Afghan women, undeterred by Taliban, secretly network for change

November 29, 2022
By Michal Kranz
Al Jazeera
Published On 28 Nov 2022
Female activists are secretly building support networks for marginalised women in Taliban-governed Afghanistan.

For months, Shamail Naseri has been moving house-to-house to evade arrest by Taliban authorities. Her crime: Raising her voice to protect Afghan women who have faced increasing marginalisation since the Taliban came to power in August 2021.

“The Taliban attempted twice to arrest me, but it was unsuccessful. I hid and switched off my phone, and they could not find me,” Naseri told Al Jazeera by phone from an undisclosed location in the capital Kabul.

The Taliban promised women’s rights and free speech when they stormed to power. But Afghanistan’s new rulers have gone back on their promises, imposing curbs on women’s movement, introducing dress codes for women, and shutting down high schools for girls – bringing back memories of their repressive rule in the 1990s.

Naseri, along with other women’s activists, has been actively involved in providing support to vulnerable Afghan women after the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan government dissolved critical state support structures like the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and after key organisations, including the largest network of women’s shelters in the country, closed their doors.

Despite the threats to her safety, Naseri remains undeterred in her mission, and unlike all the other Afghanistan-based activists in this story, felt comfortable sharing her full name publicly.

“[These threats] will not stop me, and I will continue,” she said.

While women-led street protests in Afghanistan have attracted worldwide attention, behind the scenes, female activists have steadily been building support networks for marginalised women, creating grassroots organisations, documenting cases of gender-based violence, and opening safe spaces for women in various parts of the country.

Slowly making strides

Although women advocates are slowly making strides in organising themselves in Afghanistan, these efforts remain limited in scope and geography, and according to experts, are as of yet unable to fill the immense gap in women’s services in the country.

“At the moment this is a very big need for women, so we cannot just give up,” said Duniya, a Kabul-based coordinator with a local NGO in Afghanistan who asked not to be identified using her real name for security reasons. “We are at least trying to do something by taking some risk.”

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has led to a 28 percent decrease in women’s employment in the country, according to the United Nations, and rates of domestic violence, forced disappearances, torture of peaceful women protesters, and other forms of gender-based violence have risen sharply since the group’s return to power, according to Amnesty International and other human rights organisations.

Duniya’s organisation had established a grassroots network across 20 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces that promoted democratic values, women’s rights, and solutions to gender-based violence over the past decade.

But during the past year, the group’s offices were shuttered, many members fled the country, and according to Duniya, several activists with whom her NGO was working on a temporary basis were arrested for months, although they have since been released.

As many international donors pulled out of Afghanistan and as United States sanctions against the Taliban government hampered humanitarian aid efforts, many foreign NGOs fled the country as well, in some cases even reportedly leaving behind their own staff.

But Afghan women inside and outside the country have come forward to fill the gap. In December 2021, Duniya’s NGO was able to reopen its doors and resume operations after negotiating with Taliban officials in 14 provinces.

“The Taliban said ‘OK, as long as you’re not doing some meetings against Islam, as long as you’re not encouraging or mobilising people against us, go ahead and continue your activities,” said Nargis Nehan, Afghanistan’s former acting Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Industries, who is currently based in Canada and serves as the lead researcher for VOICE, an NGO. Among other initiatives, Nehan has been helping to reconnect women activists in organisations like Duniya’s with international donors.

According to Duniya, organisers have been able to do this partially by framing their efforts in Islamic terms that make them appear more acceptable to the Taliban, but also by obscuring some activities the Taliban would likely find intolerable.

A new safe space for women

The Taliban has assured women’s rights within the ambit of Islamic law, initially promising that women would have the right to education and work. But the group later justified its action against women based on its interpretation of Islamic law.

One of these highly sensitive efforts is a new safe space for women in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan where the group’s members have secretly been registering cases of gender-based violence since July. Duniya claimed local officials are unaware of the true nature of their work, and believe it is a generic counseling centre.

“Most of the activities that we are doing, most of them are hidden from the government,” she said about the space in Paktia, mentioning rights awareness trainings for women, gender-specific case resolution sessions, and more. “We are not letting them know about the exact content of the activities we are doing.”

Organisations in other parts of Afghanistan, such as in Herat, in the country’s west, are also continuing to work among local women through capacity building and public awareness efforts.

“Despite the security problems, I am still present in the scene and continue my work,” said Arezo, an activist who heads a network of women leaders in Herat and is also involved in a high school education project for 150 girls.

“I must be a symbol for others. Having a common pain brings us closer to each other.”

‘Women’s rights are guaranteed’

Mufti Abdul Mateen Qani, the Taliban government’s spokesperson and adviser for policy at the Ministry of Information and Culture, denied that there were any problems with women’s rights and their right to organise socially in the country.

“Women are active in all ministries, organisations and sectors,” he told Al Jazeera, despite the fact that even though women working for the Afghan state have not formally been fired, they have been barred from entering workplaces and have had their pay slashed.

“They live according to their wishes in Afghanistan, and there is no shortage or deficiency in securing their rights.”

When asked about why the Taliban dismantled the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and instead set up the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in its place, Qani stated that “there is no need” for a ministry dedicated to women because “in Afghanistan, women’s rights are guaranteed”.

Earlier this month, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice banned women from gyms and parks after accusing them of violating gender segregation and dress code rules.

Duniya and other women’s activists say they avoid organising sessions by women-led civil society organisations publicly, and instead plan their meetings and conferences in secret.

She said that thankfully, her NGO has been able to raise some funds through grants and with the help of several international donors who were a part of its external network before the Taliban’s return to power and have been able to continue providing support for Duniya’s NGO afterward.

But Naseri and other activists continue to face funding issues as international aid and support dried up in the wake of the US sanctions following the Taliban’s return to power.

Several women organisers said that on top of security issues, they are forced to work without any kind of budget to support even the most basic of initiatives, and often have to scrape by with only the bare essentials.

In addition to her presence at past demonstrations, Naseri runs an NGO that is registering economically vulnerable women with international charity organisations and gathering funds from international organisations to provide free classes to financially disadvantaged men and women in rural Afghan provinces like Bamiyan, Daykundi, Ghazni, and others.

Her NGO was recently involved in an initiative to house women demonstrators who were expelled from universities after staging protests against the pattern of violence against ethnic Hazara and threats to women’s education following a suicide attack in a Hazara neighbourhood of Kabul that left 19 dead in September.

‘Afghan women are together now’

Sahar, an activist based in Kabul, participated in the recent protests demanding safety and security for women in the wake of the September attack targeting women students.

She fled from Daykundi province in central Afghanistan fearing a threat to her life. She was involved there in efforts to promote education for women and children for years. She still lives underground due to fear of arrest after she was nearly discovered by Taliban authorities in Kabul.

“We are all in danger and our lives are in danger,” Sahar said. “We live secretly.”

Nevertheless, she remains actively involved with the Afghan Women’s Participation Network, a movement that has organised community-building efforts and demonstrations against restrictions on women’s employment and the removal of women from government posts.

Sahar says the group provides a wide range of services to women like support for victims of gender-based violence, counseling, and personalised, needs-based guidance, and includes members from a wide swathe of social groups and professions.

“In this network there are people from all walks of life — psychology doctors, gynaecology doctors, paediatricians, even people who are transgender,” Sahar said. “Everyone works together equally in line for each other.”

Zaman Sultani, a South Asia researcher with Amnesty International, stated that despite the presence of local organisations and safe spaces for women in the country, the government’s restrictions mean that the structures that exist are far from sufficient.

“Some civil society organisations are still in Afghanistan; they are working,” Sultani said. “But their capacity is in no way [adequate] to respond to the situation on the ground. It may exist a little here and there, but the ground reality requires much more than what is available.”

Zahra Joya fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took over, and is now based in London. She has founded Rukhshana Media, which documents the stories of Afghan women facing abuse at the hands of both the government and the men in their lives.

Joya detailed growing reports of such violence in the public and private spheres from Afghan women with whom she is constantly in touch.

“As we are in touch with ordinary women, they are sending me messages, they are calling me,” she said about reports she is receiving from women about rampant gender-based violence.

Her media outlet has been in contact with people like a woman who was beaten by Taliban guards while trying to cross the Afghanistan-Iran border for not wearing a head covering they deemed appropriate. The outlet has also covered the high-profile case of Elaha Dilawarzai, a woman who was forced into marriage with a high-ranking Taliban member who raped and tortured her.

For Joya, the work she and her colleagues in Afghanistan are doing to support women is part of a commitment she feels duty-bound to honour.

“Before, in the first rule of the Taliban, our mothers, our sisters, all of them accepted the Taliban, and they didn’t resist against the Taliban,” Joya said.

But this time, she added, things are different.

“Afghan women are together now,” she said. “We will do our responsibility for the next generation of girls in Afghanistan.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Afghan women, undeterred by Taliban, secretly network for change
read more

Taliban lash 12 people before stadium crowd in Afghanistan

November 27, 2022

By RAHIM FAIEZ

Associated Press
November 23, 2022
This is a locator map for Afghanistan with its capital, Kabul. (AP Photo)
This is a locator map for Afghanistan with its capital, Kabul. (AP Photo)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban lashed three women and nine men in front of hundreds of spectators in a provincial sports stadium Wednesday, signaling the religious extremist group’s resumption of a brutal form of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s.

The office of the governor of Logar province, south of the capital of Kabul, invited “honorable scholars, mujahideen, elders, tribal leaders and local people” to the stadium in the town of Pul Alam in Logar. The invitations for the 9 a.m. event were extended via social media.

Those being punished received between 21 and 39 lashes each, after being convicted in a local court of theft and adultery, said an official in the governor’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to share details with the media.

The official said hundreds of people attended the lashings and that a ban was imposed on taking photos and video.

The resumption of the practice underscored the Taliban’s intention of sticking to their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

“Sharia law is the only solution for problems in Afghanistan and must be implemented,” the deputy governor of Logar, Enayatullah Shuja, later said in a statement about the lashings.

Such public lashings, as well as public executions and stonings for purported crimes, were common during the first period of Taliban rule, from 1996 until 2001 when the militants were driven out in a U.S.-led invasion.

After a 20-year insurgency, the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, coinciding with the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops from the country.

In the immediate aftermath of their second takeover of the country, the Taliban promised to be more moderate and allow for women’s and minority rights. Instead, they have restricted rights and freedoms, including a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade.

The first confirmed public lashing since last year’s Taliban takeover took place Nov. 11, when 19 men and women received 39 lashes each for alleged theft, adultery and running away from home.

The former insurgents have struggled in their transition from warfare to governing amid an economic downturn and the international community’s withholding of official recognition.

Taliban lash 12 people before stadium crowd in Afghanistan
read more

London marchers to call for safe asylum route for Afghan women

November 27, 2022
London marchers to call for safe asylum route for Afghan women
read more

How Afghanistan’s Money Exchangers Have Worked Around the Taliban

November 27, 2022
By
A British Academy research fellow at the University of Oxford.
Foreign Policy
November 26, 2022, 6:00 AM

A year after the Taliban took power, Afghanistan’s money exchangers are being squeezed by economic turmoil and harsh rules implemented by the new regime. But while their market has certainly seen better days, the 400 exchangers hustling in Kabul’s central exchange show no signs of letting up. Each day, they continue to churn a wide range of financial services, offering not just currency exchanges, but also money transfers, savings accounts, and even loans to reliable customers.

Despite facing unique challenges under the Taliban’s regime, exchangers have become the lifeline of the Afghan economy. Over much of the past decade, I’ve studied the resilience of Afghan market actors, and during my visit to Afghanistan in September, exchangers had strategized and adjusted to the new normal. As Afghanistan’s banks have been cut off from the international financial system, exchangers provide one of the few remaining financial connections between the country and the outside world.

The story of Afghanistan’s exchangers reveals how local market actors can quickly adapt to political and economic change. In times of prosperity, exchangers bolster growth by taking calculated risks; in times of crisis, they manage to maintain core financial services. Throughout their century-long history, exchangers’ ability to resist being captured and co-opted by the state has allowed them to outlive the rise and fall of regimes while remaining at the core of the Afghan economy.

After the Taliban takeover, many exchangers believed that regulations on their market would be relaxed. The previous government had used legislation in an effort to progressively extend its authority over the market, whereas during the Taliban’s reign in the late 1990s, the market was completely unregulated.

This time, however, the Taliban chose to double down. The guarantee that each exchanger is required to deposit in Da Afghanistan Bank, the country’s central bank, has increased tenfold, from $3,000 to $30,000. The Taliban have also been adamant that exchangers be converted from sole proprietorships to multistakeholder businesses, which helps create a paper trail and makes it easier for the government to trace the movement of funds. Under the previous government, exchangers had fiercely resisted this kind of change, since it would have exposed them to greater risk by making their funds accessible to other exchangers. Now, exchangers have acquiesced to the demand.

Central bank audits have also become more stringent. As one exchanger told me, “Before, they would only look at the books we gave them, but now, they search everywhere in our shop to see if we have other books hidden.”

There are a few possible explanations for the Taliban’s rigid approach. Some exchangers posit that since the Taliban previously relied on exchangers when they were insurgents, they now want to ensure that opposition groups do not use exchangers against them. Others say that the Taliban are keen to collect tax from exchangers. Still others argue that these rules help ensure that nervous exchangers do not abscond with the funds of their customers, as a few exchangers have done since the Taliban’s takeover.

The Taliban know that the exchangers’ informal money transfer system is the only financial link that connects Afghanistan to the outside world.

Whatever their exact rationale, the Taliban have not been able to completely extend their control over money exchangers. For one, exchangers have devised new strategies for appeasing—and at times eluding—Taliban officials. They have positioned themselves as a self-governing community, siding with the government when doing so benefits them and resisting the government when it does not. This February, exchangers joined ranks with the Taliban in calling on the United States to unfreeze Da Afghanistan Bank’s $7 billion in assets. However, last month, exchangers resisted attempts by the Taliban to ban the yearly elections for the president of the exchange market, thereby retaining control over internal market affairs. For exchangers driven by the bottom line, allegiances are fleeting, which ultimately facilitates the longevity of the market.

More importantly, the Taliban know that the exchangers’ informal money transfer system, known as hawala, is the only financial link that connects Afghanistan to the outside world. Hawalas help remittances enter the country and allow local traders to pay their foreign suppliers—even those in neighboring countries that have stopped providing visas to Afghans. Small and medium businesses rely heavily on exchangers for both hawalas and loans to help them import goods. In January, the Norwegian Refugee Council found that more than 70 humanitarian nongovernmental organizations use hawalas. Without them, humanitarian suffering would only intensify.

Like the previous government, the Taliban also depend on exchangers to stabilize the value of the afghani currency through U.S. dollar auctions, where Da Afghanistan Bank sells U.S. dollars to exchangers to soak up excess afghanis in circulation that could otherwise devalue the local currency.

Exchangers’ work has become only more crucial as Afghanistan’s economic calamity worsens. A combination of sanctions, the termination of international assistance, and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Afghans has caused the economy to shrink by some 30 percent since August 2021. The U.N. Development Programme estimates that since last year, the economy has lost nearly $5 billion. Due to widespread unemployment, approximately 50 percent of the population suffers from critical levels of food insecurity.

Half of Da Afghanistan Bank’s assets have remained bogged down by litigations in U.S. courts since August 2021 over whether 9/11 victims and their families should be entitled to Afghan public funds. Washington recently transferred the other half to a Swiss-based trust, the Bank for International Settlements, to be used to stabilize the Afghan economy while avoiding any engagement with the Taliban. The mechanics of that assistance remain opaque and will likely be mired in logistical and political wrangling that keeps reserve assets all but out of reach for the Afghan people. As a trickle of hope, though, the U.S. government and its partners recently facilitated the transfer of a small portion of these funds so that 10 billion afghanis’ worth of newly minted bills could be sent to Afghanistan—a measure sorely needed as sanctions on afghanis’ import until now have led to money literally crumbling beyond repair.

Banks have been pushed to their breaking point as they have been cut off from the global financial system, no longer able to engage in international transfers. Money is steadily flowing out of their coffers. Every day, customers line up at 5 a.m. for their weekly withdrawal of $400, a limit mandated by the Taliban to prevent a complete run on the banks. All banks have drastically downsized their operations, with branches remaining in only a few major Afghan cities. Public trust in banks has been destroyed for the next few decades.

Even in their heyday, banks played a limited role in society and could not replace exchangers. In the past two decades, bank customers have hailed primarily from city centers. According to the World Bank, only around 15 percent of the adult population possessed bank accounts as of 2020—and many of those people required those accounts only to receive their salary, which they then withdrew in full. Moreover, Afghan banks have been very conservative in providing loans since a banking crisis hit the country in 2010, when one of the country’s major banks, Kabul Bank, was found to be engaging in fraudulent activities. In 2019, the World Bank reported Afghanistan as having a 3 percent loan-to-GDP ratio—the lowest of all countries globally. That year, the global average of loan-to-GDP ratios was 59 percent; even conflict-afflicted Democratic Republic of the Congo reported a ratio more than double that of Afghanistan. Then, like now, Afghan customers simply could not depend on banks for loans.

Afghanistan’s banking sector succeeded in servicing an elite few but failed to make inroads into wider society. The sector depended on the previous government functioning—not only so it could maintain links with the international financial system, but also because financial activities associated with the state (employee salaries, development projects, businesses servicing government offices) were a primary source of capital for banks. Once that regime was toppled, the sector’s foundation fell from below. Conversely, money exchangers operate from the bottom up, having incrementally developed their financial services across society. They have always resisted undue interference from the state.

Financial crises in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and elsewhere in just the past several years serve as a humble reminder that the mere presence of a banking sector does not attest to its soundness. In Afghanistan, banks have foundered since the Taliban takeover, while money exchangers have adapted, keeping the entire economy afloat. While their profit margins are down, their market remains intact as they seek out new financial opportunities. Their continued success is linked to their independence from the state, their ability to innovate, and the wide reach of their financial network, which penetrates deep into society.

History teaches us that Afghan money exchangers are here for the long haul. At present, supporting Afghan banks is necessary to ensure that customers receive their hard-earned savings. While ideally this would require that Da Afghanistan Bank gain access to its full reserves, at minimum, any commercial banking funds currently frozen abroad should be released. Yet it is exchangers, rather than banks, who will ensure that financial services remain available to laypeople and businesses across the country in the days to come.

Nafay Choudhury is a British Academy research fellow at the University of Oxford. He is also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and a research fellow at the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies. 

How Afghanistan’s Money Exchangers Have Worked Around the Taliban
read more

UK aid to Afghanistan entrenched corruption and injustice, report finds

November 26, 2022

Patrick Wintour

 Diplomatic editor

The Guardian

Wed 23 Nov 2022 19.01 EST

Government watchdog says £3.5bn aid in 20 years to 2020 failed to achieve aim of stabilising Afghan government

The UK’s £3.5bn aid to Afghanistan between 2000 and 2020 was implicated in corruption and human rights abuses and failed to achieve its primary objective of stabilising the country’s government, an assessment by the UK government’s aid watchdog has found.

Describing the two-decade aid project as the UK’s single most ambitious programme of state building, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) says decisions to spend aid on counterinsurgency operations were flawed, adding that efforts to reduce gender inequality are likely to be wiped out by the Taliban.

Money was spent on meeting the US’s excessively short-term objectives, the report finds. It suggests, on the basis of extensive interviews with senior UK government officials, that the UK had little influence on US strategy, even though it disagreed with the US decision to exclude the Taliban from any political settlement at a point when the Taliban were relatively weak.

The damning new ICAI report says: “Unwilling to challenge the US approach, the UK became publicly committed into a narrative of imminent success.”

It adds: “The commitment to aligning with the US left the UK locked into investing large amounts of aid into a state-building process which its own analysis suggested had limited prospects of success. As one senior official told us, ‘If we’ve invested in a state-shaped object that cannot command the loyalty or support of large parts of the population, it will amount to nothing.’”

The report says the UK spent £3.5bn in aid over the 20 years to 2020, of which £2.5bn was spent between 2014 and 2020.

The review says: “In complex stabilisation missions, large-scale financial support for the state should only be provided in the context of a viable and inclusive political settlement, when there are reasonable prospects of a sustained transition out of conflict.”

It adds: “UK aid should not be used to fund police or other security agencies to engage in paramilitary operations, as this entails unacceptable risks of doing harm. Any support for civilian security agencies should focus on providing security and justice to the public.”

The review finds that the UK spent £252m funding the salaries of the Afghan national police, describing this as a “questionable use of UK aid”, because the police were primarily assigned to counterinsurgency operations rather than civilian policing. Overall, the UK spent £400m over six years to help the Afghan security services. Efforts by UK aid officials to stop the funding were overruled at the highest levels of government, the report found.

“Channelling funding in such high volumes through weak state institutions distorted the political process and contributed to entrenched corruption,” the review finds. “The creation of a parallel institutional structure to manage international aid drew capacity away from the Afghan administration.” Between 2017 and 2020 the number of consultants in the ministry of finance only fell from 780 well paid staff to 585, the report reveals.

It adds the UK was mistaken to spend so much aid on US-designed objectives that entrenched corruption and human rights abuses, including semi-paramilitary objectives. It says the US was itself aware of its errors, with officials admitting: “The ultimate point of our failure was not an insurgency but endemic corruption.”

UK government documents cited by ICAI and written as late as 2019 “describe the situation as an extreme form of state capture, which benefited a narrow group of Afghan political elites at the expense of the population at large”.

“In these circumstances, there was little prospect of meaningful institutional development. One year on, in 2020, the Department for International Development assessed that central government institutions were largely unable to deliver on their mandates, despite years of financial and technical assistance. Afghan leaders saw them as fiefdoms for patronage, rather than mechanisms for promoting the public interest.”

The UK, the report says, “took a largely technocratic approach to building the capacity of state institutions, focusing on their internal systems and processes, rather than their relationships with Afghan society. It also left UK aid subordinate to rapidly changing objectives and short planning horizons in the security arena, leading to unrealistic assumptions about what was achievable.”

The scale of the aid and the way it was delivered meant by 2021, 98.7% of Afghans described corruption as a big problem for Afghanistan as a whole – up from 76% in 2014.

The report finds the UK was aware of the problems in the design in the aid programme, but “the UK’s determination to provide unconditional support to the US meant that there was no attempt to reconsider the approach to state-building, even as its prospects of success receded”.

The review finds the sheer scale of the aid resources funnelled through central state institutions was distorting. The Afghan state spent approximately $11bn each year, but raised only $2.5bn of its own resources, the report finds. Echoing previous studies it suggests it would have taken 35 years for the state to become self funding, leaving the Afghan state locked into an open-ended dependence on external aid.

The report finds: “Ultimately, the US decision to conclude an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, setting a timetable for the unconditional withdrawal of US troops, made it necessary to abandon most of the objectives of the UK aid programme, despite heavy sunk costs.”

UK aid to Afghanistan entrenched corruption and injustice, report finds
read more

Islamic Emirate: Policy of Isolation Will Not Bring Results

November 26, 2022
 Mohammad Farshad Daryosh
News Reporter
Tolo News
25 Nov 2022

The travel ban exemption for officials of the Islamic Emirate has not been extended by the UN Security Council in more than three months.

The Islamic Emirate asked the UN Security Council to lift the travel bans on the current government officials.

The Islamic Emirate’s deputy spokesperson, Bilal Karimi, said that an isolating approach would not work and that there should be less of a gap between the Islamic Emirate and the world.

“The Islamic Emirate always works to minimize gaps: isolationist policies, and policies that create gaps and lead to problems. History has shown that did not produce any results, I mean positive results,” Karimi said.

The travel ban exemption for officials of the Islamic Emirate has not been extended by the UN Security Council in more than three months.

Meanwhile, some experts on international relations believe that the Islamic Emirate’s refusal to accede to the demands of the international community is what prevented the extension of the travel exemption for its officials.

“The Taliban should respond to the demands of the international community as a standard country and a standard government,” said Aziz Marij, former diplomat.

According to the deputy minister of economy, the country’s political and economic sectors will suffer as a result of the United Nations Security Council’s decision to not extend the travel exemption for some Islamic Emirate officials.

“The travel exemption for prominent members of the Islamic Emirate should be extended to boost political and economic cooperation between the Islamic Emirate and the international community,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, deputy minister of the Economy.

The first deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar; the second deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi; the political deputy of the prime minister, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir; the acting minister of foreign affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi; the political deputy of the foreign ministry, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai; the minister of mines and petroleum, Shahabuddin Delawar; the intelligence director Abdulhaq Wasiq; minister of information and culture, Khairullah Khairkhah; deputy minister of defense, Fazel Mazloum; minister of economy Din Mohammad Hanif; minister of Haj, Noor Mohammad Saqib; minister of borders and tribes Noorullah Noori; and minister of energy and water, Latif Mansour; are those whose travel ban exemption period has ended, and they cannot travel abroad.

Earlier, some diplomatic sources said that the United Nations Security Council members were divided over the extension of the current government’s officials’ travel exemption.

Islamic Emirate: Policy of Isolation Will Not Bring Results
read more

UN experts denounce Taliban treatment of women as crime

November 26, 2022

By RAHIM FAIEZ

Associated Press
24 Nov 2022

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan may amount to a crime against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, a U.N. team of experts said Friday.

The Taliban promptly rejected the allegation.

The statement by the U.N.-appointed experts followed a confirmation from the Taliban that three women were among 12 people lashed on Wednesday in front of hundreds of spectators at a provincial sports stadium. It signaled the Taliban’s resumption of a brutal form of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s.

And on Nov. 11 in Taloqan in northeastern Takhar province, 10 men and nine women were lashed 39 times each in the presence of elders, scholars and residents at the city’s main mosque after Friday prayers. They were accused of adultery, theft and running away from home.

The U.N. experts said the latest Taliban actions against women and girls have deepened existing rights violations — already the “most draconian globally” — and may constitute gender persecution, which is a crime against humanity.

The Taliban overran Afghanistan in August 2021 as American and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. Despite initially promising a more moderate rule and allow for women’s and minority rights, they have restricted rights and freedoms and widely implemented their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

They have banned girls from middle school and high school, restricted women from most employment, and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks, gyms, and funfairs.

Lashings in public, as well as public executions and stoning for purported crimes were common across Afghanistan during the first period of Taliban rule, from 1996 until 2001, when they were driven out in a U.S.-led invasion following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Taliban had sheltered al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

The experts’ statement did not specifically mention the cases of public lashings but said the Taliban have beaten men accompanying women wearing colorful clothing or without a face covering.

“We are deeply concerned that such actions are intended to compel men and boys to punish women and girls who resist the Taliban’s erasure of them, further depriving them of their rights, and normalizing violence against them,” it said.

It urged the Taliban to reinstate the rights and freedoms for Afghan women, release activists from detention and restore access to schools and public spaces.

The expert team, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, includes Richard Bennett, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and Farida Shaheed, special rapporteur on the right to education.

The Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, rejected the experts’ statement and fired back at the U.N. for sanctioning the former insurgents who now rule Afghanistan.

Balkhi, in a message to The Associated Press, listed what he said amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity by the world body, including the “current collective punishment of innocent Afghans by the U.N. sanctions regime, all in the name of women’s rights and equality.”

Sanctions on Taliban officials and the freezing of billions in foreign currency reserves have restricted access to global institutions and outside money that had supported Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economy before the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.

No country in the world has recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban call their administration, leaving them internationally and financially isolated.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it was seeing a spike in cases of child pneumonia and malnutrition, with the poverty level increasing compared to previous years, as humanitarian conditions plummet and the country braces itself for a second winter under Taliban rule.

UN experts denounce Taliban treatment of women as crime
read more

Two-Thirds of Afghan Households Struggle to Meet Basic Needs: World Bank

November 26, 2022
Bibi Amina Hakimi
TOLOnews’ Reporter
23 NOVEMBER 2022

The survey highlighted the welfare, education, labor force and health conditions in Afghanistan.

The World Bank published a report based on the second round of a survey conducted from June to August 2022 (the first round was completed and reported on in 2021) to assess changes in basic living conditions. The report said that two-thirds of households in Afghanistan find it difficult to meet basic food and non-food needs.

The survey highlighted the welfare, education, labor force and health conditions in Afghanistan.

According to the World Bank, rising food prices and the persistent effects of last year’s drought are highlighted among the main reasons for limited access to and affordability of food. “This may signal more significant deprivation in the coming winter months, usually considered the hungry season,” the World Bank warned.

“There is an urgent need for the interim Taliban administration to take tangible steps to improve food security and livelihoods, maintain basic health services, and ensure that the private sector can play a role to create jobs for the many Afghans, particularly young people, who are unemployed. Without this, the welfare of the Afghan people, especially women and girls, remains at risk,” said Melinda Good, World Bank country director for Afghanistan.

The economists said that restrictions on the banking system and lack of investment in the country has intensified economic challenges.

Nadirshah is one of the millions of vulnerable Afghans struggling with economic challenges.

“It is winter. We don’t have coal and grain. When it is nighttime we bring a gas stove and put it under the blanket to get a bit warm,” he said.

“When we eat breakfast, we worry about how to find our lunch and dinner,” said Fazila, Nader’s wife.

The report indicates that the majority (82 percent) of respondents say that if they were provided AFN 1,000 (about USD 10) per month, they would use it to purchase food.

There has been a slight uptick in private sector salaried work, and public sector employment remains small, reflecting a smaller government footprint, the report said, adding that most household heads are self-employed, the report said.

Many women who previously dedicated their time to housework are now working on the farm or at home, doing piecework, sewing, and repairing clothes, the report said. “One exception is teachers, two-thirds of whom have retained their employment.”

The economists said that the sanctions and restrictions on Afghanistan banking system have caused a deteriorated in the economic conditions in the country.

“Due to economic sanctions and restrictions on banks, the economic conditions have deteriorated and are driving into a deep crisis,” said Abdul Naseer Rishtia, an economist.

“The suspension of international aid that was supporting between 45 to 50 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP, and the suspension of around $7 to $8 billion entering Afghanistan—this also caused a surge in unemployment,” said Seyar Qureshi, an economist.

The World Bank’s survey about girls’ and boys’ schools shows that the drop in secondary school enrollment for both girls and boys is aligned with an increase in the proportion of teenage Afghans joining the labor force. “Girls who drop out of school do not seem to remain idle, as nearly half of them become economically active, most working from home or on the family farm,” the survey shows.

According to the survey, the need for medical care has increased with almost nine out of ten households reporting at least one member requiring medical attention over the month preceding the survey. “Medical services remain available, with only 8 percent of individuals who needed health services reporting having been unable to access them,” it said.

Two-Thirds of Afghan Households Struggle to Meet Basic Needs: World Bank
read more

Islamic Emirate Accuses US of not Living Up to Doha Agreement

November 24, 2022
Banafsha Bines

Tolo News

23 Nov 2022

Zabiullah Mujahid said that the normalization of relations with Afghanistan and the lifting of sanctions are part of the Doha agreement. 

The Islamic Emirate accused Washington of not living up to its side of the agreement between the two sides signed on February 29, 2020, in Doha. 

Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that the normalization of relations with Afghanistan and the lifting of sanctions are part of the Doha agreement.

“Some other points which are mentioned there (agreement), such as removal of sanctions and normalization of contacts and relations with Afghanistan, unfortunately, the Americans have not come forward in this regard and we want them to take practical steps,” said Mujahid said.

“The agreement was widely violated by the Americans. If we see, since the agreement was signed, no American has been killed but the Americans–who first said to first recognize the Islamic Emirate but it has yet to be recognized,” said Mohammad Musa Sadat, a political analyst.

The Doha agreement focused on four main factors including the withdrawal of foreign troops, the formation of an inclusive government, intra-Afghan negotiations and preventing Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorists that could pose a threat to the US and its allies.

“There are traveling problems sometimes—not due to political issues or economic issues but it is because of those who imposed sanctions,” Mujahid said.

“It is better that the two sides sit together and complete the negotiations on the issues which are not fulfilled yet. And reform the issues that have been violated,” said Aziz Maarij, a former diplomat.

“The Doha agreement takes us closer to political legitimacy at the international level,” said Sayed Zia Hosseini, an international relations analyst.

However, the full details of the Doha agreement have not been shared with the people of Afghanistan, but many political leaders called for a national dialogue to discuss the formation of a broad government.

Top US and European officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over “threats” from Afghanistan but the Islamic Emirate denied their concerns, saying that there will be no threat from Afghan soil to any foreign country.

Islamic Emirate Accuses US of not Living Up to Doha Agreement
read more

Khalilzad Urges Islamic Emirate to Start Consultative Process

November 24, 2022
Banafsha Binesh
Tolo News
23 Nov 2022

Despite consecutive attempts to make contact, TOLOnews was unable to obtain any comment from the Islamic Emirate on the matter.

The former US special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, urged the Islamic Emirate to start a “consultative process” for governance. 

Khalilzad made the remarks in an interview with TRT World.

He said that the Islamic Emirate’s policies “have to respect the views of a broader society.”

“Taliban are making some serious mistakes in my view. They appear to be repeating some of the mistakes that we see in Afghanistan in the last 40 years,” Khalilzad said.

He said that the communist government in Afghanistan resulted in civil war.

“In 1978, the communist party faction took power and then they moved against everyone else and that led to a civil war,” Khalilzad said.

The analysts give various opinions on the matter.

“As an Afghan, I call on the Islamic Emirate to resume intra-Afghan negotiations. First, those who are inside and outside the country should be talked with and accept their legitimate concerns,” said Amanullah Hotaki, a political analyst.

The residents of Kabul also urged the Islamic Emirate to hold national dialogues to address the current challenges in the country.

“The people of Afghanistan should all come together and discuss the issues via Jirga including education and work access to women,” said Bilal Rahimi, a resident of Kabul.

Despite consecutive attempts to make contact, TOLOnews was unable to obtain any comment from the Islamic Emirate on the matter.

Khalilzad Urges Islamic Emirate to Start Consultative Process
read more

Recent Posts