Minimal Representation of Ethnic Groups in the Taliban Regime: ‘Pro-Taliban Figures Do Not Represent Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras’

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Taliban militants (file photo)

8am: The Middle East Research Institute recently published its findings on the ethnic composition of the Taliban regime. The research shows that among the 1,137 leaders and high-ranking officials, 87 belong to the Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara ethnic groups. Several political figures and prominent individuals in the country argue that none of the non-Pashtun members of the Taliban regime represent the Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara communities. They claim these individuals work as hired soldiers for the Taliban and lack the authority to influence the group’s decisions. The report’s findings show that among the Taliban officials, 40 top leaders, including the supreme leader, the Prime Minister, and the Ministers of Defense, Higher Education, Education, Culture, Rural Development, Labor and Social Affairs, Public Works, and the Chief Justice, are from Kandahar province. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan Women Head To Olympics On Equal Footing

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By Faiza Ibrahimi
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 27, 2024

Afghan athletes face formidable hurdles under Taliban rule, particularly women, who are denied the chance to compete or even enter a gym. But when the Olympics open in Paris next month, Afghanistan will be represented by a team that epitomizes equality and global resistance to the Taliban’s disregard for women’s rights.

Afghanistan will field a six-member Olympic team that will consist of three women and three men, all chosen by the exiled Afghan National Olympic Committee (NOC). The team has the full support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which believes a gender-balanced team will serve as a positive example to the world.

The Taliban, which remains internationally isolated and whose unrecognized rule of Afghanistan has been marked by human rights abuses, has no stake in the team or the selection process.

Representatives of the Taliban and its authoritative bodies were denied accreditation for the Olympics and will not be represented in any way during the games that open on July 26.

The hard-line Islamist group’s ban on women’s sports is part of its raft of infamous restrictions that deprive Afghan women and girls of the opportunity to pursue education, employment, mobility, and deny them any prominent role in government or society.

In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, women must be accompanied by a male chaperone even to travel outside their homes, and are barred from competitions or even working out in public gyms.

But in Paris, the athletes representing Afghanistan will be breaking taboos and restrictions. The team was selected with the goal of showcasing gender equality, and features the same number of women and men.

Kimia Yousefi, Afghanistan’s fastest woman and soon to be a three-time Olympian, will be looking to best the Afghan national record of 13.29 seconds she set in the 100 meters in Tokyo. She served as the flag-bearer for Afghanistan nearly three years ago in those COVID-delayed games, which wrapped up just days before the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021.

Yousefi will be joined by the Hashemi sisters, Fariba and her older sibling Yulduz, road cyclists who are on track to be the first-ever — male or female — to represent Afghanistan in cycling at the Olympics.

Swimmer Fahim Anwari is among those who will be competing for Afghanistan under the anthem as well as the black, red, and green flag of the former Afghan republic ousted by the Taliban.

The tumultuous political changes in the Olympian’s homeland since he represented Afghanistan in Tokyo have upturned his life and those of his compatriots.

Limited Resources

After the Taliban’s seizure of power, Anwari fled to Germany, where he has trained with limited resources and continues to represent Afghanistan in international swimming competitions.

“Problems and challenges in exile severely disrupted my practice,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “But I am doing my best to pursue my goals.”

Afghanistan’s fastest man, sprinter Shah Mahmud Noorzai, will be competing in the 100 meters.

“I have trained well for the Paris games,” Noorzai, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Noorzai fled to neighboring Iran after the Taliban rolled into Kabul. With the help of the IOC, he trained with Iranian athletes.

Noorzai said he is looking forward to beating the national record he set in Tokyo in the 100 meters, which he ran in 10.23 seconds.

“I am proud to be the fastest man in Afghanistan,” he said. “To be the fastest man in Afghanistan’s history.”

unas Popalzai, the exiled secretary-general of the Afghan NOC, told Radio Azadi that in addition to Noorzai and Anwari, the judoka Mohmmad Samim will represent Afghanistan.

Akhtari said five of the Team Afghanistan athletes were based outside their home country.

“As all women’s sports are suspended in Afghanistan, [the female athletes] who were put forward were not introduced from inside the country,” he told the AFP news agency this month.

Only Samim is believed to be based in Afghanistan itself.

The objective from the beginning was to choose a balanced team of men and women to represent Afghanistan.

“We made it clear we wanted a gender-equal team,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said earlier this month. “That was the demand, and that is what we achieved.”

“The clear idea is we want to get Afghan athletes and a gender-based team in Paris,” he said. “Because of the demonstration that it gives to the world, at home in Afghanistan, and also to the rest of the world.”

The IOC provides material and financial support for the Afghan athletes competing in the biggest global sports competition.

Adams stressed that the IOC is not allowing Taliban officials to participate in the Olympics and only recognizes the NOC’s right to represent Afghan athletes.

“There will be no place for Afghan authorities, the Taliban,” Adams said. “No representative of the de facto authorities, the Taliban government, will be accredited.”

At least three Afghan men and two women will also compete for the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team, which represents 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.

Manizha Talash, a breakdancer who was born in Kabul, discovered the sport on social media, and now lives in Spain, is among those who will compete with the 36-member team.

The Refugee Olympic Team will be led in Paris by Masomah Ali Zada, an Afghan road cyclist who competed for the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo in 2021.

Nigara Shaheen, a judoka in the 70-kilogram category, grew up as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan and practiced martial arts as a family tradition. She has lived and trained in Canada since 2022 and was also named on the Refugee Olympic Team.

Three male Afghans will be on the Refugee Olympic Team– Amir Ansari in road cycling, Arab Sibghatullah in judo, and Farzad Mansouri in taekwondo.

Afghanistan first participated in the Olympics in 1936, but has only won two medals.

Rohullah Nikpah won men’s taekwondo medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and in the 2012 games in London.

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Radio Azadi correspondent Faiza Ibrahimi.

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.

Other Afghan Sports News

Taliban Fighters Clash With Residents in Khash District, Badakhshan

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Afghanistan International: Local sources confirmed that Taliban fighters clashed with residents in Khash district of Badakhshan province on Wednesday. The conflict erupted due to the eradication of poppy cultivation in the province. Sources told Afghanistan International that several local residents were injured in the clash, and the Taliban fighters fled the scene. The clash occurred on Wednesday morning, resulting in four local residents being injured, with one in critical condition. Click here to read more (external link).

UN Deviating From Primary Mission, Say Taliban Opponents at Vienna Meeting

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Afghanistan International: On the final day of the Vienna meeting, opponents of Taliban stated that setting the Doha meeting’s agenda according to the Taliban’s demands and the group’s unilateral participation indicates that the UN has deviated from its primary mission. In a declaration, they warned against any engagement and normalisation of relations between the international community and the Taliban. The final declaration of the Vienna conference stated, “The unilateral participation of the Taliban and setting the agenda according to their wishes not only delegitimizes the Doha meeting, but also the entire Doha process.” The participants of the Vienna meeting called on regional countries to refrain from cooperating with the Taliban in mining activities, stating that minerals are a national asset and should only be utilised by a legitimate government representing the people. Click here to read more (external link).

Related

Afghanistan National Cricket Team to face South Africa

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Khaama: The national cricket team is set to face South Africa in the 2024 Cricket World Cup semi-finals tomorrow, Thursday, June 27th. The match will take place at 5 AM local time in Afghanistan. This marks the first time the national cricket team has reached the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup. Afghanistan’s cricket team defeated Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and New Zealand in the group stage and Australia and Bangladesh in the Super Eight stage, advancing to the 2024 Cricket World Cup semi-finals. The game is scheduled to be held at the Trobago Stadium in Trinidad, where Afghanistan defeated Papua New Guinea in the group stage. Click here to read more (external link).

Related

Cholera Outbreak Hits Afghanistan Amid Natural Disasters, Crumbling Health Care

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By Sana Kakar and Abubakar Siddique
June 25, 2024

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Shahabuddin had a brush with death when floods ripped through his community and washed away his home in northern Afghanistan.

Having survived one near-death experience, Shahabuddin soon encountered another foe: disease.

“Within 24 hours, I was so weak that I could barely walk,” the father of four, who lives in the province of Baghlan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Shahabuddin is among the nearly 47,000 Afghans who have contracted cholera so far this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A highly infectious bacterial disease, cholera spreads through contaminated food and water and results in acute diarrhea, fever, and dehydration. If untreated, it can lead to death.

At least 25 people have died of the disease so far in 2024 in Afghanistan, which has the highest number of cases in the world, according to a WHO report released on June 19.

Experts said a series of natural disasters, including floods that devastated swaths of northern and central Afghanistan in the spring and the country’s crumbling health-care system, are behind the sharp rise in cases.

‘No Access To Clean Water’

Sharafat Zaman Amar, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Health, said Afghanistan “does not have any confirmed” cases of cholera.

But Faridullah Omari, a physician at the National Infectious Disease Hospital in Kabul, said each day the hospital receives up to 80 patients who are suffering from water-borne diseases like cholera.

He suggested the cholera outbreak has been fueled by lack of hygiene and more people drinking unsafe water.

Communities affected by the recent floods, which killed hundreds and impacted tens of thousands of people, said the deluges destroyed much of the water supply and infrastructure in the region. They also said there was a severe shortage of medicines available to treat infectious diseases like cholera.

“People don’t have access to clean water,” said Sharifullah, a resident of the northern province of Sar-e Pol, which was hit by floods.

“All the water is muddy from the floods,” he told Radio Azadi. “But people use this [dirty] water, and they don’t have the means to clean it. So people, especially children, are suffering from diarrhea.”

Khodayaqal, a resident of Baghlan, said they have little access to health-care facilities after the mobile clinics deployed by aid agencies and the Taliban government in the aftermath of the floods left.

“Our children are battling with diseases,” he told Radio Azadi. “We have one clinic here, but it doesn’t have any medicine.”

In its report, the WHO said diminishing stocks of cholera vaccines, as well as population growth, natural disasters, and climate change, have led to cholera outbreaks.

The public health-care system in Afghanistan, which was largely funded by foreign aid for nearly two decades, has been in free-fall since the Taliban takeover in 2021. The militants’ seizure of power led international donors to immediately cut financial funding.

Hundreds of health facilities have been closed in the past three years, with no funds to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses. Hospitals that are still open suffer from severe shortages of medicine.

While some foreign aid organizations continue to operate in Afghanistan, many of them have been forced to curb their work as international funding diminishes.

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.

NRF & AFF Report Armed Attacks on Taliban in Kabul

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Afghan Resistance Leaders: Zia (left) and Massoud (right)

Afghanistan International: The National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) announced on Monday evening that they had attacked a Taliban checkpoint and outpost in Kabul. The two groups claimed that seven Taliban fighters were killed in these attacks. On Monday, the National Resistance Front wrote on X that they had attacked a Taliban outpost in the Saray Laghman area in Kabul’s ninth security district, resulting in the deaths of two Taliban members and injuring one. The Afghanistan Freedom Front also posted a video on X stating that their attack on a Taliban checkpoint at the Alauddin intersection killed five Taliban members and wounded two others. Click here to read more (external link).