Kirby
Ariana: White House spokesman John Kirby defended Israel amid international outrage after an airstrike reportedly killed dozens of civilians in the Gaza Strip — saying the US military “did the same thing.” “We have conducted airstrikes in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where, tragically, we caused civilian casualties,” he said — adding that the US responded the same way as Israel in the aftermath. Click here to read more (external link).
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Khaama: The Turkish presidency announced in a statement that the diplomatic visa exemption agreement between Turkey and Afghanistan has been revoked. According to the statement from the Turkish Presidency, published on Wednesday, May 28th, this decision, signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will be implemented starting from June 1. The decree signed by the Turkish president states: “The agreement between the Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the mutual exemption from visa obligations for holders of diplomatic passports, signed on September 29, 2007, and implemented by the Council of Ministers’ decision on January 8, 2008, will be terminated as of June 1.” With the revocation of this agreement, Turkish and Taliban officials will now have to undergo the visa application process for mutual entry into Afghanistan and Turkey. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban militants dancing (file photo)
8am: Firoz Jawed, a resident of Mazar-i-Sharif, also believes that the Taliban only oppose the celebration of festivals that are more prevalent among non-Pashtun ethnic groups. He adds, “The Taliban oppose Nowruz because they do not consider it a festival of their ethnic group. The Gul-e Narinj (Orange Blossom) Festival in Nangarhar was celebrated with much fanfare, and Taliban officials gave speeches there. The Gul-e Arghawan (Eastern Redbud Flower) Festival in Parwan was also celebrated, and Taliban members recited poetry. The Taliban did not show any opposition to these events.” He further states that the Taliban’s actions over the past three years indicate that the group only opposes festivals celebrated by non-Pashtun ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
May 28, 2024
In coming weeks, tens of thousands of students in Afghanistan are set to sit for university entrance examinations.
Notably absent from the list of candidates will be females.
The upcoming exams are expected to determine the admission of about 70,000 students to public academic and professional institutions this year.
Last week, when officials from the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education unveiled the specifics of the upcoming exams, they conspicuously omitted any mention of the exclusion of female students from university admissions.
Despite facing widespread domestic and international criticism for their prohibition of women from educational and professional opportunities, the Taliban have persisted in enforcing discriminatory gender policies.
“The exclusion of women from higher education significantly limits the country’s economic potential, as half the population is unable to contribute effectively to the workforce,” David Roof, a professor of educational studies at Ball State University, wrote to VOA.
In December 2022, the Taliban suspended nearly 100,000 female students enrolled in both public and private universities across Afghanistan.
With the nation already grappling with some of the most dire female literacy rates globally, Afghanistan has failed to produce any female professionals over the past two years.
According to aid agencies, the absence of female medical professionals, compounded by other restrictions, has contributed to the deaths of thousands of young mothers in Afghanistan.
The United Nations reports that over 2.5 million Afghan school-age girls are deprived of education.
“The interruption in education can result in a generational setback, where entire cohorts of women remain uneducated and unqualified for professional roles,” Roof said.
‘Hermit kingdom’
The elusive supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, purportedly responsible for the ban on women’s education and employment, has never publicly clarified his directive.
Initially, when secondary schools were shuttered for girls in March 2022, Taliban officials said the action was “temporary,” insisting that the Islamist leadership did not fundamentally oppose women’s education.
However, more than two years later, Taliban officials have provided no rationale for the continued absence of girls from classrooms.
“They have normalized gender-apartheid,” said an Afghan women’s rights activist who did not want to be named in this article, fearing the Taliban’s persecution.
“This is a new norm in Afghanistan, however insane and destructive it may look in the rest of the world,” she added.
In January 2022, the U.S. Department of State appointed Rina Amiri as the special envoy for Afghan women, aiming to garner international backing for Afghan women’s rights.
Amiri has actively engaged with Muslim leaders, emphasizing the importance of women’s rights in Islam, in hopes of influencing Taliban leaders.
Despite these efforts, there has been no indication from Taliban leaders of any intention to abandon their discriminatory policies against women. “There is no indication this will subside,” Amiri told a Congressional hearing in January.
Senior U.S. officials have also warned the Taliban that there will be no normalization in their relations with the international community unless they allow women to return to work and education.
Thus far, the Taliban’s response has been that they value depriving women of basic human rights more than having normal relations with the rest of the world.
Ariana: An estimated 6.5 million children in Afghanistan – or nearly three out of ten – will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year as the country feels the immediate impacts of floods, the long term effects of drought and the return of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran, said Save the Children in a statement this week. New figures forecast that 28% of the population – or about 12.4 million people – will face acute food insecurity before October. Of those, nearly 2.4 million are predicted to experience emergency levels of hunger, which is one level below famine. Click here to read more (external link).
Mullah Akhtar Mansur
8am: The Taliban propaganda machine continuously talks about corruption in the previous government and portrays officials of the republic era as hedonistic, extravagant individuals indifferent to the suffering of the people. The reality is that the Taliban do not differ much from the officials of the previous regime in this regard. Perhaps the only difference is that in the previous regime, there were more resources and money, and consequently, there was more embezzlement and corruption. Reports are indicating that Taliban officials are involved in the looting of Afghanistan’s mines. Additionally, multiple reports, including the Cigar Report, have been published regarding the Taliban’s misuse of international aid for the needy. Currently, the Taliban leader in Kandahar spends a huge budget without being accountable to any authority or informing the public about the amount spent. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The training camp of the Afghanistan national football team continues in Saudi Arabia to prepare for their upcoming matches against Kuwait and Qatar. The national football team will face Qatar on June 6 in Saudi Arabia. They will then play their third match of the competition against Kuwait on June 11. Click here to read more (external link).
Kabulov
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
May 27, 2024
ISLAMABAD — A senior Russian diplomat says Russia’s foreign and justice ministries have told President Vladimir Putin that Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban “can be removed” from the list of Moscow-designated terrorist organizations.
Zamir Kabulov, the special presidential envoy for Afghanistan, told state-run TASS news agency Monday that the delisting would enable Moscow to decide whether to recognize the Taliban government.
“Without this [removal of the ban on the Taliban], it will be premature to talk about recognition,” he was quoted as saying. “Therefore, work on this issue continues. All considerations have been reported to the top leadership of Russia. We are waiting for a decision.”
Separately, TASS quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying Monday that the Taliban is the “real power” in Afghanistan and that the group’s possible removal from Moscow’s list of banned organizations reflects “objective reality.”
Russia formally labeled the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003, when the radical group was waging a deadly insurgency against the United States and allied troops in Afghanistan.
The insurgents stormed back to power on August 15, 2021, and established a men-only Taliban government as the U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
No foreign country has formally recognized the Taliban as legitimate rulers, mainly due to human rights and terrorism-related concerns. However, several neighboring and regional countries, including Russia, have retained their embassies in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and allowed the de facto government to run Afghan embassies on their respective soils.
Kabulov noted Monday that the Taliban had “come a long way towards being recognized” since seizing power. “But there are still a few hurdles to overcome, after which the Russian leadership will make a decision,” he said, without elaborating.
The Russian envoy was also quoted as saying Monday that his government had extended an invitation to the Taliban to attend a June 5-8 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The event, which once hosted top Western business leaders and investment bankers from London and New York, has changed significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow and the international community at large have been urging the Taliban to govern the war-torn South Asian nation through a politically inclusive government and remove bans on Afghan women’s access to education and work.
The hardline de facto rulers have rejected criticism of their governance as interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, saying their policies are aligned with local culture and Islamic law.
Russia has been developing ties with the Taliban for years and reportedly provided them with weapons while they were waging insurgent attacks on the U.S.-led foreign troops and their Afghan allies. Taliban officials say trade ties between Kabul and Moscow have rapidly grown over the past couple of years.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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