Over 500 People Graduate from Jihadist Schools in Afghanistan

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Khaama: Bakhtar News Agency has reported that 300 people in Helmand, 160 in Laghman, and 50 others in northern Sar-e-Pol province have graduated from religious schools. Following the collapse of the previous government, the Taliban-run Administration has focused on establishing Jihadist schools across Afghanistan. Since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, the de facto authorities have imposed restrictions on the rights of women and girls to attend education and work, which prompted worldwide criticism. Instead of easing or removing the gender-based bans, the group emphasizes establishing more and more Madrasas (religious schools) across the country. Click here to read more (external link).

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Charity holds mass wedding for 60 couples in Kabul

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Ariana: As many as 60 couples have tied the knot in a mass wedding arranged by a charity foundation at a cost of more than three million afghanis in Kabul. Organizers said they wanted to avoid extravagant spending that often happens in wedding ceremonies and to fight bad traditions. “We gave a dowry of around 55,000 [AFN] for each couple, and today the wedding ceremonies of 59 families are held here,” said Mukhtar Ahmad, an organizer of the ceremony. “In total, about 33,00000 [AFN] have been spent on these weddings.” Click here to read more (external link).

Earthquake of Magnitude 4.7 Strikes Afghanistan’s Fayzabad.

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Khaama: An earthquake with a Richter scale of 4.7 occurred in the Fayzabad province of Afghanistan on Thursday, according to India’s National Center for Seismology (NCS). The earthquake’s epicentre was 140 Km northeast of Fayzabad at 22:01:47 PM. This is the fourth earthquake within a week. “Earthquake of Magnitude: 4.7, Occurred on 09-03-2023, 23:01:47 IST, Lat: 36.57 & Long: 72.30, Depth: 140 Km, Location: 166km ESE of Fayzabad, Afghanistan,” NCS tweeted on Thursday. Click here to read more (external link).

UN Launches $4.6B Appeal for Afghanistan, Warns of Drop in Funding

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
March 9, 2023

After weeks of dispiriting debates over whether to suspend or downgrade humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, the United Nations on Thursday launched a $4.6 billion appeal to assist more than 23 million of the most vulnerable Afghans this year.

The humanitarian appeal was developed last year for release in early January, but a December 24 announcement by de facto Taliban authorities banning Afghan women from aid work led to a partial operational pause by the U.N.-led aid community. Several international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) completely suspended operations in protest.

While it’s unclear if or when the Taliban will lift the gender-based ban on aid work, the U.N. has launched the funding appeal, saying humanitarian programs will be on “operational trial” for the next six months.

“The ban on female participation in humanitarian response will have devastating and long-lasting consequences for all people in need, but especially women and girls —already the most vulnerable members of society,” the appeal says.

Because of the “deeply gendered” nature of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the U.N. says more than 11 million Afghan women and girls will be assisted with critical food, health and shelter assistance and educational services if funding needs outlined in the appeal are met.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have enforced a series of gender-based edicts that human rights groups describe as a campaign to erase women from the public sphere.

“Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights,” the U.N. Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Reduction in aid

Blacklisted, under sanctions and isolated from the rest of the world, Taliban leaders appear to be pushing foreign donors away with their misogynistic policies.

Donors have already ceased supplying Afghanistan with development aid, which accounted for about 75% of the country’s public expenditures under the U.S.-backed government.

“Funding for Afghanistan is likely to drop if women [are] not allowed to work,” warned Otunbayeva.

U.S. officials have echoed similar concerns while warning of consequences for the Taliban.

“We also see needs elsewhere in the world,” Thomas West, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, told TOLOnews this week, explaining that emergencies in Ukraine, Syria and Turkey have created extraordinary needs.

“And, frankly, for fiscal-related reasons, we have fewer humanitarian dollars to go around and for all of these reasons, I am worried that there will be a lower contribution in the year ahead.”

Donor disengagement will be catastrophic for millions of needy Afghans, aid agencies warn.

“Afghan people are paying a high price in between de facto authorities who impose restrictions and donors who chose to disengage from the country,” Christian Jepsen, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), told VOA.

Like several other NGOs, the NRC has not fully resumed operations in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s ban on its female employees.

“We cannot reach the most vulnerable female-led households without our female colleagues, particularly in rural and conservative areas where there are many vulnerable people,” Jepsen said.

Last year, the U.N. appealed for $4.4 billion in response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, of which donors funded 59%.

Suicide Bombing Kills Taliban Provincial Governor in Afghanistan

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 9, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Thursday a bomb blast had ripped through the office of a provincial governor, killing him and two others.

The early morning attack in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of the northern Balkh province, wounded at least seven people, according to local hospital officials.

Provincial police officials said that a man wearing a suicide vest blew himself up on the second floor of the building housing the office of the slain governor, Mohammad Dawood Muzamil.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the high-profile deadly bombing.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter confirmed the death of Muzamil, saying he was “martyred in an explosion by the enemies of Islam.” Mujahid said in his Pashto language tweet that an investigation into the incident was underway.

Muzamil is the second-most senior Taliban leader killed since the hardline group retook control of Afghanistan in 2021 as the United States and NATO troops left the country after two decades of war.

Last December, a car bombing killed the Taliban police chief of northeastern Badakhshan province. That attack was claimed by the Islamic State terror group’s Afghan affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan.

The militant group, often referred to as Daesh or IS-K, has recently intensified attacks in Afghanistan. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including minority Shiite community members and Taliban officials as well as clerics.

Muzamil had served as the governor of the eastern Nangarhar province and supervised operations against IS-K operatives there before moving to Balkh last year.

ISIS-K launched its extremist activities in war-torn Afghanistan in 2015 from bases in Nangarhar and has since expanded the violence to other provinces.

The Taliban have stepped up counterterrorism operations against IS-K operatives in recent weeks, killing dozens of them.

The United States sees IS-K as a “dangerous” affiliate of Islamic State and remains skeptical about the effectiveness of Taliban counterterrorism operations against the group.

The U.S. Intelligence Community, in its annual threat assessment has warned IS-K will maintain its campaign against the Taliban and religious minorities with deadly repercussions for Afghan civilians.

“ISIS-Khorasan almost certainly retains the intent to conduct operations in the West and will continue efforts to attack outside Afghanistan,” noted the assessment released on Wednesday, using an acronym for the Islamic State group’s Afghan branch.