Ariana: The Indian men’s football team was held to a goalless draw by Afghanistan in its Group A match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 AFC qualifiers at the Damac Club Stadium in Abha, Saudi Arabia on Friday. Courtesy the result, India, 117th in the FIFA Rankings, moved up to the second place in Group A with four points from three matches, leapfrogging Kuwait who have three points. World No. 158 Afghanistan are bottom of the four-team group with one point, Olympics.com reported. The Afghan men’s football team will again play India in its next match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 AFC qualifiers on March 26 in Guwahati. Click here to read more (external link).
Suicide Bomber Hits Taliban’s Political Base in Southern Afghanistan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 21, 2024
ISLAMABAD — A rare suicide bombing in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, known as the Taliban’s political headquarters, killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen early Thursday.
Taliban authorities said the victims had gathered outside the officially run New Kabul Bank to receive their salaries when a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body.
Witnesses and local officials reported that the wounded were taken to a local hospital, with some sustaining serious injuries. A Taliban Interior Ministry spokesperson in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said the attack was under investigation.
A regional Islamic State affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan, claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing.
The reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, lives in Kandahar, the historical birthplace of his fundamentalist group, and effectively governs Afghanistan from there.
The men-only Taliban government in Kabul merely implements decrees that Akhundzada routinely issues from Kandahar. He rarely leaves the city.
Akhundzada has banned Afghan girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade and has barred many women from public and private workplaces and public life at large.
The Taliban waged an insurgency and reclaimed power in August 2021 when the United States-led foreign forces withdrew from the country after 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.
The de facto rulers have effectively suppressed or cornered Afghan opposition groups, but IS-Khorasan routinely plots and claims attacks targeting members of the Taliban and the country’s minority Shiite community.
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Tolo News in Dari – March 21, 2024
Etisalat signs deal to support Afghanistan national Cricket team
Khaama: The telecommunications company Etisalat has announced the signing of a contract with the Afghanistan national cricket team and stated that under this agreement, Etisalat will be the official financial supporter of the national cricket team in 2024. This contract between Abdullah Jabar, the commercial head of Etisalat Afghanistan, and Mirwais Ashraf, the head of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, was signed on March 18, 2024, in the United Arab Emirates. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Afghan Sports News
Cultural Erosion: Nowruz Fades in Its Birthplace
8am: The year 1403 of the Solar Hijri calendar marks the third year that Nowruz festivities have yet to be held in Balkh Province. The Taliban banned Nowruz celebrations in the country in the year 1400 Solar Hijri calendar, denying citizens permission to celebrate the New Year. Now, some residents of Mazar-i-Sharif say that under Taliban rule, all the traditions and customs of Nowruz are in decline. They add that for the past three years, due to Taliban restrictions, they have been unable to celebrate the New Year. Zahra, one of the residents of Mazar-i-Sharif, says that for the third year in a row, the joy and enthusiasm of the people have been taken away, and no one has the right to be happy. Click here to read more (external link).
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Restrictions on Nowruz Celebrations in Balkh and Bamiyan Provinces: Road to Hazrat Ali’s Shrine Closed and Bamyan City Under Military Surveillance
8am: Reports emerging from Balkh and Bamiyan provinces reveal that despite the populace’s eagerness to celebrate Nowruz in these regions, stringent measures enforced by the Taliban have cast a pall over the festive spirit marking the New Year in these locales. This marks the third consecutive year in which the Taliban have proscribed Nowruz celebrations, imposing restrictions on those wishing to partake in the festivities. Click here to read more (external link).
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U.N. Has Flown More Than $2.9 Billion in Cash to Afghanistan Since the Taliban Seized Power, Diverting U.S. Funds
ProPublica: The United Nations has delivered more than $2.9 billion in cash to Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control, resulting in the flow of U.S. funds to the extremist group, according to a recent government report. The U.N. deposits the cash into a private Afghan bank and disburses funds to the agency’s aid organizations and nonprofit humanitarian groups. But the money does not stop there, the report found. Some winds up at the central bank of Afghanistan, which is under the control of the Taliban. The group took over the country after the withdrawal of U.S. forces in August 2021. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – March 20, 2024
Afghan Schools Reopen, Girls Banned For 3rd Consecutive Year
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 20, 2024
Schools in Afghanistan reopened Wednesday for the new academic year, but the fundamentalist Taliban government prohibited teenage girls from joining secondary-level classes for a third year in a row.
In a statement marking the new school year, the Taliban Ministry of Education asked teachers and students to follow “Islamic principles in their appearance” and avoid clothing that is against “Islam and Afghan customs.” However, it did not address the closure of secondary schools for girls.
The Taliban have suspended girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and barred many Afghan women from public and private workplaces. Afghan female aid workers have also been prohibited from working for the United Nations and other aid organizations.
The hardline former Afghan insurgents stormed back to power in mid-2021 when U.S.-led foreign forces withdrew from the country after 20 years of involvement in the war with the Taliban.
The Taliban government has since reimposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law to govern the war-torn, impoverished South Asian nation. It has rejected international calls for lifting restrictions on women as interference in internal Afghan affairs.
The de facto Afghan rulers defend the ban, insisting they are working on establishing a female education system that aligns with “Islamic principles” and local culture.
U.N. human rights experts have decried restrictions on Afghan women as “gender apartheid” and called for reversing them immediately.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, renewed its call Wednesday for the Taliban to end what it called an “unjustifiable” ban on girls’ education.
“As #Afghanistan’s new school year begins, it is now more than 900 days since girls aged 12+ have been barred from attending school & university,” the mission said on social media platform X. “UNAMA urges the de facto authorities to end this unjustifiable and damaging ban. Education for all is essential for peace & prosperity,” it wrote.
The U.N. has turned down Taliban requests to let them represent Afghanistan at the world body, citing restrictions on women. No foreign country has formally recognized the rulers in Kabul primarily over human rights concerns.
Vedant Patel, the U.S. State Department principal deputy spokesman, reiterated Tuesday that “the so-called Taliban government” should prioritize and address the issue of women’s rights before stating their desire for international recognition.
“The fair treatment of Afghan women and girls continues to be one of our highest priorities when it comes to our engagements on policy as it relates to Afghanistan,” Patel told reporters in Washington.
“The fact that this is another year in which Afghan women and girls don’t have access to these kinds of schools, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s troubling,” he added.
Meanwhile, Taliban authorities say there are no restrictions on girls’ education in their religious schools known as madrasas.
“Principally, there is no difference between a school and a madrasa,” an official at the Taliban Ministry of Education told VOA last week. He asked for anonymity because the Taliban have banned their members from speaking to VOA.
“If the purpose is education, it can be attained as much in madrasas as in schools, so there should be no insistence only on schools,” the official asserted.
However, the U.N. and human rights activists worry that religious seminaries, largely focused on Islamic studies, cannot fully replace traditional schools that deal with diverse subjects.
“I am concerned that the quality of education in these institutions does not adequately prepare girls or boys for higher-level education and professional training to join an effective workforce in the future,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the Security Council this month.
The U.N. report documented more than 7,000 registered madrasas in Afghanistan, with nearly 400 designated for girls, where Taliban officials say there are no age restrictions for female students.
“Recruitment of madrasa teachers continued following the promulgation in July 2023 of the Taliban leader’s decree mandating the recruitment of 100,000 new madrasa teachers by the end of 2023,” Guterres said in his report.
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Pakistan’s Campaign To Expel Millions Of Afghan Refugees Enters Second Phase
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
March 20, 2024
Pakistan is set to force some 850,000 documented Afghan refugees back to their country next month if they don’t leave voluntarily.
According to reports in Pakistani media, the expulsions, the latest in an ongoing campaign of forced deportations, are scheduled to begin on April 15.
The News, an English-language daily, reported that Afghans holding an Afghan Citizen Card (ACC), an ID card issued by the Pakistani government, will be first asked to voluntarily leave the country.
“Later, they will be arrested and deported,” the report said.
Islamabad is calling this the second phase of its move to force more than 3 million documented and undocumented Afghans out of the country. Since October, it has expelled more than 500,000 Afghans who lacked proper documentation to stay in Pakistan.
“This new step will force Afghans to face danger and fear,” lawyer Muniza Kakar told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
Kakar, a lawyer who has voluntarily represented Afghan refugees arrested in the Pakistani city of Karachi, says the campaign aims to expel more than 850,000 ACC-holding Afghans from the South Asian nation.
“When the expulsions begin, they will not discriminate between Afghans holding ACC cards and those holding valid visas,” she said.
Widespread abuses marred Pakistan’s earlier expulsions. Afghans complained of police and other authorities pressuring them for bribes. Many said they were robbed or were expelled despite holding documents that proved that their stay in Pakistan was legal.
“Urgent action is needed to protect the lives and rights of refugees,” Muniza said.
She shared a government document on X, formerly Twitter, that asks the provincial authorities in the southern province of Sindh, where Karachi is the capital, to complete their respective “mapping and repatriation plans” by March 25.
“Unfortunately, the Pakistani government’s campaign against Afghan refugees has upended our lives,” said Suraya Sadat. “When outside, we always fear being arrested.”
Samira Hamidi, a campaigner for global human rights watchdog Amnesty International, questioned why Islamabad is going after Afghan refugees given the situation in Afghanistan.
“Most of these refugees fled Afghanistan fearing persecution of the Taliban,” she wrote on X. “Such mapping and any further decision will expose them to great risk.”
The new plan for exclusions comes after Afghanistan’s Taliban government shelled a Pakistani military installation on March 20. The Taliban said that the attacks were a retaliation for Pakistani air strikes that killed women and children in two southeastern Afghan provinces.
Pakistan said the attacks targeted members of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, which Islamabad says is sheltering in Afghanistan. Islamabad blames the group for violent attacks on its security forces.