Afghanistan has one of the world’s highest rates of lead exposure and a mounting body of evidence suggests cookware could be to blame
The process starts with lumps of scrap metal – mostly car parts like gearbox casings, radiators, wheels and body panels – stacked high in the yard outside the workshop.
Piece by piece they are melted down into ingots in a ramshackle furnace that spews thick, black smoke into the air over the factory in the province of Ghor in central Afghanistan.
The workers here have little more than scarves to protect themselves against the pollutants – many do not even have gloves to wear as they carry crucibles of molten metal across the to the waiting moulds.
Firooz Ahmad has worked at the factory for eight years and spends 10 hours a day at his workstation turning the cast aluminium hulls into the pressure cookers that almost every Afghan family uses to prepare their daily meals.
The 39-year-old has no idea that he is being slowly poisoned by the metal cooking pots, called kazans, that he makes every day.
“I have headaches and persistent pains in my joints and sometimes it’s difficult to breathe – maybe I am poisoned!” he says, laughing.
He is not alone. Afghanistan has one of the world’s highest rates of lead exposure, with an average blood lead level nearly three times that of nearby India and almost five times that of China, according to the best available data.
A mounting body of evidence suggests that kazans and other cooking pots made of low-quality recycled aluminium could be to blame. The ubiquitous pots are often given as wedding gifts and can be found in every corner of the country.
In recent years, researchers have been trying to find out why they were seeing dramatically elevated blood lead levels among Afghan refugee children who had arrived in the United States.
In 2022, researchers in Washington state screened dozens of imported aluminium and stainless steel cooking pots and “simulated [the] cooking and storage” of food.
They found that every single piece of aluminium cookware donated by Afghan refugee families exceeded the US Food and Drug Administration’s limit for the maximum lead intake from food.
The worst offenders were the kazans – one of which “leached sufficient lead to exceed the childhood limit by 650-fold”.
By contrast, none of the pressure cookers made from stainless steel were found to exceed the safety levels.
Soon after the report was published, several US states put out health advisories warning of the dangers of the Afghan pressure cookers. And earlier this year Washington became the first US state to ban the manufacturing, sale or distribution of cooking pots contaminated with lead.
But news of the danger posed by the kazans does not appear to have reached Afghanistan.
The Telegraph understands that there was a furtive attempt to focus on cooking equipment contaminated with lead under the US-backed government of Hamid Karzai, but it petered out when he lost power in 2014.
Ten years on, none of the Taliban health ministry officials The Telegraph spoke to were familiar with the problem or of any plans to deal with it.
If it is not dealt with, however, the consequences for Afghanistan could be severe and long-lasting.
Lead poisoning contributes to some five-and-a-half million premature deaths around the world every year and accounts for a significant global disease burden due to the long-term damage it causes, including an increased risk of high blood pressure and kidney damage later in life.
There is no safe level of exposure, according to the World Health Organisation, and some 800 million children are believed to be affected globally, including almost every child in Afghanistan.
The pernicious effects the heavy metal can have on health are particularly acute for young children and mothers.
Lead builds up in the body over time and is stored in the teeth and in the bones.
High levels of exposure can severely damage the brain and central nervous system, causing convulsions, comas, and even death.
Even in smaller doses, lead can cause severe learning disabilities. It has also been linked to a greater incidence of violence and criminality in adulthood.
“The evidence is that lead poisoning just hurts kids’ cognitive development,” said Dr Alice Evans, a Senior Lecturer in the Social Science of Development at King’s College London.
“It’s not like you’ll have a sick day, so to speak, but rather it affects how the brain is developing, and the way that economists have been able to show this is that kids who are affected have worse progression in school,” she told The Telegraph. “They’re more likely to be suspended, and it seems they’re more likely to be associated with violent crime.”
The sudden decline of crime rates across the industrialised world, but particularly in America in the 1990s, has been attributed to the removal of lead from paint and petrol.
While some scientists are still sceptical of a causal link between lead and crime rates – the lead-crime hypothesis – the correlation between falling levels of lead in the blood of young children and violent crime is startling, as this graph shows:
There have been several other apparent success stories.
Most recently, researchers in Bangladesh managed to identify turmeric enhanced with vibrant yellow lead chromate as a major cause of the sky-high blood lead levels they were seeing.
The discovery prompted the country’s Food Safety Authority to start a highly successful two-pronged campaign, warning the public of the dangers of contaminated spices and patrolling the markets with X-ray fluorescence analysers to detect lead.
It may be harder to pin Afghanistan’s problem on a single culprit like the kazans, said Rachel Bonnifield, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Development.
Countries that have suffered decades of conflict like Afghanistan also tend to have much higher levels of lead in the environment, she said, adding that Kohl, or surma – the traditional eyeliner worn by many Afghans from extremely young ages – has also been identified as a potential source.
The antimony it is usually made from is often mistaken for, and found alongside, galena, or lead sulfide.
More broadly, understanding the true extent of Afghanistan’s lead poisoning problem is complicated by the lack of data, she said. But what is clear is the severity of the impact it can have.
“The consequences of lead poisoning for global health, for children’s education and for overall development and economic growth are, frankly, staggering,” she told a recent conference.
The Telegraph confronted the owner of a kazan factory about the potential danger of his products.
Enayat, who owns a factory producing cooking pots in the western province of Herat, said he had heard of “rumours” about lead poisoning.
“These are just rumours,” he told The Telegraph. “We now have European customers, and our competitors are spreading these false rumours about poisoning.”
“I’ve been in this business for 20 years and have never encountered a case,” he said, adding that in his factory they only use “pure aluminium” to make their pots.
Convincing Afghans of the dangers of lead poisoning may too be an uphill battle.
Mr Ahmad, the craftsman from Ghor who gets paid about £4 a day, said he and his co-workers had only one priority.
“We only care about bread and how to fill our stomachs here, that’s the challenge and nothing else,” he said.
Why Afghans are being slowly poisoned by their evening meal
The laws include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home.
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public provide a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future, a top U.N. official warned Sunday.
Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the U.N. mission in the country, said the laws extend the “ already intolerable restrictions ” on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home.
The laws empower the Vice and Virtue Ministry to be at the front line of regulating personal conduct and administering punishments like warnings or arrest if its enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws.
“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.
The mission said it was studying the newly ratified law and its implications for Afghans, as well as its potential impact on the U.N. and other humanitarian assistance.
Taliban officials were not immediately available for comment.
In remarks broadcast Sunday by state-controlled broadcaster RTA, Vice and Virtue Minister Mohammad Khaled Hanafi said nobody had the right to violate women’s rights based on inappropriate customs.
“We are committed to assure all rights of women based on Islamic law and anyone who has a complaint in this regard will be heard and resolved,” he added.
Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said last year that Afghan women are provided with a “comfortable and prosperous” life, in spite of decrees barring them from many public spaces, education and most jobs.
The U.N. has previously said that official recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan is nearly impossible while restrictions on women and girls remain.
Although no country recognises the Taliban, many in the region have ties with them.
Last Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates accepted the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador to the oil-rich Gulf Arab state.
A UAE official said the decision reaffirmed the government’s determination to contribute to building bridges to help Afghans. “This includes the provision of humanitarian assistance through development and reconstruction projects, and supporting efforts that work towards regional de-escalation and stability.”
Otunbayeva is scheduled to report to the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan on Sept. 18, three years after the Taliban stopped girls’ education beyond sixth grade.
Taliban vice and virtue laws provide ‘distressing vision’ for Afghanistan, UN envoy warns
Ziaullah Hashimi also mentioned the recruitment of eleven foreign instructors for the Afghanistan International Islamic University.
Neda Mohammad Nadim, the acting Minister of Higher Education, said that the conditions for reopening schools and universities for girls in the country have not yet been met.
During a program outlining the one-year achievements of this ministry, Nadim added that some individuals make unjustified remarks regarding girls’ education and emphasized that the demands of the people cannot be met by violating Islamic law.
The acting Minister of Higher Education said: “The research by scholars is ongoing. If scholars conclude in their research that educating females in this manner is permissible, it is believed that permission will then be granted.”
Neda Mohammad Nadim also mentioned that the ministry’s staff has increased by five thousand compared to the past, and he emphasized that no one will be allowed to obtain fraudulent educational documents.
Regarding this, Nadim said: “From now on, we will not allow anyone in Afghanistan to present us with imaginary students in society and to unjustly grant diplomas.”
Other officials from this ministry also mentioned that over one hundred and thirty curricula have been finalized by them and sent to the leader of the Islamic Emirate for approval.
The Directorate of Publications and Public Communications of the Ministry of Higher Education said that in the past year, in addition to various educational sectors, they have also engaged in healthcare service delivery activities.
Sardar Wali Salehi, the Director of Scientific Program Development of the Ministry of Higher Education, said: “In total, 131 curricula have been finalized based on religious, national, and international standards and have been sent to the Islamic Emirate’s higher authorities for approval.”
Meanwhile, Ziaullah Hashimi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education, said that eleven doctoral programs, twenty-six master’s programs, thirteen new faculties at the bachelor’s level, and eighty-six new departments have been established in various educational institutions.
Ziaullah Hashimi also mentioned the recruitment of eleven foreign instructors for the Afghanistan International Islamic University.
Regarding this, Hashimi said: “With the aim of providing specialized and professional training to the country’s young generation, eleven professors from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and other Islamic countries have been recruited to the Afghanistan International Islamic University.”
The Ministry of Higher Education reported that over 557 million afghani have been collected as revenue from the distribution of diplomas and transcripts, and currently, around one hundred and ninety thousand students are studying in the Emirate’s educational institutions.
Nadim: Conditions for Reopening Schools for Girls ‘Not Yet Met’
The Taliban is rejecting concerns and criticism raised by the United Nations over new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Monday rejected concerns and criticism raised by the United Nations over new vice and virtue laws that ban women in Afghanistan from baring their faces and speaking in public places.
Roza Otunbayeva , who heads the U.N. mission in the country, UNAMA, said Sunday that the laws provided a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future. She said the laws extend the “ already intolerable restrictions ” on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban’s government, issued a statement warning against “arrogance” from those who he said may not be familiar with Islamic law, particularly non-Muslims who might express reservations or objections.
“We urge a thorough understanding of these laws and a respectful acknowledgment of Islamic values. To reject these laws without such understanding is, in our view, an expression of arrogance,” he said.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to discourage vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home. They also ban images of living beings, such as photographs.
“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.
In response to the UNAMA statement, Mujahid added, “We must stress that the concerns raised by various parties will not sway the Islamic Emirate from its commitment to upholding and enforcing Islamic law.”
In rare public criticism of Afghanistan’s rulers, the Japanese Embassy in Kabul expressed its deep concern about the continuing restrictions on women and girls as announced in the laws.
The embassy said Monday on the social platform X that it would keep urging authorities to “listen to the voice of Afghan women and girls for education, employment, and freedom of movement” for the future of the country.
Taliban reject UN concerns over laws banning women’s voices and bare faces in public
New Taliban laws that prohibit women from speaking or showing their faces outside their homes have been condemned by the UN and met with horror by human rights groups.
The Taliban published a host of new “vice and virtue” laws last week, approved by their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which state that women must completely veil their bodies – including their faces – in thick clothing at all times in public to avoid leading men into temptation and vice.
Women’s voices are also deemed to be potential instruments of vice and so will not be allowed to be heard in public under the new restrictions. Women must also not be heard singing or reading aloud, even from inside their houses.
“Whenever an adult woman leaves her home out of necessity, she is obliged to conceal her voice, face, and body,” the new laws state.
Men will also be required to cover their bodies from their navels to their knees when they are outside their homes.
From now on, Afghan women are also not allowed to look directly at men they are not related to by blood or marriage, and taxi drivers will be punished if they agree to drive a woman who is without a suitable male escort.
Women or girls who fail to comply can be detained and punished in a manner deemed appropriate by Taliban officials charged with upholding the new laws.
The restrictions have been condemned by Roza Otunbayeva, the special UN’s representative for Afghanistan, who has said they extend the “intolerable restrictions” on the rights of women and girls already imposed by the Taliban since they took power in August 2021.
“It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions,” she said in a statement on Sunday. “It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.”
Speaking to Rukhshana Media, Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, the president of the Afghan Lawyers Association, said that the new laws contradicted Afghanistan’s domestic and international legal obligations.
“From a legal standpoint this document faces serious issues,” he said. “It contradicts the fundamental principles of Islam [where] the promotion of virtue has never been defined through force, coercion, or tyranny.
“This document not only violates Afghanistan’s domestic laws but also broadly contravenes all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
“The Taliban government does not have any sort of legitimacy and these new edicts designed to further erase and suppress woman are an indication of their hatred towards women,” says Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan human rights activist who was the first woman vice-president of the Afghan parliament.
“When they say women cannot speak in public as they regard women’s voices as a form of intimacy it is incredibly frightening yet the whole world acts like this is normal. There have been very few reactions of comments to what is happening and the Taliban are emboldened by this indifference. It is not only women but all human beings they are targeting. They must be held accountable.”
Hundreds of cases of femicide recorded in Afghanistan since Taliban takeover are ‘tip of the iceberg
Shukria Barakzai, a former Afghan parliamentarian who was Afghanistan’s ambassador to Norway, agreed the international community’s silence on the Taliban’s oppression of Afghanistan’s 14 million women and girls had played its part in the criminalisation of women’s bodies and voices.
“It is concerning that international organisations, particularly the United Nations and the European Union, instead of standing against these inhumane practices, are trying to normalise relations with the Taliban,” she said. “They are, in a way, whitewashing this group, disregarding the fact that the Taliban are committing widespread human rights violations.”
In the three years since seizing power from the US-backed government, the Taliban have imposed what human rights groups are calling a “gender apartheid”, excluding women and girls from almost every aspect of public life and denying them access to the justice system.
Prior to the new “vice and virtue” laws, women and girls were already blocked from attending secondary school; banned from almost every form of paid employment; prevented from walking in public parks, attending gyms or beauty salons; and told to comply with a strict dress code.
Earlier this year, the Taliban also announced the reintroduction of the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.
The Taliban have been approached for comment.
‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris said that she stands behind President Joe Biden’s decision to leave Afghanistan, as the Democratic nominee came under attack from Donald Trump on the third anniversary of the botched U.S. withdrawal.
In a statement on Monday, Harris referred to “our Administration” and emphasized her support, despite the chaotic pullout, which included the deaths of 13 American service members in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021.
“As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war,” Harris said. “Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones. I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people and the homeland.”
Trump has hit Harris repeatedly over Afghanistan since she became her party’s nominee.
“Three years ago, Kamala’s and Biden’s incompetence left 13 dead warriors, hundreds of civilians killed and grievously wounded, and $85 billion worth of the finest military equipment on the planet abandoned to the Taliban,” Trump said Monday on Truth Social. (The Taliban took possession of an estimated $7 billion in military hardware provided to the Afghan National Army.)
Harris has described herself as being the last person in the room when Biden decided to move forward with plans that began under Trump to leave Afghanistan. A photo of Biden holding a secure video call on the withdrawal at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, during the debacle showed Harris as a participant.
When the president delivered an address on the withdrawal, Harris was one of four senior U.S. officials who stood behind him on camera.
Trump and his campaign in a flurry of statements on Monday across multiple platforms said it “ranks among the worst foreign policy debacles in American history,” and argued that there had been no accountability for it − or the swift Taliban takeover that followed.
Trump participated in a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday as Biden vacationed in Delaware and Harris met with her advisers.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, hosted a press call on Monday alongside family members of the soldiers who died in the bombing in which he criticized the Biden-Harris administration for not holding officials accountable.
“Nobody expects perfection from our government, but we do expect accountability,” Vance said. “The fact that Kamala Harris can’t even bring herself today to offer any real answer for what happened or for what she’s going to do over the next six months to get to the bottom of what happened is, I think, insulting to the families who gave their loved ones in service of this country.”
The administration admitted last April that it should have evacuated troops faster, once the withdrawal had begun, and that an intelligence assessment of the situation was wrong. But it blamed Trump’s administration, too, saying it negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban without consulting U.S. allies or the Afghan government.
“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” the document says.
In a statement on Monday, Biden remembered the thirteen Americans who perished and underscored his position that the U.S. can successfully fight terrorism from afar − without explicitly revisiting the events that preceded their deaths.
“They embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill,” Biden said.
The vice president’s office declined to comment on Trump’s attacks and referred an inquiry to her campaign.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said “there are many ways” for leaders to observe the third anniversary, Trump’s wreath-laying among them.
“Another way is to continue to work, maybe not with a lot of fanfare, maybe not with a lot of public attention, maybe not with TV cameras, but to work with might and main every single day to make sure that the families of those, of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded — not just at Abbey Gate, but over the course of the 20 some odd years that we were in Afghanistan — have the support that they need,” he said, referring to the scene of the airport bombing.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a marked drop in support for Biden nationally. His favorability rating never bounced back, and Trump made a point of raising the issue in his opening statement at their June debate.
Harris and Trump are scheduled to debate on Sept. 10, and Trump is sure to bring it up, said Thomas Alan Schwartz, a professor of history at Vanderbilt College.
“She’s taking a risk,” Schwartz said of Harris’ identifying herself with the issue. “It is not something that most Americans feel good about.”
Harris has been under pressure to share a detailed policy agenda and identify areas in which she differs with Biden. While she mentioned Israel’s war in Gaza during her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention last week, Harris hasn’t delivered a foreign policy speech since taking over the ticket.
While her advisers have said Harris doesn’t feel hemmed in to sharing Biden’s positions on every issue, Peter Feaver, who served under multiple presidents on the National Security Council, said it’s “probably politically safer for her to stick with the administration on this one, given that it would otherwise create quite a significant breach of daylight between her and President Biden.”
“She wouldn’t gain anything politically from it, and instead, she’d be inviting a maelstrom of media attention,” he said.
As Trump attacks, Harris says Biden was right to withdraw from Afghanistan
In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Afghan women’s right activist Mahbouba Seraj paints a grim image of Afghanistan under Taliban. While sharing the plight of women in the country, Seraj echoed the need to ‘sit-down’ and hold talks with the draconian regime
In an insightful conversation with Firstpost, Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj shares the plight of women under the Taliban along with the need to hold talks over the matter
It has been three years since the Taliban took over Kabul and returned to power in Afghanistan changing the lives of countless Afghan women who called the country their home. On 15 August 2021, when India, South Korea and several other nations were celebrating Independence Day, the world saw a country collapse in the hands of a radical group which was notorious for causing disruption in the past.
While Afghanistan continues to face economic hardship despite the vague promises the new regime came with, it was the Afghan women who paid the biggest price when the Taliban came to power. Right from the very beginning, the Taliban imposed a plethora of restrictions on women. From stringent dress codes to no access to education, women in Afghanistan lost their voice in a matter of months.
In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj, recalled the fear people had when the Taliban came back to power and shared the plight of women in Afghanistan. While she urged the international community to sit and talk with the Taliban, she emphasised that nothing has changed in the country in the last three years and the situation of women in Afghanistan remains deplorable. Last year, Seraj was nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Kabul.
‘I was not going to get forced to leave my country’: Seraj
When the world witnessed Kabul fall into the hands of the Taliban, Seraj was one of the first voices it heard when it came to narrating the plight of women in Afghanistan.
“My first thought was fear, a lot of fear because Afghanistan had a history with the first-time of Taliban, which was absolutely horrifying. But the second time I should say that their presence in Afghanistan did not turn out the way the world thought it was going to be, which the rivers of blood were going to be running all over the city of Kabul and other provinces. It was not that,” Seraj told Firstpost.
“I knew what the situation was going to be with women. But I was still hopeful, somewhere deep down I was hoping that maybe this time it would be a bit different. But then unfortunately it wasn’t,” she recalled.
Seraj had to live in exile when the Soviet Union was in power in Afghanistan in the 1970s. She lived in the United States for over two decades and had the country’s citizenship. However, she was determined to stay in Afghanistan this time. She insisted that by staying in Kabul she is doing her “part by just being here”.
“This country of mine has gone to hell and back, at that time, it was the Russians (then part of the Soviet Union) that took over in 1978. And I had to leave the country with my family. I was not in Afghanistan the first time the Taliban were here. I lived in the US for 26 years before coming back to Afghanistan in 2003,” she recalled.
When asked why she didn’t leave the country and sought refuge somewhere else when the Taliban came back, Seraj expressed her will to stay in Afghanistan and continue with her work. “I was not going to do that. Once I was forced to leave my country, and that was the time when the Russians were here. And this time to tell you the honest truth, I was not going to get forced to leave my country,” Seraj emphasised. “So I stayed and I’m still here. And I want to stay here because, you know, there are some women in this country that they might need my presence,” she added.
Women ‘betrayed’ by the world found refuge among themselves
The 76-year-old human rights activist recalled how the Afghan people felt betrayed when they witnessed the United States and delegations from other countries leaving Kabul while it was struggling. “The Afghan people were so betrayed, it’s not even funny, to be honest. And I really do wonder how come the world does not realise what they did to us. But maybe some of them are realising that we were betrayed big time,” Seraj told Firstpost.
Those who didn’t have the means to leave Afghanistan sought refuge in safe houses that propped up across the country. Even Seraj opened her doors to men and women who were struggling at that time. “Safe houses existed in Afghanistan before the Taliban came. It was something that was needed because of the social changes in Afghanistan and the fact that women were always under pressure,” she explained.
“When the Taliban took over, temporary safe houses were created that were mainly for women and their husbands and their children. And it went on for a short period. And we started that also. We gave safe refuge because of the way the Taliban moved this time. They started through the provinces of Afghanistan and finally, they came to Kabul. So Kabul was the last refuge. But we don’t have those anymore. My safe house is still there,” she added.
‘Nothing has changed in three years’
When asked if anything has changed in three years since the Taliban took over, Seraj said that women in Afghanistan still face a “horrendous situation”. “Well, women are facing the most horrendous situation in Afghanistan right now because there is no education for them and they cannot work. They cannot get out of their houses without a man. They cannot travel. They cannot go anywhere. There is no money. There are no jobs,” said the women’s rights activist.
“A country cannot run that way. We are really in a very bad place.”
“Nothing has changed. The public floggings are still going on. I heard just a few days ago some were happening in Kabul also. We were hoping and thinking that the Taliban might go easier on the women of Afghanistan and let the schools do what they are supposed to do, which is to educate the women and the girls. But that did not happen, unfortunately,” she added.
Any room for negotiations with the Taliban?
In the past, Seraj has held talks with the Taliban regime spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, constantly urging the regime to allow women to receive education in the country. She also requested the international community to hold dialogues with the Taliban and raise concerns about the persecution of women in Afghanistan. However, the needle hasn’t moved much. “We are still looking for and trying to find a way to communicate with the Taliban, to see if they could sit down and talk to the women of Afghanistan and tell them about what is going on and maybe we suggest a few things and give them some ideas,” she said.
“And Afghanistan is a beautiful artwork of all different ethnicities and traditions. All men and women are equal in the eyes of God and Islam. So I don’t know what kind of an interpretation it is that we are not. So I hope things change for women, but so far nothing has changed,” she added.
Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj speaks to Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid. Source: Facebook: Mahbouba Seraj
Seraj expressed frustration over how no women from Afghanistan were able to attend the third UN-held talks on Afghanistan which took place in Doha in July this year. The Doha talks were the first time the Taliban took part in the meeting. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Taliban also did not recognise the female Afghan athletes.
“That’s so unfortunate because, you know, 20 million people cannot be disregarded as nothing, whether that’s in the sphere of education or in being an athlete or doing some competition with the world and whatever,” Seraj told Firstpost. “If the Taliban, maybe they think that they can stop the women of Afghanistan from breathing the air, you know, I don’t think that will happen. As far as Doha talks are concerned, hopefully, we will find a way of actually sitting down with them and having a talk because otherwise, we don’t have any other choice. I mean, what is the next choice?” Seraj asked.
“The next choice is for all of us to kill each other, that’s the one other choice that we have. Apart from that, we have to really sit down and talk and discuss what’s going on. That’s the only way,” she added.
The Nobel Peace Prize-nominated activist insisted that Afghanistan will “cease to exist” if things go on the same way. “Afghanistan will cease to exist if this thing goes on the same way. We cannot afford that. We have to change the way we are doing the whole discussion and the whole communication and the world has to help us,” she furthered.
The Nobel debacle
In January this year, while receiving Finland’s International Gender Equality Prize, Seraj recalled how she missed out on winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023. “This will make Afghan women so happy,” she initially said in her speech. “I promised myself I wouldn’t mention the Nobel Peace Prize after that it’s my own people that hurt me the most,” she added. When asked why she said that Seraj reiterated the sentiments and said there’s more to the story.
“They held me responsible for something that happened in the history of this country with certain people, especially our Hazara community. And that was not in my hand,” Seraj come from a royal lineage, she belonged to the family of Abdur Rahman Khan, who was the Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. While Khan is known for building to state of Afghanistan by uniting the country after years of internal fighting, he is also known for perpetrating the Hazara Genocide.
Afghan journalist and women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj collected the award on behalf of AWSDC. X
“I was not the doer of it. It was 130 years ago by a man who happened to be my great-grandfather. And he made Afghanistan a state. When he arrived in Afghanistan, there were a lot of wars and a lot of problems going on with the different tribes that they were running in Afghanistan. And the Hazaras happened to be one of them. So there were killings, there’s no doubt. And it was horrible also,” she said.
“So they held me responsible for that. And they started, you know, this huge campaign against me,” she added. Seraj maintained that she was not the only one who lost the Nobel. The women of Afghanistan lost the prestigious prize as well. “Finally, at the end of the day, I did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s not me that did not win. It was the women of Afghanistan that did not win,” she emphasised.
When asked what she thinks about some of the people calling her “Taliban lobbyist”, Seraj reiterated calls for holding dialogue to bring change. “If you don’t want to talk to the people that you’re having problems with, what is the next way to make them (Taliban) understand what they are doing is not right? If we fight instead, we are going to die for no reason. How can we just kill each other, but not talk to each other? I don’t, I don’t believe in that,” she said.
“We should become intelligent. We are going to fight for our existence. If we don’t do that, we are doomed. And that’s something I don’t want,” she added.
Clutching on to hopes of winning the battle she has been fighting for decades
Seraj, who is in her 70s has been fighting for the rights of women in Afghanistan for decades. When asked if the current situation makes her frustrated, Seraj insisted that she would fight for Afghan women till the very end. “It makes me extremely frustrated. Especially now that after three years, I really don’t have a single thing in my hand that I can say to my sisters. But at the same time, I cannot give up because as long as there is life, there is hope and there is God. I do believe in my Allah and I know he will look after us and I know he will give us an answer, that will happen. Maybe it will not happen while I’m alive. I might not see it, but it will happen. So that’s why I keep on doing it until the last breath in my body,” she furthered.
When asked what the international community could do to help the women in Afghanistan, Seraj lamented that the world could have done a lot. Well, the international community could have done a hell of a lot more in the beginning and the international community can still do a hell of a lot now, too. But it all depends on the international community,” she remarked.
Source: Facebook Mahbouba Seraj
“We do need the support of every single woman in the world from everywhere, not only for Afghanistan, but all of us women for each other, because if we don’t look after each other, nobody else will.”
“The way the world is, it’s not going to last only with Afghanistan’s problem or the problem. Well, right now there is war in Gaza, so you can imagine what will be happening afterwards. We can all get together and maybe we can help each other in a necessary way. We can we can alleviate the hurt and the pain that we have,” she insisted.
When asked if she would encourage women to stay in Afghanistan, Seraj told Firstpost that she could not do something like this, given the current circumstances. “I cannot say that to them, honestly, I cannot ask that anymore, although in the beginning there were so many cases that the women were leaving the country. It’s entirely up to them, whatever they decide to do. But to the women and the world, what I’m trying to say is that, please, let’s stop. Let’s stop being so oblivious to everybody else’s needs and respect each other’s existence in the world,” the Afghan women’s rights activist asserted.
Activist Mahbouba Seraj shares the plight of women in Afghanistan at the United Nations. Source: UN Photos
The West should not think that the East shouldn’t exist the same way, and vice versa. There can’t be one religion in the whole world. We all have our religions and we should be free to practise,” she added. Seraj also took time to point out how refugees and immigrants are actually giving new life and “new blood” to Europe. “We all are going to be this mix of colours, mix of cultures. What is this fear that the world has from each other, that the East is going to eat the West or Muslims are going to eat everybody else? No. Everybody needs a life,” she explained.
“More than 40,000 people are dead in Gaza. This is not acceptable. So many people are away from Afghanistan, they should have been in my country, doing the work for our country,” she added.
Hope for future
Seraj is the executive director of the Afghan Women’s Skill Development Centre, during the conversation with Firstpost, she explained what the organisation does. “Well, the organisation is doing anything pertaining to women and bringing the women to a place where they could have a better life,” she averred.
“If it’s for educating them on agriculture, whether it’s about talking to the different provinces and people in the different villages to let their children go to school or to have a better life or to do some handicraft like arts that they have in the area or learn something that will be useful for them. We are doing that,” she added.
Finally, Seraj has one message to the women who are fighting for their rights in Afghanistan. “I’m telling the Afghan women, hang in there, sweethearts. Nothing lasts forever. This shall change, too,” she concluded.
‘Afghanistan will cease to exist if nothing changes’: Mahbouba Seraj shares plight of women under Taliban
After the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, education for girls and boys has been a rare commodity in a country where families must make devastating choices in order to guarantee their survival. Correspondent Tracy Smith talks with Nargis Habib, a California entrepreneur who pays artisans in Afghanistan to produce beautiful woven rugs for a price that helps support families’ financial freedom.
WATCH: How handmade rugs are providing a future for …
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-handmade-rugs-are-providing-a-future-for-afghans/
How handmade rugs are providing a future for Afghans
Officials of the so-called Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice hold a news conference in Kabul, Aug. 20, 2024. (Taliban government’s media and information center)
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations expressed concern Sunday over the enactment of a morality law by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban that imposes severe restrictions on personal freedom, silences women in public, and requires them to cover their faces.
“It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
The Islamist Taliban announced the ratification of their Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice Wednesday, forbidding women from singing, reciting poetry, or speaking aloud in public and requiring them to keep their faces and bodies covered at all times.
Taliban’s ‘reforms’ lead to 21,000 musical instruments destroyed in Afghanistan
“It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation,” Otunbayeva said in the statement released by her office in Kabul.
The promulgation of the 35-article law occurred after the Taliban had prohibited Afghan girls from continuing education beyond the sixth grade and imposed extensive limitations on women’s ability to work in most occupations and participate in public activities.
It empowers the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to enforce these rules across impoverished Afghanistan, ranked as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, reeling from years of war and natural disasters.
Vice and Virtue Minister Mohammad Khaled Hanafi tells religious scholars they are committed to enforcing ‘Islamic hijab’ regulations for Afghan women. (Courtesy: Taliban)
The ministry can give warnings before imprisoning offenders for durations of one hour to three days, and it also may seize property as a penalty if considered appropriate.
“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.
She said the outside world wants Afghanistan to pursue peace and prosperity, ensuring that all its citizens have a stake in their future rather than just being subject to discipline.
“Further restricting the rights of the Afghan people and holding them in constant fear will make achieving this goal even harder,” Otunbayeva said.
The U.N. agency said it was studying the newly ratified law, its implications for Afghans, and its potential impact on the U.N. and other humanitarian assistance. Employment-related Taliban curbs on women also prohibit them from seeking jobs in U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups.
The U.N. mission renewed its call for Afghan authorities to “swiftly reverse the policies and practices” restricting “the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Taliban authorities did not immediately respond to the criticism of the morality law.
The head of the Vice and Virtue Ministry has declared the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) and hijab regulations for Afghan women as its “red line.”
Taliban-run state broadcaster RTA quoted Mohammad Khaled Hanafi Sunday as urging a meeting of religious scholars to push back strongly against “criticism and propaganda by Western countries” targeting the Sharia implementation in Afghanistan.
“The Islamic Emirate is committed to granting women all their rights under Sharia law. Anyone with a complaint in this regard will be heard, and the issue will be resolved,” Hanafi said, referring to the all-male Kabul government, which is not recognized by any country.
Recent U.N. reports have questioned the ministry’s actions, warning that its ever-expanding policing of public morality contributed to a “climate of fear and intimidation” among Afghans through edicts and the methods used to enforce them.
Media freedom
The morality law has also raised deep concerns among advocates of media freedom. One of its provisions prohibits the broadcasting and publication of images of living beings, as well as content that is believed to violate Sharia or insult Muslims.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a Friday statement that the law represents another “appalling blow” to press freedom in Afghanistan, where the morality police have intensified a crackdown on journalists and fundamental human rights over the past three years.
“The Law for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice grants the Taliban’s notorious morality police extensive powers to further restrict Afghanistan’s already decimated media community,” said Beh Lih Yi, the CPJ Asia program coordinator.
The U.N. has repeatedly said sweeping restrictions on Afghan women and girls make it nearly impossible for other countries to recognize the Taliban as the country’s legitimate rulers.
Last week, the Taliban announced they had banned Richard Bennett, the U.N.-appointed special rapporteur on Afghan human rights, from visiting the country. They accused him of “spreading propaganda” by providing “misleading” information about “the ground realities” in Afghanistan.
UN denounces Taliban morality law as ‘distressing vision’ for Afghanistan
Shahbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, stated that the Pakistani Taliban’s attacks against his country are being organized from Afghanistan’s soil.
He expressed Pakistan’s concerns over this issue and highlighted that Pakistani security forces have taken operational measures in response.
Speaking in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, August 28, just a day after more than seventy people were killed in attacks by militant groups in Balochistan, he emphasized that security forces are fully equipped to combat terrorism.
He remarked on these attacks, saying, “They intend to disrupt the development of Balochistan and other parts of the country through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
In recent attacks, Baloch separatists in Balochistan and retaliatory clashes with the army have resulted in dozens of casualties. Shahbaz Sharif also addressed this in his cabinet speech, stating, “It is no longer hidden that the Pakistani Taliban organizes its attacks from Afghanistan’s soil.”
In the latest development, the Taliban’s chief of staff stated that Pakistan has not provided any evidence of the presence of TTP in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Air Force announced attacks on hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban in the provinces of Kunar, Khost, and Paktia, resulting in the deaths of between 25 to 30 members of this group.
Mr. Sharif underscored the need for immediate action to combat terrorism in Pakistan, stating categorically that there would be no negotiations with terrorists. Pakistan has repeatedly urged the Taliban to end their support for the Pakistani Taliban’s activities against Islamabad, but the Taliban have consistently denied supporting or harboring this group in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the situation remains tense as Pakistan continues to deal with cross-border terrorism. Despite diplomatic efforts, the issue persists, affecting regional stability and bilateral relations.
The challenge now lies in effectively addressing these security concerns through coordinated efforts and international cooperation to ensure regional peace and stability.
Pakistan PM: TTP attacks orchestrated from Afghanistan, calls for firm action
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
 "‘Afghanistan will cease to exist if nothing changes’: Mahbouba Seraj shares plight of women under Taliban")
