Meryl Streep: ‘A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan’
The Guardian (UK): The American actor Meryl Streep has said that “a squirrel has more rights” than an Afghan girl under the current Taliban regime. Streep, who attended an event on the situation facing women and girls in Afghanistan as part of the UN general assembly in New York, called the Taliban’s draconian restrictions on women’s lives a form of “suffocation”. “A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban,” Streep said on Monday. “A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not, and a woman may not in public.” Click here to read more (external link).
Suspension of Vaccination in Afghanistan could lead to Polio spread in region: Australian Media
Child getting polio drops (file photo)
Khaama: The Australian media outlet The Conversation has warned that the Taliban’s suspension of the polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan could lead to the spread of the disease to neighboring countries like India and Iran. The report, published on Monday, September 23, stated that due to cross-border movement between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the suspension of the polio vaccination campaign poses risks to children in Pakistan as well. However, health officials involved in the polio vaccination campaign told The Guardian that the Taliban had “temporarily” stopped the campaign due to security concerns and issues surrounding the role of women in the vaccination effort. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Afghan national cricket players return to Kabul after ODI series win against South Africa
Ariana: Afghanistan’s national cricket team returned to Kabul on Tuesday morning after sealing a historic ODI series win against South Africa. Afghanistan sealed the series 2-1, making it the first time in history the team has not only secured a series win against South Africa – in any format – but it was also their first-ever series win over a top five ICC-ranked side. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Afghan Sports News
Examining Zalmay Khalilzad’s Role in the Failure of Afghanistan’s Nation-State Building
Khalilzad
8am: Khalilzad is one of the most recognizable figures in Afghanistan’s political landscape over the past four decades, from the Cold War to the disastrous U.S. exit from Afghanistan. However, to better understand and clarify his actions and career, it is necessary to delve into his life so that readers can gain a clearer picture of him. Khalilzad played a greater role than any other domestic or foreign actor in the return of the Taliban to power, the fall of the Republic, and the historical failure of the U.S. in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban in Panjshir Begins Second Round of Unlicensed Weapons Collection
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s police command in Panjshir on Monday announced the start of the second round of the process of collecting unlicensed weapons in the province. Taliban officials in Panjshir announced that no one has the right to keep or transfer unregistered weapons. The Taliban-controlled Afghan National Radio (ANA) quoted the group’s police command in Panjshir as saying that the process of collecting unlicensed weapons and clearing the tinted windows of cars has begun for the second time in the province. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – September 23, 2024
Pakistan names new chief for powerful ISI spy agency
By Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 23, 2024
Islamabad — Pakistan has appointed Lieutenant-General Muhammad Asim Malik as the new head of the country’s top spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
The move comes amid persistent criticism of the powerful military-run agency for its alleged role in making or breaking elected governments in the South Asian nation.
A senior Pakistani security source confirmed to VOA on Monday that Malik will assume office as the agency’s next director general on September 30, replacing the current ISI chief, Nadeem Anjum.
The military’s media wing did not immediately comment on the high-profile appointment, but Pakistan’s state broadcaster reported it with a brief profile of the new ISI chief.
Malik graduated from Fort Leavenworth in the United States and the Royal College of Defence Studies in London and currently serves as an adjutant general at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, adjacent to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The ISI’s meddling in national politics has lately been the subject of intense debate in Pakistan’s national media and political circles.
Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan accuses current ISI chief Anjum of playing a role at the behest of the military in ousting him from power in 2022 through an opposition parliamentary no-confidence vote, instituting frivolous lawsuits subsequently, and unleashing a crackdown on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party to keep himfrom returning to power.
Several federal and provincial court judges, in a recent letter to the Supreme Court chief justice, have also alleged that the ISI was pressuring them to decide cases against Khan to ensure he remains in jail. The incarcerated former prime minister remains Pakistan’s most popular politician.
The military, in turn, has recently arrested Anjum’s predecessor, Faiz Hameed, and initiated his court marshal on various charges, including the use of his position as the ISI chief to enable Khan to suppress political opponents while in office.
It is widely believed that Khan’s decision not to let Anjum replace Hameed in October 2021 angered the military and eventually led to the prime minister’s removal from power several months later.
Subsequent governments and the military deny having any political role or pressuring judges, a claim critics dispute.
The army has ruled Pakistan for more than three decades since the country gained independence from Britain in 1947. Former Pakistani prime ministers, including Khan, and political parties say generals maintain control over foreign policy and national security issues.
Khan has persistently alleged in statements from his prison cell that the current coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “is merely a tout” of the military. He alleges that the army leadership used the ISI to massively rig the February 8 parliamentary elections this year to prevent his party from winning.
The allegations were supported by a detailed Supreme Court majority decision released on Monday, resolving a petition concerning pre- and post-election controversies. The judgment declared several actions of Pakistan’s election commission in the lead-up to the polls “unlawful,” saying they were meant to keep PTI-nominated candidates from winning.
The judgment stated that the commission “has failed to fulfill this role in the general elections of 2024.” It noted that election authorities’ actions “significantly infringe upon the rights of the electorate and corrode their own institutional legitimacy.”
The vote outcome has worsened the political turmoil triggered by Khan’s ouster, undermining Pakistan’s efforts to stabilize an already troubled economy. A spike in militant violence, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces, which border Afghanistan, has added to the challenges facing the military-backed Sharif administration.
“All this has familiar echoes of the past — a government unwilling to engage with the opposition, jailing opposition leaders, trying to steamroll legislation, and a desperate opposition in constant protest mode against a backdrop of economic gloom, weak governance, and ubiquitous establishment pulling the strings from behind the scenes,” Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the U.S. and the United Nations, wrote in an article published by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper Monday.
Afghanistan’s national bodybuilding team to compete in 15th World Championship
Khaama: Athletes from Afghanistan’s Bodybuilding Federation have recently announced that they will soon participate in the World Bodybuilding Championship at their own expense. Officials from the Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation announced on Sunday, September 22, that the Maldives will host the 15th edition of the World Bodybuilding Championship. According to the athletes, over nine athletes will represent Afghanistan in these international competitions. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Afghan Sports News
Central Asia’s High-Stakes Gamble With The Taliban
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Farangis Najibullah
Khursand Khurramov
September 22, 2024
Central Asian countries are taking steps to broaden relations with their southern neighbor, the Taliban-led Afghanistan, despite the hard-line group’s increasingly restrictive policies, particularly toward women.
Kyrgyzstan removed the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations earlier this month, Turkmenistan resumed work with Afghanistan on a major gas-pipeline project, and Uzbekistan signed $2.5 billion worth of cooperation agreements with Kabul during the Uzbek prime minister’s high-profile visit to Afghanistan in August.
Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev said on September 6 that the measure aims to “secure regional stability and further develop ongoing dialogue.”
On September 11, Turkmen and Taliban officials held a ceremony to mark the resumption of the much-delayed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas-pipeline project, which is designed to transport up to 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan to South Asia each year.
The ceremony in the Turkmen border town of Serhetabat was attended by former President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, the head of the powerful People’s Council of Turkmenistan, while the Taliban delegation was led by its prime minister, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who is on a UN sanctions list.
Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhammedov joined the ceremony via a video link.
The estimated $10 billion TAPI project was first designed in the 1990s but was repeatedly delayed due to war and instability in Afghanistan.
Turkmenistan hopes the proposed 1,800-kilometer pipeline will become a key source of revenue for cash-strapped Ashgabat.
And Afghanistan would earn about $500 million in transit fees annually, a major boost to its budget.
The future of TAPI, however, remains in doubt due to Western sanctions on the Taliban administration and the absence of official recognition of the government in Kabul that could hamper funding and investment in the project.
No country in the world has formally recognized the Taliban government.
High-Profile Visit
In August, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Oripov went to Kabul, marking the highest-level visit by a foreign government official since the Taliban took power in Kabul three years ago.
During the visit, Uzbek and Taliban officials reportedly signed investment and trade deals worth about $2.5 billion in the energy, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors.
Afghanistan and Kazakhstan announced in August 2023 that they were planning to increase bilateral trade to $3 billion.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy, was the first country to delist the Taliban as a terror organization in December 2023.
But while Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were quick to make visits to Kabul after the Taliban returned to power, Tajikistan was the only Central Asian country to take a harsh stance on the new rulers in Afghanistan.
‘Accepting Reality’
Dushanbe’s position has been largely linked to its ethnic, linguistic, and historic connection to the mainly ethnic Tajik opponents to the Taliban, which is predominantly ethnic Pashto.
But Tajikistan now appears to be softening it policies toward the Taliban in a move that Tajik experts describe as “accepting reality.”
Tajikistan exports electricity to Kabul and has established several markets in border towns where local merchants from the two sides sell goods. The governments also reportedly discussed cooperation in the fight against militants who target Tajikistan from inside Afghan territory.
Both Dushanbe and Kabul have a shared interest in defeating the Islamic State-Khurasan terrorist group, which has recruited many militants from Tajikistan.
Afghan media reported that the head of Tajikistan’s state Committee for National Security, Saimuddin Yatimov, had a meeting with Taliban intelligence chief Abdul Haq Wasiq in late August. Tajik authorities have neither confirmed nor denied those reports.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Dushanbe-based expert told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service that “given Tajikistan’s vast shared border with Afghanistan, the threats of terrorist attacks, and economic incentives, Tajik authorities have no choice but to opt for geopolitical cooperation” with the Taliban.
Some experts claim that China and Kazakhstan have played a role in convincing Dushanbe to change its attitude toward the Taliban administration.
Addressing high-ranked officials from members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Almaty in June, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev called the Taliban “a long-term factor” and highlighted what he described as “the importance of developing trade and economic cooperation with modern Afghanistan.”