UN Gives up on Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

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Khaama: International media has reported the United Nations agencies including UNICEF, World Health Organization and WFP have failed to protect the rights of their female Afghan employees under the Taliban administration in Afghanistan. The London-based news agency Tortoise Media has recently highlighted in one of its reports titled “UN betrays women in Afghanistan” that the organization does not protect its Afghan female employees against gender apartheid and has completely given up on the rights of Afghan women. “I feel the UN did not only betray its female employees, but the whole Afghan women with this decision,” said a local UN employee, reported by Tortoise. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban’s Latest Arrest: Civilian Activist Majid Zia Detained in Kabul

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8am: Reliable sources told Hast-e Subh that on Monday, May 15, Zia was detained by the Taliban at Kabul International Airport while traveling to Iran. Majid Zia was a civilian activist in the previous government and a media advisor for the Rahmani Foundation. According to sources, Zia went to Iran after the Taliban took control of the country and recently returned to Afghanistan due to the death of his father. The Taliban have previously detained and tortured activists, writers, and artists from various parts of the country, especially in Kabul. Click here to read more (external link).

Badakhshan farmers lose dozens of livestock in devastating hailstorm

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Ariana: Residents of Khash district say a devastating hailstorm hit their area on Sunday night, killing at least 80 sheep. They said 30 other farm animals including cattle disappeared in the storm in Shahran village in the Mazar valley. Click here to read more (external link).

Other News from Badakhshan

 

Afghanistan Remains World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis: HRW

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Khaama: Human Rights Watch said on Monday that Afghanistan remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.  The organization said in a statement that two-thirds of the country’s population is food insecure, including 875,000 children facing acute malnutrition and women and girls remain most at risk. Since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021, the amount of international aid has abruptly lost on one side, and the introduction of repressive policies, including banning women from working with the UN agencies by the de facto authorities, has worsened the situation. Click here to read more (external link).

Deadly Clashes Erupt in Faryab Province as Indigenous Residents and Nomadic Herders Battle Over Grazing Lands

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8am: The clashes began on Friday, May 12, in the Bandar region of Kohistan district and have since continued intermittently. According to sources, three indigenous residents and one nomadic herder have been killed as a result of the clashes. Sources claim that the herders are using both light and heavy weapons to attack local residents. Since the Taliban takeover, nomads in Faryab and some other provinces have been involved in legal disputes with indigenous residents over land grazing. According to sources, in some cases, the Taliban have ruled in favor of the nomads, displacing indigenous residents. Click here to read more (external link).

From Torture to Sexual Assault and Murder: What’s Happening in the Taliban’s Women’s Prisons?

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8am: Female prisoners in Taliban-controlled prisons in the provinces of Jowzjan, Faryab, and Samangan are enduring a deplorable situation. They face humiliation, insults, physical torture, and sexual assault. According to the findings of Hasht-e Subh Daily, since the collapse of the Republic regime, the Taliban have detained and imprisoned 90 women in the three northern provinces. Out of these, 36 women are in Faryab province, 34 women are in Samangan province, and another 20 women are in Jowzjan province. These women have been subjected to inappropriate treatment by the Taliban in prisons over the past year. Click here to read more (external link).

Public Health Ministry to Launch Countrywide Polio Vaccination Campaign

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Child getting polio drops (file photo)

Khaama: Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health announced that the “polio vaccination campaign” will start in 23 provinces of the country on Monday, May 15. It is planned that some six million children below the age of five will receive polio vaccination through this major campaign, according to the state-run Bakhtar news agency. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries in the world in which polio disease has not been fully eradicated. As per the existing reports, the first positive case of polio disease was recorded in the Bati Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province in the current year. Click here to read more (externa link).