Afghans Should Return to Their Own Country & Rebuild It, Says Iranian Minister

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Afghanistan International: Eskandar Momeni, Iran’s Interior Minister, has called on Afghan migrants residing in Iran to “return to their own country and work to rebuild it”. Speaking during a televised programme about the “Regulation of Foreign Nationals” plan, Momeni stated, “Iran cannot handle this volume of migration”. On Monday evening, Momeni blamed Afghan migrants for increasing unemployment in Iran, saying, “Many job opportunities are being snatched”. He expressed hope that Afghan migrants would return to Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).

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Taliban Wants To Build Afghanistan’s Air Defenses With Russia’s Help

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Qari Fasihuddin

Forbes: Amidst warming ties between its regime and Russia, the Taliban have expressed its intent to build Afghanistan’s air defenses with Russian equipment. And while Moscow has appeared willing to arm the Houthis in Yemen and even Hezbollah in Lebanon with advanced missiles in recent months, it may not prove so willing for the current ruling regime in Kabul. “Anti-aircraft missiles are the need of countries,” Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, a Taliban commander and chief of army staff, was quoted as saying by Reuters in April 2023. Click here to read more (external link).

Congress Report: Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal marked by critical failure

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Khaama: The House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Michael McCaul, has criticized the U.S. Department of State for its failure to prepare a proper evacuation plan. Despite the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, the department was unprepared for the evacuation process. After two years of investigation, McCaul’s committee released a 300-page report detailing the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and its consequences. The report criticizes the decision-making process and operational failures involved. Click here to read more (external link).

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Border Clashes Between Taliban & Pakistani Forces Continue

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Afghanistan International: Local sources have informed Afghanistan International that, on Monday afternoon, clashes between Afghan Taliban forces and Pakistani forces resumed in the Zazai Maidan district of Khost province. The sources indicated that there have been casualties on both sides, with the use of both light and heavy weapons. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghan embassy in Norway ordered by Oslo to close down

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Ariana: The Afghan embassy in Norway has confirmed it will close its doors on Thursday, September 12, at the request of the Norwegian government. The announcement comes just a day after the embassy in London announced it had been given notice by the British government to close by September 27. Both embassies were being run by diplomats appointed by the former republic government. Click here to read more (external link).

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UN: Taliban’s morality laws targeting women deepen Afghanistan’s isolation

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 9, 2024

Islamabad, Pakistan — The United Nations rights chief expressed his “abhorrence” Monday at the recent promulgation of “so-called morality laws” in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan that silence women or order them to cover their faces and bodies in public.

Volker Türk told a U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva that the new laws were implemented alongside bans on Afghan girls attending secondary school, prohibiting female students from accessing university education, and severely curtailing women’s access to public life and employment opportunities.

“I shudder to think what is next for the women and girls of Afghanistan. This repressive control over half the population in the country is unparalleled in today’s world,” the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner stated.

Türk denounced the morality laws as outrageous and amounting “to systematic gender persecution.” He warned that the intensifying curbs on women are “propelling Afghanistan further down a path of isolation, pain, and hardship.” It would also jeopardize the country’s future by “massively stifling its development,” he added.

Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of Afghan human rights, also spoke and informed Monday’s session in Geneva that the Taliban had lately barred him from visiting the country to conduct assessments in line with his mandate.

He added that the morality law “marks a new phase in the ongoing repression of respect for human rights” since the Taliban regained control of the country three years ago.

The 114-page, 35-article law enacted by the Taliban last month outlines various actions and specific conduct that the Taliban consider mandatory or prohibited for Afghan men and women in line with their strict interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia.

The restrictions prohibit Afghan women from traveling without a male guardian, require them to be silent in public, enforce mandatory covering of females from head to toe, including their faces, and forbid eye contact between women and unrelated men.

The law empowers the Taliban’s contentious Ministry for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice to enforce it strictly.

Ministry enforcers are ordered to discipline offenders, and penalties may include anything from a verbal warning to fines to imprisonment for offenses such as adultery, extramarital sex, lesbianism, taking pictures of living objects, and befriending non-Muslims.

Taliban leaders did not comment on Monday’s U.N. assertions, but they have rejected previous international criticism of the morality laws.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, recently stated that “non-Muslims should educate themselves about Islamic laws and respect Islamic values” before rejecting or raising objections to them. “We find it blasphemous to our Islamic Sharia when objections are raised without understanding it,” he said.

No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan, citing human rights concerns, particularly the harsh treatment of women.

“Any normalization of engagement with the de facto authorities must be based on demonstrated, measurable, and independently verifiable improvements in human rights,” Bennett stressed in his speech Monday, urging the Islamist Taliban to reverse current policies.

Taliban Reignite Calls for Killings, Labeling Social Media Users as Apostates

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Nadeem

Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education and a close ally of Hibatullah Akhundzada, has repeatedly called for the killing and revenge against the country’s citizens through fatwas. Most recently, he labeled social media users as “apostates,” asserting that all infidels worldwide have gathered on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to support infidels in Pashto. This statement has sparked increased concern among citizens, who fear that the Taliban will use accusations of apostasy to arrest and execute their opponents. Reports from international human rights organizations indicate that over the past three years, the Taliban have engaged in widespread acts of revenge and repression against the population. Click here to read more (external link).

Bomb blast hits Pakistan polio team amid national immunization drive

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 9, 2024

Islamabad — Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said Monday that a roadside bomb explosion injured at least 10 people, including anti-polio vaccinators and police personnel escorting them.

The bombing in the South Waziristan district near the border with Afghanistan targeted a convoy carrying polio workers and their guards on the opening day of a nationwide immunization campaign.

Area security and hospital officials reported that three health workers and six security personnel were among the victims. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the violence in a region where security forces are fighting militants linked to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban.

Last week, Pakistan reported its 17th wild poliovirus case of the year from Islamabad, saying it paralyzed a child and marked the first infection in 16 years in the national capital.

Pakistani health officials said in the lead-up to Monday’s polio campaign that it is designed to vaccinate more than 33 million children under five in 115 districts nationwide.

Muhammad Anwarul Haq, coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication, stated that the immunization drive would primarily focus on districts where “the virus has been detected and the risk of continued transmission and spread is really high.”

Haq encouraged all parents and caregivers to ensure their children get vaccinated, lamenting that “parents have not always welcomed and opened their doors to the vaccinators when they visit their homes.”

Pakistan and Afghanistan, which reported nine paralytic polio cases so far in 2024, are the only two remaining polio-endemic countries globally. Polio immunization campaigns have long faced multiple challenges in both countries, such as security and vaccine boycotts, dealing setbacks to the goal of eradicating the virus from the world.