Ayaz Gul VOA News September 18, 2023 ISLAMABAD — The United Nations secretary-general Monday renewed his demand for Afghanistan’s Taliban to allow teenage girls to attend high school. “This is an unjustifiable violation of human rights that inflicts long-lasting damage on the entire country,” Antonio Guterres said on X (formerly Twitter). “Girls belong in school. Let them back
Akmal Dawi VOA News September 12, 2023 Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia are known for their Shariah-based legal systems and authoritarian ways of governance. But the two Islamist governments are on divergent paths regarding women’s work and education. In the Saudi kingdom, where until a few years ago women were deprived of many social rights and
Khaama: On the first day of the fifty-fourth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Afghanistan was the main topic of discussion. Farzana Abbasi, a human rights researcher focusing on Afghanistan, said during this session that some of the actions by the Taliban administration in Afghanistan against women are considered examples of
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi September 11, 2023 A hunger strike by a group of Afghan rights activists to protest the anti-female policies of the ruling Taliban has entered its second week as they seek international recognition of the militants’ policies as “gender apartheid.” The protest that began on September 1 in the German city of Cologne
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 10, 2023 Ahmad Hanayish Abubakar Siddique Shabana had a bright future ahead of her. She was studying to become a doctor and preparing to get married. But the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 turned her life upside down. The militant group’s ban on women attending university forced her to
VOA News September 8, 2023 Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday it “has concluded” that Afghanistan’s Taliban is committing the crime against humanity of gender persecution against Afghanistan’s women and girls. Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, it has been widely reported that the group has sought to deny women and
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi September 6, 2023 Taliban officials have rejected reports that Afghanistan will send female athletes to the Asian Games in China later this month, saying all 133 athletes in the delegation being sent are male. In reaction to a report on Reuters early on September 6, Ahmadullah Wasiq, the head of physical education and sport in
Khaama: Kamal ud-din Behzad Gallery in Herat, Afghanistan, has been closed by the Department of Promotion and Virtue of Taliban due to teaching calligraphy to two young girls, sources said. Officials at the Behzad Gallery in Herat have told the media outlets that the gallery’s door has been shut down by the Taliban’s Department of
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi September 4, 2023 A group of Afghan women’s rights activists have launched a hunger strike in Germany to protest against the policies of the ruling Taliban that limit the rights and freedoms of Afghan women. The hunger strikers, who have set up camp in the German city of Cologne, want the Taliban’s
Aamaj: This former member of Iran’s parliament wrote today on his “X” page that the Taliban “destroyed” Afghanistan. “Taliban treats girls worse than in the pre-Islamic period. They shut down universities and the Persian language, and now they are insulting Shiites like this. What weakness do we have?”, he added. According to him, what else