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UNSC to Vote on UNAMA Extension, Discuss Afghanistan

March 6, 2024
Sodaba Nazhand
Tolo News
6 March 2024

The members of the United Nations Security Council will vote on the extension of the UNAMA mission in this session.

The United Nations Security Council is holding a session today (Wednesday) to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

The members of the United Nations Security Council will vote on the extension of the UNAMA mission in this session.

Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General, stated that in addition to discussions on Afghanistan and extension of UNAMA mission, the head of UNAMA and the UN Secretary General Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva will present her quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan at this meeting.

Dujarric said, “The Security Council session will focus on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. In this meeting, Roza Otunbayeva, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, will speak at the center of the Security Council.”

Meanwhile, The Chargé d’Affaires of the Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the UN, Naseer Ahmad Faiq told TOLOnews that the meeting will feature speeches from the United Nations Special Representative, representatives of member countries of the organization, representatives of regional countries, and the Acting Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations.

“In this meeting, Roza Otunbayeva, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative, a representative of civil society, member countries of the Security Council, representatives of regional countries, and the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations will participate and speak,” said Faiq.

“The UN Security Council meeting is a continuation of the February 26 meetings, with no significant difference. Civil society has not been invited, and the Taliban have not been invited either,” said Aziz Maarij, an international relations expert.

However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, considers such meetings to be ineffective without the presence of a representative from the Islamic Emirate.

Mujahid said, “The United Nations is under the influence of superpowers. It follows their policies, discussing issues related to Afghanistan without the representative of Afghanistan and the position of Afghanistan, which does not yield results.”

Previously, the members of the United Nations Security Council have discussed the appointing a special representative for Afghanistan in past meetings; however, due to the lack of a unified consensus within the organization, there has been no appointment of such a representative to date.

UNSC to Vote on UNAMA Extension, Discuss Afghanistan
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UN Report Highlights Internal Disputes, Security, Narcotics in Afghanistan

March 6, 2024
TOLOnews
TV Network
6 March 2024

The central regions of the country witnessed the highest number of security incidents during these three months, with 263 incidents.

The United Nations’ quarterly report on Afghanistan states that internal disputes exist within the Islamic Emirate, and the number of security incidents has increased by 38% from November 1, 2023, to January 10, 2024, compared to the same period in 2022 and 2023.

The central regions of the country witnessed the highest number of security incidents during these three months, with 263 incidents.

António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, addressed the humanitarian, economic, security crises, and the fight against drugs in Afghanistan in the report.

The findings of this report indicate that since the return of the Islamic Emirate, the current Afghan authorities have had internal disagreements on fundamental matters such as governance, and there has been no progress in making institutions and decision-making processes inclusive.

Regarding human rights issues, the report states that the rights of women and girls in all areas of life in Afghanistan have been restricted. The arrest of women for not observing the hijab is mentioned in the report.

The report adds, “Restrictions against women and girls remain in place, and in some areas of Afghanistan, the enforcement of these restrictions has become more difficult.”

However, António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has praised the reduction in opium cultivation and drug production in Afghanistan in the report.

Regarding drugs, the report reads, “Following the ban on cultivation and production of drugs by the current Afghan authorities, opium cultivation in Afghanistan has decreased by 95%, leading to a significant and sustained increase in the price of opium. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that as a result of this ban, opium farmers have lost half of their total income.”

“When the United Nations publishes a report on the situation in Afghanistan, it should mention the deficiencies, achievements, and progress, i.e., both the positives and negatives,” said Sayed Akbar Sial Wardak, a political analyst.

“Security threats and problems have existed and will exist; not addressing these issues at the right time is a problem,” said Idrees Zazai, another political analyst.

So far, the Islamic Emirate has not responded to this report; however, it has always stated that human rights in the country are ensured based on Islamic laws, and fighting drugs as well as ensuring security across the country are among the achievements of the Islamic Emirate.

UN Report Highlights Internal Disputes, Security, Narcotics in Afghanistan
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Taliban sets sights on making Afghanistan a global power in cricket

March 6, 2024

By

The Washington Post

4 March 2024

KABUL — During the Taliban’s first stint in power in the 1990s, its disdain for many sports meant that Kabul’s main stadium drew some of its biggest crowds on the days it was used for public executions.

But since seizing control in Kabul for a second time in 2021, the Taliban has turned to making Afghanistan into a global cricketing power, with ambitious plans for a state-of-the-art cricket stadium that could host international matches.

The men’s national team was already on the rise before the takeover but has continued to thrive under the new regime, defying expectations and scoring stunning upsets in international play. Privately funded cricket academies have seen a surge in the number of new players.

Cricket’s appeal to the Taliban may be partly rooted in the sport’s long-standing popularity in ethnic Pashtun communities, where the Taliban has traditionally drawn its strongest support. But as cricket’s reach expands across ethnic lines, the regime may also view the sport as useful.

“Cricket brings the country together,” said Abdul Ghafar Farooq, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue.

The Taliban vowed to change Kabul. The city may be starting to change the Taliban.

Within days of the takeover in August 2021, Anas Haqqani, the influential younger brother of the Taliban’s interior minister, visited the Afghan cricket board to demonstrate the new government’s support for the sport.

Haqqani, a cricket fan who recently injured his foot while playing volleyball, said Taliban soldiers would have made excellent cricket stars. “If we hadn’t waged a war, many of us would be on the national team now,” he said in a rare interview. “The future of cricket here is very bright.”

Surprise victories

Taliban soldiers and other spectators closely followed the Cricket World Cup last fall in India, gathering to watch on large screens in parks, at wedding venues and in television shops. Cheering on their team as it delivered shocking victories against England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, some Taliban soldiers fired celebratory shots into the sky.

“People don’t have anything to enjoy in Afghanistan, but cricket gives us happiness,” said Mohammad Gul Ahmadzai, 48, who used to watch soccer matches on the television in his travel agency in central Kabul until the broadcasts became less frequent.

Although global soccer is dominated by teams that are often awash in money, he said, the smaller number of serious international competitors in cricket gives Afghans a more realistic chance of winning.

Others say Afghanistan’s cricket frenzy is primarily fed by desperation. Farhard Amirzai, 17, said he and his friends have come to view a professional cricket career as the only path out of poverty.

After the Taliban took power, boys “lost interest in education,” said Amirzai, who spends much of his time practicing on a barren field in Kabul with a makeshift tape-covered cricket ball. “Young people think that even if they graduate from school or university, they won’t find a good job under the current government. So, they try their luck with cricket.”

Even though cricket academies have seen a spike in sign ups since the Taliban took over, most young Afghans, including Amirzai, cannot afford them.

Taliban soldier Abdul Mobin Mansor would love to join, too, but the 19-year-old said his job leaves him little time. He has wanted to become a national team player ever since he and his comrades — still waging the armed rebellion and hiding in caves at the time — started following the sport on battery-powered radios, he said.

And for Afghan women, there is no chance at all. One of the Taliban-run government’s first actions after the takeover was to ban women from playing sports, reintroducing the policy the movement had put in place when it previously held power and shattering female athletes’ dreams.

Slow to catch on

Believed to have been invented in England in the 16th century, cricket was one of the British Empire’s most popular cultural exports. By the early 20th century, the sport thrived in Australia, British India — which includes what is today India, Pakistan and Bangladesh — and other places in the region. But it was slow to catch on in Afghanistan, where the national sport remained buzkashi, an equestrian game in which horsemen try to score a goal with a carcass, traditionally that of a goat or calf but now almost always fake.

Cricket’s fortunes began to change here after the 1979 Soviet invasion forced millions to flee to Pakistan. The sport rapidly caught on in northwestern Pakistan’s Afghan refugee camps, which were primarily home to Pashtuns. The sport later found its way to Kabul when some Afghans returned in the late 1990s during the Taliban’s first time in power.

Among the first Afghan cricket players was Allah Dad Noori, then the national team’s captain. In an interview, Noori said he initially worried that the Taliban would not allow cricket. But his family’s ties to the regime may have helped convince the group. “My brother-in-law, who later spent time in Guantánamo, had already told the Taliban about me,” Noori recalled. “He said to them, ‘This man is the greatest cricketer, and if you capture Kabul you should approve cricket.’”

When British businessman Stuart Bentham arrived in Kabul a couple of years later, he became one of the first foreigners to attend an Afghan cricket match, held in the same Kabul stadium that the Taliban was using for executions.

At the time, the Taliban had soccer players’ heads shaved as punishment for wearing shorts. The long trousers of cricket players may have raised fewer religious concerns, Bentham said, but cricket’s popularity in neighboring Pakistan probably also played a role in the Taliban’s desire to promote the sport.

“Pakistan had a lot of influence over the Taliban at that time,” he said.

Plight of female athletes

The Afghan team’s importance to the Taliban has begun to prompt uncomfortable questions abroad. Australia’s national cricket team announced early last year that it would boycott matches against Afghanistan to protest the Taliban’s repression of girls and women. But during the Cricket World Cup, the Australians rescinded the boycott, disappointing many Afghan women and others.

Weeda Omari, 35, said she hopes no foreign team would agree to play in a Kabul stadium under the Taliban. Omari used to work as a women’s sports coordinator for Kabul’s municipality until her team of colleagues was disbanded within days of the takeover.

She has since fled the country, but 80 percent of the female athletes whom she supervised are still in Afghanistan. “Their families accuse them of having drawn the Taliban’s ire by becoming athletes, and now they’re being pushed to marry,” Omari said. “Many call me to cry.”

Even though the Taliban-run government remains internationally isolated and under heavy sanctions, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s cricket board said it was recently granted about $16 million from the Dubai-based International Cricket Council, with media reports suggesting that Afghan cricket can expect to receive similar annual contributions in coming years.

In a statement, the ICC said that it “will not penalise the [Afghanistan Cricket Board], or its players for abiding by the laws set by the government of their country,” but that it continues to advocate for women’s cricket in the country. The ICC does not release public details on member funding.

In an interview, Hamdullah Nomani, the Taliban’s minister of urban development, said plans to construct a major new cricket stadium in Kabul have been discussed at the highest levels of leadership. Although the idea for a new stadium originated under the previous government, the Taliban-run government appears intent on helping to finish the project with private funding.

The government’s primary concern is that the stadium might not be big enough. “There’s not enough land,” Nomani said.

Lutfullah Qasimyar and Mirwais Mohammadi contributed to this report.

Taliban sets sights on making Afghanistan a global power in cricket
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UN rights Chief stresses priority of women’s rights in Afghanistan engagement

March 6, 2024
Khaama News

In a recent declaration, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, emphasized the importance of prioritizing women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan. His remarks were aimed at all stakeholders involved in the Afghan context.

Türk addressed the 55th session of the Human Rights Council on March 4, where he pointed out the extensive violations of rights faced by women and girls in the nation.

Echoing Türk’s concerns, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, highlighted the severe state of human rights there, with a particular focus on the plight of women and girls.

Bennett stressed the necessity for any engagement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to fundamentally respect human rights, singling out women’s rights as paramount.

He warned that failing to prioritize women’s rights could be perceived as a lack of commitment to the cause of women globally, underscoring the broader implications of the situation in Afghanistan.

On February 29, Bennett presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council detailing the continuing deterioration of human rights in Afghanistan, more than two years after the Taliban assumed control.

In addition to human rights issues, Türk also expressed alarm over the suppression of media and journalism by the Taliban, including actions like banning photographs of people in Kandahar and preventing women from participating in radio programs in Khost.

Despite these reports, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson of the de facto administration denies committing human rights abuses, claiming a commitment to women’s rights and accusing Western countries of leveraging these accusations to exert pressure on Afghanistan’s government.

UN rights Chief stresses priority of women’s rights in Afghanistan engagement
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More Than 96,000 Afghans Returned in One Month

March 6, 2024
Hadiya Ziaye
Tolo News
5 March 2024

Simultaneously, some of the returned migrants to the country are asking the Islamic Emirate to create job opportunities for them.

The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has told TOLOnews that more than 96,000 migrants have been returned to the country from Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey in the course of one month.

The ministry added that assistance has been provided for all returnees.

“In the month of Dalw, 96,490 migrants came from Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. We have committees, at the borders they are given travel allowances, food and non-food assistance, and winter clothes, and they are transferred to their original provinces [states]. Each family is given ten thousand in cash assistance,” said Abdul Rahman Rashid, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation.

Simultaneously, some of the returned migrants to the country are asking the Islamic Emirate to create job opportunities for them.

Payinda, who has been returned to the country with his seven-member family from Pakistan, spoke about the difficulties of migration.

“They would take money from us. We couldn’t even freely move around or go to the doctor, that’s why we came to Afghanistan,” he said.
The conflicts of the past years in the country have forced millions to leave the country.

“They took my husband, and later my husband called to say that he had been imprisoned, after four days I went and said give us three days, we will leave from here,” said Nazanin, one of the returnees’ form Iran.

“The government should provide job opportunities so that no one goes back to Iran again and all of us can progress our lives in our homeland,” said Khairudin a returnee.

Based on the statistics from the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, since the beginning of the current solar year, more than one and a half million migrants have been returned to the country from Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

More Than 96,000 Afghans Returned in One Month
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Islamic Emirate Army Chief: US Controls Afghan Airspace

March 6, 2024
TOLOnews
5 March 2024

According to Fasihuddin Fetrat, American drones occasionally fly over the Afghanistan’s airspace.

The Chief of Army Staff of the Islamic Emirate says that Afghanistan’s airspace is still under the control of the United States.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with TOLOnews, Fasihuddin Fetrat said that the country’s airspace is still managed by the United States and that this country violates Afghanistan’s airspace.

According to Fasihuddin Fetrat, American drones occasionally fly over the Afghanistan’s airspace.

“Drones occasionally patrol, and it [Afghanistan’s airspace] is still occupied by the Americans. It may enter Afghan territory from the soil of one of the neighboring countries,” said Fasihuddin Fetrat, the Chief of Army Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the Islamic Emirate

Fetrat also rejects claims about the arrest of forces from the previous government, saying that no one has been arrested for this accusation so far.

“I definitely reject this, it has no basis, and no one who was in the previous regime has been arrested, imprisoned, or beaten so far, this is incorrect. If they commit a crime, they still do not have judicial immunity,” added Fasihudin Fetrat.

According to Fetrat, the exact number of armed forces active within the Ministry of Interior, intelligence, and Ministry of Defense has reached 500,000, and the army has reached 172,000.

“We are in the initial stages, when the rule of the Islamic Emirate began, and we tried to build the Afghan army, the number that was considered was 200,000, and we are gradually progressing. We hope to complete the number we had in mind next year,” stated the army chief of staff.

About the border clashes with Pakistan, the senior security official of the Islamic Emirate says that these clashes have occurred in response to the incursions of Pakistani border forces along the Durand Line.

“It is clear that we call this line an imaginary line, occasionally invasions and assaults occur that our forces cannot ignore, and no solution is found through discussions, and the other side [Pakistan] tries to use force, in which case we also allow our forces to use force,” said Fetrat.

Fasihuddin Fetrat, in another part of his speech, rejects claims about the sale of American weapons in the country, saying that the Islamic Emirate urgently needs the leftover military equipment and does not allow anyone to sell it.

Islamic Emirate Army Chief: US Controls Afghan Airspace
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UNSC to Meet on Afghanistan on Wednesday: Faiq

March 6, 2024
Mitra Majeedy
Tolo News
5 March 2024

But the Islamic Emirate is not optimistic about this meeting and says that UNAMA in seeking to emphasize negative points.

The United Nations Security Council is reportedly set to hold a meeting on Afghanistan on Wednesday.

The Chargé d’Affaires of the Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the UN, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, told TOLOnews that the special representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Roza Otunbayeva, will present a three-month report on the situation in Afghanistan.

“The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting on the situation in Afghanistan on March 6, where the special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Roza Otunbayeva, will participate and give explanations to the members of the Security Council about the situation in Afghanistan in the last three months,” he said.

But the Islamic Emirate is not optimistic about this meeting and says that UNAMA in seeking to emphasize negative points.

The spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the meetings of the UN on Afghanistan will be positive when they reflect the realities of Afghanistan.

“As per our experience I am not hopeful, as it’s clear that they take the opportunity to speak about Afghanistan, they discuss the negative points, magnify it and than report on it,” Zabihullah Mujahid said.

“I think that the meetings of the UN Security Council about Afghanistan have been ineffective as there is still an opposition of views between the decision-maker members of the UN Security Council. in my opinion, the reason why the various meetings of the Security Council regarding the Afghanistan issue have not been effective and have not yielded results, is that there are still disagreements among the decision-making members,” Mohebullah Sharif, a political analyst, told TOLOnews.

This is the second meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Afghanistan this month.

UNSC to Meet on Afghanistan on Wednesday: Faiq
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Miller: Treatment of Women, Girls in Afghanistan ‘Deplorable’

March 6, 2024
Sodaba Nazhand
Tolo News
5 March 2024

Miller said that the US is committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan and has contributed $2 billion to Afghanistan since August, 2021.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a press briefing criticized the treatment of women in Afghanistan, saying: “The treatment of women and girls inside Afghanistan is deplorable,” he said. 

Miller also said that the US is committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan and has contributed $2 billion to Afghanistan since August, 2021.

“We have said it many times that the treatment of women and girls inside Afghanistan is deplorable. So the United States remains committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan. And we also remain the single largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, including providing over $2 billion in lifesaving and sustaining assistance to the Afghan people since August of 2021,” he said.

Rejecting the remarks of Matthew Miller, the Islamic Emirate said that the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan are protected within the framework of Islamic Sharia and that the world uses the issues of human rights as a political tool against the Islamic Emirate.

“They use human rights issues as a means for their political goals and they want to achieve their political goals, which they do not achieve, and this condition of theirs is inappropriate. If they do not cooperate with the Islamic Emirate, and prevent progress, it means that it will affect the people living in Afghanistan and they are oppressed and their rights are lost,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.

Earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, at a conference of the Human Rights Council criticized the continuous violation of human rights in Afghanistan, particularly the rights of women.

Miller: Treatment of Women, Girls in Afghanistan ‘Deplorable’
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Outcry forces Home Office to allow Afghan youth orchestra to go on England tour

March 6, 2024

 and 

The Home Office has been forced into a U-turn and has now granted visas to the Afghan youth orchestra for their tour of England, after its earlier refusal threw their planned tour into chaos days before it was due to begin.

The band of 47 exiled musicians aged between 14 and 22 had been working for months on their repertoire for the shows, which are due to start at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Thursday.

The Home Office had initially refused their visa applications but overturned the decision on Monday after public criticism.

The musicians are also booked to play in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

Diana Johnson MP, the chair of the home affairs select committee, wrote on X: “Excellent news and glad the @ukhomeoffice have done the right thing. Thank you to everyone who made this happen.”

The orchestra’s director, Dr Ahmad Sarmast, said the group have performed freely in Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany among other countries since they were chased out of their home country by the Taliban. Sarmast had described the Home Office’s initial decision as “heart-breaking”.

One of their most recent concerts was at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Among those helping them get out of Kabul were the international classical music stars Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma.

After fleeing to Qatar from their home country when the Taliban retook power in 2021, the orchestra is now based in Portugal, where the players were granted immigration rights and are in education at Portuguese music schools, according to Sarmast.

He said the Home Office had initially told them it was not convinced by the information the orchestra provided about the status of the students, saying it was vague.

Speaking to the Guardian before the Home Office’s U-turn, Sarmast said: “The group has been denied visas for entry to the UK to complete this wonderful tour called Breaking the Silence.

“We have played all over the world since we left [Afghanistan] but we never faced this.”

The orchestra said the refusal was a “significant blow” that “deprived these young musicians an opportunity to raise awareness through music about the gender apartheid against Afghan women and denial of cultural rights of the Afghan people by the Taliban”.

The orchestra is part of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), which was established in 2010. When the Taliban retook power its campus in Kabul was seized as a command centre, its bank accounts were frozen, its offices ransacked and its instruments left abandoned.

Last summer the Taliban shared a picture of officials presiding over a bonfire of musical instruments and equipment. Playing and listening to music is heavily restricted under the regime.

In 2014 the ANIM symphony orchestra was performing at the French cultural centre in Kabul when a bomb ripped through the venue. Sarmast was knocked unconscious, both eardrums were perforated leaving him deaf, and he received serious shrapnel injuries. After months of treatment in Australia, he recovered his hearing.

“The main purpose of the orchestra is not only to share Afghan music in exile while it is banned and suppressed [under the Taliban] but to achieve cultural diplomacy – people to people – across the world,” he said.

“This denies our people the opportunity to let people in the UK know about what is happening in Afghanistan and share the beauty of Afghan music.”

The orchestra had prepared a repertoire of Afghan, south Asian and western classical music to perform at the Southbank Centre in London, the Tung auditorium in Liverpool, Stoller Hall in Manchester and at Birmingham Town Hall.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Musicians and performers are a valued and important part of UK culture.

“Applications have to be considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules with the responsibility on applicants to demonstrate they meet these rules.”

Outcry forces Home Office to allow Afghan youth orchestra to go on England tour
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Home Office refuses Afghan youth orchestra visas days before London gig

March 4, 2024

 

A tour of England by the Afghan youth orchestra has been thrown into doubt days before it was due to begin because the Home Office has refused to grant visas to the musicians.

The orchestra’s director, Dr Ahmad Sarmast, described the decision as “heart-breaking” and said his band of 47 exiled musicians aged between 14 and 22 had been working for months on their repertoire for the shows that were due to start at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Thursday.

The musicians from Afghanistan were also booked to play in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Sarmast said they have performed freely in Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany among other countries since they were chased out of their home country by the Taliban. Nevertheless, the Home Office has refused visas and said they cannot appeal, Sarmast said.

One of their most recent concerts was at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Among those helping them get out of Kabul were the international classical music stars Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma.

After fleeing to Qatar from their home country when the Taliban retook power in 2021, the orchestra is now based in Portugal where the players were granted immigration rights and are in education at Portuguese music schools, according to Sarmast.

But he said the Home Office had told them it was not convinced by the information the orchestra provided about the status of the students, saying it was vague.

“The group has been denied visas for entry to the UK to complete this wonderful tour called Breaking the Silence,” Sarmast told the Guardian. “We have played all over the world since we left [Afghanistan] but we never faced this.”

A Southbank Centre spokesperson said it was “extremely disappointed” by the Home Office decision and called for a U-turn.

“The orchestra is a beacon of hope and free creative expression: its brave young people have been forced to leave their homeland because of a repressive regime and they have found a home in Portugal, where they have refugee status,” the spokesperson said.

“This decision denies UK audiences the opportunity of being inspired by their brave work and they deserve the full support of the arts community as well as the UK government. We urge the Home Office to reconsider its decision.”

The orchestra is part of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), which was established in 2010. When the Taliban retook power its campus in Kabul was seized as a command centre, its bank accounts were frozen, its offices ransacked and its instruments left abandoned.

Last summer the Taliban shared a picture of officials presiding over a bonfire of musical instruments and equipment. Playing and listening to music is heavily restricted under the regime.

In 2014 the ANIM symphony orchestra was performing at the French cultural centre in Kabul when a bomb ripped through the venue. Sarmast was knocked unconscious, both eardrums were perforated leaving him deaf, and he received serious shrapnel injuries. After months of treatment in Australia, he recovered his hearing.

“The main purpose of the orchestra is not only to share Afghan music in exile while it is banned and suppressed [under the Taliban] but to achieve cultural diplomacy – people to people – across the world,” he said.

“This denies our people the opportunity to let people in the UK know about what is happening in Afghanistan and share the beauty of Afghan music.”

The orchestra had prepared a repertoire of Afghan, south Asian and western classical music to perform at the Southbank Centre in London, the Tung auditorium in Liverpool, Stoller Hall in Manchester and at Birmingham Town Hall.

Assiya Amini, co-founder of Afghan Academy International, a UK Afghan community group, said: “The UK is an international focal point so this is unfortunate. It would have been great to have them here as they have been welcomed in other parts of the world. We didn’t expect this.”

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

Home Office refuses Afghan youth orchestra visas days before London gig
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