Her Escape From Kabul Was Supposed to Be the Hardest Part

The New York Times

The New York Times Sports department is revisiting the subjects of some compelling articles from the last year or so. In August, we reported on a soccer player who fled her home in Afghanistan to begin a new life. Here is an update.

When her new life in Australia becomes too overwhelming, Fati, the goalkeeper for the Afghanistan national women’s soccer team, heads to the beach in the nighttime.

She walks along the shoreline of Port Phillip Bay, where the skyline of Melbourne glows in the distance. She shines a flashlight on the colorful fish darting around the shallow water. And listening to the gentle lapping waves, she takes a deep breath and exhales.

There in the darkness and solitude, it’s Fati’s time to reflect. And to mourn.

“I try hard to relax and be calm, but I always end up thinking about all the things that have happened to me and all the things I’ve lost,” she said. “I see that the water is endless, like my problems are endless.”

(The New York Times is not using the last names of Fati and her teammates at their request because they fear retribution from the Taliban.)

About 16 months have gone by since Fati and her teammates on the national team risked their lives to escape Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country. After The New York Times featured Fati in an article in late summer, she was offered paid speaking engagements, including one opportunity to speak at a law school graduation in California in 2023.

There is also a chance that her story will be turned into a dramatic film after more than a half-dozen people showed interest in buying the TV and film rights.

“Sometimes I feel like so strong and I want to keep sharing my story and motivating other people,” she said. “I’m making a difference, I hope.”

But none of that can magically heal her body and mind after running for her life from the Taliban, and then having no choice but to leave her parents and youngest sister behind.

Fati and most of her teammates on the national soccer squad were forced to leave Afghanistan without both parents because large groups often couldn’t make it past the Taliban checkpoints and chaotic crowds on the way to the Kabul airport, and to freedom.

Fati, 19, now lives in a suburb of Melbourne with her older brother, a younger brother and a younger sister, and she has become their stand-in parents. Their parents and 5-year-old sister, Kawsar, are back in Kabul, barely making ends meet amid the country’s economic collapse.

Some of Fati’s teammates’ families have left Afghanistan for relative safety in neighboring countries like Iran or Pakistan while they await Australian visas. But Fati’s family has not had such luck. Her parents and Kawsar do not have passports, complicating a difficult situation.

Their immigration case has stalled in the system, and the potential cost for Fati to secure their exit from Afghanistan through backdoor channels is too much for her to pay. She and her family are Hazara, an ethnic group that is often discriminated against and targeted by the Taliban, and the price for those families to leave the country is in the thousands and can be more than twice the cost for non-Hazara families, she said.

“I try not to be negative, but if you want me to tell the truth, I am losing my hope that my family will get a visa,” she said.

The thought of never seeing her family again, or waiting many years to see them, is unbearable, she said, because time already is going by so quickly. She is crushed that Kawsar is growing up without her.

Through daily video calls, Fati has noticed that her little sister has changed so much since they last saw each other in the melee outside the Kabul airport. Kawsar’s hair is long now, and the English that Fati taught her is slipping away. No longer does Kawsar watch Disney animated films to learn English and improve her own prospects in life, the way Fati did. Kawsar also has stopped going to school because it is just too dangerous. The Taliban have barred girls and women from playing sports and also have barred girls from going to school past the sixth grade.

“She’s not the same Kawsar as I knew,” Fati said, choking up.

Fati does her best to help her family in Kabul by sending them money. And while once she was supporting just her parents and Kawsar there, now she is supporting nine people who live in her family’s house. In recent months, her aunt moved in with her five children.

Already, there is not that much money to go around. Fati must pay the bills for her house in a suburb of Melbourne where she lives with her siblings, two teammates and one teammate’s father.

Fati also wants to relocate into the city to save herself the hourlong commute to work and soccer training, but the housing in Melbourne is too expensive.

Her bank account balance bottomed out, once again, several months ago after her older brother, Khaliqyar, bought a car. She began working two jobs to help pay that bill.

Her first job was in the IT department at a financial services company that is a sponsor for the Afghan national team, now that the team plays for the Melbourne Victory professional soccer club in a state league in Australia. From that IT job, Fati would go straight to her second job, an overnight shift at a pizza restaurant, preparing food and washing dishes until 4 a.m.

The schedule was so grueling that Fati often had headaches and could hardly keep her eyes open, and began to oversleep and miss days at her office job. So when Khaliqyar landed a steady job at a painting company, she quit the pizza place.

Now, Fati is able to focus on her soccer training and leadership activities, which include being a spokeswoman for her national team, a squad that is frustrated because it hasn’t been able to play any international matches.

The Afghanistan Football Federation deactivated the women’s national team program when the players left the country, a spokesman there said, and FIFA, the global governing body of the sport, has ignored the team’s request to be reinstated.

“I’m trying not to cry about the team anymore, but it’s hard,” she said. “I just want to turn on my Afghani mode and work hard to be a good goalkeeper and keep dreaming about playing in the World Cup someday.”

In August, the anniversaries of Fati leaving Kabul and arriving in Australia were among her toughest days in recent years.

During that time, she found it too hard to focus on her English class and dropped out of the course, which she said made her even more distraught and depressed. Several weeks later, there was an attack on an education center in Kabul that killed many Hazara students, including one of her teammate Bahara’s relatives.

Fati, Bahara and some of the other players went to the beach that night to find solace, and the women spent the night wiping their tears.

“I look at the water and I know the water is so cold, and I’m afraid that my heart is also getting cold,” Fati said that night.

These days, she is applying for scholarships to a local university so she and her sister Zahra can start classes next semester. It’s time to jump-start life, Fati said.

When she was a teenager, she wanted to be an archaeologist, and Fati still wants to see the pyramids in Egypt and visit China’s Great Wall. She also wants to play soccer for her country again.

“I’m so much afraid of time and I think about dying, so I know I have to use every opportunity,” she said. “What if all of my time goes by and I never see my family? What if I die without reaching my dreams?”

Her Escape From Kabul Was Supposed to Be the Hardest Part
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Afghanistan: Woman protests Taliban’s education ban with single word of God

By Noor Gul Shafaq
BBC World Service
30 Dec 2022

“I did not feel any fear because I believed that my demand is just,” said a defiant 18-year-old Afghan woman whose ambition to get a university degree has been frustrated by the Taliban’s ban on women in higher education.

Angered at the prospect of seeing her future disappear, the woman (whose name we have changed for her safety) staged an extraordinary solo protest in front of Kabul University, invoking words from the Quran.

On Sunday 25 December, Adela stood in front of the entrance holding up a board with a particularly powerful word written on it in Arabic – iqra, or ‘read’. Muslims believe this was the first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by God.

“God has given us the right to education. We need to be afraid of God, not the Taliban who want to take away our rights,” she told the BBC Afghan service.

“I knew that they treat the protesters very badly. They beat them, hit them, use weapons – they used Tasers and water cannon on them. But still I stood in front of them.

An onlooker watches Adela holding a placard
Adela wants more Afghan men to join women in their fight for education

“At first they didn’t take me seriously. Later, one of the gunmen asked me to leave.”

Initially, Adela refused to go and stood her ground, but the paper board she was holding gradually caught the attention of the armed guards around her.

While clutching the placard, she started engaging a member of the Taliban.

“I asked him, ‘Can’t you read what I have written?’,” she said.

He said nothing, so Adela went further: “Can’t you read the word of God?”

Iqra meaning "read written" in Arabic
Muslims believe the first word of revelation given to Prophet Muhammad was the Arabic word iqra, or “read”

“He became angry and threatened me.”

Her placard was taken away and she was forced to leave after about 15 minutes of her lone demonstration.

While she was protesting, her elder sister had been sitting in a taxi taking pictures and recording a video of the protest.

“The taxi driver became very scared of the Taliban. He was pleading with my sister to stop filming. Fearing trouble, he asked her to leave the car,” Adela said.

Increasing restrictions on women

Following the hasty withdrawal of the American-led international forces, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

First they banned girls from going to secondary schools. In September this year, they banned girls from studying certain subjects and told them they could only choose universities within their province.

On 20 December, they banned women from attending university, provoking international condemnation, and then a few days later from working for local and international NGOs.

Women, especially university students have been protesting against the ban on education ever since.

Some have used the slogan “women, life, freedom” popularised by the recent demonstrations in Iran.

Officials at Kabul University, where four faculties are currently headed by women, told the BBC that female professors were not allowed to enter the campus now.

Calling on men

Protesting against the Taliban is not easy for women such as Adela. She wants men to show similar courage, but it can come with a cost.

“During my protest, a young man wanted to make a video of me to support me. They hit him hard,” she said.

One male professor tore up his educational diplomas on a live TV show to register his protest and sources have told the BBC that more than 50 university teachers have resigned in protest.

One teacher who gave up his job said that he withdrew his resignation after he was beaten up by the Taliban.

But Adela believes that it is crucial that Afghan men join the struggle.

“There are very few men in Afghanistan who stand with us now. In Iran, men stand with their sisters and support women’s rights. If we also stand together for the right to education, we will be 100% successful,” she said.

Continuing defiance

There is external pressure on the Taliban as well: the UN Security Council said on Tuesday that the banning of girls and women from education “represents an increasing erosion for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

But Taliban leaders seem unfazed. Education minister Nida Mohammad Nadim was quoted in the Guardian as saying the decisions would not be reversed “even if they drop an atomic bomb on us”.

Adela is similarly determined.

“If I cannot fly, I will run. If I cannot run, I will take slow steps. If I cannot do that either, I will crawl. But I will not stop my struggle, my resistance,” she said.

She says she can count on the support and appreciation of her friends. “You are so brave and we all are with you,” they tell her.

Adela also believes that women in Afghanistan today are better placed to win this fight than in previous generations.

“We don’t want to go back to the dark ages of 20 years ago. We are braver than the women of that time, because we are more educated and know our rights,” she said.

Afghanistan: Woman protests Taliban’s education ban with single word of God
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OIC Asks IIFA to Unify Clerics’ Stance on Girls’ Education in Afghanistan

But the Islamic Emirate said they are looking for a solution for women’s jobs at NGOs.

Following the reactions of Islamic countries to banning women and girls from education, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in a statement on Thursday called on the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) to quickly launch a global campaign to unite scholars and religious authorities in the Islamic world against the Islamic Emirate’s decision to prevent girls from education.

“The decision of the Taliban government to prevent girls from education, including university education, and to dismiss female faculty members from their positions on the pretext that this contradicts Islamic law, was the latest challenge to be reviewed by the IIFA in addition to issues of minorities, escalating hostility to Muslims in Western countries, and other pressing issues,” OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha said.

According to the OIC’s statement, the call of the OIC secretary-general came at the opening of the second meeting of the 2022 IIFA Bureau held via video conferencing on Thursday.

“Mr. Taha stressed the priority of the Afghan dossier in the OIC and IIFA agendas. He also pointed out that the Taliban’s decision was not based on texts in Islamic law,” OIC statement reads.

Meanwhile, lecturers asked the Islamic Emirate to reopen all educational institutions across the country.

“The people of Afghanistan call on the Islamic Emirate to understand the realities and consider the benefit of the people and open secondary schools to students at the start of the education year (in April 2023),” said Abdul Naser Shafiq, a university lecturer.

“I think, keeping girls’ schools closed could increase the gap between Afghans and the Islamic Emirate and the nation. At the international level, it will undermine the Taliban’s credibility and bring them into direct conflict with the world over challenges relating to women’s and human rights,” said Farhad Abrar, a university lecturer.

But the Islamic Emirate said they are looking for a solution for women’s jobs at NGOs.

“Problems regarding education and women’s employment will be resolved. We are working on them,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.

Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, said in a statement that it is not acceptable to prevent women from attending school.

He urged Afghanistan’s current government to reconsider its decision on the matter.

OIC Asks IIFA to Unify Clerics’ Stance on Girls’ Education in Afghanistan
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Senior UN Official to Visit Afghanistan over Ban on Female Aid Workers

Tolo News

30 Dec 2022

Alakbarov added that women made up roughly 30% of aid workers and that they would not be replaced with men. 

Following the Islamic Emirate’s ban on female aid workers, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths will travel to Afghanistan in the coming weeks and will seek to meet with the high-ranking officials, a senior UN official said on Thursday.

Ramiz Alakbarov, UN aid coordinator in Afghanistan, told a press conference as quoted by Reuters that the official of the UN will closely discuss the ban on women’s work in Afghanistan with the leaders of Kabul.

“The UN emergency and relive coordinator will conduct a visit to Afghanistan, there will be several our visits which we are planning to make at the senior level in order to prevail upon the inter locaters upon the de facto authorities side to resolve this situation and this will be taking place in the course of few coming weeks as we are assessing the implications of what is happening” Alakbarov said.

Alakbarov added that women made up roughly 30% of aid workers and that they would not be replaced with men.

“Humanitarian needs of the people are absolutely enormous and it’s important that we continue to stay and deliver. As we do so, it is equally important that the rights of women and girls…are talking so much these absolutely preserved and protected,” he said.

The Islamic Emirate praised the high-ranking UN official’s visit to Afghanistan and urged the United Nations to continue providing help to the Afghan people.

“It will be better if their representative visits Kabul because we will closely discuss the issues that have come up. We will jointly share thoughts to fill the gap that has been created and will resolve the issues,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that his country is against the recent decision of the current government of Afghanistan and that they are trying to address the issue on the sidelines of the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

“Unfortunately, the latest decision adopted by the Taliban cannot be accepted. We are against the isolation of women in society. This has nothing to do with Islam. We are still indeed showing a lot of efforts to reverse those decisions adopted by the Taliban,” Cavusoglu said.

“This issue needs to be resolved as quickly as possible or the pause in aid will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the country,” said Azerakhsh Hafizi, an analyst.

The US special envoy for women, girls and human rights in Afghanistan, Rina Amiri, the international health non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur to Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell criticized the recent decision by the Islamic Emirate to ban women employees in non-governmental organizations in the country.

Senior UN Official to Visit Afghanistan over Ban on Female Aid Workers
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Afghan refugees in US face uncertainty as legislation stalls

By FARNOUSH AMIRI

Associated Press
30 Dec 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has failed so far to create a path to residency for Afghans who worked alongside U.S. soldiers in America’s longest war, pushing into limbo tens of thousands of refugees who fled Taliban control more than two years ago and now live in the United States.

Some lawmakers had hoped to resolve the Afghans’ immigration status as part of a year-end government funding package. But that effort failed, punting the issue into the new year, when Republicans will take power in the House. The result is grave uncertainty for refugees now facing an August deadline for action from Congress before their temporary parole status expires.

Nearly 76,000 Afghans who worked with American soldiers since 2001 as translators, interpreters and partners arrived in the U.S. on military planes after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. The government admitted the refugees on a temporary parole status as part of Operation Allies Welcome, the largest resettlement effort in the country in decades, with the promise of a path to a life in the U.S. for their service.

Mohammad Behzad Hakkak, 30, is among those Afghans waiting for resolution, unable to work or settle down in his new community in Fairfax, Virginia, under his parole status. Hakkak worked as a partner to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan as a human rights defender in the now-defunct Afghan government.

“We lost everything in Afghanistan” after the Taliban returned to power, he said. “And now, we don’t know about our future here.”

For the past year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, backed by veterans organizations and former military officials, has pushed Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would prevent the Afghans from becoming stranded without legal residency status when their two years of humanitarian parole expire in August 2023. It would enable qualified Afghans to apply for U.S. citizenship, as was done for refugees in the past, including those from Cuba, Vietnam and Iraq.

Supporters of the proposal thought it might clear Congress after the November election because it enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support. But they said their efforts were thwarted by one man: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration issues.

“We’ve never seen support for a piece of legislation like this and it not pass,” said Shawn Van Diver, a Navy veteran and head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition supporting Afghan resettlement efforts. “It’s really frustrating to me that one guy from Iowa can block this.”

Grassley has argued for months that the bill as written goes too far by including evacuees beyond those “who were our partners over the last 20 years,” providing a road to residency without the proper screening required.

“First of all, people that help our country should absolutely have the promise that we made to them,” Grassley told The Associated Press. “There’s some disagreement on the vetting process. That’s been a problem and that hasn’t been worked out yet.”

Proponents of the legislation reject those concerns. More than 30 retired military officers, including three former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote Congress saying the bill not only “furthers the national security interests of the United States,” but is also ”a moral imperative.” The White House also has called for passage.

Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre said, in mid-December that it is “important to take care of Afghan allies who took care of us.”

The proposal, if passed, would provide a streamlined, prioritized adjustment process for Afghan nationals who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. The Homeland Security Department would adjust the status of eligible evacuees to provide them with lawful permanent resident status after they have had rigorous vetting and screening procedures. It also would improve and expand ways to protection for those left behind and at risk in Afghanistan.

“The Afghan refugees are a very high priority and had some good Republican support, but unfortunately, the Republican leadership blocked it,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., recently told reporters. “These are people who risked their lives for our soldiers and for our country, and we should be rewarding them as we have done in the past.”

Several congressional aides explained the holdup on the bill by pointing to a seven-page, single-spaced letter, obtained by The Associated Press, that Grassley’s office circulated to all 50 Republican senators in August. The memo outlined his issues with the proposal, resulting in months of back-and-forth negotiation as the sponsors of the bill tried to address them.

U.S. national security and military officials have outlined the stringent screening process that evacuees went through before arriving on American soil. Those security screenings, conducted in Europe and the Middle East, included background checks with both biographic information and biometric screenings using voiceprints, iris scans, palm prints and facial photos.

But Republicans say the vetting system is not fail-safe. They pointed to a September report from Homeland Security’s inspector general that said at least two people from Afghanistan who were paroled into the country “posed a risk to national security and the safety of local communities.”

As a result, mandatory in-person interviews for all Afghan applicants were written into the bill as well as requirements that relevant agencies brief Congress on proposed vetting procedures before putting them in place.

Despite strengthening the vetting process over months of negotiations, the bill never made it out of the Judiciary Committee and failed to win inclusion in the just-passed $1.7 trillion government funding bill.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was one of the lead sponsors of the bill. “If this is what we do when they come to our country, and we don’t have their backs,’” she said, “what message are we sending to the rest of the world who stand with our soldiers, who protect them, who provide security for their families?”

But Klobuchar and the lead Republican co-sponsor, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, pledged to bring the bill back up again in the new session of Congress starting in January.

“This is the right thing to do,” Graham, an Air Force veteran, told the Senate recently. “There’s no other ending that would be acceptable to me.”

He added: “The people who were there with us in the fight, that are here in America, need to stay. This will be their new home.”

Most people in the United States appear to share that sentiment.

A survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research taken the month after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan found that 72% of respondents regarded giving the Afghans refuge from any Taliban retaliation as a duty and a necessary coda of the nearly 20-year war.

Afghan refugees in US face uncertainty as legislation stalls
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Women, kids among 1,200 Afghan migrants jailed in Pakistan

By ADIL JAWAD and MUNIR AHMED

Associated Press
28 Dec 2022

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police in multiple raids detained at least 1,200 Afghan nationals, including women and children, who had entered the southern port city of Karachi without valid travel documents, officials said Thursday.

The arrests brought criticism from around Afghanistan after images of locked up Afghan children were circulated online. The detentions underscored the strained relations between the two South Asian neighbors.

Police and local government officials said the detainees will be deported to Afghanistan after serving their sentences or when the paperwork for their release is completed by their attorneys.

Pakistani officials claim that most of the detainees wish to return home.

Although Pakistan routinely makes such arrests, multiple and apparently coordinated raids were launched beginning in October to detain Afghans staying in Karachi and elsewhere without valid documents.

Gul Din, an official at the Afghan Consulate in Karachi, said he was in contact with Pakistan about a “quick and dignified return” of the Afghan citizens to their homeland.

Pictures of some Afghan children crammed into a cell of the central jail in Karachi went viral on social media, drawing appeals for their release along with their parents.

At least 139 Afghan women and 165 children are among those being held at a high-security jail in Karachi, according to a report released this month by Pakistan’s National Commission on Human Rights. The report was based on interviews with scores of imprisoned Afghan detainees.

In the Afghan capital of Kabul, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the foreign affairs ministry, said embassy officials had expressed their concerns during meetings with their Pakistani counterparts.

“The Pakistani authorities have repeatedly pledged swift release of these detainees,” he told The Associated Press, saying that so far Pakistan had failed to “fully deliver on the commitment.”

“We believe that such degrading treatment of Afghans in Pakistan is not in the interest of any party,” Balkhi said. He said Afghans were advised not to enter Pakistan “unless absolutely necessary and without proper documentation.”

In Karachi, Murtaza Wahab, a spokesman for the Sindh provincial government, said police recently arrested only those Afghans who were residing in the province without valid documents. He said such detainees will be deported. He did not say how many Afghans were arrested for illegally residing in Sindh this year.

But Moniza Kakar, a lawyer who helps such Afghan detainees, said at least 1,400 Afghans were being held in Karachi’s jails. “We are not sure exactly how many Afghans are currently being held at jails in Pakistan. So far, we have facilitated the release of hundreds of Afghans to their country,” she said.

Kakar said some pregnant Afghan women who fled Afghanistan to seek medical treatment and for other reasons, are among those detained in Karachi and elsewhere in Sindh province. She said one of the female Afghan detainees recently gave birth to a child in the Hyderabad jail.

Kakar said dozens of Afghans were deported to Afghanistan last month after they completed their sentences, which are usually up to two months. However, she suggested that such sentences should be only verbal and symbolic — so that the detainees can be sent back to their countries quickly.

Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country, creating one of the world’s largest refugee populations. Since then, Pakistan has been hosting Afghans, urging them to register themselves with the United Nations and local authorities to avoid any risk of deportation.

According to a recently conducted U.N.-backed survey, 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees are residing in Pakistan.

“Following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Afghan Taliban, there has been a drastic rise in Afghans seeking to enter Pakistan for a multitude of reasons ranging from fleeing persecution, seeking medical aid and looking for job opportunities,” the report released by the National Commission on Human Rights last week said.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan have a history of bitter relations.

This month, Pakistan twice briefly closed a key border crossing for trade at the southwestern town of Chaman after clashes erupted between Pakistan and Afghan Taliban forces over the fencing of a remote border village.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021, sweeping into the capital, Kabul, and taking the rest of the country as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout after 20 years of war. Since then, over 100,000 Afghans have arrived in Pakistan to avoid persecution at home, although Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers announced a pardon, urging Afghan citizens not to leave the country.

Ahmed from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Riazat Butt in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this story.

Women, kids among 1,200 Afghan migrants jailed in Pakistan
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UN tries to resolve Afghanistan aid crisis after women banned from working at NGOs

Martin Griffiths, the head of UN humanitarian operations, is to fly to Kabul to try to resolve the crisis caused by the Taliban’s surprise decision to ban women working for NGO aid groups in the country.

The move came as Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, said in New York that aid programmes were already being compromised.

This photograph taken on 9 November 2022, shows a poster reading in Pashto, "Dear sisters! Hijab and veil are your dignity and are in your benefit in this world and in the hereafter", at the Habibullah Zazai Park on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
‘In two days, I will have to beg on the streets’: what the Taliban’s bar on women’s NGO work means

However, he said that on the basis of his discussions with Taliban cabinet ministers the ban was not being implemented uniformly in every region, adding that constructive meetings had been held with the minister of health. Alakbarov said it was now going to be necessary for service providers to see how the promises played out on the ground.

He stressed that “aid cannot be conditioned. You cannot condition providing food or health assistance to a starving or dying person. You cannot exclude one gender or any particular category of people.

“Assistance will not be delivered in a place and space where operational independence impartiality or any other operating principles of the UN are compromised.”

Alakbarov stressed that the UN wanted a dialogue with the Taliban and he believed they did respond to pressure, adding he believed younger Taliban members did not necessarily support the ban.

He also said the UN was willing to discuss Taliban concerns about wearing the hijab, but that does not require women to not work or take part in the economic activity of the country. It would be a very last resort to prevent UN aid going to Afghanistan, Alakbarov said.

He added that with the largest footprint in the country, the UN had a responsibility to use its convening power to find a solution for NGOs, many of whom deliver UN programmes.

In a sign of the flux, Médecins Sans Frontières said it was not suspending its activities, unlike some NGOs.

It said: “For the time being, all of MSF’s activities have been maintained as our female colleagues continue to work unhindered in the health facilities managed by MSF and the Ministry of Health. This must not change: prohibiting women from working would effectively prevent women and girls from accessing health care.”

“Excluding women from the workforce is against every principle of humanity and medical ethics to which health professionals subscribe. If women are prevented from working in health facilities, and if women can only be treated by women, then it will be virtually impossible for them to access health care,” said Filipe Ribeiro, the MSF country director. “As a result, no health care provider, including MSF, will be able to deliver medical services in Afghanistan.”

UN tries to resolve Afghanistan aid crisis after women banned from working at NGOs
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UN to Hold Meeting on Intra-Afghan Dialogue: Envoy

But the Islamic Emirate denied Faiq’s remarks, saying it doesn’t recognize him as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UN.

Chargé d’Affaires of the Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the UN, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, said that a meeting would be held by the United Nations to discuss an intra-Afghan dialogue.

He said the meeting will include representatives from all aspects of Afghanistan and that the planning of the meeting is underway.

“Holding a national and international dialogue under the leadership of the UN in which actual representatives of Afghanistan will gather and will make decision about the future of Afghanistan,” he said.

But the Islamic Emirate denied Faiq’s remarks, saying it doesn’t recognize him as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UN.

“Faiq is an individual. We don’t accept him as a representative or a party. He is an individual and whatever he says is his personal view,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

Analysts said that intra-Afghan negotiations are the best way to address the ongoing problems in the country.

“The national dialogue is a good step. If it is conducted, it can rescue the country from the crisis,” said Shir Agha Rohani, a political analyst.

“The Islamic Emirate has control over all territory. The time for it (dialogue) has passed,” said Abdul Jamil Shirani, a political analyst.

Former President Hamid Karzai in an interview with the Washington Post this week said an intra-Afghan dialogue would be “good” for the caretaker government and for Afghanistan.

UN to Hold Meeting on Intra-Afghan Dialogue: Envoy
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Kabul Witnesses First Snowfall of the Year

Many Kabul residents expressed their happiness about the snowfall but vulnerable families said they are unable to afford the expenses of heating their houses.

The city of Kabul was blanketed with snow on Thursday, something that was widely celebrated by the residents amid severe economic challenges that have affected millions of Afghans across the country.

Many Kabul residents expressed their happiness about the snowfall but vulnerable families said they are unable to afford the expenses of heating their houses.

“The snowfall happened in Kabul. Kabul can be without gold but not without snow,” said Sayed Ghafar, a resident of Kabul.

“As the snowfall happened, everyone, including children and adults, is happy and you see that everyone is playing,” said Mohammad Noor, a Kabul resident.

Other residents said they enjoyed the snowfall and took many pictures of it.

“Today was the first snow in Kabul and some other provinces,” said Hamid, a Kabul resident.

Some other residents said they are facing a tough life as they cannot pay for wood or coal to heat their homes.

“We don’t have anything to eat or to use,” said Sakhi Agha, a Kabul resident.

“I have no food to eat and no wood to heat our home,” said Totia, a Kabul resident.

The snowfall has also caused the closure of some highways, including the northern parts of the country.

Kabul Witnesses First Snowfall of the Year
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An interview with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai

Q: It’s been more than a year since the collapse of the former Ghani government. Afghanistan is in a bit of trouble now, most people would say. Western assistance has dried up. Seven billion dollars in funds frozen by the U.S. that’s not going to the central bank. The economy has collapsed. Unemployment is on the rise, hunger, everything. How concerned are you about the direction the country is heading? What are the threats ahead if this trajectory continues?

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai walks in the garden of his Kabul residence on his way to a meeting on Oct. 5. (Elise Blanchard for The Washington Post)

A: Of course, we Afghan people are tremendously concerned at the way the country is right now and the way it’s heading. But we are also hopeful that we will soon be able to manage things better and take good, reasonable stock of why we are here and how we can get out of this extremely difficult situation for us.

Q: It’s been more than a year now, and the Taliban initially had promised an inclusive government. We’re not seeing that. Most Afghans I have spoken with, especially members of the country’s ethnic minorities, say they have little faith or hope in the Taliban. They cite the fact they are not represented properly in the government today. Do you think the Taliban will ever create an inclusive government? What is needed for this to happen?

A: We saw how things didn’t work for Afghan governments when there was one element of it or the other element of our society absent from it. … For the good of the Taliban themselves and for the good of the country, it is important that they begin a process of inclusivity by launching a grand Afghan dialogue, of Afghans talking among themselves and getting agreements on things and moving forward. This country needs to have a constitution.

Q: I’m sure you’ve discussed this need for an Afghan dialogue with the Taliban. What’s their response?

A: On the principle of things, there is an agreement. They say yes. On a national dialogue being imperative to a better Afghanistan, there is an agreement. On getting it launched and done, we haven’t yet gotten where we should be. I had my last conversation on this issue just last week with a very senior Taliban leader. … I will not say that we will be there soon. It would be very premature for me to say that. But I can tell you I am having better vibes in the past two weeks than I had before that. Let’s call this cautious optimism.

Q: And if the government remains not inclusive and there isn’t this dialogue, could we see the collapse of the Taliban government without this kind of unity?

A: We don’t want the collapse of governments in Afghanistan. We want representative governments in Afghanistan.

Q: Does the United States have a certain amount of responsibility for the state of today’s Afghanistan?

A: Both the United States and Afghanistan. We both are responsible. I have had lots of disagreements and quarrels with the United States on issues. … But I am not going to lay the whole blame at the door of the United States. We Afghans are responsible as well in many, many ways.

Q: How would you describe the Biden administration’s policies right now toward Afghanistan and the Taliban?

A: I strongly disagree with the decision to strip the Afghan reserves, keeping half of it for the possibility of distribution to the 9/11 victims, with whom the Afghan people commiserate fully. … We as the greatest victims of terrorism commiserate fully with American families who lost lives and suffered in that great tragedy of Sept. 11. It is morally wrong to take money from the greatest victim and the poorest victim and give it to another victim when both are victims of the same atrocity, of the same oppression. That’s wrong. … We want the strongest of relations with the American people and the U.S. government. But, of course, we also want those relations to benefit Afghan people as well.

Q: What more should the Biden administration be doing?

A: They should help Afghanistan stabilize.

Q: In what ways?

A: By an international effort, by bringing back a coalition of powers that will support Afghanistan. … We don’t want Afghanistan to be a centerpiece in rivalry between the United States, Russia and China. That’s what happened to us in the 19th century between the British and czarist Russia. That’s what happened to us in the 20th century between the United States and the Soviet Union. We see that trend developing again today. … We don’t say that America has no interest, or America should not have interest in this region. They do. They have. What we’re saying is that you pursue your interest in a way that will not bring Afghanistan to suffering or destruction.

Q: Does the United States have a moral obligation to do this?

Q: What should the Taliban do to gain more trust of the United States and the world?

A: The first thing is creating a situation inside Afghanistan where the will of the Afghan people is expressed. And we get a government that is seen as legitimate inside the country and is supported by the Afghan people. Look at the issue of our schools. Our girls are not able to go to school. Look at the Afghans running away from the country. Look at the increasing poverty. None of that will improve unless girls go to school, unless opportunities are created and unless all the Afghan people find themselves as owners of this country, as present in decision-making for this country, as represented by the government of the country. And as a country and a government that is visibly moving towards the betterment of life here, which isn’t the case right now. When this happens, then we should go to the international community for recognition.

Q: Do you think your own government was partly responsible for paving the way to last year’s collapse?

A: No. Not at all.

Q: How do you respond to this criticism?

A: The war in Afghanistan was not our war. I was against that war. I was not a partner of the United States in that war against Afghan villages and homes. I stood against it, and I worked against it. I changed from the moment I recognized that this war that is fought in the name of defeating terrorism is actually a war against the Afghan people. I stood up to the United States. That was the fundamental issue between me and the United States. And I called the Taliban “brothers” for that reason. Because the Afghans were being killed on both sides of the divide that foreigners created in us for their own objectives.

I wanted the United States of America to be an ally of the Afghan people and not to fight a war in our villages. They knew, the Americans, that the sanctuaries were in Pakistan. They told us that repeatedly. And they would bomb Afghan villages. They would come and tell us that Pakistan was training extremists and terrorists. Then, they would go and pay them billions of dollars. When this was repeated and repeated, I had only one conclusion. The conclusion was either the Americans are doing this on purpose, or that they are extremely naive and out of touch with the realities of this region.

Q: Some of our critics and opponents say you were a little too cozy with the warlords and technocrats who were bilking billions, or millions, of dollars, from Afghanistan who helped destroy the country. Do you regret this?

A: I take full responsibility for the corruption and bribes in the delivery of services, as it is in many parts of the world. But the big contracts, big corruption, in hundreds of millions of dollars or millions of dollars, was clearly a United States of America thing. … Yes, there was corruption, but to blame Afghans or the Afghan government for it, is wrong. We do take responsibility. I would never say there was no corruption. But who was responsible for it? Afghans or our international partners? Mainly our international partners, and they know it. They will admit it.

Q: You have repeatedly called for the Taliban to allow girls above sixth grade to attend schools. This has not happened, despite promises by them. Why is this? Is there some kind of internal struggle going on?

A: This is very difficult to explain. We want them to address this issue. A great many Taliban leaders are very much for education. I can name a lot of them. The fact it is not happening has to be explained.

Q: You talk with the Taliban. Do you get any sense why? Is it one or two people who don’t want this?

A: There is support. But a decision cannot be made.

Q: Would the political situation be different today if President [Ashraf] Ghani had not fled Afghanistan?

A: Yes.

Q: In what way?

A: The state would not have collapsed. Ghani leaving was the collapse of the whole thing.

Q: In contrast, you and [Abdullah] Abdullah did not flee the country, despite the fact that the Taliban brutally killed [former Afghan president Mohammad] Najibullah when they first took over Kabul in 1996. Did you not fear for your security?

A: I did.

Q: What made you stay?

A: This is my country. I don’t leave my country when it is in trouble.

Q: You were thinking about what happened to Dr. Najibullah. Right?

A: Absolutely. I was not sure of my own safety. That’s why I left my house that evening and went to Dr. Abdullah’s house and we stayed together. But I would have never left and I will never leave.

Q: Some say you want to become president again?

A: No. I had a formidable presidency for 14 years, where Afghanistan rose back to be present all over the world, our flag flying high around the world, where I engaged in great relationships with the rest of the world, established strategic partnerships. … I did my time. And that’s enough.

Q: What is your relationship with the Taliban? How often do you speak to its leaders?

A: Some of the leaders come and speak to me very often, and very frank conversations. But the relationship is at times tense as well because of what I say, because of what I ask of them. But I will continue to ask for what I believe is right for Afghanistan and I’ll continue to ask the Taliban leadership to adapt to a situation whereby they benefit from the will of the Afghan people, that allows all Afghans to participate in decision-making for the country,

Q: Deep in your heart, do you think the Taliban will allow [a national Afghan dialogue and a representative government]?

A: It has to happen. They have no other alternative.

Sudarsan Raghavan is a correspondent at large for the Washington Post. He has reported from more than 65 nations on four continents. He has been based in Baghdad, Kabul, Cairo, Johannesburg, Madrid and Nairobi. He has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the 2011 Arab revolutions, as well as 17 African wars.
An interview with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai
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