Qatari Diplomat: Doha Continues Efforts to Bridge Kabul–Washington Relation

September 2, 2025
By TOLOnews
TV Network
2 Sept 2025

Al-Qashouti added that his country remains committed to supporting stability, economic cooperation, and Afghanistan’s political process.

Mirdaf Al-Qashouti, Qatar’s Chargé d’Affaires to Afghanistan, told TOLOnews that Qatar’s efforts to improve relations between Kabul and Washington have been ongoing since 2014.

Al-Qashouti added that his country remains committed to supporting stability, economic cooperation, and Afghanistan’s political process.

Referring to the 2021 agreement between Doha and Washington, he described his country’s role in safeguarding U.S. interests in Afghanistan as vital and stressed that the continuation of the Doha meetings depends on the will of the international community.

The Qatari diplomat said: “In 2021, we signed an agreement with the United States to ensure that Qatar protects U.S. interests in Afghanistan. We can officially represent U.S. interests in Afghanistan; we can serve as mediators and also provide consular, non-consular, and diplomatic services between Afghanistan and the United States.”

In this interview, Al-Qashouti also reaffirmed his country’s long-term support for Afghanistan in various sectors, particularly stability and security, and emphasized that the recognition of the Islamic Emirate is an internal matter and the sovereign decision of individual states.

He stated: “We support any effort that brings stability and security to Afghanistan.”

Al-Qashouti further noted that the dispatch of Afghan workers to Qatar stems from a 2009 agreement, adding that its implementation was officially endorsed in 2022 by Qatari authorities.

He explained: “In 2009, an agreement was signed between Afghanistan and Qatar to regulate and facilitate the dispatch of Afghan workers to Qatar; but in 2022, this agreement was formally endorsed by Qatari leadership.”

Qatar is considered one of the key players in Afghanistan’s political process and developments, having played a significant role.

Following the fall of Kabul, the United States and several European countries relocated their embassies to Doha, where Qatar assumed responsibility for part of their diplomatic interests in Afghanistan. The country has also hosted multiple international conferences attended by representatives of the United Nations and countries with stakes in Afghan affairs.

Qatari Diplomat: Doha Continues Efforts to Bridge Kabul–Washington Relation
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Death Toll in Kunar Earthquake Rises Above 1,400, Thousands Injured

September 2, 2025
Sadaqat Ghorzang
TOLOnews Reporter
2 September 2025

The disaster also resulted in the destruction of 5,412 houses.

The death toll from the earthquake in Kunar has so far risen to more than 1,400 people.

According to Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson of the Islamic Emirate, in this devastating earthquake in the districts of Nurgal, Suki, Chapa Dara, Pech Dara, Watapur, and the provincial capital Asadabad, another 3,000 people have been injured.

The disaster also resulted in the destruction of 5,412 houses.

Fitrat stated: “In the districts of Nurgal, Suki, Chapa Dara, Pech Dara, Watapur, and Asadabad, the total number of martyrs has so far reached 1,411, with 3,124 injured, and 5,412 houses destroyed. Today, rescue operations are still ongoing in all affected areas. In regions where helicopters could not land, hundreds of commando forces were air-dropped to rescue the injured from under the rubble and transfer them to safe locations.”

Meanwhile, in the “Diwa Gul” valley of Suki district, 35 members of a single family lost their lives.

Akhtar Mohammad, a member of one of the victim families in Kunar, said: “I was asleep when a loud noise struck, and my entire family was buried under rocks. Ten minutes later, my elder brother, who had survived, arrived and called out what had happened. At that moment, my younger brother, who was injured, shouted for help to be freed from the rocks. They managed to rescue him, but I remained trapped under the rubble, unable to see anything.”

Khir Mohammad, another member of the victim families in Kunar, said: “My brother has been taken to the hospital. One of my brothers is slightly injured, but the rest of my family have all been martyred—four of my brothers, my father, mother, two sisters, daughters-in-law, my children, and nephews—all have died.”

Although rescue operations by the Islamic Emirate and local residents are ongoing in the earthquake-hit areas of Kunar, locals are urging authorities and international aid agencies for greater assistance.

Death Toll in Kunar Earthquake Rises Above 1,400, Thousands Injured
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The Quake That Rocked Afghanistan ‘Like Doomsday’

September 2, 2025
By Safiullah Padshah and Elian Peltier

Villages remain cut off in the remote, mountainous areas in the east that have been hardest hit by the disaster, which has killed at least 1,400 people.

But with Mr. Sayar’s older brother and his family nowhere to be seen, his parents and brother ran back inside.

A few seconds later, another tremor shook the ground of eastern Afghanistan, and the family house collapsed. Around them, the screams and cries of neighbors echoed in the village.

“It was like doomsday for us,” Mr. Sayar said as he rested on a carpet in his cornfield, where he was spending Monday night with the surviving members of his family.

The earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan on Sunday killed at least 1,400 people and injured more than 3,100 others, according to the country’s authorities. It destroyed thousands of fragile houses and wiped away entire villages perched on the steep hills of the mountainous region or nestled in narrow valleys.

Map: 6.0-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Afghanistan

View the location of the quake’s epicenter and shake area.

Rescue workers on the ground say it will take days to scour the rubble of villages that, two days after the quake, were still out of reach. The Afghan military has evacuated hundreds of people, the injured and the dead, while U.N. agencies have been working to recommission a helicopter that had been grounded as a result of aid cuts from the United States and other foreign donors.

Reports so far provide an incomplete picture of the devastation that has swept through eastern Afghanistan.

“All the figures that have been announced so far are from the villages where the government and military rescue teams could have access,” said Zahidullah Safi, the director of a district clinic in Kunar Province — one of the worst-hit areas, and where Mr. Sayar’s family lives. “There are some villages which are still under the debris and so far, no government or aid agency has arrived there.”

Sunday’s quake, the second devastating one in less than two years in Afghanistan, has added another layer of calamity on top of the overlapping economic, humanitarian and environmental crises that have all worsened in the South Asian nation over the past few months.

Emergency aid had already become scarcer this year after the United States and other major donors cut, suspended or reduced their humanitarian contributions to Afghanistan. Last year, the United States contributed more than 45 percent of the aid supplied to the country. That all but vanished after the Trump administration decimated the U. S. Agency for International Development and other foreign aid programs.

Even before the earthquake, U.N. agencies estimated that Afghanistan needed $2.4 billion in humanitarian funding this year, but they say that less than 30 percent of that sum has been received.

On Tuesday, Britain said that it would commit about $1.3 million in emergency support for those affected by the disaster. David Lammy, the British foreign secretary, said in a statement that the money would be distributed via the International Federation for the Red Cross and the U. N. Population Fund to ensure that “aid reaches those in need and does not go to the Taliban.”

The European Union is set to work with UNICEF, according to Sherine Ibrahim, the Afghanistan director for the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit organization. The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said it had unlocked $5 million in emergency funds.

Like Britain, many countries are wary of committing funds that may end up in the hands of the Taliban government.

A report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published last month found that “the Taliban use every means at their disposal, including force, to ensure that aid goes where they want it to go, as opposed to where donors intend.”

“A lot of help and assistance is still needed,” said Homa Nader, acting head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Afghanistan.

This was all too apparent in Kunar’s Mazardara Valley. That was where Mr. Sayar lost seven family members in the quake.

On Monday and Tuesday, villagers and emergency workers searched through for neighbors, relatives and friends, dead or alive. They carried them on makeshift stretchers like bed frames over slopes and through narrow alleys, down to trampled cornfields where helicopters were landing and taking off. They flew back and forth between the devastated areas and the hospitals of Jalalabad, the closest large city, and Kabul, the capital, about 100 miles away.

Khalil Ur Rahman Babakhil, 30, had traveled from Kabul to Mazardara, where his in-laws lived. When he arrived on Monday, he found their house collapsed, and in front of it the bodies of his wife’s parents and three siblings.

“I don’t know how to let my wife know,” Mr. Babakhil said.

Before the earthquake, more than half of Afghanistan’s 42 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance. In Kunar Province’s remote district of Nurgal, where Mr. Sayar lives, most communities live in extreme poverty, with no steady source of income other than their biannual harvest of corn, which brings them about $220 a year.

About 3.5 million children under 5 are malnourished in Afghanistan, according to UNICEF.

On Tuesday in Kunar Province, children sat in silence in ambulances or walked bewildered among the collapsed homes.

In his cornfield, Mr. Sayar recounted the terror of two days earlier.

After he escaped the house, he said, he heard his sister-in-law, still inside, screaming in the middle of the night after the second tremor. But in the darkness, and without any tools, the people outside could do nothing to help.

When the sun rose on Monday, Mr. Sayar found her dead, with her son. He also found his parents and younger brother, who had fled the house but then rushed back inside. Now they, too, were dead.

Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Quake That Rocked Afghanistan ‘Like Doomsday’
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Funding cuts to Afghanistan obstruct earthquake response

September 2, 2025

By  and 

Reuters

  • Quake response hampered by funding cuts
  • Deadly tremor the latest of multiple crises
  • Dozens of clinics shut in worst-hit provinces
KABUL, Sept 1 (Reuters) – The shrinking of funding for Afghanistan, led by U.S. aid cuts, was hampering the response on Monday to a powerful earthquake in the east, with dozens of clinics closed and a helicopter out of use, humanitarian officials said.
The magnitude 6 tremor hit overnight, levelling villages, killing at least 800 people and injuring more than 2,800 in remote mountainside areas.
The ruling Taliban administration and aid officials have a daunting task to rescue and help thousands of Afghans with a tinier budget than ever and an economy in crisis.
“The actual delivery of response has been badly hit by the funding cuts this year, but also the number of people we have on the ground is much less than we would have had six months ago,” said Kate Carey, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan.
It was the third major deadly earthquake since the Taliban took over in 2021 in a nation also reeling from conflict, droughts, floods and the push-back of 2.1 million Afghans by neighbouring countries.
Afghanistan has been badly affected since U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in January began funding cuts to its humanitarian arm USAID and aid programs worldwide in what he casts as part of a broader plan to remove wasteful spending.
But even before that, funding was shrinking to Afghanistan due to competing emergencies in areas like Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, as well as frustration from donor governments over the Taliban’s policies towards women, especially its restrictions on the work of Afghan female NGO staff.
Humanitarian aid, aimed at bypassing political institutions to serve urgent needs, has shrunk to $767 million this year, down from $3.8 billion in 2022.
The impact of the cuts was starkly illustrated by the latest crisis, Carey said, with a creaking health system now dealing with thousands of patients hit by falling rubble.
Forty-four health clinics catering to over 363,000 people in Nangarhar and Kunar, the provinces worst-affected by the quake, suspended operations or closed this year due to U.S. aid cuts, according to World Health Organization figures.
NO HELICOPTER
Where in the past a helicopter would have taken health teams and supplies to remote villages only accessible by foot, funding cuts to the World Food Programme, which runs a humanitarian air service, put the aircraft out of commission earlier this year, Carey said.
The Taliban has appealed for more aid in a country where half the population was already in need of urgent humanitarian assistance according to U.N. estimates.
“Support from the international community is seen as essential,” said Abdul Rahman Habib, spokesperson for the Taliban-run Ministry of Economy, noting the fall in funds for food, healthcare, displaced people and communities hit by climate change.
Aid has been a lifeline during Afghanistan’s global isolation under the Taliban, whose government has only formally been recognised by Russia. Sanctions on some of its leaders have hampered the banking sector and the U.S. has frozen billions in central bank assets.
Taliban authorities do not publicly release their annual budget. The World Bank noted in April that although authorities’ tax and revenues mobilisation had been relatively strong, it had not been enough to offset the sharp drop in aid.
As well as the global funding plunge, the U.N. and charities have to navigate a plethora of complex policies on operations under the Taliban, which says Afghan female aid staff should not work though there are exemptions in health and education.
The Taliban, which has closed high schools and universities to female students and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian, says it respects women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law.
Sherine Ibrahim, the International Rescue Committee’s Afghanistan Director, said on Monday that the funding cuts were a drag on the response to Afghanistan’s latest disaster.
“Although we have been able to act fast, we are profoundly fearful for the additional strain that this disaster will have on the overall humanitarian response in Afghanistan,” she said.

Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad and Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

Funding cuts to Afghanistan obstruct earthquake response
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Afghanistan Excluded from SCO Summit for Fourth Year

September 1, 2025
ByFidel Rahmati
Khaama Press

Afghanistan was not invited to the 2025 SCO summit in Tianjin, as member states stressed an inclusive government is essential for peace and regional stability.

The main session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) convened today, September 1, 2025, in Tianjin, China, without Afghanistan’s participation. Despite being an observer state since 2005, Afghanistan was not invited to this year’s summit.

This marks the fourth consecutive year Afghanistan has been excluded from SCO meetings. The continued absence reflects concerns among member states over the political situation since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

Member nations reiterated during the meeting that establishing an inclusive government representing all ethnic and political groups remains the only viable path toward lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The SCO members jointly underscored that meaningful political participation across Afghanistan society is essential for stability, signaling that regional cooperation will remain limited until concrete political reforms are undertaken.

Experts note that the exclusion highlights the international community’s broader stance: until the Taliban fulfills commitments on forming an inclusive government and respecting human rights, Afghanistan risks continued marginalization in regional bodies.

Afghanistan’s absence from influential forums such as the SCO may further isolate the country diplomatically. Without reforms, Kabul could lose opportunities for vital regional cooperation, trade, and security support.

Afghanistan Excluded from SCO Summit for Fourth Year
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Afghanistan earthquake: What we know – and what we don’t

September 1, 2025
Ariana News Afghanistan
1 Sept 2025
Many homes in the affected areas are built with mud bricks and wood, making them highly vulnerable to collapse

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake has struck Afghanistan’s mountainous eastern region, with authorities saying hundreds of people have been killed.

The quake hit at 23:47 local time on Sunday (19:17 GMT) with its epicentre 27km (17 miles) away from Jalalabad, the country’s fifth-largest city, in eastern Nangarhar province.

It was shallow – only 8km deep – and was felt 140km away in the capital, Kabul, as well as in neighbouring Pakistan. Hundreds of people are thought to have died.

The initial quake was followed by a number of large aftershocks, which are thought to have caused further deaths.

Details are still emerging and it could be some time before the extent of the damage and number of deaths is known.

What we know so far

Initial reports indicate significant casualties and widespread damage across parts of the far western Nangarhar and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan.

These mountainous areas are extremely challenging to reach even at the best of times, which is hampering rescue and relief operations.

The BBC has been told that the road leading to the epicentre has been blocked because of a landslide, so the Taliban government is using helicopters to get people out.

Multiple sources from the government have said that dozens of houses are buried under the rubble. Aid from international organisations has been requested.

Access by road to the worst-hit areas remains blocked, but hundreds of homes are likely to have been destroyed, according to Salam Al Janabi from the UN children’s charity Unicef.

The aid organisation World Vision says that entire villages in Chawki and Nurgal regions – both in Kunar province – have been completely or partially destroyed, with homes made of mud and timber collapsing and trapping residents under rubble.

An official in Nurgal told the news agency AFP that many of those living in the quake-hit villages had returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years. Both nations have stepped up efforts to deport more than a million Afghans – many of whom had initially fled the country to escape violence.

The earthquake came in the wake of flash flooding over the weekend which left at least five dead, according to local media. The flood, which caused landslides and damaged infrastructure, also temporarily disrupted traffic between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A map showing where the epicentre of the earthquake was

Why news is taking time to emerge

As we have reported, the nature of the terrain means it is difficult to access and there are limited communications – meaning it will take longer to get updates on the situation. There is also likely to be damage to infrastructure, making it even harder to reach affected areas.

During previous major earthquakes, the death toll jumped up steeply once access to the affected areas was established.

However, there are other factors that hamper both our ability to get accurate information about the situation and in getting aid into the affected areas.

Since August 2021 the country has been under the control of the Taliban, whose government most of the world does not recognise.

The return of the hardline Islamist group to power sparked an exodus of international journalists, with organisations like the BBC pulling many of their staff from the country.

Several aid agencies and NGOs also suspended their work in Afghanistan as a result – meaning there are fewer ways to verify what is happening there.

However, there are no restrictions on allowing in international aid.

Can Afghanistan cope?

Afghanistan was pushed into economic collapse when the Taliban took over and more than 23 million Afghans are now in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the International Rescue Committee.

Most foreign donations to Afghanistan have been suspended and international sanctions, which date back to when the Taliban were first in power in the 1990s, are still in place – although exemptions have been made for humanitarian relief.

Prior to the Taliban takeover, about 80% of Afghanistan’s budget came from foreign donors. This funded nearly all public healthcare, which has since collapsed.

Jalalabad’s main hospital – the biggest medical facility close to the epicentre – is already overwhelmed, being right at the centre of the crossing point for the tens of thousands of Afghans being deported from neighbouring Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s financial assets abroad (mainly held in the US) have also been frozen, while the abrupt freeze on US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier this year has significantly affected aid delivery.

Why are women and girls particularly at risk?

There are concerns that the health and safety of women and girls could be at greater risk due to the restrictions placed on them by the Taliban government.

These “continue to limit their access to life-saving services, leaving them [women and girls] among the most vulnerable in the aftermath of the quake”, said Graham Davison, head of the Afghanistan branch of the international aid group Care.

Kunar is a very conservative area, so for cultural reasons, women might end up being treated later. It is feared some women may have chosen to stay, or wait for daylight to be taken to hospital by their families.

The powerful earthquake in the Paktika province of 2022 saw the number of injured women in hospitals rise two days after the earthquake.

It is also important to note that there are no female rescuers on the ground.

Why are earthquakes particularly damaging in Afghanistan?

Afghanistan is very prone to earthquakes because it is located on top of a number of fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian plates meet.

Earthquakes happen when there is sudden movement along the tectonic plates which make up the Earth’s surface. Fractures called fault lines occur where the plates collide.

In 2023, a series of quakes in Herat province killed more than 1,000 people. In 2022, Paktika province was struck by a quake which also killed more than 1,000.

Shallow earthquakes are common in the country and are more destructive, as seismic waves have less of a distance to travel to the Earth’s surface and therefore retain much of their power.

Buildings in Afghanistan also tend to be made of timber, mud brick or weak concrete, which are not quake-resistant.

A lot of damage also comes from landslides caused by earthquakes, which can flatten houses in mountain villages and block rivers, causing flooding.

A map showing the fault lines crossing Afghanistan
Afghanistan earthquake: What we know – and what we don’t
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Earthquake in Afghanistan Leaves More Than 800 Dead

September 1, 2025
By Safiullah PadshahElian Peltier and Mike Ives

Safiullah Padshah reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.

The New York Times

The quake, near the border with Pakistan, injured more than 2,500 people, the authorities said. The death toll was expected to rise.

More than 800 people were killed and 2,500 were injured after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the mountainous areas of eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night, Afghan officials said on Monday. The death toll would probably rise, they added, as rescue workers scrambled to reach communities stranded in isolated valleys hardly reachable by road.

The epicenter of the quake was near Jalalabad, a city of about 200,000 people, but most of the destruction took place in the province of Kunar, north of Jalalabad, where dozens of villages with mud and brick houses were hit. Less than 100 miles away, residents of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, felt the aftershocks across the city throughout the night, but no major damage was reported.

The quake was a shallow one, just five miles from the earth’s surface, which made it likelier to be more destructive, as shallower waves retain more of their power when hitting the surface. Soon after the initial shaking stopped, people scrambled in the middle of the night to reach neighbors trapped under the debris of collapsed houses, according to videos shared on social media.

Road access was difficult for rescue workers in the area’s steep terrain, where landslides had struck. Homa Nader, the acting head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Afghanistan, said it took Red Cross teams from Jalalabad four hours overnight to reach the most affected area, in Nur Gal district, just 35 miles away. By Monday afternoon, the road linking Jalalabad, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, to Kunar Province had reopened, and a steady stream of ambulances were rushing to the impacted areas while on the other side, dozens were ferrying victims back to Jalalabad.

Hospitals were operational in both Kunar and Nangarhar with no significant damage, Ms. Nader said, while health centers in three districts of Kunar reported minor structural damages. One village, Mazar Dara, was completely blocked and victims could only be carried out by helicopter, she said in a text message.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, told a news conference in Kabul on Monday that said 800 people had been killed and 2,500 injured in Kunar Province alone. In Nangarhar Province, he said, at least 12 people were killed and 255 were injured.

Map: 6.0-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Afghanistan

View the location of the quake’s epicenter and shake area.

Earthquakes are a prevalent danger in Afghanistan and other countries in the region, where many people live on or near geological faults. In 2022, a 5.9-magnitude quake that struck a remote area of Afghanistan’s southeast killed at least 1,300 people, according to the United Nations. The Taliban, who have ruled Afghanistan since 2021, said at the time that more than 4,000 people had died.

The quake is the latest in a series of overlapping crises for Afghanistan. Hundreds of hospitals and health care centers have been forced to shut down since the Trump administration suspended U.S. foreign aid earlier this year. More than 2.3 million Afghan nationals have returned to the country, in some cases by force, after being expelled from Pakistan or Iran amid a wave of xenophobia and political pressure in those countries.

One of those Afghans, Said Meer, had planned to arrive in Jalalabad on Monday with his two wives and 12 children, a day after leaving Lahore, the city in eastern Pakistan where he was born and had spent his whole life. He was hoping to transfer his livestock business to Jalalabad.

On Monday, the colorful truck carrying Mr. Meer’s extended family and their meager belongings was at a border crossing, waiting to enter Afghanistan.

“May God watch over our Afghan people,” Mr. Meer said by telephone. “War, earthquakes, poverty — every hardship is a test from God.” Despite the destruction brought by the quake, he said he still planned to move to Jalalabad, 40 miles from the border.

In Pakistan, tremors were felt across several districts of the northwestern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as in parts of Punjab Province, the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir and the capital, Islamabad, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said. No major damage or casualties had been reported in Pakistan so far, officials said.

Since the Taliban returned to power, international assistance has gradually dwindled. Under President Trump, the United States, which last year provided 45 percent of the aid supplied to Afghanistan, has suspended or eliminated nearly all of its contributions. Several other European countries, including Britain, France and Sweden, have also cut back on assistance.

The Taliban have repeatedly called on foreign governments and businesses to finance Afghanistan’s reconstruction from four decades of war, but only Russia has formally recognized them as the country’s official government. As of Monday afternoon, Iran, India, Japan and the European Union had committed support to the victims of the earthquake, the spokesman for the Taliban-run Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, told The New York Times.

The U.N. Secretary General António Guterres expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and said, “The U.N. team in Afghanistan is mobilized and will spare no effort to assist those in need in the affected areas.”

Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Earthquake in Afghanistan Leaves More Than 800 Dead
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Taliban launch crackdown on Afghanistan’s secret beauty salons

August 31, 2025
 and Hania Forotan

The Taliban have issued an order targeting underground beauty salons operating in secret across Afghanistan, warning the women running them that they have one month to stop or face arrest.

Officially, all beauty salons were closed by the Taliban in August 2023, shuttering 12,000 businesses with the loss of more than 50,000 female beautician jobs. Yet clandestine salons have continued to operate within communities across the country.

Now, the Taliban have said that they intend to root out and eliminate these underground businesses, issuing orders to community leaders and elders across the country that they must identify clandestine beauty salons and report those running them to the “vice and virtue” police.

Frestha, a 38-year-old mother of three young children, said she had been operating her beauty salon business in secret since they were banned in 2023 because she had no choice but to work and no other way of earning money.

“When the Taliban closed our salons, I was the only breadwinner in my family; my husband was sick, and I had three children whose expenses I had to cover,” she said.

“But also I kept working because I feel so good when I could bring beauty back to a woman. When a woman looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, her happiness became my happiness.

“Now, I don’t think I can keep going because the risk is too high [but] I don’t know any other work. Our situation is very bad, but in this world there is no one to hear our voice or support us,” she added.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, women have been banned from most forms of paid employment and girls prevented from attending secondary school or university.

Human rights groups say the Taliban operate a de facto system of gender apartheid, preventing women from engaging in any kind of public life.

As well as shutting beauty salons, gyms and other communal spaces, women are also prevented from walking in public parks, travelling without a male chaperone, must cover themselves completely when leaving the house and are not allowed to be heard speaking in public.

Taliban launch crackdown on Afghanistan’s secret beauty salons
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UN Security Council to Hold Briefing on Afghanistan in September

August 31, 2025
 Hadia Ziaei,
Tolo News
1 Sept 2025

According to the Council’s statement, this will be Otunbayeva’s final quarterly report before the end of her mandate in September.

The UN Security Council has announced that it will hold its quarterly briefing on Afghanistan in September.

According to the Council’s statement, Roza Otunbayeva, head of UNAMA, will present her quarterly report, and a representative of civil society as well as Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, are also expected to participate.

Part of the statement reads: “In September, the Security Council will convene for its quarterly open briefing on Afghanistan. Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Roza Otunbayeva and a representative of civil society are expected to brief. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk may also brief.”

Political analyst Moeen Gul Samkani said: “There are divisions within the Security Council over Afghanistan. This has both advantages and disadvantages for us. If this time they reach a decision that resolves the problems of the Afghan people, politically, economically, and diplomatically, then we can say they are acting independently. Otherwise, they remain under the influence of others and unable to decide.”

According to the Council’s statement, this will be Otunbayeva’s final quarterly report before the end of her mandate in September. Closed-door meetings will follow, while UNAMA’s mission is set to conclude on March 17, 2026.

Political analyst Janat Faheem Chakari said: “Every three months, a UN Security Council session on Afghanistan is held. These meetings should be based on facts. UNAMA’s responsibility is to ensure Afghanistan’s political relations with the world and find solutions to the country’s economic challenges.”

Although the Islamic Emirate has not recently commented on the upcoming meeting, it has repeatedly called on the United Nations to allow its representatives to take part in such sessions.

UN Security Council to Hold Briefing on Afghanistan in September
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Pakistan’s Deportation Deadline Ends: Thousands of Afghans Return

August 31, 2025
Sadaqat Ghorzang
TOLOnews Reporter
1 Sept 2025

Contrary to international refugee principles, forced deportations and mistreatment by police have left refugees returning empty-handed.

On the last day of Pakistan’s deadline for the forced return of Afghan refugees holding PoR (Proof of Registration) cards, nearly 2,000 families returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing.

The newly returned refugees say that despite having legal documents, Pakistani police mistreated them and extorted money from them.

Shamsuddin, a 40-year-old man, was forcibly deported through Torkham after living in Pakistan for two and a half decades. However, his family members and belongings remain in Pakistan. He told TOLOnews: “At midnight, police took me to the station, then transferred me to Haji Camp, and from there I was sent back through Torkham. They pulled me off a bus full of passengers, and the bus was left behind. My eldest son is three years old, and he is my oldest male child. My entire family remains there.”

Contrary to international refugee principles, forced deportations and mistreatment by police have left refugees returning empty-handed.

Recently, in the refugee camp at Torkham, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Charity Foundation distributed food packages to 1,250 newly returned families.

Askar Khan, deported from Pakistan, said: “We are in need of help; we are poor people and don’t even have food for the night. I am responsible for a family of eight and cannot provide for them. One of my sons has been imprisoned in Pakistan for 20 nights. The only thing I managed to do was to bring my children and grandchildren back through Torkham.”

Nazak Mir, another deportee, said: “We were forced into a very difficult situation and went through great hardship. We sold our household goods at half price; items worth 100,000 rupees were sold for only 20,000 Pakistani rupees.”

Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli, a representative of the charity foundation, said about their activities in the refugee camp: “Each family receives a food package that includes 50 kg of flour, 5 kg of rice, 5 kg of beans, 5.5 kg of sugar, and 5 liters of cooking oil.”

Local officials in Nangarhar say that nearly 2,000 families are being forcibly deported from Pakistan to Afghanistan through Torkham every day.

They also urged international relief organizations and aid agencies to continue assisting the returnees.

Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal, head of the Umari refugee camp in Torkham, said: “We call on all organizations to assist Afghan refugees in this difficult situation, as the pace of returns has accelerated more than ever.”

Baz Mohammad Abdul Rahman, head of the Nangarhar Refugees Department, said: “Today, nearly 2,000 families arrived in 450 large vehicles, and this process is rapidly continuing. Most of them are Afghans holding PoR cards.”

According to the Nangarhar Refugees and Repatriation Department, in the past two weeks nearly 10,256 families, amounting to 71,792 individuals, have returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham crossing.

Pakistan’s Deportation Deadline Ends: Thousands of Afghans Return
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