U.N. rights rapporteur urges release of detained Afghan education activist

KABUL, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights called on Afghanistan’s Taliban administration on Friday to release a university lecturer and education activist detained by security forces in the capital Kabul.

Local media reported Ismael Mashal had been distributing academic and other books on Kabul’s streets after tearing up his own diploma on live television in protest at a Taliban decision in December to ban female students from universities.

The decision came after Taliban authorities closed most girls’ high schools and barred most women from working for charity groups.
“(I am) concerned about yesterday’s arrest of peaceful education activist and university lecturer Ismael Mashal by the Taliban,” U.N. rights rapporteur Richard Bennett said on Twitter, calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

Abdul Haq Hammad, head of media monitoring at the Taliban information ministry, said Mashal had been arrested by security forces after gathering journalists, creating a crowd on the street and “creating propaganda against the government”.

Hammad said he had visited Mashal in detention and found he was being held in good conditions including heating, and had been able to contact his family.

It was not immediately clear whether Mashal would face formal charges or further punishment.

The international community has condemned Taliban restrictions on women, with some diplomats saying foreign capitals will not consider formally recognising the Taliban government unless it changes course.

The Taliban seized power in August 2021 when U.S.-led international coalition forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year presence, triggering the collapse of the Western-backed government.
Reporting by Kabul Newsroom Editing by Mark Heinrich
U.N. rights rapporteur urges release of detained Afghan education activist
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US: Taliban Should Meet Promises Before Seeking Legitimacy 

Ayaz Gul
Voice of America
FILE - John Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, speaks at the White House in Washington, June 23, 2022. Kirby told VOA the Taliban will continue to be isolated from the international community unless they reverse restrictions on women.
FILE – John Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, speaks at the White House in Washington, June 23, 2022. Kirby told VOA the Taliban will continue to be isolated from the international community unless they reverse restrictions on women.

The United States Friday renewed criticism of Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban for reneging on promises they would govern the country in a responsible way and respect the rights of all Afghans, including women.

John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told VOA the Taliban will continue to isolate itself from the international community unless they reverse restrictions on women.

“So, if the Taliban wants to be considered legitimate, if they want the recognition of the international community, if they want financial aid and investment in their country, then they should meet their promises, meet their obligations, and behave accordingly,” Kirby stressed.

Takeover

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 and have since implemented harsh restrictions that severely curtail the rights of women and girls to participate in social, economic and political life.

The hardline rulers have turned Afghanistan into the only country in the world where girls are banned from attending secondary schools and universities.

The Taliban also have banned Afghan women from working for national and international nongovernmental organizations that provide humanitarian aid to millions of people in the conflict-ravaged country. Women also have been ordered to stop using parks, gyms and public bathhouses.

The human rights concerns have deterred the global community from formally recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

The Taliban reject criticism of their polices, saying they are governing the country in line with Afghan culture and their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law — though scholars in Muslim-majority countries dispute those assertions, saying Islam gives full rights to women to work and seek education.

ISIS threat

Kirby also questioned the de facto rulers’ counterterrorism operations against Islamic State militants in Afghanistan.

“[The Taliban] are constantly under threat by ISIS in Afghanistan. … We know that ISIS remains still a viable threat, a credible threat, not just in Afghanistan, but in other parts of the world too,” Kirby said, using an acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group, which is also known as ISIL or IS.

The Afghan affiliate of the militant outfit, known as Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, has routinely carried out high-profile attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul, and elsewhere in the country in recent months, killing scores of people.

Neighboring Pakistan also increasingly alleged in recent days that fugitive leaders of the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have increased cross-border terrorist attacks.

The latest attack occurred Monday when a suicide bombing ripped through a packed mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing more than 100 people and wounding 225 others. The victims were mostly police officers.

Pakistani officials in Islamabad again pointed fingers at authorities in Kabul for not preventing TTP from launching cross border attacks and raising bilateral tensions. Taliban leaders reject the charges, saying they are not allowing any group to use Afghan soil for such activities.

Kirby noted Friday that the people of Pakistan remain under threat of terrorism from the Pakistani Taliban.

“There’s no question about that. And sadly, we’ve seen that borne out in recent days in a bloody, bloody way,” he said.

“We obviously will continue to stay in touch with Islamabad to see what we could do, what might be possible,” Kirby added when asked whether Washington would support Islamabad in countering the terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan. He did not elaborate.

Detained teacher

Meanwhile, the United Nations demanded Friday that the Taliban release a university lecturer and education activist recently detained by security forces in the Afghan capital.

The detainee in question, Ismail Mashal, had reportedly been distributing academic and other books on Kabul’s streets after tearing up his own diploma on live television in protest of the Taliban’s decision to ban female students from higher education.

“It’s a very concerning development. The professor should be released immediately,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a daily briefing in New York. “This is just yet another sign of the backsliding, shall we say, that we are seeing in Afghanistan with the de facto authorities, especially on issues of education for women and girls.”

A senior Taliban official claimed in a statement that Mashal had been arrested by security forces for gathering a crowd of journalists and for launching “propaganda against the government.”

Abdul Haq Hammad, head of media monitoring at the Taliban information ministry, claimed that he had visited the detained lecturer and found he was being held in good conditions and had been able to contact his family.

US: Taliban Should Meet Promises Before Seeking Legitimacy 
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Amb. Thomas-Greenfield: We Judge Islamic Emirate on Its Actions

She further said that the US and United Nations are going to judge the Islamic Emirate on its actions.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the United Nations, said that the Islamic Emirate has not been recognized due to its policies imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan.

She further said that the US and United Nations are going to judge the Islamic Emirate on its actions.

“We are going to judge them on their actions and so for that reason, they are not recognized in the UN and we have not recognized them here …,” she said.

The Islamic Emirate has always reiterated that it has completed all the conditions required for official recognition.

The Islamic Emirate believes that it has made noticeable achievements during the past one and half years.

“We want UN officials to come  to Afghanistan and continue their interaction. They shared their concerns, we are working on them, the Islamic Emirate will endeavor to consider all concerns and problems until our islamic principles and country’s values allow us,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

Meanwhile, political experts believe that Islamic Emirate` government has not met the expectations of the international community, therefore the current goverment has not been recognized.

“Receiving legitimation would be an easy task for the Islamic Emirate when they respect the participation of people fairly in a political structure, the Islamic Emirate should respect the right of education and work for women, said Naseer Ahmad Taraki, political expert.

None of the regional or other countries has announced recognition for the Islamic Emirate, but a number of countries including Russian, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, China and Japan have sent diplomats to Afghanistan.

Amb. Thomas-Greenfield: We Judge Islamic Emirate on Its Actions
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Kirby: If Kabul Wants Legitimacy, It Should Meet Its Promises

John Kirby said he considered Daesh a viable threat to the current government of Afghanistan and the world.

John Kirby, the US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said that the Islamic Emirate will continue to isolate itself from the international community by reneging on their promises.

In an interview with the VOA, Kirby emphasized that if the Islamic Emirate wants to be recognized by the international community and wants financial aid and investment, it must fulfil its commitments.

“So, if the Taliban wants to be considered legitimate, if they want the recognition of the international community, if they want financial aid and investment in their country, then they should meet their promises, meet their obligations, and behave accordingly,” Kirby stressed.

Speaking to VOA, Kirby said: “They made promises in Doha, they made promises after they took over Kabul, that they would govern in a responsible way and that they would respect the progress that women and girls had made in Afghanistan, they specifically said that, and here we see them reneging on those promises.”

“The Americans are interested in working with the future government of Afghanistan on the condition that this government be impartial and not against it(America),” said Jawid Sangdil, an international relations expert.

In this interview, the US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications said he considered Daesh a viable threat to the current government of Afghanistan and the world.

“[The Taliban] are constantly under threat by ISIS in Afghanistan. … We know that ISIS remains still a viable threat, a credible threat, not just in Afghanistan, but in other parts of the world too,” Kirby said.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, rejected these claims and said that the US had not kept its promise to the Islamic Emirate and had always worked to prevent recognition of the Afghan government.

“Unfortunately, the promises made by the US have not yet been fulfilled. The issue of the blacklists of Islamic Emirate officials have not yet been resolved, along with the normalization of relations between the US and Afghanistan, toward which we have made a final attempt in the past year and a half. Unfortunately, the US still continues to apply pressure,” Mujahid said.

Meanwhile, William Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), stated at a Georgetown University School of Foreign Service event that Daesh continues to be a threat.

“I think the successful US airstrike against Ayman al-Zawahiri, the co-founder of Al Qaeda directly responsible along with Bin Laden for the deaths of more than three thousand innocent people and 9/11 and many other acts of terrorism, was a demonstration of our continuing commitment as an agency and as a government,” Burns said.

The Islamic Emirate government has not been recognized by any country in the over a year and a half, although many of its neighbors, including Iran, Pakistan, China, and Uzbekistan, have diplomatic missions in Kabul.

Kirby: If Kabul Wants Legitimacy, It Should Meet Its Promises
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Islamic Emirate Leader: Intl Pressure Creates Mistrust

The leader of the Islamic Emirate visited the commanders and high-ranking officials of 207 Farooq, 203 Mansouri, 217 Omari and 201 Khaled bin Waleed corps.

The leader of the Islamic Emirate, Mawlawi Hebatullah Akhundzada, said at a meeting with army corps commanders that pressure from the international community on the current government will not be beneficial, but will instead create mistrust.

Mawlawi Hebatullah Akhundzada emphasized at this meeting that if they act against Sharia, the people will rise against the Islamic Emirate, according to a statement from the Islamic Emirate’s spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid.

“In this meeting, the security issues were discussed in order to be strengthened, as well as the issues of the nation, so that Afghanistan does not harm anyone and that we do not encounter harm from the outside,” Mujahid said.

In the statement, the leader of the Islamic Emirate visited the commanders and high-ranking officials of 207 Farooq, 203 Mansouri, 217 Omari and 201 Khaled bin Waleed corps.

Some political analysts do not consider the application of pressure to be beneficial for either side, and say that the problems should be resolved through dialogue and understanding.

“The solution is to change stance and achieve understanding with the international community,” said Shir Hassan Hassan, a political analyst.

“We hope that the discussion and talks with the international community and international organizations will continue on the basis of a shared definition of national interests that will close gaps between the government and the people,” said Mohammad Zalmai Afghanyar, a political analyst.

On Thursday, in response to the ban on women attending university and working for NGOs in Afghanistan, the US State Department imposed new visa restrictions on a number of current and former officials of the Islamic Emirate.

The US State Department in a press statement said that the Islamic Emirate cannot expect the respect and support of the international community until they respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Afghans, including women and girls.

Islamic Emirate Leader: Intl Pressure Creates Mistrust
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West Discusses Afghanistan With German Officials

Earlier, the US Department of State announced that West was set for travel to Pakistan, Germany and Switzerland. 

The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, on his visit to Germany met with the country’s senior officials and discussed ways of bringing Afghan women back to work. 

“Consulted with German allies in Berlin re how we support Afghan ppl by getting women back to work delivering vital aid,” West said. “No better partner. This is a tough juncture for Afghans in need and for all countries that want to see a more stable economy.”

West said that he also met Afghan women supporting “creative” maternal health and education programs in Afghanistan.

“Must continue to ground our thinking and programming in experience of Afghans who know their country,” he said.

The Islamic Emirate suggested that West’s visits focus on the elimination of Afghanistan’s problems.

“When he is visiting the countries. Of course the internal issues of Afghanistan and the US are being discussed in the countries. This will not be effective. It is better to understand the realities and engage in negotiations to resolve the issues,” said Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.

Political analysts said that the visits of the US envoy to Afghanistan have not brought significant results.

“The visit of West will not have any impact on the decision of the Taliban and the situation in Afghanistan,” said Noorullah Raghi, a political analyst.

“Obviously, the Americans are not in a position of confrontation but are in a position of making excuses for engagement and this issue from the Westerner side and American side is understandable,” said Nematullah Bizhan, a university instructor.

Earlier, in Pakistan, West met with the country’s Chief of Army Staff Syed Asim Munir, special envoy for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq and Foreign Minister Asad M. Khan.

West Discusses Afghanistan With German Officials
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U.N. rights rapporteur urges release of detained Afghan education activist

February 3, 2023

KABUL, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights called on Afghanistan’s Taliban administration on Friday to release a university lecturer and education activist detained by security forces in the capital Kabul.

Local media reported Ismael Mashal had been distributing academic and other books on Kabul’s streets after tearing up his own diploma on live television in protest at a Taliban decision in December to ban female students from universities.

The decision came after Taliban authorities closed most girls’ high schools and barred most women from working for charity groups.

“(I am) concerned about yesterday’s arrest of peaceful education activist and university lecturer Ismael Mashal by the Taliban,” U.N. rights rapporteur Richard Bennett said on Twitter, calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

Abdul Haq Hammad, head of media monitoring at the Taliban information ministry, said Mashal had been arrested by security forces after gathering journalists, creating a crowd on the street and “creating propaganda against the government”.

Hammad said he had visited Mashal in detention and found he was being held in good conditions including heating, and had been able to contact his family.

It was not immediately clear whether Mashal would face formal charges or further punishment.

The international community has condemned Taliban restrictions on women, with some diplomats saying foreign capitals will not consider formally recognising the Taliban government unless it changes course.

The Taliban seized power in August 2021 when U.S.-led international coalition forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year presence, triggering the collapse of the Western-backed government.

Reporting by Kabul Newsroom Editing by Mark Heinrich
U.N. rights rapporteur urges release of detained Afghan education activist
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Taliban detains professor who protested ban on women’s education

Al Jazeera
Published On 3 Feb 2023

The Taliban confirms the detention of Ismail Mashal, who tore up his degrees on live TV to protest against the ban on women’s education.

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have detained an academic who tore up his degrees on live television in protest against a ban on women’s university education in the country, his aide said on Friday.

“From today I don’t need these diplomas any more because this country is no place for an education. If my sister and my mother can’t study, then I don’t accept this education,” veteran journalism lecturer Ismail Mashal said in the video that went viral on social media last month.

Mashal’s aide Farid Ahmad Fazli told AFP news agency that the academic was “mercilessly beaten” and taken away in a very disrespectful manner by members of “the Islamic Emirate”, the Taliban government.

Al Jazeera was also able to confirm Mashal’s detention.

The shredding of his degree certificates on local Tolonews in December caused a storm, adding to protests by women and activists against a Taliban edict ending women’s university education.

A Taliban official confirmed the detention.

“Teacher Mashal had indulged in provocative actions against the system for some time,” tweeted Abdul Haq Hammad, director at the Ministry of Information and Culture.

“The security agencies took him for investigation.”

‘Giving free books’

In recent days, domestic channels showed Mashal carting books around the capital, Kabul, and offering them to passers-by.

Mashal, who has worked as a lecturer for more than 10 years at three Kabul universities, was arrested on Thursday despite having “committed no crime”, Fazli said.

“He was giving free books to sisters (women) and men,” he added. “He is still in detention and we don’t know where he is being held.”

It is rare to see a man protest in support of women in Afghanistan but Mashal, who ran a co-educational institute, said he would stand up for women’s rights.

“As a man and as a teacher, I was unable to do anything else for them, and I felt that my certificates had become useless. So, I tore them,” he told AFP at the time.

“I’m raising my voice. I’m standing with my sisters … My protest will continue even if it costs my life.”

Curb on women’s rights

The denial of secondary and tertiary education for girls and women has been a continuing concern expressed by the international community.

The majority of girls’ secondary schools remain closed, and most girls who should be attending grades 7-12 are denied access to school, based solely on their gender, experts have said.

Women and girls in Afghanistan have been protesting against the measures continuously for the past five months, demanding their rights to education, work and freedom.

Their Taliban rulers have repeatedly beaten, threatened or arrested demonstrating women.

The Taliban, which returned to power in August 2021, initially promised women’s rights and media freedom but has since gradually imposed curbs on women, bringing back memories of its last rule between 1996 and 2001.

Some senior Taliban leaders have said that Islam grants women rights to education and work but the hardline faction of the group has prevailed in implementing anti-women measures.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Taliban detains professor who protested ban on women’s education
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Afghan women prosecutors once seen as symbols of democracy find asylum in Spain

2 Feb 2023

MADRID, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Pushing her son on a swing at a playground on a sunny winter’s day in Madrid, former Afghan prosecutor Obaida Sharar expresses relief that she found asylum in Spain after fleeing Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban took over.

Sharar, who arrived in Madrid with her family, is one of 19 female prosecutors to have found asylum in the country after being left in limbo in Pakistan without official refugee status for up to a year after the Taliban’s return to power.

She feels selfish being happy while her fellow women suffer, she said.

“Most Afghan women and girls that remain in Afghanistan don’t have the right to study, to have a social life or even go to a beauty salon,” Sharar said. “I cannot be happy.”

Women’s freedoms in her home country were abruptly curtailed in 2021 with the arrival of a government that enforces a strict interpretation of Islam.

The Taliban administration has banned most female aid workers and last year stopped women and girls from attending high school and university.

Sharar’s work and that of her female peers while they lived in Afghanistan was dangerous. Female judges and prosecutors were threatened and became the target of revenge attacks as they undertook work overseeing the trial and conviction of men accused of gender crimes, including rape and murder.

She was part of a group of 32 women judges and prosecutors that left Afghanistan only to be stuck in Pakistan for up to a year trying to find asylum.

A prosecutor, who gave only her initials as S.M. due to fears over her safety and who specialised in gender violence and violence against children said, “I was the only female prosecutor in the province… I received threats from Taliban members and the criminals who I had sent to prison.”

Now she and her family are also in Spain.

Many of the women have said they felt abandoned by Western governments and international organizations.

Ignacio Rodriguez, a Spanish lawyer and president of Bilbao-based 14 Lawyers, a non-governmental organisation which defends prosecuted lawyers, said the women had been held up as symbols of democratic success only to be discarded.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was not in a position to comment on specific cases.

“The Government of Pakistan has not agreed to recognise newly arriving Afghans as refugees,” UNHCR said in a statement. “Since 2021, UNHCR has been in discussions with the government on measures and mechanisms to support vulnerable Afghans. Regrettably, no progress has been made.”

The foreign ministry of Pakistan did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Pakistan is home to millions of refugees from Afghanistan who fled after the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979 and during the subsequent civil war. Most of them are yet to return despite Pakistan’s push to repatriate them under different programmes.

The Taliban has said any Afghan who fled the country since it took power in 2021 can return safely through a repatriation council.

“Afghanistan is the joint home of all Afghans,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban administration. “They can live here without any threat.”

Reporting by Raul Cadenas, Silvio Castellanos and Belen Carreno; additional reporting by Kabul newsroom; Writing by Catherine Macdonald and Charlie Devereux; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
Afghan women prosecutors once seen as symbols of democracy find asylum in Spain
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Can the Taliban Tackle Corruption in Afghanistan?

Akmal Dawi

Voice of America

January 31, 2023

For more than a decade, Afghanistan was continuously ranked among the 10 most corrupt governments. But this year, the country has left its disreputable position, and the Taliban claim credit for it.

On Tuesday, Transparency International, a Berlin-based nongovernment corruption watchdog, released its latest annual corruption perception index, ranking Denmark as the least corrupt state in the world and Somalia 180th as the most corrupt.

Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is ranked 150th, a remarkable status upgrade from its 174th ranking in 2021. In 2011, at the height of U.S. military and developmental engagement in Afghanistan, the country was ranked 180th, next to North Korea and Somalia.

The improved ranking is surprising for a regime that has been widely condemned as deeply authoritarian and misogynistic because of its mistreatment of women and the press. But it does not give full credit to the Taliban for tackling Afghanistan’s chronic corruption ills.

“Although there are multiple anecdotes of the demand for bribes being reduced and the Taliban consolidating their revenue collection, we do not have enough verified evidence of a systemic reduction in corruption in the country,” Samantha Nurick, Transparency International’s communication manager, told VOA.

“The score change is not statistically significant and should not be interpreted as an improvement of the situation on the ground,” she said, adding that gathering reliable information from inside Afghanistan was extremely challenging.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have reportedly reduced bribery and extortion at least in some public services.

“The Taliban have demonstrated the ability to greatly reduce corruption in Customs and at road checkpoints,” William Byrd, a senior researcher at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told VOA.

Tackling corruption has provided financial lifelines for an isolated Taliban regime that faces crippling international economic and banking sanctions.

Last week, the World Bank released an upbeat assessment of the Taliban-run Afghan economy, saying exports were high, currency exchange was stable and revenue collection was strong in the first three quarters of 2022.

The Taliban say revenues from their robust tax collections reached $1.7 billion in the last 10 months, but they have not explained how and where they spend the meager national resources.

Shutting secondary schools and universities for girls and women, the Taliban have opened and financed thousands of new religious seminaries across Afghanistan only for boys and young men.

Last year, the Taliban’s acting defense minister said the regime was planning to build a 110,000-strong army.

Aid-driven corruption

For two decades, the Taliban fought the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, calling it inherently corrupt and inefficient.

The United States spent $146 billion to rebuild Afghanistan, including the country’s anti-corruption agencies, before the Taliban returned to power, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government entity that has investigated, reported and prosecuted numerous corruption cases involving Afghan and American contractors.

“The United States failed to recognize the magnitude of corruption early on, empowered warlords and other corrupt actors and poured too much money into the country at a rate that it could not be absorbed,” Shelby Cusick, a SIGAR spokesperson, told VOA in written replies.

Endemic corruption diminished public support for the former Afghan government, weakened its position in peace talks with the Taliban and culminated in its ignominious fall in August 2021.

Western donors have stopped development assistance to Afghanistan but have continued giving humanitarian aid to needy Afghans while bypassing Taliban institutions.

While corruption still permeates different layers of the public sector in Afghanistan and most citizens resort to bribery to receive basic services such as getting a passport, senior Taliban leaders show a will in tackling corruption.

“Taliban’s current supreme leader — and those close to him — are more predisposed to emphasize on combating corruption, both moral and material, as he rarely dwells on worldly pleasures,” said Malaiz Daud, a research fellow at the Barcelona Center for International Affairs.

“The movement, undoubtedly though, has a serious corruption problem at the very highest level,” he said.

The Taliban have called bribery in the public sector a criminal act, but other forms of corruption such as diversion of public funds, nepotistic appointments in public positions, access to information on government activities and the abuse of official powers remain prevalent across the country.

Can the Taliban Tackle Corruption in Afghanistan?
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