The Guardian (UK): Life for single mothers in Afghanistan has always been marred by stigma and poverty. Now with the Taliban in control, what few protections they had have disappeared. Click here to read more (external link).
The Guardian (UK): Afghan women, including the country’s women’s cricket team, will be banned from playing sport under the new Taliban government, according to an official in the hardline Islamist group. In an interview with the Australian broadcaster SBS, the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said women’s sport was considered neither
By Frud Bezhan RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi September 6, 2021 KABUL — The Taliban has imposed a new dress code and gender segregation for women at private universities and colleges in Afghanistan, in line with a decree issued to educational institutions and obtained by RFE/RL. All female students, teachers, and staff must wear an Islamic abaya robe
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 18, 2021 Prominent female news presenter Shabnam Dawran is one of Afghanistan’s most recognizable faces. But after the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan capital on August 15, she was promptly fired along with all her female colleagues. A Taliban militant flanked by a white Taliban flag took her
Taliban going door to door looking for government employees, taking down names/addresses, disarming people, taking them away, beating musicians, destroying instruments, etc. Taliban fighters beating musicians and destroying their instruments as they go door-to-door searching peoples’ homes in #Kabul, several residents told me. History repeating itself. Taliban banned music during its brutal former regime. —
Nafees Takar VOA News July 22, 2021 Editor’s note: The U.S. departure from Afghanistan marks another major turning point for the Taliban, the militant group with a long history in Afghanistan and a complex relationship with Pakistan. VOA reporters are looking back at the Taliban’s rise to power and the group’s previous tenure as Afghanistan’s
US News: As President Joe Biden nears the August deadline he set to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, one critical feature of the drawdown has become clear: he now owns the precarious situation there, and there’s no turning back. Click here to read more (external link). Related Obama Pentagon official: Afghanistan troop withdrawal ‘is not going
Radio Free Afghanistan Abubakar Siddique April 8, 2021 Haji Abdul Manan, a tribal leader of the Afghan nomads, grows wistful recalling the wandering lifestyle his extended family gave up for a sedentary life a decade ago. The 70-year-old patriarch, who spent his childhood and much of his adult life on the move, says he can
Mujib Rahman Habibzai Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 31, 2021 MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan — Ethnic Tatars have lived for centuries in what is now the territory of Afghanistan. But they were never officially recognized among the dozens of ethnic and linguistic groups in the country. That changed this month when the National Statistics
Radio Free Afghanistan Abubakar Siddique March 29, 2021 KABUL, — Zablon Simintov is Afghanistan’s only Jew. The 61-year-old has borne separation from his family and life during civil wars and Taliban oppression to stay in his homeland, Afghanistan. But Simintov is now planning to leave Afghanistan as the withdrawal of Western forces looms amid ongoing