Amu: A team of Afghanistan’s taekwondo athletes left for Uzbekistan on Friday to compete in the ITF World Taekwondo Championships. The delegation includes one coach, one official, and four athletes. The competition is set to take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, from Saturday, November 2, through November 8. Click here to read more (external link).
Lavrov
Ariana: The United States and its allies are making pretexts for resuming their military presence in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Speaking at the Second Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk, Lavrov said that the US and its allies are trying to destablize the situation in Afghanistan. Earlier, Lavrov had said that the US supports Daesh and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, a charge Washington denies. Click here to read more (external link).
Sirajuddin Haqqani
8am: With a general review, one can conclude that the interview aligns with the effort to whitewash the Taliban and continues the narrative of the “good Taliban and bad Taliban,” portraying the Taliban as different from the 1990s, a narrative that had been discussed during the Doha negotiations. Such interviews by Western media are not unprecedented. If a country’s national interests and policies require it, they can turn the bloodiest figures into gentle personalities, or vice versa. Publicizing the photo of King Amanullah Khan with Queen Soraya to tarnish his image was also part of this tactic. Assigning bizarre titles to Hamid Karzai, such as the best president, and the most fashionable president, or introducing Ashraf Ghani as the second greatest thinker in the world and a specialist in rebuilding failed states, were all part of a Western media strategy to craft their images. Click here to read more (external link).
More on Taliban
Amu: A new survey by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), alongside U.N. Women and the International Organization for Migration, warns that the Taliban’s “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law empowers officials to apply repressive measures that extend beyond targeting women, creating a mechanism for broader social control. The report further reveals that women are facing what it calls “confinement within their homes,” noting that the law has fostered a culture that treats women as second-class citizens. Click here to read more (external link).
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TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud
8am: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Afghan Taliban share a unified strategy and a common goal, leading them to cooperate across both geographies. While some Afghan Taliban members harbor dreams of erasing the Durand Line and merging large parts of Pakistani territory into Afghanistan—an ambition they sometimes express through various pretexts, such as map drawing—each branch has its distinct project and operates within its specific territory. Nonetheless, their shared goals and ideology compel these two branches to collaborate across borders to advance both projects. The common objective of both branches is to establish a religious-ethnic government, something the Afghan Taliban have already achieved, and which the Pakistani Taliban are also pursuing. Along the way, they assist one another wherever needed and wherever possible. Recently, media reports have highlighted small but concrete examples of this cooperation. Click here to read more (externa link).
Amu: Professors at Herat University report that the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has issued strict orders prohibiting them from shaving their beards and mandating daily attendance at congregational prayers. According to faculty members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Taliban officials warned during a recent meeting that professors who fail to comply with the beard requirement or prayer attendance will face imprisonment. The directive, shared in a gathering of about 40 professors and department heads on Tuesday, October 29, stipulates that male staff members must keep beards at least “one fist length” — a traditional standard within Taliban ranks. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: The Afghanistan Cricket Board has finalized the squad for the upcoming Youth Tri-Nation Series against Pakistan and the UAE and for the ACC Men’s U19 Asia Cup 2024. The Youth Tri-Nation Series, will be held from November 16 to 26 in the form of a double-round robin. The final match is scheduled for November 26 at the ICC Academy Cricket Ground in Dubai, UAE. From there, the team will take part in the ACC Men’s U19 Asia Cup which is scheduled from November 29 to December 8. This will also be held in the UAE. The Afghan team are pooled in Group B alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Click here to read more (external link).
More Afghan Sports News
Afghanistan International: An informed source said that car sellers refused to pay taxes due to the high tax rates and the unfavourable economic and market situation, which was met with violence by the Taliban. A number of people said that the Taliban does not provide services despite collecting a lot of taxes. Trade unions and businessmen have called the Taliban’s taxes “back-breaking”. Click here to read more (external link).