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Taliban Bans Books by Women in Afghanistan’s Universities

September 22, 2025
By Pranav Baskar

The New York Times

The Taliban government is purging books written by women from Afghanistan’s male-only university system and outlawing gender studies courses, the latest blows in a campaign against women’s rights since the group returned to power four years ago.

Over 600 books, many of them written by women, were included in a 50-page list of banned works. The directive was announced in a letter to universities by the Taliban’s deputy higher education minister, dated to late August, and published by the Independent Persian on Thursday. The letter said the titles were in conflict with principles of Sharia, or Islamic law.

A member of the committee reviewing the books later clarified the Taliban’s position to BBC Afghan, that “all books authored by women are not allowed to be taught.”

The ban is “a criminal act,” said Rahela Sidiqi, the director of The Rahela Trust, a Britain-based group that works in Afghanistan to help women and girls access education. “It not only affects females. It also affects males. It affects society, because those books were part of the curriculums of those universities.”

“We know in the spring, there was a committee put together by the Ministry of Higher Education to do exactly this,” said Lauryn Oates, the executive director of Right to Learn Afghanistan, a group based in Canada that supports human rights and education for girls and women in Afghanistan. “This will give people the false idea that women don’t write books, or that women’s ideas are not worth consulting.”

The list of texts and subjects being stripped, Ms. Oates said, shows that “they really don’t like political science or international relations.” But she said it was also inconsistent, adding that much of it appeared to be coming from “individual members’ personal suspicion of the subjects.”

In 2022, Afghanistan’s higher education commission released a report after a review of school curriculum. Among the “deficiencies” outlined were the promotion of foreign cultural norms, “moral deficiencies” and the advancement of “un-Islamic customs and practices, such as music, television, democracy, etc.”

Because the Taliban has banned women and girls from secondary and higher education, the latest wave of censorship primarily affects the curriculums of male students. But Ms. Sidiqi said the step is reflective of a pattern of “restricting women from every part of life,” adding that the removal of women’s’ writing reflects an attempt to “destroy the history of their life.”

The move is part of a wider overhaul of higher education, which the Taliban has pursued since returning to power as it seeks to reshape Afghan society to conform to its hard line ideology. It has fired scores of university professors who it claims break from state values, stifled dissent on university campuses and restructured curriculums to augment the amount of religious education students are required to take.

Earlier this week, internet shutdowns hit several provinces of Afghanistan, to curb “misuse,” which had the effect of curtailing the ability to attend online classes and exchange information.

Pranav Baskar is an international reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.

Taliban Bans Books by Women in Afghanistan’s Universities
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Taliban rejects Trump’s bid to take over Afghan air base that U.S. controlled for almost 20 years

September 22, 2025

The Taliban government on Sunday rejected U.S. President Trump’s bid to retake Bagram Air Base, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left the sprawling military facility in the Taliban’s hands.Mr. Trump on Saturday renewed his call to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram, even saying “we’re talking now to Afghanistan” about the matter. He did not offer further details about the purported conversations. Asked by a reporter if he’d consider deploying U.S. troops to take the base, the president demurred.

“We won’t talk about that,” Mr. Trump said. “We want it back, and we want it back right away. If they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m going to do.”

Mr. Trump followed up with a social media post saying “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!”

On Sunday, chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected Mr. Trump’s assertions and urged the U.S. to adopt a policy of “realism and rationality.”

Afghanistan had an economy-oriented foreign policy and sought constructive relations with all states on the basis of mutual and shared interests, Mujahid posted on X.

It had been consistently communicated to the U.S. in all bilateral negotiations that Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity were of the utmost importance, he said.

“It should be recalled that, under the Doha Agreement, the United States pledged that ‘it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs,'” he said. The U.S. needed to remain faithful to its commitments, he added.

Mujahid did not reply to questions from The Associated Press about conversations with the Trump administration regarding Bagram and why Mr. Trump believed the U.S. could retake it.

Earlier Sunday, the chief of staff at the Defense Ministry, Fasihuddin Fitrat, addressed Mr. Trump’s comments. “Ceding even an inch of our soil to anyone is out of the question and impossible,” he said during a speech broadcast by Afghan media.

In August last year, the Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their takeover at Bagram with a grand military display of abandoned U.S. hardware, catching the eye of the White House. Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for his “gross incompetence” during the withdrawal of U.S. forces after the country’s longest war.

Mr. Trump last week, during his state visit to the United Kingdom, hinted that the Taliban, who have struggled with an economic crisis, international legitimacy, internal rifts and rival militant groups since their return to power in 2021, could be game to allow the U.S. military to return.

“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Mr. Trump said of the Taliban. While the U.S. and the Taliban have no formal diplomatic ties, the sides have had hostage conversations. An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist was released by the Taliban in March.

The Taliban also said they reached an agreement with U.S. envoys on an exchange of prisoners as part of an effort to normalize relations between the United States and Afghanistan.

They gave no details of the detainee swap, and the White House did not comment on the meeting in Kabul or the results described in a Taliban statement. The Taliban released photographs from their talks, showing their foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, with Mr. Trump’s special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.

Taliban rejects Trump’s bid to take over Afghan air base that U.S. controlled for almost 20 years
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The Taliban are reaching out — and some countries are responding

September 21, 2025

By Rick Noack and Shaiq Hussain

The Washington Post

September 21, 2025

Anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, concerns about militancy in Asia and acceptance that the Taliban regime is unlikely to collapse soon present a diplomatic opening.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Four years into its second stretch in power, Afghanistan’s Taliban government has been recognized by only one country: Russia.

But anti-immigrant sentiment, concerns about militant groups in Central Asia and a growing acceptance that the regime is unlikely to collapse anytime soon are allowing the Taliban to quietly make diplomatic inroads.

Many of Afghanistan’s neighbors, while not officially recognizing the regime, have found ways to work with it. White House counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka described the regime last month as “moderately cooperative,” even as he acknowledged that “this sounds strange coming out of my mouth.” And Germany, home to Europe’s largest Afghan population, has accredited two Taliban Foreign Ministry officials to join representatives of the previous, Western-backed Afghan government as consular officials.

President Donald Trump on Thursday added a new dimension, saying that the United States is working to regain control of Afghanistan’s Bagram air base from the Taliban. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” he said, suggesting that the base, which the U.S. military left four years ago amid the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, is “an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

comment and cited previous remarks that it would not tolerate a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. But that such talks are taking place at all signals how some governments increasingly regard the Taliban as an unavoidable negotiating partner.

“The Taliban are being dealt with as the rulers of Afghanistan, even if recognition has not yet been formally extended,” said Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, a former Pakistani foreign secretary.

Each of the countries engaging with the Taliban has different motives. In Europe, a surge in support for anti-immigrant parties is stoking calls for deportations to Afghanistan, which require the Taliban’s approval. Many countries, including the United States, share a common enemy with the Taliban: the Islamic State, which has a presence in the Afghan-Pakistani border region as the Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K. For neighbors, Afghanistan is important as a transit hub and trading partner.

The emerging ties are “a significant strategic victory for the Taliban,” said Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

The Taliban’s emergence from isolation remains tenuous. While some officials have sought more international outreach, hard-line leaders are pushing draconian restrictions on women’s and civil rights, limiting the extent to which Western governments can publicly engage with them. The regime’s sanctioned foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, was recently unable to visit Pakistan and India after a U.N. sanctions committee declined to issue the necessary travel waivers, according to two Pakistani officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Meanwhile, many embassies in Kabul remain closed as foreign governments hedge their bets. China has been slow to invest in infrastructure projects of the kind it has rolled out elsewhere in the region.

The Taliban want to be treated as an ordinary government, said Muhammad Amir Rana, a Pakistani political analyst, but the idea remains far-fetched. Among most countries now dealing with them, he said, “engagement is confined mainly to humanitarian aid and migration management.”

For diplomats who witnessed the negotiations that led to the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the past four years have been a disappointment.

Mansoor Ahmad Khan, who was Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul when the Taliban reclaimed power, said the group’s pledges to work on constitutional rule, good governance and human rights fueled “a sense of optimism.” Appointees to an initial cabinet were described as acting ministers. Early crackdowns on women’s rights were framed as temporary.

But in recent months, the regime has dropped the pretense. Hard-line Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered his ministers last month to remove the “acting” designation from their titles.

Foreign diplomats are engaging with the regime anyway, analysts say, because they don’t view the Taliban as a cohesive group.

Few negotiate directly with the hard-liners in Kandahar. Instead, they interact primarily with members of the regime who are seen as more pragmatic, such as representatives of Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob.

Diplomats who have visited Kabul say interactions have been challenging. Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former special representative for Afghanistan, said he encountered Taliban diplomats who largely stuck to prepared lines. “Professionally, they’re not sound,” he said.

Before Thursday’s comments by Trump, the U.S. appeared to focus primarily on counterterrorism cooperation and efforts to free Americans held in Afghanistan. When Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s envoy for hostage affairs, visited Kabul to secure the release of U.S. citizen George Glezmann in March, it was the highest-level publicly known contact since the Taliban takeover. Last week, Boehler made a second trip to Afghanistan.

China has stepped in when doing so suited its interests, such as brokering a deal between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Representatives from Kabul and Islamabad, meeting in Beijing in May, agreed to exchange ambassadors after years of deteriorating relations.

Negotiators were driven by a convergence of interests. Afghanistan, which was offered a trade deal as part of the agreement, wanted economic investment to help weather Western sanctions and global aid cuts. Pakistan has been beset by insurgencies, for which it blames the Taliban indirectly. China has grown increasingly frustrated by attacks linked to those insurgencies on its infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

Russia’s recognition of the Taliban regime in July was probably also linked to security concerns. “Everyone worries about ISK, but Russia really worries about it,” Kugelman said, referring to the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan. More than 130 people were killed when Islamic State gunmen attacked a concert hall in Moscow last year.

For the Kremlin, Kugelman said, recognizing the Taliban government might also have been strategic. “Russia wants to set itself apart from the U.S. and the West — it wants to blaze its own trail,” he said. “And I suspect that it also hopes that some of the other countries in the broader region, including China, would want to follow suit.”

It’s unlikely the Taliban will find a majority in the United Nations to grant it the recognition that would help unlock billions in frozen assets and give it a seat at international forums and donor conferences.

But in Europe, the Taliban are making significant inroads. Since their takeover, they’ve wrestled for control of Afghan consulates and embassies there, with growing success.

The United States oversaw the closure of the Afghan Embassy in Washington after the Taliban takeover. But many of Afghanistan’s missions in Europe have remained open, run by representatives of the pre-Taliban government.

Early last year, the basement of the Afghan Embassy in Paris was still bustling with Afghans renewing their passports and foreign workers for nongovernmental organizations applying for visas. That changed when the Taliban cut ties with many Afghan diplomatic missions in Europe that summer, saying they did not sufficiently cooperate.

Momentum has appeared to be shifting toward the Taliban in other ways, as well. More than 400,000 Afghans have lodged asylum claims in the European Union since 2020, and the rise of anti-immigrant parties on the continent is putting pressure on governments to deport some of them.

In Britain, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, whose party has been outpolling the ruling Labour and opposition Conservative parties for months, has threatened to deport all Afghan adults who enter the country undocumented.

Germany’s new conservative government welcomed the two Taliban representatives to help with the deportation of Afghans convicted of crimes.

Afghans in the country were shocked. “Germany claims that the basis for this action is to deliver justice,” human rights activist Zahra Mousawy said. “But in reality, it has invited war criminals.”

The German Foreign Ministry defends its interactions with the Taliban as being of a “technical” nature. “Like all countries worldwide, except Russia, the Federal Government does not recognize the Taliban’s de facto government in Afghanistan,” the ministry said in a statement.

Several diplomats who represented the previous Afghan government in Germany were recently let go on instructions from Kabul, according to one current and one former Afghan diplomat. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

While some Afghan diplomats have decided to cooperate with the Taliban, they said, the consulate in Bonn, Germany, is fighting for its independence.

The Bonn consulate is strategically important to the Taliban because it’s the administrative nerve center of all the Afghan missions in Europe that still resist the regime. It also houses the data center that stores the biometric and passport data of Afghans on the continent.

“With this data, it’s possible to trace your entire family back in Afghanistan: where you are from, your village, your district, your province,” the current diplomat said.

Lutfullah Lutfi, a former diplomat with the Afghan mission to the U.N. in New York, said he worries that many of his colleagues in Europe will soon share his fate.

But in early 2022, amid internal tensions over whether to collaborate with the Taliban, he was let go.

The most difficult part of the experience, he said, was that there was nobody left from whom he could seek help.

Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan; Wadud Salangi in Berlin; Ezzatullah Mehrdad in Louisville; and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.

The Taliban are reaching out — and some countries are responding
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Thousands of Pakistani Vehicles Stuck at Afghanistan Border After Dropping Migrants

September 20, 2025

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

Nearly 18,000 Pakistani vehicles remain stranded in Spin Boldak after transporting Afghan migrants, as border restrictions and mass deportations worsen humanitarian and economic pressures.

Nearly 18,000 Pakistani vehicles that carried Afghan migrants to the border are now stranded in Spin Boldak, unable to return due to restrictions by Pakistani authorities.

Local sources report that the backlog has sent transport fares soaring, leaving deported families facing heavy financial strain as they attempt to rebuild their lives inside Afghanistan.

Drivers of these vehicles, commonly known in Pakistan as Artal, say they have been stuck on Afghanistan soil for weeks, unable to resume work.

Neither Taliban officials nor the Pakistani government have issued any formal response to the worsening gridlock or its growing humanitarian and economic consequences.

Pakistan has recently accelerated deportations of undocumented Afghans. According to the Taliban’s refugee commission, up to 6,000 people are expelled daily through crossings such as Spin Boldak.

The mass stranding of vehicles underscores the deepening fallout of Pakistan’s deportation campaign, with ripple effects for drivers, border communities, and returning Afghan families.

Unless urgent coordination is established between Islamabad and Kabul, the crisis risks worsening further, intensifying hardship on both sides of the border and destabilising local economies.

Thousands of Pakistani Vehicles Stuck at Afghanistan Border After Dropping Migrants
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Trump’s Dream of Retaking Bagram Could Resemble an Afghan Re-Invasion

September 20, 2025
Reuters,
19 Sept 2025

Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday during a trip to London, said “we want that base back” and cited what he called its strategic location near China.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal of re-occupying Bagram air base in Afghanistan might end up looking like a re-invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses, current and former U.S. officials say. (Reuters)

Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday during a trip to London, said “we want that base back” and cited what he called its strategic location near China.

“It’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump said.

The sprawling airfield was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington by al Qaeda.

Trump, who has previously said he wants the United States to acquire territories and sites ranging from the Panama Canal to Greenland, has appeared focused on Bagram for years.

He hinted on Thursday that the U.S. could acquire the base with some kind of Islamic Emirate consent, but it was unclear what form such an agreement might take. It would be a remarkable turnaround for the Islamic Emirate, which fought to expel U.S. troops and retake the country from a U.S.-backed government.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no active planning to militarily take over Bagram air base, which the U.S. abandoned along with the rest of the country when it withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

The official said any effort to reclaim the base would be a significant undertaking.

The official said it would require tens of thousands of troops to take and hold Bagram air base, an expensive effort to repair the base, and a logistical headache to resupply the base — which would be an isolated U.S. enclave in a landlocked country.

Even after the U.S. military took control of the base, it would require a huge undertaking to clear and hold the massive perimeter around it to avoid the area from being used to launch rocket attacks against American forces inside.

“I don’t see how this can realistically happen,” the official said.

Experts say the sprawling air base would be difficult to secure initially and require massive manpower to operate and protect.

Even if the Islamic Emirate accepted the U.S. re-occupation of Bagram following negotiations, it would need to be defended from a host of threats including Islamic State and al Qaeda militants inside Afghanistan.

It could also be vulnerable to an advanced missile threat from Iran, which attacked a major U.S. air base in Qatar in June after the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites.

A former senior U.S. defense official played down the benefits of retaking the base, including the base’s proximity to China that was touted by Trump.

“I don’t think there’s a particular military advantage to being up there,” the former official said. “The risks sort of outweigh the advantages.”

In February, Trump complained that Biden had given up the base and said there had been a plan to keep a small U.S. force there, even though his February 2020 accord with the Taliban required a pullout of all U.S.-led international forces.

Trump’s comments came as the Pentagon is carrying out a review into the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which many policy leaders in his administration viewed as a distraction from bigger challenges facing the United States — like competition from China.

Meanwhile, The Second Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s intention to retake the Bagram airbase, stated that a military presence has never been accepted by Afghans throughout history. He emphasized that this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement.

Zakir Jalali wrote on his X page that Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another and can establish economic and political relations based on mutual respect and shared interests “without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan.”

Trump’s Dream of Retaking Bagram Could Resemble an Afghan Re-Invasion
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UNAMA: $13 Billion in Aid Provided to Afghanistan Since 2021

September 20, 2025
TOLOnews
TV Network
18 Sept 2025
Some economic experts also have differing views regarding the $13 billion in UN aid to the country.

Roza Otunbayeva, the Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has stated that since 2021, the international community has provided $13 billion in aid to Afghanistan.

In her latest report to the UN Security Council, she emphasized that $7.9 billion of that amount has been allocated for humanitarian aid and $4.9 billion for basic human needs.

She said: “Since 2021 the international community has provided nearly thirteen billion US dollars of international assistance: 7.9 billion for humanitarian funding and 4.9 billion for basic human needs. Despite some reports to the contrary, for the most part this has been distributed without major interference.”

These remarks come amid ongoing criticism regarding the delivery mechanisms and administrative costs of aid organizations operating in Afghanistan.

Some economic experts also have differing views regarding the $13 billion in UN aid to the country.

Sayed Masood, an economic analyst, stated: “Organizations implementing this aid, including the United Nations, spend a large portion of the funds on their own administrative costs.”

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate maintains that the aid has primarily been humanitarian in nature and distributed transparently to the public.

Abdul Latif Nazari, Deputy Minister of Economy, said: “Fortunately, this aid has been distributed under oversight and with transparency to deserving and needy individuals, and in some cases, it has also contributed to the development of Afghanistan’s infrastructure and economic foundations.”

At the UN Security Council meeting, several countries—including China, Iran, Russia, Pakistan, and India—also emphasized the importance of economic cooperation and stability in Afghanistan.

China’s special envoy called for the release of Afghanistan’s frozen foreign reserves, and Russia stated its intention to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation and create new opportunities for the Afghan people.

UNAMA: $13 Billion in Aid Provided to Afghanistan Since 2021
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Taliban Releases British Couple Detained for Months in Afghanistan

September 20, 2025

Elian Peltier reported from Karachi, Pakistan, and Lynsey Chutel reported from London.

The New York Times

September 20, 2025

Peter and Barbara Reynolds sit around a table with Qatari and British diplomats on a plane.

A picture released by the Qatari government show Peter and Barbara Reynolds, on the right, with British and Qatari diplomats on a plane after they were released from custody in Afghanistan. Credit…Qatar Government.

Peter Reynolds, 80, and Barbara Reynolds, 76, ran education programs in Afghanistan for almost two decades. They were arrested on Feb. 1 when they were returning to their home in Bamiyan Province, in the center of the country.

On Friday, a spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on social media that they had “violated the laws of Afghanistan,” and were released “following the judicial process,” but provided little detail about the allegations against the couple.

The Reynolds were released as Western countries, including the United States, have renewed efforts to free their citizens held by the Taliban. In a rare visit to Afghanistan last week, Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage affairs, met with the Afghan foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Kabul.

The Taliban said after the meeting that “the two sides would undertake an exchange of detainees,” but neither the White House nor the State Department commented.

The Qatari government facilitated the release of Peter and Barbara Reynolds, Afghan and British officials said. Britain and other European nations withdrew diplomatic staff from Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban returned to power, but Qatar has maintained an embassy in Kabul and kept diplomatic channels open to the Taliban government.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain thanked Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, saying in a statement that Qatar had played “vital role” in securing the couple’s freedom.

“This is a moment of immense joy for our family,” the couple’s four children said in a statement thanking the diplomats who negotiated their release.

For the first few months of their detention, the Reynolds were held separately in the Pul-e-Charki prison in Kabul, they have said. In the spring, the couple was transferred to a facility managed by Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, but their children have said they received scant details about their detention.

Conditions improved for the couple following diplomatic efforts, their children said. After fears that Mr. Reynolds had suffered a stroke or heart attack, they were able to receive medication, and in recent weeks, they were allowed phone calls and walks outside.

“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy, and international cooperation,” the children said.

The Reynolds’ connection to Afghanistan extends back to their youth. According to their company’s website, they married in Kabul more than 50 years ago.

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, triggering the withdrawal of Western troops, many charities evacuated their staffs.

But the Reynolds decided to stay. They continued to run workshops, hiring new staff and adapting to Taliban rule, according to the website for Rebuild, their company. The Afghan government is listed as one of its clients.

The company is based in Kabul but has operated across the country. Its workshops included management and leadership training, but Sarah Entwistle, a daughter of the Reynolds, also said one program taught parenting skills to young mothers.

Since retaking power, the Taliban have barred girls from attending schools beyond sixth grade and prevented women from most professional activities. Some international organizations have tried to provide Afghan women professional training in handicraft and other jobs that remain accessible to them.

After the Reynolds were released, the British government reiterated that its citizens should not travel to Afghanistan. Britain’s ability to support its citizens in Afghanistan “is extremely limited,” Hamish Falconer, Britain’s minister for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in a statement.

A growing number of Western tourists, including travel influencers, have visited Afghanistan, often showcasing the country’s stunning landscapes while not mentioning the severe restrictions that the Taliban have imposed on Afghan people.

Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London.

Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Taliban Releases British Couple Detained for Months in Afghanistan
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Trump says he is working to get Afghan air base from Taliban

September 20, 2025
The Washington Post
September 19, 2025
Such an outcome would signify a remarkable rapprochement after the U.S. fought a 20-year war against the militant group.

LONDON — The United States is working to regain control of Bagram air base from the Taliban in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump said Thursday, describing it as “one of the biggest air bases in the world” and suggesting it is “an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

“Okay, that could be a little breaking news,” Trump said during a news conference with Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a state visit to Britain. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back.”

It was not immediately clear how far talks over the return of the base, which the U.S. military left four years ago, to American control have progressed or how they were conducted.

In a response to The Washington Post on Friday, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, declined to comment on Trump’s comments. “We have already stated our position in the past,” he said in a voice note, adding that “this would be a repetition.” Mujahid and other Taliban officials had previously ruled out any U.S. military presence in the country.

Taliban leaders have pushed hard to break their isolation, arguing that their stance on human rights is a “domestic matter” that should be free from foreign interference. The Taliban also want sanctions against them dropped and access restored to central bank assets that the United States froze after their violent takeover.

Earlier this year, Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan, a move that Moscow said would allow for increased coordination on counterterrorism. An affiliate of the Islamic State group that maintains a presence in Afghanistan’s east asserted responsibility for an attack in Russia last year.

Despite considerable international pressure, the Taliban have not significantly moderated any of their positions on the rights of women and girls since taking power in 2021.

While the United States has not granted the Taliban formal recognition, senior U.S. officials have met with the group to negotiate the release of Americans held in Afghanistan.

Adam Boehler, special envoy for hostage response, was photographed this month in Kabul meeting with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The Taliban later released a statement that the two sides had agreed to a prisoner swap as part of an effort to normalize relations. Boehler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Previous Trump comments have suggested he wants to regain control of Bagram as a counter to China, but it is unclear what he meant. Bagram remains under the control of the Taliban. China has maintained significant economic ties with Afghanistan throughout the Taliban takeover. China is involved in mineral exploitation in Afghanistan and invited the country to join a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project it is pursuing with Pakistan.

Bagram, about 40 miles north of Kabul in Parwan province, had served as the center of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign across Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion. The base was built for the Soviet Union in the 1950s, but with two large concrete runways, it was later able to serve as the launch site for fighter jets, cargo planes and drones during the U.S. military presence.

The site also became notorious for detention centers where torture occurred under the watch of U.S. and Afghan officials, according to reports from the United Nations, human rights groups and the U.S. government itself.

The air base itself was handed over to the Afghan government in July 2021 as the U.S. military prepared to withdraw. It was overrun by Taliban forces the following month and has since seen little use.

George reported from Washington. Dan Lamothe, Rick Noack, and Haq Nawaz Khan contributed to this report.
Trump says he is working to get Afghan air base from Taliban
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Taliban Rebuffs Trump’s Effort to Regain Air Base in Afghanistan

September 19, 2025

Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan

The New York Times

An Afghan official rejected the idea of a renewed presence for the U.S. military in the country, but left the door open for “political and economic relations.”

Taliban officials late Thursday rejected a suggestion by President Trump that the United States might regain control of the last major base it abandoned during its withdrawal from Afghanistan, but they left open the possibility of talks to improve ties between the two countries.

During a news conference on Thursday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, Mr. Trump said that his administration had been working to reclaim the facility, the Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, which U.S. forces abandoned in 2021 shortly before the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan.

“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Mr. Trump said. He added that Bagram was strategically important for the United States because “it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

Mr. Trump has said in the past that the United States should not have abandoned the air base, but his comments on Thursday were the first public acknowledgment that negotiations to reclaim it might be underwa

“Without the U.S. having any military presence in Afghanistan, both Afghanistan and the U.S. need to engage with each other, and they can have political and economic relations based on mutual respect and shared interests,” Zakir Jalaly, an Afghan foreign ministry official, said on social media.

“Afghans have never accepted the military presence of anyone throughout history,” Mr. Jalaly added. “But for other kinds of engagement, all paths remain open for them.” He called Mr. Trump “a good businessman and negotiator, more than just a politician.”

Other officials were less diplomatic. Muhajer Farahi, a deputy minister, posted part of a poem on X: “Those who once smashed their heads against the rocks with us, their minds have still not found peace.” He ended his post with “Bagram, Afghanistan.”

Mr. Trump did not specify in his comments on Thursday what he envisioned for Bagram. The United States has kept a minimal level of public engagement with Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, restricting it to hostage negotiations. In a rare visit to Afghanistan last week, Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage response, met with the Afghan foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Kabul.

In Washington, congressional Democrats assailed Mr. Trump’s comments.

“It’s deeply, deeply troubling that the president of the United States can be that idiotic,” Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview.

Afghanistan has remained largely isolated on the global stage since the Taliban took control, in August 2021. The Taliban government has not been recognized by any country other than Russia. Its economy is struggling to attract foreign support and private investments. And as high-level meetings at the United Nations General Assembly are set to begin on Monday, Afghanistan will once again not be represented because its officials face a U.N. travel ban.

Bagram, which sits 25 miles north of Kabul and was built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s, was the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan during its 20-year occupation of the country.

Mr. Trump said in March that the United States should have stayed at Bagram “not because of Afghanistan but because of China, because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles.” At the time, he claimed that Bagram was “now under China’s influence,” which the Taliban denied.

The 2020 deal signed between the Taliban and United States under the first Trump administration contained no provision to retain Bagram Air Base or any other foothold. It stated that the United States would “withdraw from Afghanistan all military forces of the United States.”

During its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States left behind thousands of weapons and other pieces of military equipment and a sprawling embassy compound that sits vacant in the center of Kabul. U.S. military uniforms and shoes can still be found in Kabul’s bazaars, and a message in graffiti greets international visitors coming from the airport: “Our nation defeated America with the help of God.”

Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, and Safiullah Padshah from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taliban Rebuffs Trump’s Effort to Regain Air Base in Afghanistan
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Internet Shutdowns Hit Parts of Afghanistan Amid Talk of a Crackdown

September 18, 2025

Taimoor Shah reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Elian Peltier from Karachi, Pakistan.

The New York Times

Some provincial officials said the country’s leader instructed them to switch off Wi-Fi in their area to limit the “misuse of the internet” and diffusion of “immoral acts.”

Internet shutdowns hit several provinces of Afghanistan this week in an apparent attempt by the country’s authorities to limit its use and, in at least one province, the diffusion of content deemed immoral, according to government officials.

Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban and of Afghanistan since 2021, instructed governors this month to cut off Wi-Fi access in their provinces to curb the “misuse of the internet,” according to Mahmood Ezam, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar Province.

“Fiber internet was shut down by order of the Supreme Leader,” Mr. Ezam said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, referring to Sheikh Haibatullah.

He did not elaborate on what was meant by misuse. But Wi-Fi was also suspended — based on the same order — in the northern province of Balkh to prevent the diffusion of “immoral acts,” a provincial spokesman there said on X.

The national government did not respond to requests for comment.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, called the ban in Balkh Province “absurd and unwise,” and its justification “insulting.”

“It will damage not only the province’s economy, but the country’s prospects as a whole,” Mr. Khalilzad, who met with Afghanistan’s foreign minister last week in the capital of Kabul to discuss the release of American hostages, said on X.

An administration official and a telecommunications official, both speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, confirmed that the order had come from Sheikh Haibatullah, who is based in Kandahar, and had been conveyed to governors this month. Mobile internet was still accessible, although connectivity remains scarce in large swathes of the country.

Provincial and national officials from the Taliban-led administration have in recent weeks imposed broad restrictions on mass communications and individual freedoms on religious grounds. YouTubers have been banned from posting content; television channels have been ordered not to show faces in a growing number of provinces; and Afghan women working from United Nations agencies have been prevented from entering U.N. compounds in Kabul.

Internet traffic began to drop on Monday in at least seven of 34 provinces, according to traffic data complied by Access Now, a global digital rights group, though it was unclear if that was connected to the shutdown order.

The internet shutdown, the first since the Taliban took power in 2021, threatens to throw Afghanistan’s battered economy further into disarray, with its immediate effects so biting that some provincial officials and business owners urged the authorities to find an alternative.

“We’re in the 21st century and instead of making progress, unfortunately we go back,” said Israr Kamal, a snack trader in Kandahar who sells products online. “If the government wants to be an active partner of the world, they shouldn’t impose such restrictions on the people and society.”

Mr. Ezam, the provincial spokesman in Kandahar, said that officials there complained about the impact of the shutdown in a meeting with the governor on Wednesday. He added that the authorities were trying to come up with alternatives, such as granting limited access to essential government agencies and administrations.

Safiullah Padshah and Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Internet Shutdowns Hit Parts of Afghanistan Amid Talk of a Crackdown
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