Amu: Former President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday warned that continued restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment are weakening the country, as a new academic year begins. “Depriving girls of education and banning women from work confronts our people each day with greater weakness,” he said, adding that the continuation of such policies would have
NPR: Girls dressed as boys has been documented for centuries in the patriarchal society of Afghanistan. It even has a term: a girl who disguises her gender is called a bacha posh — literally “dressing like a boy.” Bacha posh girls have long captured the imaginations of Westerners in Afghanistan. It was addressed in the
8am: Several Kabul residents have expressed concern over the growing number of beggars on the streets and intersections of the city, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan. They say that women and children make up the largest portion of beggars across the city. According to them, rising unemployment, restrictions on women’s right to work,
Ariana: Local officials in Afghanistan’s Kunar province have reported that an airstrike conducted by Pakistani forces in Khas Kunar district resulted in the death of three children. The attack, which struck a return refugee camp in the Hajratabad area, also left another two children injured. Click here to read more (external link). More Pakistan, Afghanistan
Amu: As Ramadan begins, rising food prices across Afghanistan are fueling fresh anxiety among families already strained by economic hardship, particularly in the country’s southern provinces. Residents say the cost of basic staples has climbed sharply in recent weeks, making it increasingly difficult to prepare meals for the holy month, when families traditionally gather at
8am: Some families in Kabul say that their children’s attitudes toward the future have changed after listening to songs produced by the Taliban. They add that after hearing these songs, their children show greater curiosity about topics related to war and frequently use terms such as “suicide, jihad, and martyrdom” and other violent concepts in
AP: The judge wanted everyone in the courtroom to know that when he’d signed a war orphan over to an American Marine he thought it was an emergency — that the child injured on the battlefield in Afghanistan was on death’s door, with neither a family nor a country to claim her. A lawyer for
Afghanistan International: In the video, the girl says she was compelled to work in order to protect and support her sisters. The phenomenon of girls dressing as boys was also common during the Taliban’s first period of rule in Afghanistan. Afghan filmmaker Siddiq Barmak later portrayed this reality in the film Osama, which tells the
The Telegraph (UK): Landmines and other explosives left behind after decades of war killed at least 92 people and injured 379 others in Afghanistan last year. More than two thirds of the victims were children, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Afghanistan now ranks third globally for casualties caused by landmines
Khaama: Public Health Ministry announced Monday a polio vaccination campaign has begun across 18 provinces targeting 7.3 million children under age five throughout Afghanistan. Ministry spokesperson Sharaf Zaman Amarkhel stated the campaign is underway in Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan, Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Ghazni, Badghis, Herat, Kunduz, Faryab, Balkh, Zabul, Uruzgan, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces.