Economic Hardship Deepens in Kabul During Ramadan

February 22, 2026 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

21 FEBRUARY 2026

The secret Afghan women’s book club defying the Taliban to read Orwell

February 22, 2026 Current News Articles

Azada Raha

Rukhshana Media

The Guardian

Thu 19 Feb 2026

Four young women sit together, waiting for the phone to ring. When the call finally comes, their friend’s voice is crackly and hard to make out, but they wait patiently for the signal to improve so they can start discussing their chosen book.

Every Thursday, the five friends come together away from the disapproving gaze of the Taliban for a reading circle. They read not for entertainment but, as they put it, to understand life and the world around them. They call their group “women with books and imagination”.

Most of the women in the group meet in person, but Parwana*, 21, lives in a different district so has to join by phone. She was still a child when the Taliban pulled girls out of education, so didn’t get to finish school. Now, she says, her entire week revolves around books.

“When they banned us from attending school, I lost all hope. My mother encouraged me, but I knew things wouldn’t improve,” she says. “I decided to do something myself … and now I have this reading circle.”

This week, Parwana is leading a discussion on The Year of Turmoil, a novel by the Iranian writer Abbas Maroufi about a young woman named Noushafarin who finds herself trapped in an oppressive marriage. Set against the backdrop of turmoil in mid-20th-century Iran, its themes of repression, faith and patriarchal power resonate strongly with the women.

Although they’re inside, there’s a chill in the air, and steam rises from cups of green tea as Parwana’s voice comes through the phone.

“She represents women who have suffered, who have remained trapped, and who are oppressed by family and society in today’s Afghanistan,” says Parwana of the character. “From the very beginning, I identified with her; it was painful, very painful.”

Most of the books the five women have discussed since they started the reading circle last June are classics, and most deal with issues of power, suffering, and the place of women, though they have embraced variety. The works they’ve read include George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Zoya Pirzad’s I’ll Turn Off the Lights and Symphony of the Dead, also by Abbas Maroufi.

Most of the books can be found online and downloaded free, although occasionally they borrow books from libraries.

They meet every week for an hour-and-a-half at the home of one of the members, varying the location to avoid scrutiny in a country where women’s freedoms have been severely curtailed.

Book covers arranged clockwise from top left: George Orwell’s Animal Farm; The Year of Turmoil (centre), and Symphony of the Dead, by Abbas Maroufi; Zoya Pirzad’s I’ll Turn Off the Lights; The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. — Clockwise from top left: George Orwell’s Animal Farm; The Year of Turmoil (centre), and Symphony of the Dead, by Abbas Maroufi; Zoya Pirzad’s I’ll Turn Off the Lights; The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. Photograph: Barrington Stoke

Parwana sometimes has to climb a hill to get a strong enough internet connection on her phone to download the book they are reading. But it’s worth it, she says, and she has the support of her elder brother, who has told her to keep at it, no matter what. “The excitement I feel for these sessions is indescribable,” she says.

All the women in the reading group had their hopes for an education dashed by the return of the Taliban. They are among the more than 2 million women and girls deprived of schooling in the four years since a ban was introduced, according to Unicef, which has warned of “catastrophic” consequences for the country.

“Reading has always been an integral part of my life,” says the group’s coordinator Darya*, 25, who was in her third year of a language and literature degree when the Taliban closed universities to women. “When I read, I feel as if I’m in another world – the characters, the places, nature. Sometimes I cry with the story, sometimes I laugh. But always, books have given colour to my life.”

Darya says The Year of Turmoil had a particularly strong impact on her. “This novel narrates years full of pressure and restriction. Noushafarin represents those who are caught in such times,” she says.

“Her situation mirrors the lives of people in today’s Afghanistan – people grappling with educational restrictions, social repression and political pressure. Like the characters in the novel, we keep hope alive through resistance and learning.”

Roya*, another member, explains the purpose of the circle this way: “Most women who accept oppression do so because they are unaware of their rights. The books we read are about suffering, choice and standing up to force – things we ourselves live with every day.”

“She transforms from a silent woman into an aware human being. Her fate shows that, in such an environment, the very desire to choose is a form of resistance,” says Morwarid, who won a place at Balkh University in northern Afghanistan to study law and political science, but wasn’t able to take it up before the ban was introduced.

“The very night I was supposed to leave for Balkh, universities were closed to women,” she says. “I cried until morning. Life became dark for me. Through reading and this group, I gradually emerged from that nightmare.”

Her dream was to become a lawyer. Now, she says, Thursdays are the most important day of her week: “This circle has kept me away from many of life’s hardships.”

Tellingly, the book she has enjoyed the most is The Old Man and the Sea, a story of survival.

Morwarid stresses the importance of reading for women: “If a woman is aware, a family is aware. An aware woman raises aware children. The Taliban fear aware women. To confront the Taliban, one must become aware and grow – all together,” she says.

Outside, the restrictions continue. But in this small room, in the company of books, are young women for whom reading is a form of resistance.

* Names have been changed

Pakistan Claims TTP, ISIS Hideouts Targeted in Overnight Airstrike in Eastern Afghanistan; Reports Say Civilians Hit

February 22, 2026 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

February 22, 2026

Pakistan claims its overnight airstrike in eastern Afghanistan targeted TTP and ISIS hideouts, while local reports claims civilians, including women and children, were hit.

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said overnight airstrikes targeted hideouts of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State Khorasan in parts of Nangarhar and Paktika provinces.

In a statement, Islamabad described the strikes as “retaliatory,” carried out in response to recent suicide and car bomb attacks on a Shi’ite mosque in Islamabad and in Bajaur and Bannu during Ramadan. Both TTP and Islamic State Khorasan claimed responsibility for those attacks.

The ministry alleged that the militant groups operate from Afghanistan territory and that recent attacks inside Pakistan were conducted under the direction of leadership based in Afghanistan. It said repeated requests to the Taliban to act against these groups had not produced “decisive action.”

However, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, stated on Sunday, Febraury 22 that the airstrikes were carried out by a “specific circle of Pakistani military officials” and that civilian areas were targeted.

Quraishi Badlon, Taliban information chief in Nangarhar, said at least 17 civilians were killed in Behsud district, including 11 children. He added that 5 others were injured in the airstrikes, with several bodies still trapped under rubble in residential areas.

Taliban officials accused Pakistani generals of trying to compensate for security failures at home by carrying out cross-border attacks on Afghanistan soil.

Local residents in eastern Afghanistan told media outlets that Pakistani aircraft struck Khogyani, Ghani Khil and Behsud districts of Nangarhar, as well as Barmal district of Paktika. Some residents reported damage to homes and a religious school.

Relations between Pakistan and the Taliban authorities have deteriorated in recent months, with rising cross-border tensions and mutual accusations over militant activity.

Pakistan has long accused TTP fighters of operating from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan, while the Taliban deny the presence of such groups and say they do not allow Afghanistan soil to be used against other countries.

The latest exchange of claims highlights deepening mistrust between Islamabad and Kabul, raising concerns that further military action could escalate tensions along the volatile border.

Former Islamabad Envoy Warns Of Broader Pakistani Attacks In Afghanistan

February 22, 2026 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

February 22, 2026

Pakistan’s former envoy Asif Durrani warned that broader military attacks could follow if Kabul compels Islamabad to escalate operations.

Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special representative for Afghanistan, said airstrikes targeting alleged hideouts of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic State militants were a “clear and calculated message” to Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities. He said the operations were meant to push Kabul to act against armed groups operating near the border.

Speaking on Sunday, Febraury 22, Durrani warned that if the Taliban “force Islamabad,” Pakistan could carry out broader and deeper strikes inside Afghanistan territory. He stressed that militant sanctuaries in Afghanistan’s border regions were no longer tolerable and that the latest strikes should encourage the Taliban to behave “responsibly.”

The remarks followed overnight air operations reportedly conducted by Pakistani aircraft in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika. Local sources said at least 18 members of one family were killed in the Behsood district of Nangarhar, although casualty figures could not be independently verified.

In response, the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul to formally protest the strikes. In a statement, the ministry condemned what it described as violations of Afghanistan airspace and civilian areas, calling the attacks a “clear violation of Afghanistan’s territorial integrity.”

The ministry warned that safeguarding Afghanistan’s sovereignty was its responsibility and said the consequences of such actions would fall on the other side. Taliban officials described the airstrikes as provocative and said continued incursions could further destabilize relations between the two neighbors.

Separately, the Taliban’s Defense Ministry cautioned that it would respond to the attacks “at an appropriate time,” raising concerns of possible retaliation. Pakistani authorities have not immediately issued detailed public comments on the reported civilian toll.

Tensions between Kabul and Islamabad have intensified in recent months amid mutual accusations over cross-border militancy. Pakistan says armed groups launch attacks from Afghanistan soil, while the Taliban deny allowing any group to use Afghanistan to threaten neighboring countries, deepening an already fragile diplomatic standoff.

Afghanistan promises ‘appropriate response’ after deadly Pakistani strikes

February 22, 2026 Current News Articles

By Al Jazeera Staff

AP and Reuters

At least 17 killed and six missing as Pakistan attacks a school and homes in an operation against the Pakistan Taliban’s camps and hideouts.

Pakistan’s military early on Sunday carried out air raids in Afghanistan, targeting what it called “camps and hideouts” belonging to armed groups behind a spate of recent attacks, including a deadly suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a statement on X on Sunday that the country’s military conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps and hideouts belonging to the Pakistan Taliban, also known by the acronym TTP, and its affiliates.

The ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Khorasan Province, or ISKP, which claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in the capital earlier this month, was also targeted in the operation, the ministry said.

The Pakistani ministry said it had “conclusive evidence” that recent attacks in Islamabad, as well as in the northwestern Bajaur and Bannu districts, were perpetrated by fighters at the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers”.

The Afghan Ministry of Defence condemned the attacks that “hit a religious school and residential homes” in the border provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika, “resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, including women and children”.

The Defence Ministry condemned the attacks as “a breach of international law and the principles of good neighbourliness”, and promised to respond.

“We hold the Pakistani military responsible for targeting civilians and religious sites. We will respond to these attacks in due course with a measured and appropriate response,” it said.

Reporting from the scene of an attack in Nangarhar’s Bihsud district, Al Jazeera’s Naser Shadid said at least 17 people were confirmed killed and six others are missing, feared trapped under the rubble of an attacked house.

“A religious centre was also hit in this area, according to Afghanistan’s authorities, and there are an unknown number of casualties there as well,” he said.

There was no information on any casualties in Paktika yet.

The attacks threaten a fragile ceasefire between the South Asian neighbours, negotiated following deadly border clashes that killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected fighters in October last year.

Pakistan said it has repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban government to take action to prevent armed groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks, but that Kabul has failed to “undertake any substantive action”.

Pakistan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region”, it added, but said the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained its top priority.

“The Pakistanis continue to insist that these are intelligence-based operations against camps located inside Afghanistan and hideouts of the TTP and its affiliate groups. It has warned the Afghan authorities on several occasions that they gave their commitment in the Doha agreement that Afghan soil will not be used by any other country,” Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said, referring to the 2020 agreement the Taliban signed with the United States in the Qatari capital.

The Pakistani air raids on Afghanistan came hours after a suicide bomber attacked a security convoy in the Bannu district of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing two soldiers, one of them a lieutenant colonel.

On Monday, a suicide bomber, backed by armed men, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in the nearby Bajaur, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.

On February 6, another suicide bomber detonated his explosives during noon prayers at the Khadija Tul Kubra mosque in Islamabad’s Tarlai Kalan area, killing at least 31 worshippers and wounding 170 others.

The ISKP had claimed responsibility for the Islamabad attack.

While bombings are rare in the heavily guarded capital, it was the second such attack on Khadija Tul Kubra in three months, raising fears of a return to violence in Pakistan’s major urban centres.

At the time, the Pakistani military said the “planning, training, and indoctrination for the attack took place in Afghanistan”.

In its statement on Sunday, the Pakistani Information Ministry reiterated its call for the international community to press the Taliban to uphold its commitments under the Doha deal. The ministry said the move was “vital for regional and global peace and security”.

Pakistan has seen a surge in violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from Afghanistan, a charge the group denies.

The Taliban government has also consistently denied sheltering anti-Pakistan armed groups.

Relations between the neighbouring countries have remained tense following the deadly clashes in October. The fighting followed explosions in Kabul, which Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan.

A ceasefire mediated by Qatar on October 19 has largely held, but subsequent talks in Turkiye’s Istanbul failed to produce a formal agreement.

Pakistan launches deadly strikes on Afghanistan

February 22, 2026 Current News Articles

Islamabad said the strikes were launched on Afghanistan following recent suicide bombings in Pakistan

Pakistan has carried out multiple overnight air strikes on Afghanistan, which the Taliban has said killed at least 18 people, including women and children.

Islamabad said the attacks targeted seven alleged militant camps and hideouts near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and that they had been launched after recent suicide bombings in Pakistan.

Afghanistan condemned the attacks, saying they targeted multiple civilian homes and a religious school.

The fresh strikes come after the two countries agreed to a fragile ceasefire in October following deadly cross-border clashes, though subsequent fighting has taken place.

In Girdi Kas village, in the Bihsud district of Nangarhar, a man named Shahabuddin told reporters while pointing at his destroyed house that of 23 members of his family, only five had survived the attack.

Local Taliban spokesman Sayed Taib Hamd said that 18 members of the family had been killed.

The BBC had earlier been told about 20 people were thought to have died.

No deaths have been reported so far in the other areas hit. A guesthouse and a religious school were targeted in the Bermal and Urgun districts of Pakitka province, but they were empty at the time of the attacks, local officials and locals told the BBC.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said it had carried out “intelligence based selective targeting of seven terrorist camps and hideouts”.

In a statement on X, it said the targets included members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which the government refers to as “Fitna al Khawarij,” along with their affiliates and the Islamic State-Khorasan Province.

The ministry described the strikes as “a retributive response” to recent suicide bombings in Pakistan by terror groups it said were sheltered by Kabul.

The recent attacks in Pakistan included one on a Shia mosque in the capital Islamabad earlier this month, as well as others that took place since the holy month of Ramadan began this week in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Pakistan accused the Afghan Taliban of failing to take action against the militants, adding that it had “conclusive evidence” that the attacks were carried out by militants on the instructions of their leadership in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s defence ministry later posted on X condemning the attacks as a “blatant violation of Afghanistan’s territorial integrity”, adding that they were a “clear breach of international law”.

It warned that “an appropriate and measured response will be taken at a suitable time”, adding that “attacks on civilian targets and religious institutions indicate the failure of Pakistan’s army in intelligence and security.”

The strikes come days after Saudi Arabia mediated the release of three Pakistani soldiers earlier this week, who were captured in Kabul during border clashes last October.

Those clashes ended with a tentative ceasefire that same month after the worst fighting since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 1,600-mile (2,574 km) mountainous border.

Afghanistan’s UN Seat Dispute Deepens as Voting Rights Remain Suspended

February 20, 2026 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

16 FEBRUARY 2026

For the past three years, Afghanistan has been deprived of its voting rights due to nonpayment of its annual membership fee, which amounts to $200,000.

However, for the past three years, the country has been deprived of its voting rights due to nonpayment of its annual membership fee, which amounts to $200,000.

Before 2021, the previous government paid this amount. Afghanistan’s arrears have now exceeded $900,000.

Political analyst Dawood Shiraz says, “After the Islamic Emirate took power in Afghanistan, the country’s voting rights were suspended, and the United Nations requested the annual payment of $200,000 in membership fees. From 2021 until now, around $900,000 has not been paid by Afghanistan. As long as countries do not recognize the Emirate, how can it pay this money?”

Following the political changes of 2021 and the return of the Islamic Emirate to power, the issue of Afghanistan’s representation at the United Nations entered a new phase. Although the Islamic Emirate exercises de facto control over the country, Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations remains with the representative of the former government, a situation that has become one of the more complex cases in multilateral diplomacy.

Political analyst Idris Mohammadi Zazi says, “The rightful holder of Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations is the people of Afghanistan, someone who represents and defends all ethnic groups of the country.”

Another political analyst, Maiwand Jorat Noori, states, “Afghanistan has the right to vote at the United Nations, and the seat should be given to Afghanistan’s representative. Through this, we can raise our voice on the global stage.”

Meanwhile, officials of the Islamic Emirate have repeatedly insisted that Afghanistan’s UN seat should be transferred to their nominated representative, describing it as part of national sovereignty.

Previously, a spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate stated that if Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations is handed over to the Islamic Emirate, it is prepared to pay the country’s outstanding membership dues.

Afghanistan faces catastrophic hunger crisis as aid cuts force the WFP to turn away 3 in 4 children

February 20, 2026 Current News Articles

By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and ELENA BECATOROS

Associated Press

February 18, 2026

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The toddler cries as an oxygen mask is fitted to his face, its green elastic band stretched across his sunken cheeks. When he was first hospitalized a month ago, the 2 ½-year-old was fighting for his life.

Severely malnourished, Abu Bakar weighed just 6 kilograms (13 pounds), about half what he should. And yet, he is one of the lucky ones: His family got him to Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul, where doctors are providing life-saving care.

But for every malnourished child receiving treatment, there are many more who cannot get help.

“We have a catastrophic nutritional crisis on our hands with two-thirds of the country in a very serious or crisis level for acute malnutrition,” said John Aylieff, Afghanistan Country Director for the United Nations’ World Food Program. “This is the highest surge in malnutrition ever recorded in the country. And the lives of 4 million children are hanging in the balance.”

Desperate children turned away

Devastated by four decades of conflict, Afghanistan has long relied on foreign aid. But the Taliban takeover in 2021 saw direct foreign aid halted almost overnight, driving millions into poverty and hunger. The situation is compounded by a moribund economy, a severe drought, two devastating earthquakes in late 2025 and the return of 5.3 million Afghans expelled mainly from neighboring Pakistan and Iran.

Now, funding cuts to humanitarian organizations, including the halting of U.S. aid to programs such as the WFP’s food distribution, have severed a lifeline for millions.

“The aid cuts have been devastating,” Aylieff told The Associated Press. Of the 4 million acutely malnourished children, “we are forced now to turn away three out of four of them because we simply don’t have the money.”

This, he said, “is unprecedented and I’ve never seen this in my more than 30-year-old career as a humanitarian.”

Of the 17.4 million people facing acute hunger, the organization can now only reach 2 million. And even for them, it is forced to provide less food.

No more food parcels

Donor countries’ budgets are spread thin among humanitarian emergencies around the world, including famine in Sudan and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. In 2024, the WFP’s budget in Afghanistan was $600 million after “very generous” donor contributions, Aylieff said.

Last year, the amount fell by half and the organization expects to receive even less – about $200 million – this year. It’s not enough to tackle a hunger problem that “is spiraling out of control,” he added.

Abu Bakar’s family was among those who saw aid dry up.

“We once received assistance from an organization that helped us a lot with food,” said his mother, Latifa, 36, who, like many Afghans, goes by one name. But that stopped three years ago. Since then, there’s been nothing.

Her husband, a construction worker, has been unemployed for a year. Now, at times, she has nothing at all to feed her five sons.

“I am trying to provide food for my kids,” Latifa said, cradling her emaciated toddler in her arms. She doesn’t care if she doesn’t eat, she says. “I can control my hunger. I will handle it. But my child can’t.”

Children dying

Hunger is driving an increase in child mortality, Aylieff said, with the WFP logging more than 500 child deaths in recent months. The number, he noted, was “the tip of the iceberg” as many deaths during winter occur in villages blocked off by snow and are unregistered.

“How many more Afghan children will die here before the world wakes up and realizes that that’s enough? Aylieff asked. “Before the world says, ‘OK, we’ve crossed a threshold, we are not willing to stand by anymore, and we’re coming now to help.’ How many? What is the number? I really don’t know.”

Sharara, 21, is fighting to prevent her 6-month-old son Samir from becoming one of those children.

From the far northeastern province of Badakhshan, the young mother of two was bounced around hospitals there and in the northern city of Kunduz as doctors struggled to treat her gravely ill baby, suffering from a heart problem and severe pneumonia compounded by malnutrition.

Eventually, Sharara, who also goes by one name, made it to the malnutrition ward of Kabul’s Ataturk Hospital. But she is still desperately worried.

“Doctors say his condition is currently critical,” she said. In the 13 days Samir has been hospitalized, he hasn’t gained any weight.

The government’s response

Afghanistan’s government is well aware of the country’s hunger problem, and has expanded its malnutrition treatment facilities from 800 to about 3,200, Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told the AP. In 2025, about 3 million malnourished children and mothers were treated, he added.

“Malnutrition is not a one-day problem. Malnutrition has been a problem in Afghanistan for decades due to poverty, war and other problems,” said Zaman, who is also a medical doctor.

The government has been speaking with aid agencies, he said, including those that have reduced funding or suspended projects.

“Health is separate from politics. Providing health services is an inalienable right for all people,” Zaman said.

Women bear the brunt

Women are especially affected by rising hunger. Banned from nearly all jobs by the Taliban government’s draconian restrictions on women, widows with children are especially vulnerable.

Many are so desperate they say they want to die.

“As WFP, we’re getting more and more suicide calls from women because they just don’t know how to feed their children and they don’t know where to turn,” the WFP country director said.

WPF nutrition programs have seen a 30% increase in the number of acutely malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women, an increase Aylieff said nobody in the nutrition community had seen before.

“These are the women to whom the world pledged unwavering solidarity in the aftermath of the takeover of the country in 2021. … Those same women are asking us, where is the solidarity of the international community?” Aylieff said.

“If I had one plea, it’s to not walk away from Afghan women who are now facing abject misery, hunger, malnutrition and watching their children die.”

___

Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece.

Gul Hassan Hassan: Afghanistan-Russian Relations Expanding

February 18, 2026 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

18 Feb 2026

Afghan Returnees Struggle as Ramadan Begins

February 18, 2026 Current News Articles

Hadia Ziaei

Tolo News

18 Feb 2026

They express concerns about the lack of shelter and the financial means to prepare suhoor and iftar meals.

A number of recently returned migrants at the Kabul migrants’ camp have criticized Pakistan for deporting them during the month of Ramadan and are calling for increased Ramadan assistance.

On the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, as the city of Kabul gradually embraces the atmosphere of fasting, the migrants’ camp on the outskirts of the city is witnessing the large presence of people who have recently been returned from Pakistan. In one corner of the camp, Wali Jan sits with his children. A man whose family left for Pakistan 45 years ago has now returned, on the first day of Ramadan, with his three children to the land he calls home. Concern is visible on his face, while his children look around with questioning eyes. Wali Jan describes his first day of Ramadan back in his homeland.

Wali Jan told TOLOnews: “We were properly received here. They came to wake us for suhoor and brought us food.”

Other returnees, while criticizing Pakistan for deporting them during Ramadan, express concerns about the lack of shelter and the financial means to prepare suhoor and iftar meals.

Tasil Khan, a returnee, said: “Ramadan has arrived, and we are worried about how we will spend it. We have nothing. We ask that someone help us.”

Dastgir, another returnee, said: “We pleaded with them to let us stay and observe Ramadan there, but they did not allow it. They destroyed our homes, and we were forced to leave.”

Alongside the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the returnees are also calling on the country’s business community to extend a helping hand during Ramadan and assist in providing shelter and food supplies.

Wakil, who recently returned from Pakistan, said: “The Islamic Emirate alone is not responsible for helping everyone immediately. Our request to traders and investors is that this is a blessed month. We have just returned to our homeland and have no work. For one or two months, until we find jobs, they should support us.”

This comes as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had previously repeatedly called for preventing the forced deportation of Afghan migrants by host countries. Yet now, amid the quiet sound of prayers and the murmur of children, a shared question lingers in their eyes: Will this Ramadan mark the beginning of stability for the returnees, or the continuation of a difficult trial? The answer lies not only with responsible institutions, but also in the solidarity of people who can bring the warmth of a home to these tents.

Azada Raha

Rukhshana Media

Desperate children turned away

No more food parcels

Children dying

The government’s response

Women bear the brunt

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