Afghanistan’s Taliban bans MMA, citing violent nature concerns
DPA: The Taliban government in Afghanistan has prohibited mixed martial arts (MMA), citing concerns over violence and the risk of death, an official told TOLOnews on Tuesday. Ahmadullah Wasiq, head of the Physical Education and Sports Department, said the ban, enforced by the country’s morality police, was due to the sport’s violent nature. Click here to read more (external link).
Sources Report 2 Cases of Mpox In Kabul & Paktia Provinces
Afghanistan International: Sources have informed Afghanistan International of two confirmed cases of Mpox in Afghanistan. According to these sources, the individuals infected with Mpox are two children, one from Paktia and the other from the Farza district of Kabul, and they are currently being treated at the Child Health Hospital. Taliban officials have not yet commented on the reported cases of Mpox in Afghanistan. This marks the first time that two cases of Mpox has been reported in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
3 Years Later, Afghans Still Reeling From Impact Of Devastating Kabul Airport Attack
By Abubakar Siddique and Satar Furogh
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 26, 2024
The harrowing events of August 26, 2021, are seared into Shafiullah Samsor’s memory.
Twenty-two years old at the time, Samsor was among the thousands of desperate Afghans who had amassed outside Kabul airport hoping to be airlifted from the country by the U.S. military.
Just days before, the Taliban had seized control of the Afghan capital, triggering panic among the city’s 5 million inhabitants.
Amid the chaotic scenes outside the airport, which was still controlled by departing U.S. forces, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest among the crowd, unleashing a scene of horror.
“Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, which threw me to the ground,” Samsor recalled. “There was shouting, and people began running everywhere. I remember the blood and dust around me before I fell unconscious.”
The university student was rushed to hospital, where he remained in a coma for four days. When he woke up, the doctors informed him that his spine was fractured in four places. A piece of shrapnel had also pierced his throat.
Around 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed in the bombing, one of the deadliest attacks of the entire 19-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Hundreds more like Samsor were wounded.
The bombing claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group became a symbol of the chaotic and deadly U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan that was completed on August 31.
Three years on, survivors are still reeling from the psychological and physical effects of the attack.
Samor never returned to university to complete his degree in English literature. He cannot work and can barely walk even with the help of crutches.
He and his five sisters and mother depend on remittances sent by his older brother, who works in neighboring Iran.
Samsor’s family spent all their savings and sold off a plot of land and their car to fund his treatment.
“I hope that Allah will punish those responsible for devastating my life and the lives of so many others,” he said.
Meisam Ahmadi lost his two brothers in the bombing.
Alireza Ahmadi, a journalist, and Mujtaba Ahmadi, a photojournalist, had joined the crowd outside Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate after a friend told them he had been allowed to enter the airport by U.S. forces. The friend, Meisam said, had promised to help the brothers get in.
“Unfortunately, there was an explosion there, and both of them were standing together, and they lost their lives,” Meisam said.
‘Badly Handled’
Survivors and the families of the victims of the bombing are still seeking answers about what happened.
Two investigations by the Pentagon concluded that all the victims were killed by a lone suicide bomber.
But a CNN investigation based on new video evidence and released in April this year suggested dozens of the victims may have been shot dead by U.S. soldiers.
Three days after the Abbey Gate bombing, the U.S. military carried out a drone strike targeting what it initially said was an IS-K compound in Kabul.
Instead, the U.S. drone strike killed an Afghan aid worker and nine people from his extended family in what the Pentagon called a “tragic mistake.”
Michael Semple, an Afghanistan expert at Queen’s University Belfast, said the horrific Kabul Airport attack embodied Washington’s mishandling of the international military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“It was time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, but the scenes of disorder which we saw, and which were sort of epitomized by the carnage which happened at Abbey Gate, show that it was badly handled,” Semple said.
In 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement for the phased withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.
But a lightening Taliban military offensive in the summer of 2021 led to the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government before all international forces had left the country.
U.S.-led forces kept control of Kabul Airport for two weeks after the Taliban takeover, evacuating tens of thousands of foreign nationals as well as at-risk Afghans.
Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Tolo News in Dari – August 26, 2024
Taliban’s Minister Declares Sharia & Women’s Hijab As Group’s Red Line
M K Hanafi
Afghanistan International: Taliban’s Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Khalid Hanafi, has reiterated that the implementation of Sharia, Islamic punishments (hudud), and the enforcement of the hijab are non-negotiable for Taliban government. Speaking in Sar-e-Pul province, Hanafi described the newly signed “Law for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” as a demand from “the people of Afghanistan” and urged the international community to avoid “undue criticism”. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
The Struggles of Female Street Vendors in Balkh Province: Taliban Extort 30 to 50 Afghanis Daily
8am: The Taliban’s extensive restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan have forced thousands of women into their homes and left them unemployed. These limitations restrict women to a few areas of work, such as small businesses and street vending, in only a limited number of locations. Female street vendors in Balkh province report that they must pay 30 to 50 Afghanis daily to Taliban fighters to sell second-hand clothes on the streets. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan name preliminary squad for one-off test against New Zealand
Ariana: Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Monday announced a 20-member preliminary squad for the one-off test match against New Zealand from September 9-13 in Greater Noida, India. The 20-member squad will leave for India on August 28 and attend a one-week preparation camp in Greater Noida, ACB said in a statement. Click here to read more (external link).
UN denounces Taliban morality law as ‘distressing vision’ for Afghanistan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 25, 2024
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations expressed concern Sunday over the enactment of a morality law by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban that imposes severe restrictions on personal freedom, silences women in public, and requires them to cover their faces.
“It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
The Islamist Taliban announced the ratification of their Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice Wednesday, forbidding women from singing, reciting poetry, or speaking aloud in public and requiring them to keep their faces and bodies covered at all times.
“It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation,” Otunbayeva said in the statement released by her office in Kabul.
The promulgation of the 35-article law occurred after the Taliban had prohibited Afghan girls from continuing education beyond the sixth grade and imposed extensive limitations on women’s ability to work in most occupations and participate in public activities.
It empowers the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice to enforce these rules across impoverished Afghanistan, ranked as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, reeling from years of war and natural disasters.
The ministry can give warnings before imprisoning offenders for durations of one hour to three days, and it also may seize property as a penalty if considered appropriate.
“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” Otunbayeva said.
She said the outside world wants Afghanistan to pursue peace and prosperity, ensuring that all its citizens have a stake in their future rather than just being subject to discipline.
“Further restricting the rights of the Afghan people and holding them in constant fear will make achieving this goal even harder,” Otunbayeva said.
The U.N. agency said it was studying the newly ratified law, its implications for Afghans, and its potential impact on the U.N. and other humanitarian assistance. Employment-related Taliban curbs on women also prohibit them from seeking jobs in U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups.
The U.N. mission renewed its call for Afghan authorities to “swiftly reverse the policies and practices” restricting “the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Taliban authorities did not immediately respond to the criticism of the morality law.
The head of the Vice and Virtue Ministry has declared the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) and hijab regulations for Afghan women as its “red line.”
Taliban-run state broadcaster RTA quoted Mohammad Khaled Hanafi Sunday as urging a meeting of religious scholars to push back strongly against “criticism and propaganda by Western countries” targeting the Sharia implementation in Afghanistan.
“The Islamic Emirate is committed to granting women all their rights under Sharia law. Anyone with a complaint in this regard will be heard, and the issue will be resolved,” Hanafi said, referring to the all-male Kabul government, which is not recognized by any country.
Recent U.N. reports have questioned the ministry’s actions, warning that its ever-expanding policing of public morality contributed to a “climate of fear and intimidation” among Afghans through edicts and the methods used to enforce them.
Media freedom
The morality law has also raised deep concerns among advocates of media freedom. One of its provisions prohibits the broadcasting and publication of images of living beings, as well as content that is believed to violate Sharia or insult Muslims.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a Friday statement that the law represents another “appalling blow” to press freedom in Afghanistan, where the morality police have intensified a crackdown on journalists and fundamental human rights over the past three years.
“The Law for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice grants the Taliban’s notorious morality police extensive powers to further restrict Afghanistan’s already decimated media community,” said Beh Lih Yi, the CPJ Asia program coordinator.
The U.N. has repeatedly said sweeping restrictions on Afghan women and girls make it nearly impossible for other countries to recognize the Taliban as the country’s legitimate rulers.
Last week, the Taliban announced they had banned Richard Bennett, the U.N.-appointed special rapporteur on Afghan human rights, from visiting the country. They accused him of “spreading propaganda” by providing “misleading” information about “the ground realities” in Afghanistan.