in Afghanistan Betrays Women Worldwide

January 7, 2026

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

A UK MP warned that turning back on women in Afghanistan would betray women and undermine women’s rights globally.

Alice McDonald, a member of the UK Parliament, said in a statement that the government cannot turn its back on the crisis in Afghanistan. She emphasized that failing to act on gender apartheid and systemic oppression would betray not only Afghanistan women but women worldwide.

The MP described the situation for Afghanistan women and girls as “devastating,” but stressed that neither the UK nor the international community should surrender. Afghanistan women remain determined, resilient, and continue finding ways to run businesses and lead on the frontlines despite harsh restrictions.

McDonald added that combating systematic repression of Afghanistan women is essential for achieving global equality. She argued that gender equality is not only a moral imperative but also crucial for sustainable peace, security, and international progress.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they have progressively stripped Afghanistan women of basic human rights, banning access to secondary schools and universities.

International condemnation has been widespread, with governments and civil society organizations calling on the Taliban to reverse these policies. Despite pressure, the group has continued enforcing restrictions and limiting women’s freedoms.

McDonald urged that the UK and other nations uphold global values and lead by example, offering hope to oppressed populations. She emphasized that concrete support for Afghanistan women must be a priority of international policy and humanitarian efforts.

UK MP Says Turning Back on Women in Afghanistan Betrays Women Worldwide
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Pakistan warns that Afghanistan is becoming ‘hub for terrorists’ and poses regional threat

January 7, 2026

By MUNIR AHMED

Associated Press
January 6, 2026

Pakistan’s military is warning that Afghanistan is becoming a “hub for terrorists.”

ISLAMABAD — ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan ’s military on Tuesday warned that Afghanistan is becoming a “hub for terrorists and non-state actors,” widening its allegations to assert that its Taliban government is patronizing al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and the Pakistani Taliban.

Military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry also told a news conference, without offering evidence, that about 2,500 foreign militants recently entered Afghanistan from Syria following the ouster there of former President Bashar Assad. Chaudhry asserted that the militants were invited to Afghanistan.

“These terrorists are neither Pakistanis nor Afghan citizens and belong to other nationalities,” Chaudhry said, adding that the reemergence of international militant groups could pose security risks beyond neighboring Afghanistan’s borders.

There was no immediate comment from Kabul to Chaudhry’s claim. Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war ended with Assad’s ouster in December 2024 but left behind a patchwork of armed groups on all sides of the conflict, shaped by years of foreign intervention.

Fighters from Syria have since taken part in other wars in the region and beyond, including Turkish-backed combatants sent to Libya and militants recruited by Russia to fight in Ukraine. Foreign fighters have joined Syrian rebel factions, pro-government forces and extremist groups such as the Islamic State group.

Chaudhry’s remarks came a day after Pakistan and China called for more “visible and verifiable” measures to eliminate militant organizations operating from Afghan territory and to prevent it from being used for attacks against other countries.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent months, with tensions occasionally spilling into violence. In October, the countries came close to a wider conflict after Pakistan carried out airstrikes on what it described as Pakistani Taliban hideouts inside Afghanistan. Kabul retaliated by targeting Pakistani military posts. The fighting ended after Qatar brokered a ceasefire.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan and India of backing the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and the outlawed Baloch National Army. Both Kabul and New Delhi deny the allegations.

Chaudhry also said Pakistan killed 2,597 militants in 2025, up from 1,053 a year earlier. The country recorded 5,397 militant attacks, up from 3,014 in 2024.

“Yes, this is a big number,” he said of the 2025 attacks. “Why? Because we are engaging them everywhere.” He added that Afghan nationals were involved in almost all major attacks inside Pakistan last year.

Pakistan warns that Afghanistan is becoming ‘hub for terrorists’ and poses regional threat
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3 Killed, 6 Injured in Takhar Protests Over Unregulated Gold Mining

January 7, 2026
Khaama Press

Three people were killed and six injured during protests in Chah Ab, Takhar, as residents demonstrated against unregulated gold mining and environmental destruction.

Residents of Chah Ab district in Takhar province clashed with local forces during protests over unregulated gold mining and water resource damage, sources said. At least three protesters were killed and six others injured.

The demonstrations, which began several days ago, escalated on Monday, January 5, when locals took to the streets with sticks and tools to voice their grievances against mining companies.

Video footage on social media shows protesters confronting Taliban forces, including an incident where a Taliban member firing at demonstrators was beaten by the crowd.

During the clashes, sources reported that protesters also set fire to the property of the mining company. Unverified reports suggest that one Taliban member was killed in the confrontation.

The Taliban have increasingly focused on exploiting Afghanistan’s mineral resources, particularly gold in Takhar and Badakhshan provinces, sparking widespread local opposition over environmental and economic concerns.

Similar protests occurred in Badakhshan earlier when residents opposed opium poppy destruction. UN reports indicate at least ten protesters were killed during that crackdown.

Analysts say the growing tension reflects deeper grievances in resource-rich provinces, where locals demand sustainable management and accountability from both the Taliban and private operators.

Observers warn that continued violent crackdowns on peaceful demonstrations could escalate unrest, further undermining public trust in the Taliban’s governance and their claims of legitimacy.

3 Killed, 6 Injured in Takhar Protests Over Unregulated Gold Mining
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Pakistan and China call for ‘visible and verifiable’ steps against Afghan-based terror groups

January 6, 2026
By MUNIR AHMED

Associated Press

January 5, 2026

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan and China called for more “visible and verifiable” steps to eliminate terrorist organizations based in Afghanistan and to prevent Afghan territory from being used for militancy against any country, according to a joint statement.

The statement issued Monday followed talks between Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, who met in Beijing on Dec. 4.

The two countries said “terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan continue to pose serious threats to regional and global security and stressed the need to prevent them from using Afghan soil to carry out attacks against other countries.”

There was no immediate response from Afghanistan’s government in Kabul.

China praised Pakistan for what it described as “comprehensive counterterrorism measures” and for protecting Chinese citizens and projects related to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, a program of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Thousands of Chinese workers and engineers are engaged in CPEC-related projects involving improvements to road and rail links between China’s western Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea. In 2024, five Chinese people were killed when a suicide car bomber hit a bus in northwest Pakistan.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers of sheltering the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which has been blamed for attacks inside Pakistan that have increased since 2021. The TTP is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban, which has governed the country since 2021 and says it does not allow its territory to be used for attacks against other countries.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have persisted since early October when Pakistan carried out airstrikes on what it described as Pakistani Taliban hideouts inside Afghanistan, killing dozens of alleged insurgents.

Afghan forces retaliated by targeting Pakistani military posts and claimed to have killed 58 soldiers. Pakistan acknowledged losing 23 troops.

The fighting stopped after Qatar brokered a ceasefire in its capital Doha. The agreement was followed by more talks in Istanbul, which failed to produce additional results.

 

Pakistan and China call for ‘visible and verifiable’ steps against Afghan-based terror groups
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Taliban spokesman accuses Pakistan of seeking to destabilise Afghanistan

January 2, 2026

by 

AMU TV

January 2, 2026

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has accused Pakistan of seeking to destabilise Afghanistan in coordination with major powers, including the United States, as relations between the two sides remain strained despite multiple rounds of talks.

Mujahid said some elements within Pakistan’s military were acting at the behest of Washington to undermine security in Afghanistan and the wider region.

“Certain military circles in Pakistan, in cooperation with and at the request of major powers, are trying to destabilise Afghanistan,” Mujahid told an interview streamed on YouTube.

He linked the allegation to renewed US statements about Afghanistan’s former Bagram air base, adding: “When the United States raises the issue of Bagram, the question of Pakistan’s role in destabilising Afghanistan also arises. This can be pursued in a coordinated manner between the US and some military circles in Pakistan.”

Mujahid said the Taliban administration was not dependent on any foreign power and warned Islamabad against seeking influence over Kabul. “The Islamic Emirate is not reliant on any country, and Pakistan should not harbour dreams of dominance over Afghanistan,” he said. He again denied the presence of militant groups operating from Afghanistan’s territory.

Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such accusations and says militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operate from Afghanistan’s territory.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andarabi said in recent remarks that Afghanistan’s territory was being “widely used” by militant groups to carry out attacks inside Pakistan, and called on the Taliban to provide formal guarantees.

“Our demand from Afghanistan is clear: do not allow terrorists to operate against Pakistan from your soil,” Andarabi said. “These militants are not Pakistani citizens; more than 70% of them are Afghan nationals. We now expect a written commitment to ensure Afghan soil is not used against us.”

The Taliban have consistently denied supporting the TTP, saying security incidents in Pakistan are an internal matter for Islamabad.

Tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan have intensified over the past three months, with border closures, rising rhetoric and Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan’s border provinces. Pakistani forces also carried out strikes that, for the first time, reached areas in Kabul and Kandahar.

At least four rounds of talks between Taliban and Pakistani delegations, held in Doha, Istanbul and Riyadh, have failed to produce a breakthrough, leaving relations between the two sides at one of their lowest points since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

Taliban spokesman accuses Pakistan of seeking to destabilise Afghanistan
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Pakistan deports more than 2,000 migrants in a day

January 2, 2026

by 

January 2, 2026

Returning migrants from Pakistan. Archive photo.

Pakistan deported more than 2,000 Afghan migrants on Thursday, Jan. 1, the Taliban’s commission for refugee said, as Islamabad presses ahead with a campaign to expel immigrants without valid documents.

The commission said the returnees crossed into Afghanistan via the Torkham, Spin Boldak and Bahramcha border crossings. In the same period, 284 individuals returned from Iran through the Islam Qala and Silk Bridge crossings, it added.

The latest returns come amid a sharp rise in deportations from neighbouring countries. The United Nations says more than 2.6 million Afghans were returned to Afghanistan in 2025, mostly from Pakistan and Iran, warning that the influx is putting severe strain on the country’s limited resources.

International aid agencies have repeatedly cautioned that many returnees arrive with few possessions and little access to shelter or jobs, raising the risk of deepening poverty, renewed displacement and a worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Pakistan deports more than 2,000 migrants in a day
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Afghanistan economy remains unstable in 2025

January 2, 2026
Khaama Press

Afghanistan’s economy remained fragile in 2025, with soaring unemployment, widespread poverty, disrupted trade, and declining incomes deepening hardship for millions of households nationwide.

Afghanistan’s economy remained deeply fragile throughout 2025, with the United Nations reporting unemployment at 75 percent and more than 90 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Years of conflict, political isolation, and shrinking job opportunities have continued to undermine household incomes and overall economic stability.

The UN also warned that over 70 percent of Afghans depended on humanitarian assistance during the year, as poverty, food insecurity, and limited access to livelihoods intensified across both urban and rural areas. Women have been among the hardest hit by the economic downturn.

Thousands of women stated that they have experienced after being pushed out of public institutions, private businesses, and even international organizations. According to UN figures, eight out of ten Afghan women have been excluded from education, employment, and skills training.

Economic pressure intensified after trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan was suspended in October 2025, cutting off a major commercial lifeline. The disruption affected imports, exports, and transit routes, compounding supply shortages and market instability.

Although alternative routes such as Iran’s Chabahar port and Central Asian corridors were introduced, analysts say these options raised transportation costs. As a result, food prices surged, agricultural exports spoiled, and trucks carrying goods remained stranded for weeks.

The United Nations identified deteriorating relations with Pakistan as a key factor behind Afghanistan’s economic shock, noting losses to traders, farmers, and transit markets on both sides. The disruption weakened regional trade integration and damaged local livelihoods.

A World Bank report released in December 2025 warned that rapid population growth, widening trade deficits, and persistent poverty continue to weigh heavily on Afghanistan’s economic outlook. Forced returns of migrants have further strained already overstretched communities.

Signs of fiscal stress have also emerged within the administration, with reports of delayed salary payments to public employees toward the end of the year, reflecting a growing budget shortfall.

Economists caution that without restoring trade flows, easing restrictions on women’s employment, and stabilizing regional economic ties, Afghanistan’s recovery will remain elusive.

International agencies warn that sustained economic decline could deepen humanitarian needs in 2026, unless structural reforms and regional cooperation are prioritized to prevent further deterioration.

Afghanistan economy remains unstable in 2025
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Afghanistan Faces Severe Gender Restrictions as Women Denied Education and Employment in 2025

January 2, 2026
Khaama Press

In 2025, Afghanistan women and girls faced widespread exclusion from education and work, worsening poverty, limiting economic growth, and threatening long-term social development.

Recent reports by the United Nations and international organisations show that in 2025, women and girls in Afghanistan continued to face sweeping restrictions on education, employment, and social life. These limitations have had deep economic and social consequences, even as many Afghans hope schools and universities might reopen to women in 2026.

According to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2025 report, more than 90 percent of Afghanistan women were excluded from employment opportunities, with only about 7 percent engaged in economic activity outside their homes during the past year. These restrictions have weakened household incomes and undermined the country’s prospects for sustainable development.

The UN Security Council’s Monitoring Team described the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan as “grave” in its annual assessment. UNICEF’s “Afghanistan Gender Index 2025” found that eight out of ten Afghanistan women remain deprived of education and work, placing Afghanistan among the countries with the world’s widest gender gaps. Estimates suggest these exclusions cost the Afghanistan economy more than one billion dollars annually.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also warned that restrictions on women’s access to medical professions and healthcare services are directly affecting daily life. In Kandahar, UNAMA reported that local authorities instructed male dentists not to treat female patients, requiring clinics to employ female doctors instead. These policies have reduced women’s access to healthcare and increased pressure on families and communities.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) identified the systematic exclusion of women and girls from public life as a key driver of Afghanistan’s worsening humanitarian crisis. OCHA said the restrictions have heightened protection risks, including gender-based violence, child labour, and early and forced marriages.

Research published in 2025 by Georgetown University ranked Afghanistan as the worst country in the world for women out of 188 nations. The index, based on participation, justice, and security, found Afghan women at the lowest global levels of safety and access to justice, noting that one in five women experienced violence at home in the past year.

The widespread exclusion of women from education and work has produced severe social and economic fallout. Reduced female participation in the workforce has shrunk family incomes and national productivity, while denying education to girls threatens to entrench long-term inequality across future generations.

Reports confirm that in 2025 Afghanistan remained the only country in the world where girls above sixth grade were barred from schooling solely because of their gender. Experts warn that if this policy continues, it will cause lasting damage to human development, deepen poverty, and widen gender disparities for decades.

International analysts stress that empowering women and enabling their participation in public life is not only a fundamental human right but also essential for sustainable development and poverty reduction. Reopening schools and universities to women could bring significant benefits to health outcomes, economic growth, and social stability.

Following the political changes of 2021, women and girls in Afghanistan were barred from education and many forms of employment “until further notice,” a suspension that has now lasted for years. Despite repeated international appeals, authorities have so far offered no clear timeline or policy shift on restoring these rights.

Before these restrictions, women faced challenges but were still able to participate in education and the workforce. UN and international reports consistently conclude that restoring women’s access to schools, universities, and jobs would play a crucial role in reducing poverty, improving security, and supporting Afghanistan’s long-term development.

Afghanistan Faces Severe Gender Restrictions as Women Denied Education and Employment in 2025
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Flash flooding in Afghanistan leaves at least 17 dead and around 1,800 families affected

January 1, 2026

Associated Press

Another 11 people have been injured as the flooding swept across several regions of the country since Monday.

Devastating flash floods have claimed the lives of at least 17 people in Afghanistan, following the season’s first heavy rain and snow which brought an end to a prolonged dry spell.

Among the victims were five members of a single family, including two children, who perished when the roof of their home caved in on Thursday in Kabkan, Herat province.

A spokesperson for the national disaster management authority confirmed another 11 people have been injured as the flooding swept across several regions of the country since Monday.

The severe weather has also caused extensive damage to infrastructure, killed livestock, and impacted 1,800 families, exacerbating already dire conditions for vulnerable urban and rural communities.

Mohammad Yousaf Hammad, from the authority, stated that assessment teams have been dispatched to the worst-affected areas, with ongoing surveys to ascertain further humanitarian needs.

Afghanistan, much like neighbouring Pakistan and India, is exceptionally vulnerable to extreme weather events, particularly the flash floods that follow seasonal rainfall.

Decades of protracted conflict, inadequate infrastructure, widespread deforestation, and the escalating impacts of climate change have collectively amplified the devastation, especially in remote areas where many homes, constructed from mud, offer scant protection against sudden deluges.

Flash flooding in Afghanistan leaves at least 17 dead and around 1,800 families affected
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3 Years After a Toddler’s Parents Fled Kabul, a Reunion Is Still on Hold

December 31, 2025

Reporting from Beaverton, Ore.

The New York Times

The twisting saga that separated the Hashemis in Oregon from their infant son has reached a new dead end: President Trump’s hold on all visas to the United States.

Husna Hashemi keeps photos on her phone from the day more than three years ago when she handed her infant son, asleep and swaddled in blankets, to her husband’s parents and brother in a city park in Kabul.

She didn’t want to leave — even now, speaking in Dari through an interpreter, she wept as she talked about returning to Afghanistan to be with her youngest child. But her husband, Sayed Rasool Hashemi, had worked for years with the American military, and after the U.S. government fled Afghanistan, the Hashemis faced a terrible choice: Stay and risk everyone’s lives or leave their newborn behind.

“I did not want to go without him,” Ms. Hashemi said. “What kind of mother does that?”

The Hashemis’ story, told from their neat, snug suburban apartment in Beaverton, Ore., where the immigrants are building new lives, holds twists and bureaucratic dead ends that span two presidential administrations and would make Franz Kafka proud. It’s capped, for now, by President Trump’s near-total blockade on Afghan immigration. In its infuriating absurdity is a metaphor of sorts for the long war’s chaotic end.

On a recent evening, the laughter of the Hashemis’ two older children broke the quiet every now and then, but their youngest child’s voice remains missing from their attempt at the American dream.

“It’s just so stupid,” said Brian Torres, a family friend. “So stupid and cruel.”

Sayed Anas Hashemi was just a month old, with no visa or passport, when his parents were forced to leave him behind. Efforts to bring him to the United States have lurched onward, but an attack on two U.S. National Guard soldiers near the White House in November, and the charging of an Afghan immigrant who had also worked for the United States, has left any reunion on hold.

“Every time we get so close, then something happens,” Mr. Hashemi said. “Now, we just don’t know.”

Mr. Hashemi was in his late teens when he began working for the U.S. government in 2004, first doing odd jobs for the military, then serving as an interpreter for American contractors. He considered it the right thing to do — he remembered life as a child under the Taliban as violent and frightening — and an economic opportunity, particularly after he married and started a family.

“They said they will take care of us,” he said of his employers. “I heard that many times.”

When President Joseph R. Biden Jr. set the final timeline for the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, culminating in the frenzied departure from Kabul in August 2021, Mr. Hashemi took his family into hiding.

“Everybody was scared,” Mr. Hashemi said.

The risks to Afghan citizens seen as cooperating with the United States were apparent enough that the United States established an office within the State Department — the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE — and offered a special immigrant visa for Afghans deemed likely to face Taliban reprisal. The system, crafted by the Biden administration, was overwhelmed from the start.

Mr. Hashemi began the visa application process even before the Americans left and waited more than a year for the paperwork allowing him to leave for Qatar, the first stop for many Afghans fleeing to America. During that interlude, Ms. Hashemi became pregnant with their third child, and Sayed Anas was born in September 2022.

The family’s paperwork came through one month later. The infant did not have a passport and hadn’t been included on the family’s visa applications because he hadn’t been born. They spent almost four months in Qatar, but Sayed Anas still didn’t have the proper documents when the rest of the family received permission to fly to the United States in February 2023.

They thought their son would be allowed out in months, not years.

Their friend Mr. Torres, a former middle school teacher, started volunteering with a refugee resettlement group after listening to a ride-share driver in Washington, D.C., recount his story about leaving Afghanistan so his children could get an education. The Hashemis were Mr. Torres’s first assignment. He thought the work meant helping with the basics of building a life in a new country, in the suburbs of Portland, Ore., such as how to schedule doctor’s appointments or buy car insurance.

But every conversation with the Hashemis came back to the same reality, that their life in the United States couldn’t truly begin until they had their son.

Even before that, the family’s lawyer, Gabe Espinal, suggested they work directly with a U.S. embassy in Central Asia or the Middle East. But different countries, even different U.S. embassies, have their own policies about when and how they process visa applications or whether they’ll even work with Afghan nationals. Many that do remain are plagued by backlogs.

The Hashemis secured a visa interview appointment for Sayed Anas at the U.S. Embassy in Qatar but with four days’ notice, nowhere near enough time to get him there. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan told them to fill out an online visa form for Sayed Anas. For months, they could not get the link to work.

“I don’t want to call this a comedy of errors because none of it is funny,” Mr. Torres said. “But at every step, something seemed to go wrong.”

This past fall, a reunion felt close. The embassy in Tajikistan told Mr. Hashemi and his lawyer that if they could get Sayed Anas to Dushanbe, the country’s capital, the embassy would process his case.

Then came the National Guard attack.

President Trump declared that “every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan” during the Biden administration must be re-examined. The State Department has frozen visas for Afghans, though the U.S. government website about the presidential proclamation barring Afghan nationals notes that limited exceptions may be made for people younger than 8 with special immigrant visas.

The White House referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security. A spokeswoman for the department did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Espinal thinks the evolving federal policy could allow Sayed Anas into the United States, but he’s not certain and has struggled to find someone who can answer his questions. The family also doesn’t know whether Mr. Hashemi, who hopes to fly to Asia to take his son through the final steps in the process and bring him to the United States, would be allowed back in if he made the trip. The State Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

“This family could be reunited in three months,” Mr. Torres said. “Or it could be another three years.”

Meantime, their older children, now 11 and 8, are thriving in school. Mr. Hashemi, who said he was not angry at the U.S. government, has a job with a company that makes gun sights and has created a small support group for other Afghan refugees in Oregon. Ms. Hashemi is taking English classes with other Afghan women but struggles to focus on anything but her missing child.

“She is sick all the time,” Mr. Hashemi said. “She cannot stop crying.”

They’ve watched Sayed Anas grow from a baby to a boy through a screen. The child, now 3, knows who his parents are thanks to regular WhatsApp calls and that they’re trying to bring him to the United States. Like them, he just doesn’t know when that will happen.

“All the time when we call, he says, ‘I want to come there, I want to see your house,’” Mr. Hashemi said. “My brother tells him that I will come get him on a plane. So sometimes he tells me, ‘I see your plane today.’ He sees planes, and he thinks we are coming to take him.”

Anna Griffin the Pacific Northwest bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Montana and Oregon.

3 Years After a Toddler’s Parents Fled Kabul, a Reunion Is Still on Hold
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