Supreme Leader Attempting to Find Way for Girls’ Education: Mujahid

Spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate said that the entire leadership is concerned about the issue and that the supreme leader, Hebatullah Akhundzada himself is striving to find a solution for this.

Speaking at X space on TOLOnews, Zabiullah Mujahid said that the issue of girls’ education will be resolved in way the Islamic Sharia law, Afghan tradition and different thoughts of the Afghan society are considered.

Mujahid added that the issue is consistently raised in our leaders’ meetings with the country’s elders and influentials figures and the government has taken it into account.

Responding a question of TOLOnews about the ban on female education in Afghanistan, Mujahid said:

“This is our internal issue, and our people are always sharing this with us. This issue is raised when there are meetings between our leaders and elders of the country. The supreme leader himself is trying to find a rational way for this issue. So again, this is our internal issue which should not be politicized,”

While considering the girls’ education as negative aspect of the caretaker government in Afghanistan, Mujahid added, that should not overshadow the achievements made in the country.

“If the world is judging Afghanistan on this [ban on girls’ education], that is right, but this is just the empty part of the glass, what about the filled part of the glass, what about the achievements we have made?” asked the spokesperson.

The spokesperson termed that issue of girls’ education a »pretext« by the world reasoning that the international community will have another pretext not to recognize the Afghan government even after the girls are allowed to go higher schools and universities.

He endorsed the ban on girls’ education has prevented their [Islamic Emirate] legitimization.

Supreme Leader Attempting to Find Way for Girls’ Education: Mujahid
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Islamic State claims responsibility for Iran bombings that killed at least 84

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on a crowd in southern Iran marking the anniversary of the death of the senior Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani.

At least 84 people died when two blasts ripped through the crowd near Suleimani’s tomb in the city of Kerman, four years after he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad. Suleimani had been a staunch enemy of IS, which resents the damage he did to its cause in Iraq and Syria.

Early on Thursday Iran had said it was bolstering security along its borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the first tangible sign that it suspected that the attack was the work of an IS affiliate. “We have points on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan that are a priority for blocking,” Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, said.

Later in the day, in a statement posted on its affiliate Telegram channels, the Sunni extremist group said two IS members had detonated their explosive belts in the crowd.

One of Iran’s main goals will be to limit the amount of traffic crossing the border, something that will be discussed with the Taliban. A leader of the Afghan opposition, Ahmad Massoud, had already sent a message of condolence to Iran that made clear he believed IS was involved. The group has an affiliate – Islamic State Khorasan Province – that is primarily active in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the UN security council condemned what it described as a “cowardly terrorist attack” in Kerman and sent its condolences to the victims’ families and the Iranian government.

The Revolutionary Guards promised a harsh response, describing the attack as a “blind and spiteful act to induce insecurity in the country and take revenge on the love and devotion of the great nation of Iran”.

Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Mokhber, told reporters those responsible would “receive a very strong retaliatory action from the hands of Suleimani’s soldiers”.

Regional tensions have surged in recent days, amid war in Gaza sparked by the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, which Tehran welcomed while denying any involvement.

On Sunday US helicopters opened fire on Iran-backed Houthi rebels after they attacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea, killing several of them. On Tuesday an Israeli drone strike killed one of Hamas’s most senior officials in Beirut and two days later the US said it had carried out an airstrike on the logistical support headquarters of an Iran-backed militia in central Baghdad, killing a high-ranking militia commander.

Early Iranian responses to the Kerman attack pointed the finger at the US and Israel. The US rejected any suggestion that it or its ally Israel were behind the deadly blasts, while Israel declined to comment.

Expert opinion outside Iran said the attack bore the hallmarks of IS. Western sources said it was plausible the group sensed that the well-advertised annual anniversary pilgrimage might be overseen by security forces distracted by events elsewhere.

In 2022 IS claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shia shrine in Iran that killed 15 people. Earlier attacks claimed by IS include twin bombings in 2017 that targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Tehran often accuses its arch-enemies, Israel and the US, of backing militant groups that have carried out attacks against Iran in the past.

Hospital staff in Kerman revised down the number of dead from about 100 to 84 on Thursday and said they were optimistic that the more than 200 people being treated for injuries would survive. As names of the dead were published, the health ministry said that 28 of those injured were aged under 15.

Suleimani, who helped develop Iran’s regional “axis of resistance” against the US by nurturing Iranian proxy groups, has been granted a near-mythical status inside Iran since his death.

There is no sign that Iran will take swift retribution for the Kerman attack. Instead, it will try to harness a wave of sympathy in the Islamic world to press its call for an end to what it regards as the US’s destabilising interventions in the Middle East.

Iranian hardliners frequently praise Tehran’s “strategic patience” in seeking the long-term ousting of the US from the region, and believe Israel is trying to drag Iran into an all-out war because Israel senses this is the best way to avert US disengagement.

With parliamentary elections due in the spring, and alienation from the regime widespread, the government’s handling of security is likely to grow as a domestic political issue.

The former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, a reformer and a potential candidate for the assembly of experts in the spring, sent out a coded message arguing that security “will be strengthened by acquiring legitimate freedoms, guaranteeing the fundamental rights of the nation, and employing all sympathetic forces with a national perspective”.

By contrast Mahdi Mohammadi, an aide to the speaker of parliament, called for a fundamental shift as the only way to deter Israel, and criticised Rouhani for, in effect, seeking Israel’s approval.

Islamic State claims responsibility for Iran bombings that killed at least 84
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Women in Afghanistan face increased restrictions in 2023

Written By: Zahra Rashidi

Khaama Press News Agency

Since the Taliban regime regained power in August 2021, it has issued over 50 decrees to limit women’s public and private roles. By 2023, these restrictions have become more severe, significantly affecting women’s lives.

The Taliban’s restrictive actions against women can be categorized into four areas: deprivation of women from participating in political arenas, limitations on women’s participation in social activities, prohibition of continuing education, and restriction of women from participating in economic activities.

Although the Taliban had previously announced that within the framework of Islamic Sharia, women and girls would be given the right to work and education, no decision has been made by the Taliban administration for more than two years to show respect for women’s rights.

The Taliban subjected private university students in Afghanistan to gender segregation less than a month after taking control of Afghanistan. On September 12, 2021, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education announced a similar action for public universities. This process continued until the complete removal of girls from the realm of university education and continues to this day.

According to experts, the higher education system in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban has faced a definitive collapse, such that 30% of university professors have left Afghanistan. The education sector in Afghanistan has also been on the verge of collapse since the arrival of the Taliban administration. These two cases and numerous other instances have contributed to concerns about the promotion of a mindset based on gender apartheid.

Ms. Najiba Ayubi, a women’s rights activist, said, “No society can witness progress and development without the presence of educated and knowledgeable women. What is imposed on Afghan women today is a great injustice that can negatively affect several generations and will forever weigh heavily on the shoulders of the current rulers.”

Women and girls have also faced the same fate in media activities. Khaama Press’s findings show that the restrictions imposed against freedom of expression and women’s participation in the media have contaminated this field with discrimination, leading women journalists to prefer being unemployed or leaving the country.

The prohibition of broadcasting women’s voices in some provinces, the refusal of the Taliban’s officials to interview women journalists, the imposition of mandatory clothing, and the compulsory covering of women presenters’ faces are among the most prominent cases that have severely limited the activity of women journalists in the media.

Findings by journalist-supporting institutions, including organizations that support free media in Afghanistan, indicate that the presence of women in Afghan media has decreased by more than 90% after the Taliban administration took over.

On December 24, 2022, the Taliban banned all female employees in national and international non-governmental organizations. The Ministry of Economy of the Taliban asked these organizations to suspend female employees until further notice.

Now, the question is whether the restrictions against women will decrease in 2023.

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security in 2023 announced that Afghanistan has been identified as the worst country for women among 177 countries in the global index of women’s status that year.

Khaama Press’s findings show that the restrictions imposed in 2021 and 2022 have been strictly enforced by the Taliban’s executive forces in 2023. The implementation of more than 50 restrictive orders this year has led women to describe 2023 as “an experience of inhumane limitations.”

These findings, based on previous Khaama Press reports, also show that in addition to dozens of cases of deprivation and prohibition against women, further restrictions have been imposed.

The prohibition of women’s activities in beauty salons is among the restrictions imposed in the summer of 2023. An order that destroyed the employment of about 60,000 female beauticians.

Rana Saeedi, one of the beauticians, told Khaama Press, “After the prohibition of education, I tried to work in a beauty salon to improve my condition, but after the prohibition of beauty salon activities, I was also banned from doing this work and now I am in a bad economic situation.”

The year 2023 was also marked by the suppression of street protests, and several women’s rights activists were arrested during the year. Julia Parsi, Parisa Azadeh, Neda Parwani, Bahara Karimi, and Manizha Seddiqi are among the protesters who were detained by the Taliban for more than three months and were released in early December.

From the beginning to the end of 2023, the United Nations Security Council held at least three sessions on Afghan women. However, the holding of these sessions did not bring about much change in the restrictions imposed on women.

Najiba Ayubi, a women’s rights activist, told Khaama Press, “Regrettably, Afghan women are deprived of all their individual and collective rights, from August 15, 2021, to today, the situation for women is getting worse every day, and the decrees restricting them are increasing. Unemployment and poverty are rampant; women and girls who dreamed of higher education and progress are now imprisoned in their homes.”

According to her, “The deprivation of girls from education can have short-term and long-term dire consequences and add to the many current problems.”

Meanwhile, in the midst of all these restrictions, the rates of suicide, mental health issues, and forced and underage marriages among women and girls in Afghanistan have unprecedentedly increased.

Soraya Paikan, a women’s rights activist, told Khaama Press, “For the development of a society, modern and progressive knowledge is necessary. We should not waste time and opportunity to achieve this goal.”

She says, “Women, who are a very important part of society, are prohibited by the governing authorities from acquiring knowledge and education. The damage of this action by the Taliban is severely hindering the community from advancements in science and knowledge.”

These statements are made while the Taliban regime always emphasizes that its treatment of women is in accordance with Islamic Sharia.

Women in Afghanistan face increased restrictions in 2023
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1000s of Afghan Women, Girls Join Online Study Programs

She said that online programs were not so effective to her.

The Financial Times reported that following the ban on female education in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghan women and girls have been able to join online study programs in the US and UK.

The University of the People, a US-accredited non-profit higher education institution, said that more than 21,000 Afghan women had applied in the past year for its degree courses, with more than 3,100 currently enrolled to study subjects including business, computer science, health and education.

The providers say “they have seen strong demand from Afghanistan for courses on subjects including English language, science and business since the Taliban extended their ban on female attendance at schools to include higher education in December 2022.”

“Tens of thousands of Afghan women and girls have been able to join online study programmes despite the Taliban government’s ban on female education, according to internet-based course providers,” the report reads.

Meanwhile, some university lecturers while urging the reopening of schools and universities, said that Online study programs cannot be useful in the long run.

“This is an effective way to use this opportunity, but in the long run it cannot be enough and it is better that schools and universities open for girls,” said Hekmatullah Mirzada, a university lecturer.

“Online courses do not have much efficiency,” said Imal Rasa, another university lecturer. Sanam, who was enrolled in the third year at a private university in Kabul, said that she began taking online courses after being denied from going to university. She said that online programs were not so effective to her.

“Due to the problem of internet and the shortage of electricity, we cannot get the lessons properly through online, and the teachers cannot teach the way they teach in face to face classes,” Sanam told TOLOnews.

FutureLearn, which was launched by the Open University in the UK in 2012 and has been owned by Global University Systems since December 2022, offers more than 1,200 courses, with English language accounting for four of the five most popular classes among Afghan students.

People said power cuts and erratic digital connections were issues for Afghan women and that it provided asynchronous sessions and online textbooks to allow students to catch up as well as scholarships to cover their costs.

1000s of Afghan Women, Girls Join Online Study Programs
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Islamic Emirate Estimates Daesh Numbers in Afghanistan Around 80

He said that the sanctuaries of the Daesh group have been eliminated in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that the Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan and that between 70 to 80 Daesh members are estimated to be based in Afghanistan, and they are being hunted.

He said that the sanctuaries of the Daesh group have been eliminated in Afghanistan.

“Their number is less, and it is around 70 to 80 people. They are dispersed and are under investigation. All their centers have been eliminated. Many of them are in prisons and some of them are being hunted. They have less numbers and all those paths which were supporting them (Daesh) have been suppressed,” Mujahid said.

Meanwhile, political analysts said that the Islamic Emirate should prevent any kind of attack from Afghan soil against other countries, to earn trust of the international community.

“Since the Islamic Emirate came to power, there is physical security all over Afghanistan and it does not allow any group and individual, whether they are the Daesh or resistance or any other group,” said Mohammad Ajmal Zurmati, international analyst.

“Suppression of Daesh is linked to the national trust. National trust requires an end to lack of law, and lack of an official government,” said Sayed Jawad Sijadi, political analyst.

Earlier, the acting Defense Minister, Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, said that Pakistan and Tajikistan nationals were killed and arrested in attacks in Afghanistan.

Islamic Emirate Estimates Daesh Numbers in Afghanistan Around 80
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ARCS Head: Need For Humanitarian Aid Increasing

Some immigrants who have recently returned from Pakistan said that they are facing serious economic challenges and that these aids are not enough for them.

The President of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), Matiul Haq Khalis, said that the forced deportation of immigrants from neighboring countries and the earthquake in Herat have increased the level of people’s need for humanitarian aid.

Speaking at a ceremony to receive 5,500 aid packages from the King Salman Charity Foundation, Khalis noted that ARCS is working with international organizations to raise the amount of assistance in the districts and villages because recently returned immigrants face numerous difficulties there.

“After spending 20 to 30 years abroad, when one of them [immigrants] arrives in their district and province, they have no place to stay there and face various problems,” Matiul Haq Khalis said.

Some immigrants who have recently returned from Pakistan said that they are facing serious economic challenges and that these aids are not enough for them.

They asked the Islamic Emirate to also provide them the work opportunities.

“I am happy that I have received the aid, but we should be provided with the employment opportunities,” Wali Khan, a returnee from Pakistan told TOLOnews.

“We returned from Pakistan and rented a house for 6,000 Afghanis, and we have no means to advance our lives,” Khudadad, another returnee from Pakistan, told TOLOnews.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has provided 16 ambulances to the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

Officials of ARCS said that they will send these ambulances to Nuristan, Bamyian and Uruzgan provinces.

ARCS Head: Need For Humanitarian Aid Increasing
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Work on 500 Projects Continues Across Afghanistan: Deputy PM

The mosque is located alongside the Kabul-Kandahar highway, and it cost them 3.5 million Afs.

The deputy prime minister for Economic Affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said that work on more than 500 small and big development projects is being continued across Afghanistan.

Speaking at a gathering held to begin work on a new mosque in Daman district of Kandahar province, Mullah Baradar said that work on Wakhan avenue is underway, which will connect Afghanistan to China.

“We assure our compatriots that we support them in every area and we stand beside them,” he said.

The mosque is located alongside the Kabul-Kandahar highway, and it cost them 3.5 million Afs.

Mullah Baradar said that Qush Tepa canal and Badakhshan’s Wakhan’s connectivity with China will help the country’s economy to improve.

“A path will be constructed, through which we will conduct our transit of trade goods with China, witb both exports and imports, and we will give you good news soon in this regard,” Mullah Baradar said.

Speaking at the same gathering, the acting Minister of Public Work, Mohammad Esa Sani, said that based on the decree of the Islamic Emirate’s leader, at least 75 mosques will be constructed along all highways across the country.

“Based on the decree of the Amirul Momineen (Islamic Emirate’s leader), at least 75 mosques will be built across the country,” he said.

The residents of Kandahar also praised the implementation of the projects, saying that the projects helped the economy of the province.

“Any kind of facilities is in the interest of Afghanistan and the nation,” said Sebghatullah Arghand, a resident of Kandahar.

According to TOLOnews’s findings, the start of construction of the 2nd phase of the Qush Tepa canal, the reconstruction of the Salang highway and contracts worth billions of dollars are considered to be the main economic projects for 2023.

Work on 500 Projects Continues Across Afghanistan: Deputy PM
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Pakistan’s Deportations of Afghans Has Decreased: Mujahid

Mujahid said the officials of Pakistan’s caretaker government pledged to not put pressure on Afghan refugees.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, said that the deportation of Afghan refugees by Pakistan has recently dropped compared to the initial days when Pakistan began expelling undocumented Afghans from its soil in early November last year.

According to Mujahid, nearly 2,000 families are crossing to Afghanistan on a daily basis, which he said shows a significant reduction.

“During the initial days and weeks, the number of deportees was high. It was even up to 15,000 to 20,000 families on a daily basis. They came through various gates, where control was difficult. This process becomes easier later,” he said.

Mujahid said the officials of Pakistan’s caretaker government pledged to not put pressure on Afghan refugees.

“The promises that they have made so far were to not apply pressure anymore… we have also not seen any new pressure,” Mujahid said.

Meanwhile, some Afghan refugees in Pakistan expressed optimism that the Pakistani government has eased pressure on the Afghan nationals recently.

“The process of forceful deportation of the refugees has been reduced. The treatment of Pakistan toward the documented and undocumented refugees has been eased,” said Atiqullah, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan.

“There should be a joint meeting for facilities to be provided to the people, so that the people [refugees] can live in prosperity,” said Mir Ahmad Rauf, head of an Afghan refugee council in Pakistan.

In December Mujahid said that since October, 2023, more than 800,000 Afghan immigrants had returned to the country.

Pakistan’s Deportations of Afghans Has Decreased: Mujahid
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HONG KONG — In August 2021, when U.S.-led forces were withdrawing from Afghanistan and evacuation flights were being overwhelmed by people desperate to leave with them, Mahbouba Seraj decided to stay.

Seraj, 75, an Afghan-American women’s rights activist and founder of the nonprofit Afghan Women’s Network, had been in Afghanistan since 2003, when she moved back with a mission to help the country’s women and girls. More than 25 years earlier, Seraj — the niece of the country’s former king — had been forced into exile by Afghanistan’s Communist government, settling in the United States.

But in 2021, that government was being toppled, leaving the Taliban poised to take over once again and Afghan women facing an uncertain future.

“I knew that they are going to be needing some kind of support, at least something from the past that remained, so that will give them the feeling that, okay, things have not gone to hell completely,” Seraj told NBC News in an interview in Hong Kong in November.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the fighters and clerics espousing an extremely conservative version of Islam have arrested women’s rights activists, ended education for women after sixth grade, barred women from gyms and parks, ordered the closure of beauty salons, and prohibited women from working at nongovernmental organizations.

They have also shut down most shelters for victims of domestic abuse, with Seraj’s among the few remaining.

The Taliban government has been largely ostracized internationally, but with its control firmly established, the United Nations Security Council is considering how to engage with it politically and perhaps reintegrate it into the global system. Some, including Seraj, see this as an opportunity to pressure the Taliban into restoring some rights to women in exchange for diplomatic recognition.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government on August 15, marked the second anniversary of their return to power, with supporters celebrating as critics denounced ever-tightening restrictions on women’s rights.

Others, such as Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, say the Taliban cannot be trusted or given any kind of legitimacy and governments should continue to shun them.

An independent assessment of potential engagement that was submitted to the Security Council in November said the basic rights of women and girls “are not only fundamental obligations of a state, but also critical to build state capacity for long-term development and economic growth and peace and security,” according to Reuters.

In its response to the assessment, Reuters reported, the Taliban said it was obligated to consider Afghanistan’s “religious values and national interests” and that no one would be allowed to interfere in the country’s internal affairs.

The Taliban also defended their record on women, saying they respected women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law.

Seraj argues that the best way forward with the Taliban “is to talk, and come up with some kind of an agreement.”

“Every single day that it goes on with the Taliban not being recognized, it’s not that the Taliban are being pushed in a corner, it’s the people of Afghanistan that are being denied their rights everywhere — in the United Nations, in the world, in the conferences and the meetings,” she said.

Though the Taliban are struggling to transition from waging war to running a country, Seraj said, trying to install a new, more palatable government would only bring more chaos.

“If we keep on changing government, after government, after government, we cannot afford that,” she said.

That doesn’t mean consigning Afghanistan’s 20 million women to second-class citizenship, Seraj said, arguing that the world cannot move to accept the Taliban unless they engage in parallel, step-by-step reforms.

“They have to recognize [women’s rights] first for the world to recognize them, but it has to happen,” she said. “So in order for that to happen, they have to have a talk.”

There is no time to waste, she added.

The head of a major aid organization said Thursday, May 25, that the Taliban have agreed to consider allowing Afghan women to resume work at the agency in the southern province of Kandahar, the religious and political center for the country’s rulers.

“The boys [who] are growing up in this era, you will not be able to tell them that they have to respect a woman later,” Seraj said. “They won’t. Even right now they are not.”

Boys, too, are facing an education crisis under Taliban rule, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Dec. 6. With women barred from teaching boys, the group found, they are often replaced by unqualified male teachers or not replaced at all.

Afghanistan’s problems have been compounded this fall by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Afghans from neighboring Pakistan, which said in October it would arrest and deport any foreign nationals living in the country without documentation. Though the Pakistani government says it is not targeting any particular nationality, most of those affected are from Afghanistan.

The crackdown has created a humanitarian crisis as Afghans who fled Soviet occupation in the 1980s or Taliban rule after that stream into a country that some have never lived in and that is struggling to take them in.

“They’re not kicking out people who have been there [in Pakistan] for five years and six years, they’re kicking out people that were there for 40 years,” Seraj said.

The International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency, said in late November that about 375,000 Afghans had left Pakistan in the last two months, many of them forced to leave behind their savings and possessions.

Many of those returning, including women and children, “could lose their lives in a harsh winter if left without adequate shelter,” the U.N. refugee agency said in December.

An additional 345,000 Afghan refugees have been deported from neighboring Iran since late September, the Afghan news channel TOLOnews reported in December, citing the Iranian Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation.

Afghanistan is also still dealing with the aftermath of a series of 6.3-magnitude earthquakes that hit the northwestern province of Herat in early October. U.N. officials said the vast majority of the people killed were women and children, most of whom were at home while their male relatives were working outside.

Though the Taliban regime has not been formally recognized by any foreign government, in September neighboring China became the first country to name a new ambassador to Afghanistan, and in December the Taliban said they had appointed an ambassador to China, their first to any country.

The Taliban are also joining Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Dec. 5 that while Afghanistan “should not be excluded from the international community,” the Taliban government must engage in political reform before it can receive diplomatic recognition.

“We believe that diplomatic recognition of the Afghan government will come naturally as the concerns of various parties are effectively addressed,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

China’s role in Afghanistan “could be very beneficial,” Seraj said, as long as any deals between the two countries are made in the interest of the Afghan people.

“If the interest of the people of Afghanistan is taken into consideration, then China is a fantastic resource. Why not?” she said. “They are interested in what we have, they are our neighbor, we can work with them. I don’t see any problem.”

Though she worries about her safety and sometimes gets discouraged, Seraj said she has no plans to leave Afghanistan.

“My responsibility towards the women in my shelter is huge,” she said. “I love those girls. I cannot just leave them and go somewhere and do something else.”

Seraj said she wants Afghanistan to stay in the global spotlight, but not as a “disaster.”

Rather, she said, she hopes it will one day be seen “as a country with possibilities, as a country that can go on and can be alive, and maybe one day can thrive.”

Jennifer Jett is Asia digital editor for NBC News, based in Hong Kong.

 

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Nearly 15,000 Counter-Narcotics Operations in 2023: MoI

Meanwhile, the political analysts called the Islamic Emirate’s efforts with counter-narcotics effective.

The Ministry of Interior said that nearly 15,000 counter-narcotics operations were conducted in 2023, during which the security forces seized around 8,200 tons of narcotics.

“In 2023, around 15,000 special raids were conducted regarding counter-narcotics, we had good achievements in this regard,” he said.

During these operations, nearly 8,500 suspects were arrested and nearly 14,000 hectares of lands were cleared of drug-producing crops.

MoI spokesman Abdul Matin Qani criticized the lack of attention of the international community in providing alternative crops for the farmers.

“The international community has not had effective cooperation to provide alternative crops to the farmers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the political analysts called the Islamic Emirate’s efforts with counter-narcotics effective.

“The world should send a delegation to Afghanistan to monitor where the cultivation still continuing. When the cultivation dropped by 95 percent, there should be an alternative for the farmers,” said Mohammad Matin Mohammad Khil, a political analyst.

Last October, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General, Imangali Tasmagambetov, at the joint meeting of the Council and the 16th plenary session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in Moscow expressed concerns about the increase of terrorist group activities, drug smuggling and smuggling of weapons in Afghanistan.

Nearly 15,000 Counter-Narcotics Operations in 2023: MoI
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