Ariana: Afghanistan’s national futsal team is scheduled to play two friendly matches against Morocco next month, it was announced on Saturday. The matches will be played behind closed doors on 10th and 13th July in Morocco, the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) said. Click here to read more (external link).
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Khorasani
Afghanistan International: Abdul Hamid Khorasani, a Tajik commander of the Taliban, says that the behaviour of the “Emirate’s leadership” towards non-Pashtun Taliban members is like that of “prisoners of war, slaves, and servants”. Khorasani stated, “This is not an Islamic Emirate, but rather an ethnic Emirate of the Kandahari and Zadran tribes.” According to him, the Taliban do not value people, especially women, “even as much as an animal”. Khorasani believes that the presence of Tajik and Uzbek Taliban representatives, including Qari Fasihuddin, is “symbolic” and that they “lack authority”. This disgruntled Tajik-origin Taliban commander claimed that, according to his information, Qari Fasihuddin, the Taliban’s chief of staff, is forbidden to leave the country, and his orders are not enforceable in the Ministry of Defense. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: It emphasizes that the Taliban failed to protect places of worship in Afghanistan over the past year. The State Department’s annual report also mentions the declining Sikh and Hindu populations, attacks on Shia mosques, and assaults on Hazaras. It cites historical events, including the killing of a Salafi cleric in Kapisa in 2023, prompting thousands of Salafi followers to leave Afghanistan after Taliban control. The report details massacres, torture, forced displacement of Hazaras by the Taliban, and seizure of their lands and homes across multiple provinces. Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan under Taliban rule express concerns for their safety and fear torture if they complain to the courts. Click here to read more (external link).
Khawaja Muhammad Asif
Ariana: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Thursday that under Operation Azm-e-Istehkam, the government could target Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts across the border in Afghanistan. “If the need arises, there is nothing more important than Pakistan’s sovereignty,” Asif told VOA when asked whether Pakistan would consider cross-border attacks to control perpetrators. Addressing the legality of potential cross-border attacks, Asif argued that Pakistan must prioritise its own interests. “It is also a violation of international norms when Afghan soil is used to export terrorism, with those responsible receiving protection and safe havens by the people there,” he added. He also dismissed the possibility of negotiations with TTP. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan International: Sources from the National Resistance Front (NRF) confirmed to Afghanistan International that Abdul Samad Kohgaday, also known as Commander Hamza, a commander of the NRF, was killed in a battle with the Taliban. According to sources, Commander Hamza was ambushed by the Taliban in Kohgaday village, Nahrin District, Baghlan. Click here to read more (external link).
By Rahim Gul Sarwan, Anne Ball
VOA News
June 27, 2024
WASHINGTON — Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was down sharply last year, according to the United Nations and private sources, but the plants are being grown in most provinces despite a ban imposed by the Taliban. Some areas grow more than others.
According to sources inside Afghanistan and on Taliban-run social media accounts, farmers in about 29 provinces have been growing poppies since spring. The largest amounts are grown in Badakhshan, Helmand, Herat and Nangarhar provinces.
Poppies, which farmers process to make opium, are being grown in the open and hidden behind property walls.
Taliban forces conducted thousands of operations to destroy the plant, as was announced on the X social media platform by the Ministry of Interior Counter Narcotics. It listed 29 provinces where they conducted eradication efforts.
The Taliban Interior Ministry said that in the past six months, its police conducted more than 15,000 poppy eradication operations on more than 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres). It also said thousands of people were arrested for violating the ban.
Abdul Haq Akhundzada, Taliban deputy interior minister for counternarcotics, told VOA there won’t be problems with narcotics this year.
“In those provinces, in areas where farmers grow hidden poppy, we conducted operations there as well, and we eradicated their hidden poppy,” he said.
Not everyone is peacefully accepting the opium ban and eradication. In northeastern Badakhshan province, violent clashes erupted last month between the Taliban and farmers. Two people were killed.
Local Taliban eradication officials reported that in Badakhshan, 35,000 to 40,000 acres were cleared.
Aminullah Taib, deputy Taliban governor in Badakhshan, said they were able to eradicate the fall and spring poppy cultivation in eight districts and will not allow further growth.
Farmers said the eradication was disrespectful of the local culture as the Taliban went to the villages without talking to the elders and informing the villagers about the process.
Abdul Hafiz, a resident of Argo district, where the clash between the farmers and Taliban took place, told VOA the Taliban entered people’s homes and destroyed their poppy crops “without a prayer, notice or acknowledgment.”
Poppy growth was at its high in 2021, the year the Taliban regained power. Farmers grew as much as possible, fearing the crop would be banned. While the Taliban banned poppy growth in 2022, they allowed the farmers to harvest what they had already planted.
It was a record year. The United Nations estimated that Afghan opium production was 6,800 metric tons (7,500 tons) in 2021 and 6,200 metric tons (6,800 tons) in 2022.
Last year, the Taliban were largely successful in banning the crop. In opium-rich Helmand province, poppy crop cultivation was down by 99.9%.
Yet how successful the ban was considered depends on the source.
The United Nations reported in October that poppy cultivation was down by 95%. Across Afghanistan, the U.N. said, opium cultivation fell from 233,000 hectares (575,755 acres) in 2022 to just 10,800 hectares (26,687 acres) in 2023.
But the imaging company Alcis, in its comprehensive satellite survey, says poppy cultivation was down by 86% to 31,088 hectares (76,200 acres).
William Byrd, a senior researcher at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told VOA that the 9 percentage-point spread between Alcis and the U.N. makes a difference in how much poppy is estimated to have been harvested for 2023.
He said Alcis paints a more complete picture.
“Opium poppies’ distinctive characteristics and the tools developed by Alcis over a number of years facilitate the complete-coverage approach,” he said, adding that the U.N. relies on sampling different areas. Alcis analyzes satellite imagery for all agricultural land and poppy fields multiple times during the planting, cultivation and harvesting of opium poppy.
Results for 2024 poppy planting are expected by both organizations in the fall.
The economic situation in Afghanistan is dire as more than 12 million people face acute food insecurity.
The poppy ban takes about $1 billion in income away from the rural economy. So, even faced with the ban, impoverished farmers continue to grow poppies because they have few options for income.
For decades now, poppies and the resulting opium have been the biggest cash crop for farmers. Most practice subsistence farming. They have no extra income or time to buy the seeds of other plants and then wait years for them to mature to be harvested and sold.
Farmers complain that the Taliban government isn’t helping them with alternative crops.
Hassebullah, a farmer in Laghman province, told VOA that farmers need support and that they are still waiting for the Taliban government’s help.
“If a farmer doesn’t grow poppy and hashish,” said Hassebullah, who, like most rural Afghans, goes by his first name, “then as an alternative, the government should provide seeds and fertilizer, some agriculture products and other assistance.”
Taliban Deputy Counternarcotics Minister Javed Qaem told VOA that until farmers are provided alternatives, “unfortunately, we will be witnessing more clashes in the coming years.”
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).
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.
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