Nations Request the Lifting of Restrictions on Women in Afghanistan

The ambassador of Norway to the UN said that efforts are being made to facilitate direct communication between Afghan women and the Islamic Emirate.

Several nations requested the lifting of restrictions on women in Afghanistan during the UN Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace, and Security.

The ambassador of Norway to the UN said that efforts are being made to facilitate direct communication between Afghan women and the Islamic Emirate.

“Afghanistan women continue to ask the international community to create the platform for them to engage directly with the Taliban, and we will continue to look for safe spaces for them to do so,” said Mona Juul, Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations.

“Holding such meetings and expressing support for Afghan women’s rights can definitely be inspiring in the current situation that Afghan women are in, and it shows that the world has not forgotten Afghan women. But until the declared commitments of the international community to defend and support Afghan women are actually upheld, Afghan women will not progress,” said Maryam Marouf Arween, a women’s rights activist.

During the debate, the China representative to the UN expressed his hope that women’s rights and interests would be protected in Afghanistan.

“China hopes that they will have their basic rights and their interest is protected and that they will integrate organically into the country’s economic and social life and become an important force in the peace and rebuilding of their country,” said Geng Shuang Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations.

At the Security Council meeting, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the US has formed a US-Afghan consultative mechanism.

“The US established the US-Afghan consultative mechanism. This mechanism systematically engages a diverse range of Afghan voices, particularly women and civil society leaders so their perspectives are integrated into our policy discussion,” said US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Ambassador R. Ravindra, India’s deputy permanent representative, called for the rights of women and minorities in Afghanistan to be respected.

However, Kabul said that human rights in Afghanistan are more fully respected now than ever before.

“Full immunity has been attained, and there is no threat to Afghanistan. Thousands of courts have been formed throughout the provinces and districts to serve the public and protect their rights. Anyone who has a problem with their rights should go to court, where their rights will be secured,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

Many nations and international organizations have criticized Afghanistan’s restrictions on women, especially in the field of education, but the decision to reopen girls’ schools has not yet been made.

Nations Request the Lifting of Restrictions on Women in Afghanistan
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Ahadi: Freezing of Afghan Assets Was Political Decision

The United States established the trust fund and said it will transfer $3.5bn in Afghan central bank assets to the fund. 

Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi, a member of the Afghanistan Fund in Switzerland, said that Afghanistan’s frozen assets have been changed into a political issue.

Ahadi, in an exclusive interview with TOLOnews, said that although the Swiss-based trust fund was established more than a month ago, the $3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s frozen assets has not been transferred from the US Treasury Department.

“The freezing of these assets was a political decision, and the issue that Afghanistan’s current government has not been recognized yet is political. if the problems are solved, there is no need for this trust fund and it will be canceled. At that time, the money will be transferred to the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB),” said Anwar Ul Haq Ahadi.

Ahadi is one of the four members of the trust fund, which was formed, according to the US, to prevent the misuse of 3.5 billion dollars of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves.

“Disbursement is based on a consensus, if one member of the fund disagrees with it, the assets will not be used. I will not agree with using the assets where there is no justification,” said Anwar Ul Haq Ahadi.

“The transfer of 3.5 billion dollars from Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) can help Afghanistan in maintaining the Afghan currency against foreign currencies,” said Seyar Qurishi, economist.

Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, in an interview with a Turkish media outlet once again urged the United States to release the more than $9 million assets.

“More than nine billion dollars of Afghanistan that were entrusted to the US in banks, was blocked after the political changes in occurred in Afghanistan, now they (US) do not allow us to access the assets and imposed some restrictions on Afghanistan’s banks, we know that the assets are supporting money for our national currency, but the assets are the wealth of the people,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

The United States established the trust fund and said it will transfer $3.5bn in Afghan central bank assets to the fund.

Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi, former Minister of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan, Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, a member of the Supreme Council of Da Afghanistan Bank, and Scott C. Miller, the US Ambassador to Switzerland, as well as a person from the Swiss Foreign Ministry, are the trustees of this fund and will decide on the assets of Afghanistan.

Ahadi: Freezing of Afghan Assets Was Political Decision
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Mujahid Says West Preventing Islamic Emirate’s Recognition

Mujahid said that some Muslim and regional countries are unwilling to recognize the Islamic Emirate because of issues they have with the United States.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman while traveling in Turkey said that the West, particularly the United States, has prevented the recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In an interview with the Turkish “Ilke News Agency,” Zabiullah Mujahid said that some Muslim and regional countries are unwilling to recognize the Islamic Emirate because of issues they have with the United States.

“The West is behind this; they prevent the recognition of and cooperation with an Islamic government. Although the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has made–and continues to make–great attempts, unfortunately, some pressures are applied,” Mujahid said.

“There is no doubt that the US government is attempting to stop everyone from recognizing the Taliban,” said Wahidullah Faqiri, a political analyst.

Mujahid said that Kabul wants to improve its political and economic ties with all nations, including the United States and Europe. Additionally, he urged investment in Afghanistan from the US and Europe.

“All nations should work with us and not be worried about us. We want to have good political and economic interactions with other countries, such interactions that would be trusted by both parties, including America and Europe. We asked Americans to invest in Afghanistan,” Mujahid said.

Officials of the Islamic Emirate have said that security issues in the nation have been resolved and that the international community should recognize the current Afghan government.

Mujahid Says West Preventing Islamic Emirate’s Recognition
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Treasures of Afghan History, Art and Culture

The New York Times

Oct. 19, 2022

The Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts in Paris is displaying the fruits of a century of partnership between France and Afghanistan.

PARIS — Before the Taliban demolished the Great Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001, the figures were the world’s largest standing depictions of the deity. The destruction of the statues, which had stood for 1,500 years, remains one of the most tragic attacks on Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

A relaxed Buddha, made of unbaked clay, from around the seventh century, discovered by Jean Carl in 1937 in an excavation by La Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan, or DAFA.

Credit…RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris)/Thierry Ollivier

With the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, that heritage has become more out of reach. But a new show at the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts in Paris aims to bring attention to the endangered patrimony of Afghanistan by offering visitors a glimpse of some of its cultural riches. The exhibition marks a 100-year-old partnership with France to unearth and preserve Afghan treasures.

Much of what the rest of the world knows about Afghanistan’s cultural legacy was learned after the end of British influence in 1919. In 1922 a group, La Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (French Archaeological Delegation to Afghanistan), or DAFA, was founded after King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan invited a French delegation to explore, excavate and help preserve the country’s ancient sites.

Over the next hundred years — except during periods of invasion or war — DAFA worked to uncover artifacts that filled the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. With the consent of Afghan authorities, duplicates of some of those artifacts, as well as other finds, were donated to the Guimet, where Joseph Hackin, a DAFA director from 1925 until World War II, was its chief curator.

It was during this period that some of the most beautiful pieces were discovered, among them the so-called Bagram ivories, said Nicolas Engel, the museum’s current chief curator and the deputy director of DAFA from 2009 to 2013.

An excavation in Afghanistan, photographed by DAFA’s first director, Alfred Foucher, in 1924.
Credit…MNAAG, Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image musée Guimet

A selection of such finds, along with paintings and photographs of the country’s heritage sites, are the subject of “Afghanistan, Shadows and Legends,” which opens at the Guimet on Oct. 26 and runs through Feb. 6.

It is part of the “Season of Afghanistan,” which also includes “Within a Thread’s Breath: Textile Creations by Afghan Women,” examining the country’s contemporary textile tradition.

“This museum is intimately connected to the history of the discovery of civilizations of Afghanistan,” Sophie Makariou, president of Guimet, wrote in an email. “Two years ago, together with the National Museum of Afghanistan, we had planned to bring pieces from their collection to Paris. With the fall of Kabul last year, we had to rethink the exhibition.”

A painted mural inside the niche of a Bamiyan Buddha, photographed in 1935. The walls of the niches were painted in the late seventh to early eighth centuries as backdrops for the Buddhas, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
Credit…RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Mr. Engel said, “Originally we wanted to create a dialogue between the two collections and then show a smaller version of this exhibition in Kabul. But things changed.”

Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, the National Museum’s director in Kabul, did not respond to emails for comment.

Without the artifacts from Kabul’s museum, the exhibition in Paris will still present 375 objects, mostly from DAFA searches and the Guimet’s own collections, with some on loan from the British Museum, the Louvre and France’s National Library.

The show covers a period from the Bronze Age to the 15th century. Bronze Age ceramics, the oldest pieces in the show, are shown alongside miniature paintings, silver plates and a large variety of sculptures in stucco and schist rock.

“A bust from Hadda draped in a Greek-style garment is a good example of the ‘Greco-Buddhist’ style of sculpture found in Afghanistan,” Mr. Engel said. “Paintings from 1935 depicting the niches of the Bamiyan Buddhas reveal their once colorful, painted murals.”

An intricately carved ivory plaque, part of the so-called Bagram ivories discovered by excavators under Joseph Hackin, a DAFA director and Guimet chief curator.
Credit…MNAAG, Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Thierry Ollivier

The show also features the Bagram ivories, a rare collection of carved ivory plaques, owned by the Guimet, that were found in Bagram, about 40 miles north of Kabul. The ivories are estimated to date from the 1st or 2nd century.

They were found by DAFA in 1937 and 1939. Mr. Engel said that Mr. Hackin had been searching for a royal city in Bagram when his wife Marie, also known as Ria, stumbled upon two walled-off chambers.

“It is unknown whether the treasure was part of a royal stash or property of a merchant,” Mr. Engel said. “The ivories have Indian iconography; the bronzes and plasters are Roman style; the painted glass are similar to those found in Lebanon.”

The finding, Mr. Engel said, led them to conclude that Bagram had been at the crossroads of long-distance trade routes.

The ivories, as well as some belonging to the National Museum, were presented in a 2007 show at the Guimet titled “Recovered Treasures from Afghanistan” inaugurated by President Jacques Chirac of France and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

About 175 photographs in the upcoming show track a century of exploration in an unfamiliar and challenging land. Some, by the American photographer Steve McCurry, capture the vulnerability of Afghanistan’s heritage sites.

One image from 1992 shows Afghan youths playing at the foot of one of the Bamiyan Buddhas; another from 2003 shows children playing in an abandoned van next to the empty niche where a Buddha, by then destroyed, had stood.

A 1995 photograph shows armed soldiers sheltering inside the National Museum, shortly before the site was looted.

Until the 1950s, France was the only country allowed to excavate in Afghanistan. In 1950, the Afghan government allowed an American delegation to conduct archaeological activity, followed later by Italian, German and Japanese researchers.

Since 1925, the Guimet has regularly exhibited its collection of Afghan artifacts, which Mr. Engel described as some of the “most beautiful archaeological treasures outside of Afghanistan.” But, he added, the more exceptional pieces have remained inside the country, and preservation has been hindered by a lack of funds and international access, as well as poor conservation, as well as deficient conservation, particularly at the Minaret of Jam or the remains of the ancient Buddhist city of Mes Aynak.

“These are real and worrisome emergencies,” Ms. Makariou wrote in the catalog.

Still, Ms. Makariou wrote in an email, “Even if from a distance, we try to advance our understanding of the depths of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

“We must keep the flame of research burning.”

Treasures of Afghan History, Art and Culture
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Iran and Pakistan Officials Pledge to Act for Peace in Afghanistan

Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan on a trip to Iran talked about the current situation in Afghanistan with Iranian officials.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry tweeted that Islamabad and Tehran will use all their capacity to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will work with all its capacities to establish peace and prosperity in Afghanistan and for the people of Afghanistan,” said Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s Foreign Minister.

“Pakistan and Iran have an played an important role in the past 43 years in Afghanistan, I hope they change their role to a constructive role for peace,” said Salim Paigir, political analyst.

Iran’s special envoy for Afghanistan also tweeted that in a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart there was a discussion about the current situation of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan, the stabilization process, and the fight against terrorism.

“We and our neighbors and other countries will continue efforts to fight against terrorism, improve people’s living conditions, and establish peace in Afghanistan,” said Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.

“In the current situation, these countries have no choice but to cooperate because … Western countries try to create political, economic and security instability in this area,”said Javid Sandel, an international relations analyst.

The deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate said that Kabul urged that good relations be established with regional countries, and he said there is no security concern in Afghanistan.

“From our side, we do not have any concerns and our policy and position is that we do not want tension with any faction and we assure the regional countries that Afghanistan is not a threat to any other country,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman of Islamic Emirate.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry in a statement said that the cooperation of Iran and Pakistan could help the people of Afghanistan and reduce the devastating effects of Afghanistan’s situation in the region.

Iran and Pakistan Officials Pledge to Act for Peace in Afghanistan
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Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan Calls for Reopening Girls’ Schools

They called on the “Taliban to immediately reverse the effective ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.”

The Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan, with representatives from 27 countries, expressed deep concern regarding the increasing “erosion of respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban,” including limiting access to education for women and girls.

They called on the “Taliban to immediately reverse the effective ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.”

The members of the Group urged the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to continue to closely monitor and report on the situation.

They also “request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to continue to engage with all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, including relevant authorities, on this issue, in accordance with the mandate of UNAMA.”

The schools for girls’ students above grade six have remained closed for more than one year and there has yet to be a final decision in this regard.

The students have repeatedly voiced concerns over their uncertain future.

“We request they fulfill their promises and reopen the girls schools beyond grade six,”  a student said.

“The only ambition that we have is the reopening of girls’ schools. With every night’s end and when morning comes, I think that they will now tell us to come to your school,” a student said.

The Islamic Emirate has yet to comment on the statement of the Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan but earlier argued that human rights are ensured in Afghanistan.

“One day of closed schools will have massive historic and intellectual effects. I believe Afghan women have the ability in many areas, so not only schools will be reopened but also work opportunities should also be provided for them,” said Najibullah Jami, a political analyst.

The Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan emphasized findings by the World Economic Forum that banning women from working in the government and formal sectors will cause Afghanistan’s GDP to contract by a minimum of $600 million in the immediate term and restrictions on women’s private sector employment could lead to a $1.5 billion loss of output by 2024.

Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan Calls for Reopening Girls’ Schools
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Afghan women’s long and hard struggle for the right to divorce

By
Al Jazeera
Published On 20 Oct 2022

After years of abuse at the hands of her husband, 32-year-old Bano gathered the courage last year to file for divorce in northeastern Afghanistan.

“For four years, he beat me every day and raped me every night,” she told Al Jazeera, requesting that her name be changed because she is in hiding from her abuser. “If I resisted, he would beat me more.”

“He would humiliate and insult me because I could not get pregnant,” she said. “When the doctor told us that he was the one who needed fertility treatments, he came home and kicked me between the legs, blaming me for being barren.”

Just as Bano’s case was scheduled for a court hearing in Takhar province, the government collapsed in August 2021 and the Taliban returned to power.

“The judges were gone, the lawyers were gone, and with the help of the Taliban, my husband forced me to return to his house, threatening to kill my family if I didn’t,” she said.

After their takeover, the Taliban dismantled the existing judicial system, appointed their own judges and implemented their own version of Islamic law.

“There are no female lawyers operating any more, and none of the female judges has been allowed back to work,” said Marzia, a female judge before the Taliban takeover. She is also in hiding.

Taliban prejudice

Afghanistan had more than 300 female judges presiding over judicial departments that ranged from women’s issues to criminal and terrorism-related cases. Several hundred judges have since escaped to other countries, and some 70 female judges – if not more – are in hiding and unable to return to work.

“They tell us it is because they believe we [female lawyers and judges] are incompetent and do not have enough knowledge of Islamic law to work in this field,” Marzia said.

The Taliban acknowledged this position during a September news conference in which Hizbullah Ibrahimi, the head of the Taliban Supreme Court’s research and inspection directorate, dismissed the need for female judges.

“In the previous system, female judges decided cases based on specific laws and bills and did not have enough knowledge about jurisprudence and Shariah principles,” he said. “… We have not felt their need until now, and we have not understood the need for women judges to return.”

Marzia accused the Taliban of being prejudiced against women and failing to provide women their Islamic rights, including divorce.

“Without women in the judiciary, female victims cannot seek formal help and relief from the courts,” she said. “They don’t have access to their basic rights such as divorce. It is a big loss for women’s rights but also human rights as a whole. A significant population of the country has been cut off from accessing legal support.”

Justice ministry spokesman Abdul Hameed Jahadyar told Al Jazeera that divorce and family violence cases have been heard in the past year.

In Kabul alone, he said, 341 divorce cases “were settled”. He did not clarify how many divorces were actually granted.

“Any woman who wants to get a divorce can hire a male lawyer, and their case will be dealt with,” Jahadyar said. “In divorce cases, we first try to make peace between the parties and reconcile them.”

Large gender gap

The lack of women in the Afghan judiciary has left a severe gap in who has access to the justice system in Afghanistan, said Kevin Schumacher, deputy executive director of Women For Afghan Women (WAW), a United States-based non-profit organisation that works on violence against women and provides psycho-social and family counselling.

Before the Taliban takeover, WAW also provided legal support for families and operated shelters for women and children escaping abuse. Since then, however, the organisation has been forced to close down 16 shelters and 12 family guidance centres. The Taliban seized the properties, alleging that they were being used as brothels and promoting immorality.

Schumacher said that simply wasn’t true. “We were providing safe spaces along with counselling, mediation, family guidance and legal support,” he said.

“The forced closure of our domestic violence shelters left hundreds of our existing female clients in legal and social limbo,” he said. “These state-mandated shot-downs also brought thousands of ongoing family mediation and counseling services to an abrupt end.”

Many of the shelter clients had no choice but to go back to their families or reintegrate into a society where there is no social support network for them and no legal advocates to help fight their cases.

While the situation for Afghan women was not ideal prior to the Taliban takeover, Schumacher and Marzia argued that things have since gotten worse.

“The Taliban government wants to adhere to the Islamic rules, but they haven’t codified these laws,” Schumacher said. “As a result, no one knows for sure how to go about seeking or implementing justice. With a lack of judicial procedure, there’s discoordination, which is most affecting women’s access to justice.”

Stigma

Marzia said seeking a divorce in Afghanistan has always been a challenge for women.

“There is stigma towards the women, lack of awareness of their rights and also a general lack of compassion among police and judicial officials, but despite that, there were some protections in the form of institutions and mechanisms that women could appeal to,” said Marzia, who heard many divorce cases during her career as a judge.

“These women were forced to go back to their abusers who would hurt them even more as revenge for going to the courts,” she said.

Bano said she had a similar experience when she approached the Taliban courts recently after enduring more violence from her husband.

“About two months ago, he came home under the influence of opium and slapped me several times,” she said on the phone. “When I screamed, he went to the kitchen, heated a knife and burned my breasts with it. He then locked me in the bedroom and left. I was in a lot of pain, and the neighbours heard my wails and broke me out and took me to the clinic.

“Two weeks later, when my wounds had yet to heal, he brought a wild dog home. He then tied me to the ground, and let the dog claw my whole body as he laughed at me, saying, ‘Are you going to sue me now?’ My cheeks were torn and my eyes were swollen.”

Bano spent that night writhing in pain and begged her husband to let her go to the clinic the next morning. When he agreed, she grabbed the opportunity to escape. She took a bus to her brother’s home in a neighbouring province.

“When they saw my condition, they were shocked,” she said. “My mother fell to the ground.”

On the advice of an imam, they approached the local Taliban court.

“I went to the Taliban judge to show my mutilated face and body,” Bano said. “We thought that perhaps after witnessing the signs of my husband’s cruelty, they might offer me protection. Instead, a Taliban member called me a b**ch and cursed me for showing my face.”

“When we told them that we had applied for divorce with the previous courts, they beat my brother and me with the bottom of their guns for filing a case in the ‘infidel’s court’,” she said.

There is no such thing as a divorce in our court, they told her. “The judge said, ‘Your husband has the right to treat you however he likes because you are his wife. Even if he kills you, you have no right to get a divorce,’” she said.

The Taliban threatened to detain her and hand her over to her husband, Bano said, but before they could do so, she and her brother were able to flee the province with the help of the imam and remain in hiding, fearing for their lives.

“With the brief experience I had dealing with the previous courts, the situation was so much easier for women like me, to get a female lawyer, approach the courts with women judges and get a divorce, which is my Islamic right,” Bano said. “But with the Taliban in power, life is hell for women once again.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Afghan women’s long and hard struggle for the right to divorce
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They Forgot About Us’: Inside the Wait for Refugee Status

The New York Times

As the Biden administration prioritizes resettling people fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan, many other refugees are waiting years in a system struggling to rebuild.

WASHINGTON — For the past eight years, Ahmed Mohamed Aden has been trying to reunite with the sons he left behind when he fled Somalia.

He sought help from immigration advocates in Wisconsin, where he was legally resettled. He filed reams of paperwork with the United Nations refugee agency. He submitted DNA samples to prove he shares a genetic relationship with his children, which he hoped would speed up processing.

But earlier this month, he learned that their applications were still pending, stuck in a backlog of people fleeing violence and persecution who hope to find sanctuary in America.

“I did everything I can,” an emotional Mr. Aden said, holding his head in his hands as the social worker assigned to his case explained that his children would not be joining him in Milwaukee any time soon. “I tried.”

Mr. Aden’s sons are among thousands of people living in limbo as delays in the U.S. refugee system stretch to an average of five years or more, according to government estimates.

The average wait used to be roughly two years, before the Trump administration gutted the refugee program with the intention of sealing off the United States from refugees and other immigrants. And the coronavirus pandemic forced many U.S. embassies to close or curtail their operations, allowing cases to back up even more.

Many of the people who have been in the pipeline for years have grown increasingly frustrated, saying they are being pushed to the back of the line as the Biden administration prioritizes those fleeing crises in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the chief executive of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said she understands that the Biden administration is working with an overburdened system inherited from the Trump years.

But, she said, her patience is wearing thin.

“We’re at a point in the administration that while we recognize how the Trump administration decimated the infrastructure, it can’t be an excuse for too much longer,” Ms. Vignarajah said. “Because lives depend on the administration stepping up.”

President Biden, who has promised to rebuild the refugee program, issued an executive order last year that directed his administration to cut the processing times to six months.

But in a report submitted to Congress last month, the White House acknowledged that the effort to provide temporary protection to roughly 180,000 people escaping Ukraine and Afghanistan “required a significant reallocation of time and resources” and “hampered the program’s rebound.” Last week, the administration said it would offer a similar status for up to 24,000 Venezuelans looking to escape their broken country, even as many more who cross the border would be expelled under a pandemic-era rule put in place by Mr. Trump.

The shift means people in desperate conditions in countries like Somalia, Eritrea and Myanmar are facing the prospect of even longer waits. More than 76,000 prospective refugees were in the system’s pipeline waiting to be cleared for travel as of this summer, according to State Department data obtained by The New York Times.

Mulugeta Gebresilasie, a case manager at a resettlement agency in Columbus, Ohio, said that refugees already in the United States have felt penalized as their loved ones languish in camps for displaced people.

“Suddenly, the resettlement agencies were focusing on Afghan people,” Mr. Gebresilasie said. “The African refugees told me, ‘They forgot about us. We have been waiting so many years.’”

The U.S. refugee system was designed to provide a legal pathway for displaced people to find protection in the United States. Applicants must be recommended by the United Nations, a U.S. embassy or a nonprofit, undergo interviews with American consular officers overseas and gather documents that can be difficult or impossible to procure in failed states: birth certificates, marriage certificates, travel documents, school records. They also undergo extensive medical and security vetting.

Once they are resettled, the refugees can petition for their immediate relatives to join them in the United States by providing DNA or other evidence of their relationship. The relative would then be interviewed at an embassy by a U.S. official before being approved for travel.

But millions of people are being admitted into the United States outside the traditional refugee program, diverting resources from those who have been waiting for years.

Much attention has been paid to migrants crossing the border in record numbers, in part because of decisions by Republican-led states like Florida and Texas to send some of them to liberal bastions like Martha’s Vineyard as a way to provoke outrage.

Those migrants can secure asylum if they can prove they would be persecuted at home; otherwise they face deportation. More than a million have been turned away on the basis of a Trump-era public health measure called Title 42, which allows the United States to expel people who would have otherwise been admitted for an evaluation of their asylum claims or placed into deportation proceedings.

In special circumstances, the United States government can grant “parole” to people from other countries, a legal tool that allows them to enter the country but does not automatically confer a green card or citizenship. That is what Mr. Biden’s administration has done in the cases of many refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine and now Venezuela.

Over the past two years, the Biden administration has taken some steps to rebuild the overburdened refugee system, even as the president and his senior aides have debated how to unwind the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda. Mr. Biden has expressed concern about Republican attacks over his immigration policies, particularly as apprehensions at the U.S. southern border have hit record levels.

The White House named Andrew Nacin, a former WordPress developer who worked on immigration issues for the Obama administration, to lead the effort. Mr. Nacin is streamlining the White House’s digital services and is trying to apply some lessons learned from the scramble to assist Afghans and Ukrainians.

His team plans to expand a program, currently used for Afghans and Ukrainians, that has allowed private citizens to sponsor refugees who seek to move to the United States.

Officials also are developing a more efficient application system, modeled after the emergency response to help Afghans, that would allow refugees to do their medical exams, interviews and security screening in tandem rather than waiting years between each step.

While the administration has a goal of hiring nearly 400 refugee officers, it currently has just 240, according to data provided by Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The president has said he is committed to fulfilling a campaign promise to reverse Mr. Trump’s limits on accepting refugees. The administration recently informed Congress that it would set the annual cap on the number of refugees at a maximum of 125,000 people, the same level as last year.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, set the limit at 15,000, the lowest it has been in the history of the refugee program.

The refugee numbers include only those who are legally resettled in the United States; asylum seekers who cross the border from Mexico, for example, do not count toward the limit. Nor do the Ukrainians, Afghans or Venezuelans who come in under humanitarian parole.

But the United States has not even come close to hitting the 125,000-person limit, in part because it simply has not had enough personnel to get through the backlog.

By the end of 2021, the United States had tallied just 11,411 refugees, the smallest number since the establishment of the refugee program. The Biden administration resettled about 25,400 refugees this past fiscal year, according to the State Department.

In interviews, senior administration officials said it was unlikely they would hit their target in the coming year.

For some applicants, time has run out.

Redi Rekab, an Eritrean widower, applied more than four years ago for his two teenage children stranded in Ethiopia to join him in Columbus, Ohio. He thought their reunion was imminent after the family submitted DNA.

Almost two years later, there had been no movement in their case. His son, Tiferi, grew impatient.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Rekab, a 54-year-old warehouse worker, said he was shocked to receive a call from his son, who said he had reached Libya and needed money to pay a smuggler for onward travel. Mr. Rekab said that he has been trying, in vain, to persuade his son to wait a little longer for approval to make a fresh start in the United States, rather than take the perilous — and often deadly — trip by sea for an uncertain future in Europe.

“The U.S. didn’t help me bring my children,” Mr. Rekab said. “But they approved people from Afghanistan and Ukraine in a very short time. It shows the U.S. doesn’t value us.”

Back in Milwaukee, Mr. Aden says his sons, who are now 21 and 22, represent a gaping hole in the life he has built in the United States. They were babies when he left Somalia and young teenagers when he started the process to bring them to the United States eight years ago. He missed their entire childhoods.

His 13-year-old daughter, Aisha, who was born in Uganda while Mr. Aden waited for approval to come to the United States, has yet to meet her siblings.

“I kind of lost hope,” she said. “And I feel like they’re not going to come.”

Feroza Binti Abdul Rashid, a 32-year-old Rohingya Muslim — a minority group that has faced a campaign of ethnic cleansing — arrived in Milwaukee in the summer of 2021, but her husband has not even been interviewed by American authorities yet.

Through an interpreter, Ms. Rashid said her 5-year-old daughter will often point at airplanes in the sky and ask if her father is finally coming. Last week, she called her father on WhatsApp and said she would send him $2 to help fly him over.

“She always says: ‘I only need my dad. I don’t need anything else,’” Ms. Rashid said.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent covering a range of domestic and international issues in the Biden White House, including homeland security and extremism. He joined The Times in 2019 as the homeland security correspondent. @KannoYoungs

Miriam Jordan reports from the grassroots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States. Before joining The Times, she covered immigration at the Wall Street Journal and was a correspondent in Brazil, India, Hong Kong and Israel.

They Forgot About Us’: Inside the Wait for Refugee Status
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Afghan GDP Estimated to Further Contract This Year: World Bank

Amina Hakimi

Tolo News

19 October 2022

The Ministry of Economy said that the sanctions imposed on Afghanistan have affected the country’s economy.

The World Bank released a development update on Afghanistan, in which it estimated that the real GDP is projected to contract further in 2022, with an accumulated contraction of close to 30-35 percent between 2021 and 2022.

The report highlighted the economic and humanitarian challenges of Afghanistan.

The report said the economy of the country is now readjusting, and the international community’s ongoing off-budget support for humanitarian needs and basic services is expected to mitigate some of the negative impacts of the contraction but it will still be not sufficient to bring the economy back onto a sustainable recovery path.

“While there are signs of economic stabilization and resilience of Afghan businesses, the country continues to face enormous social and economic challenges that are impacting heavily on the welfare of the Afghan people, especially women, girls, and minorities,” said Melinda Good, World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan. “Living conditions showed slight improvements in the past few months, but deprivation remains very high across the country, and persistent inflation might further erode any welfare gains,” she said.

The Ministry of Economy said that the sanctions imposed on Afghanistan have affected the country’s economy.

“Due to the freezing of Afghan assets and due to sanctions on Afghanistan, the country faced a reduction in GDP. Promoting development projects in addition to humanitarian assistance is under consideration,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, deputy Minister of Economy.

“We hope our income will be better this year because the ground is paved for it. However, our fruits have been affected, our farmers have suffered heavy financial losses, but there have been a lot of exports from our mines,” said Khanjan Alokozai, a member of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI).

The World Bank’s report said that Afghanistan’s Central Bank has lost its ability to manage payment systems and conduct monetary policy due to the freezing of offshore assets and its inability to print new afghani (Afs) notes

Afghan GDP Estimated to Further Contract This Year: World Bank
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Gay Afghan student ‘murdered by Taliban’ as anti-LGBTQ+ violence rises

The Guardian
Tue 18 Oct 2022
Death of Hamed Sabouri is latest in wave of attacks, with rights groups warning thousands are in hiding or trying to flee country

The abduction, torture and murder of a gay medical student, who was stopped at a traffic checkpoint by Taliban gunmen, is the latest victim of a string of violence against Afghanistan’s LGBTQ+ community, human rights groups warn.

Hamed Sabouri’s family and partner says he was detained at a checkpoint in Kabul in August and tortured for three days before being shot. Video of his execution was then sent to his family, who have now left Afghanistan for their own safety.

“The Taliban murdered Hamed and sent the video to his family and me,” said Bahar, Sabouri’s partner. “Hamed’s family have fled and I have been in hiding. We were like any other couple around the world in love but the Taliban treat us like criminals. They’ve killed the love of my life and I don’t know how I’ll live without him.

“I have been receiving threats from the Taliban again and I am now on the run. I have many friends from the LGBTQ+ community here in Afghanistan who have also keen kidnapped and tortured. I was arrested by the Taliban in August 2021 and again in May and June this year and was raped, beaten and tortured with electric shocks.”

LGBTQ+ rights organisations in Afghanistan say the mounting violence led many in the LGBTQ+ community to attempt to leave the country and forced thousands of others into hiding.

“The biggest fear that every LGBTQ+ person in Afghanistan has right now is that they will become the next Hamed Sabouri,” said Nemat Sadat, founder of LGBTQ+ rights group Roshaniya.

“This has been their predicament ever since the Taliban returned to power. The news of Hamed’s brutal death continues to put our community on edge but we won’t let Hamed’s life go in vain. We will continue to fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ Afghans to escape execution and live a long, and happy life in a free country.”

In an email Haseeb Sabouri, Hamed’s brother, confirmed that the family sold their two homes in Afghanistan and travelled to Turkey. “We fled from Afghanistan due to threats and murder of Hamed,” he said. “We fled because the Taliban came to our home every day to harass and threaten us.”

Gay Afghan student ‘murdered by Taliban’ as anti-LGBTQ+ violence rises
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