Decker
Tolo News: The Chargé d’Affaires of the US Mission to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, said that in the past eighteen months the US has contributed nearly $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Following the political shift in Afghanistan, the majority of US aid has been sent in packages of $40 million in cash under the heading of humanitarian assistance and each has been deposited in one of the country’s commercial banks. Click here to read more (external link).
Matiullah Wesa
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 28, 2023
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations and relatives said Tuesday that de facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan had detained a prominent advocate for girls’ education.
Matiullah Wesa, the founder and head of PenPath – a community-based education support network – was picked up outside a mosque in the capital of Kabul after prayers on Monday evening.
Taliban security forces arrested Wesa “at gunpoint without any reason and drove him away to an unknown place,” his older brother told VOA.
In a Pashto language video message on Twitter, Attaullah Wesa said that Taliban authorities had raided their home Tuesday morning and forcefully took away their two other brothers along with cell phones and other material. He said he was sharing the message from an undisclosed location to avoid arrest.
The Taliban have not commented on the arrest or on subsequent alleged actions against the detainee’s family.
Thomas West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, urged the Taliban to release Wesa.
“The United States is deeply concerned about reports that revered education and rights activist @matiullahwesa was arrested by the Taliban,” West said on Twitter. “He has been a tireless and effective advocate for the education of boys and girls nationwide,” the U.S. envoy added.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan called on the Taliban to clarify the whereabouts of Matiullah Wesa, along with “the reasons for his arrest” and ensure “his access to legal representation and contact with family.”
Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the country, said he was alarmed by the arrest of the leading Afghan civil society member. “His safety is paramount & all his legal rights must be respected,” Bennett tweeted.
Amnesty International demanded the Taliban immediately release Wesa, saying he “has peacefully advocated for girls’ education” in Afghanistan.
Since taking control of the improvised war-ravaged South Asian country in August 2021, the Taliban have closed secondary schools for teenage girls and ordered most female government employees to stay home.
Last December, the hardline men-only Taliban administration suspended young women’s access to university education and banned women employees of non-governmental organizations from workplaces.
Wesa’s PenPath network, established in 2009, has been promoting education and schools for girls and negotiating with village elders in conservative Afghan society to allow their girls to go to school.
The network has hundreds of volunteers who help set up local classrooms, find teachers, distribute books and stationery and organize community gatherings in support of education for both Afghan boys and girls.
The Taliban ban on female education has dealt a blow to Wesa’s campaign in support of education for boys and girls.
“We are counting hours, minutes, and seconds for the opening of girls’ schools. The damage that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable,” he said on Twitter last week as the new school year started in Afghanistan. “We held meetings with locals, and we will continue our protest if the schools remain closed.”
The Taliban reclaimed power as the United States and its Western coalition partners withdrew their troops from the country after almost two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.
The international community has since been pressing the Taliban to remove bans on women’s access to work and education and respect civil liberties before granting legitimacy to the new government in Kabul.
Taliban leaders have ignored international calls, saying their governance is strictly in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law.
A deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State on Monday criticized the Taliban edicts against women, saying they “fundamentally repress” the right of Afghan women and girls to seek education and to be able to participate in humanitarian activities.
“The Taliban is looking for more normal relations with countries around the world. That will not happen in a long time, so as they continue to advance these repressive edicts against women and girls,” Vedant Patel told a regular news briefing in Washington.
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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 27, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Monday that a suicide bomb blast outside the foreign ministry in the capital, Kabul, killed at least six people and wounded many others.
Eyewitnesses told VOA the attack occurred near a security checkpoint as ministry employees were leaving their offices for home.
Taliban-appointed Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said that three security personnel were among those wounded.
An Italy-run international humanitarian organization, known as EMERGENCY, confirmed that its nearby surgical center received 12 wounded patients, including a child, while two other victims were already dead on arrival.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly blast, the first such attack since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan started last week in Afghanistan.
Islamic State’s regional affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, has claimed responsibility for almost all recent bombings in the country.
Monday’s blast came a day after the Taliban, the sworn enemy of IS-K, announced their security forces had killed three key operatives of the terrorist group, among others, in a recent operation against their hideout in the northern Afghan province of Balkh.
The Taliban spy agency, known as the General Directorate of Intelligence, identified one of the slain militants as Mawlavi Zaiuddin, saying he was the group’s so-called regional governor and the second highest ranked member of IS-K.
“If confirmed, this would be a significant blow to IS-K in Northern Afghanistan. The Taliban had committed in the Doha Agreement to fight IS-K. The removal of these ISIS leaders indicates that it is doing so,” tweeted Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, on Monday.
Khalilzad negotiated and signed the agreement in February 2020 in Qatar’s capital, Doha, with the then-insurgent Taliban, paving the way for the United States to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. The deal binds the Taliban, who seized control of the country in August 2021 as all U.S.-led foreign troops exited, to prevent transnational terrorists from using Afghan soil as a sanctuary.
Taliban forces have routinely carried out operations against IS-K hideouts in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, killing several high-profile members of the group. But U.S. officials maintain the de facto Afghan authorities lack the ability to effectively counter the growing terror threat.
A top U.S. military commander said last week that IS-K had its sights set on the West and could launch an attack before the year is out.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command overseeing U.S. troops in the region, told a congressional hearing that the terror group is closer to taking its fight beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
“They can do external operations against U.S. or Western interests abroad in under six months with little to no warning,” Kurilla said.
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the U.S. assertions as “not true” and said IS-K militants “have already been reduced in ranks and suppressed” in Afghanistan.
“The interest of the U.S. officials in this matter and their grandiosity is aiding and abetting the ISIS insurgents, which should be stopped,” Mujahid alleged.
Intelligence shared by member states for a U.N. report last month warned IS-K has anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 fighters who have established cells in Kabul and the Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, and Nuristan provinces, all of them sharing the country’s border with Pakistan.
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Daily Mail (UK): A former SAS soldier charged with a war crime while serving in Afghanistan has sought bail claiming his safety could be at risk from Islamic terrorists while behind bars. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested by the Australian Federal Police last Monday and has spent a week behind bars. He has been charged with the unlawful killing of an Afghan man in a wheat field while deployed as a member of the Australian Defence Force. Click here to read more (external link).
BBC News: “Every day I wake up with the hope of going back to school. They [the Taliban] keep saying they will open schools. But it’s been almost two years now. I don’t believe them. It breaks my heart,” says 17-year-old Habiba. She blinks and bites her lip trying hard not to tear up. Habiba and her former classmates Mahtab and Tamana are among hundreds of thousands of teenage girls who have been barred from attending secondary school in most of Afghanistan by the Taliban – the only country to take such action. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan on Monday announced that Japan has contributed US$ 21 million for live life-saving vaccines for mothers and children, and water and sanitation in schools. With this funding, UNICEF will provide clean water for 30,000 people in four provinces, and vaccines for 18.3 million mothers and children across Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: On Tuesday, March 7, Uzbekistan’s media reported that the delegation would visit Afghanistan. According to the report, Uzbekistan’s government is concerned about the decrease in water available for the country’s farmers due to the continued excavation of the Qush Tepa canal by the Taliban. Taliban had previously said that they were willing to negotiate with Uzbekistan on the Qush Tepa project based on international criteria. Click here to read more (external link).
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Imran Khan
Khaama: Imran khan said that the Taliban would not respond to the world’s demands to respect human rights, including reversing bans on women’s education and work, unless the international community recognizes their government. However, when he was asked about Pakistan’s position on the recognition of the Taliban, he said, “If Pakistan is the first to grant recognition, the international pressure will become too much for us as we try to turn our economy around,” said Imran Khan in an interview with French media outlet Le Figaro. He also said that Pakistan would be isolated if it recognized the Taliban regime, “To be isolated by becoming the only state to recognize the Taliban regime would be the last thing we would want,” he added. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 26, 2023
ISLAMABAD — A small group of female activists staged a protest rally in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Sunday, demanding that Taliban authorities reopen schools and universities for girls nationwide.
Protesters marched through the city’s western Pol-e Sokhta neighborhood before being forcefully dispersed by Taliban security forces.
Around 25 women and girls attended the demonstration, carrying placards and chanting slogans “freedom, work, education,” “wise mother strong nation,” and “education is our right,” organizers said.
Secondary schools for boys reopened this past week across the country after winter break, but the Taliban did not allow girls to return to classes despite international denunciation of the education ban and calls for lifting it.
The Taliban closed secondary schools for teenage girls since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021. Last December, they barred female students from attending universities, making Afghanistan the only country where women cannot receive an education.
The hardline rulers recently also banned female employees of nongovernmental organizations from workplaces after restricting most women government employees from returning to work.
Catherine Russell, the UNICEF executive director, in a statement at the start of the new school year last week, urged the Taliban to allow all girls to resume classes with immediate effect, saying excluding them from learning will have far-reaching consequences for the country’s already turbulent economy and health system.
“This unjustified and shortsighted decision has crushed the hopes and dreams of more than 1 million girls and marks another grim milestone in the steady erosion of girls’ and women’s rights nationwide,” Russell said. “Girls across Afghanistan have been denied their right to learn for over three years – first, due to COVID-19, and then because of the ban on attending secondary school.”
UNICEF tweeted a video Sunday underscoring the importance of educating Afghan girls. It shows 15-year-old Zahra lamenting she would have been in the 10th grade this year if schools were open.
“If schools do not open, then I will not have any hope for life,” she said. “I cannot achieve my dream of becoming a doctor, and I am deprived of my right to education.”
Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official and political commentator, said the Taliban’s refusal to respect women’s right to education had discouraged major donors and partners of Afghanistan.
“More and more families are considering immigrating out of the country. While the Taliban deprive girls of getting an education, the message from Islamic countries and Afghanistan’s neighbors has been clear: we can’t recognize your government,” Farhadi said.
The Taliban have implemented their strict interpretation of Islamic law. They defend their governance, saying it is in line with Afghan culture and religious beliefs. Many Afghans and scholars in the rest of the Islamic world dispute the claims, however.
The former insurgent group seized power in August 2021 as the United States and NATO troops departed the country, but the world has not formally recognized the legitimacy of the de facto rulers over human rights concerns, especially the treatment of women.
The Taliban previously controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 when women’s access to education and work was entirely banned.
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