Flash Floods Kill 9, Injure 7 in Afghanistan’s Parwan Province

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Khaama: At least nine people were killed, and seven others were injured due to flash floods in Parwan province of Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Wednesday. According to provincial government spokesperson Sayed Hekmatullah Shamim, the floods swept through several villages in the Siagard and Shimorti districts on Tuesday afternoon due to heavy rains. Meanwhile, the floods had human and financial losses, including destroying 200 residential houses, 1,000 acres of agricultural lands, 36 km of road, some water canals and scores of animals, Shamim added. Click here to read more (external link).

KPL: Kabul Zalmi defeats Abasin Defenders by 4 wickets

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Ariana: The Kabul Premier League (KPL) is well underway and drawing much excitement among cricket supporters around the country. The new league, aptly named Kabul Premier League – or KPL2023 – will be played at the Ayobi Sports Complex and consists of five franchises. Teams will play through the season with the top four going through to the playoffs and then the finals. Click here to read more (external link).

Indonesia Says Taliban Representatives Visited ‘Informally’

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AFP: Representatives of Afghanistan’s Taliban government traveled to Indonesia earlier this month on an unofficial visit, the foreign ministry in Jakarta said Tuesday, despite Kabul saying they held meetings with politicians in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The Taliban administration that took back power in August 2021 is trying to shore up recognition of its rule across the Islamic world, including courting Indonesia to boost political and economic ties. Click here to read more (external link).

Iranian Politicians Struggle to Navigate the Taliban Challenge

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8am: The Iranian authorities’ stance towards the Taliban is not consistent. On occasion, the Islamic Republic of Iran refers to the Taliban as “the original movement of the region” and offers them hospitality, financial aid, and military support. However, at other times, they engage in media debates to express their expectations from the Taliban in relation to Iran’s interests. They sometimes emphasize the importance of engaging with the Taliban, while at other times they issue warnings about the rise of terrorism and drug trafficking in Afghanistan under Taliban control. These conflicting positions are seen by some as a reflection of the intricate strategies employed by Iran in Afghanistan. Click here to read (external link).

Taliban Enforcing Ban on Afghan Beauty Salons

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 25, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan enforced a nationwide ban on beauty parlors Tuesday after the expiration of a one-month deadline for owners to close the businesses, leaving tens of thousands of women without work in a country grappling with poverty.

Since returning to power nearly two years ago, the hardline Taliban have placed sweeping restrictions on the rights of women, barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment.

Beauty parlors were one of the few remaining employment opportunities for Afghan women, and a rare public place for them to socialize. Many of their workers were said to be the sole source of income for their households.

The ban puts out of business roughly 12,000 female-run salons, including 3,000 in the capital of Kabul, employing an estimated 60,000 women, according to an Afghan association of the owners.

The Taliban Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue had given beauty salons one month to close, saying they were offering services forbidden by Islam.

A ministry spokesman in a subsequent statement explained that parlors caused economic hardship for grooms’ families when brides are taken to these facilities during wedding ceremonies. He asserted that too much make-up would also prevent women from proper ablutions for prayer, while implanting hair and plucking eyebrows are against Sharia, or Islamic law.

The edict outraged owners and beauticians, leading to a couple of rare protest rallies, urging authorities not to deprive them of their only source of earning. Last week, Taliban security forces fired shots into the air and used fire hoses in Kabul to forcefully disperse dozens of women protesting the ban.

The United Nations and human rights groups have opposed the restriction on Afghan beauty parlors. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in a recent statement called on the Taliban to reverse the edict, warning it would adversely affect the national economy and undermine support for women’s entrepreneurship.

“The Taliban ban on beauty parlors removes another vital space for women’s work at a time when they’re struggling to feed their families, eliminates one of the few refuges for women outside the home & further transforms the country into a cruel & extreme outlier in the world,” Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls and rights, said on Twitter after the Taliban announced they would ban beauty salons.

The restrictions on Afghan women’s rights to public life have drawn strong international criticism, with the U.N. denouncing the Taliban administration as “gender-apartheid regime.”

No country has recognized the Taliban government, citing their treatment of women.

The fundamentalist de facto leaders justify their policies, saying they are aligned with Afghan culture and Sharia, claims scholars in the rest of Islamic countries dispute and reject.

Non-Taliban Individuals Face Mass Elimination

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Taliban militants (file photo)

8am: The Taliban group, however, has only granted pardons to those in positions of power and individuals whose presence in Afghanistan serves their propaganda purposes. The announcement of amnesty was a political tactic to initiate a new phase of elimination. The resistance against the Taliban must persist, recognizing that there will be no forgiveness and that the campaign to eradicate and kill, accompanied by bombings and acts of terrorism, has now infiltrated people’s lives through cruel decrees and policies. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Persistently Refute al-Zawahiri’s Death By US Drone Strike, One Year On

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Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 24, 2023

Nearly a year after the United States killed al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, the country’s Taliban leaders continue to make conflicting claims about the circumstances around the death of the world’s most wanted man, raising doubts about their counterterrorism pledges.

“We had no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri, and we had nothing to do with his killing,” Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob told Saudi-based Al Arabia television channel on Friday.

On Saturday, the Taliban governor of Kabul was quoted by an Afghan mainstream television channel as outrightly denying the presence of the al-Qaida chief in the city. “There is no evidence to prove Zawahiri was killed in Kabul,” Mohammad Qassim Khalid told TOLO news.

The latest Taliban claims come days after U.S. President Joe Biden stated that Washington and the Taliban were cooperating to push out al-Qaida terrorists from the war-torn country.

“Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban,” Biden told reporters at the White House earlier this month without elaborating.

The Taliban Foreign Minister swiftly responded to Biden’s remarks by describing them as an “acknowledgment of reality” about non-existence of armed groups in Afghanistan, but it did not categorically refute Biden’s assertions about counterterrorism cooperation between the two former adversaries.

“The Islamic Emirate maintains the policy of not allowing anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan to harm others. Our actions in this regard are not due to the requests or support of anyone, including America,” the ministry said in its statement, using the official name of the Taliban government, which the world has not recognized yet.

The 71-year-old Egyptian jihadist leader was on the balcony of a three-story house in Kabul’s upscale Sherpur area when two Hellfire missiles fired from an unmanned aircraft struck al-Zawahiri on July 31, 2022, U.S. officials told reporters hours later.

“He had moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family. After carefully considering the clear and convincing evidence of his location, I authorized a precision strike,” Biden said while announcing the news of the death of the terror mastermind to the American nation a day after the missile attack.

Taliban authorities at the time claimed that they had “no knowledge” the al-Qaida leader was residing in Kabul. They said a “serious and comprehensive” investigation had been ordered into the incident. But the de facto Afghan rulers have since been silent about the probe’s outcome and continue to make contradictory statements or remain in denial.

Nearly two months after the deadly strike, chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA that their ongoing investigation into the incident was making progress.

“It will produce an outcome over time. But we still treat it as a claim (by the U.S.),” Mujahid said in the interview VOA conducted in his Kabul office last September.

“When security has newly returned to a country and the government is also new, taking advantage of the situation is entirely possible. But this does not mean that the Islamic Emirate was behind it. The Emirate did not know about it. America also knows that the Islamic Emirate will not do it,” Mujahid said.

U.S. officials said that al-Zawahiri was sheltered in the Kabul safe house by subordinates of Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and “acted quickly to remove Zawahiri’s wife, his daughter and her children to another location, consistent with a broader effort to cover up that they had been living in the safe house.”

The slain al-Qaida terror leader carried a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head.

Taliban security forces swiftly blocked media access to the multi-story building and briefly detained some journalists who had attempted to go near the site. The restriction remains in place to date.

Critics say the Taliban’s refusal to admit al-Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul raises doubt about their commitments to combat terrorism on Afghan soil.

In recent days, neighboring Pakistan has repeatedly complained that a surge in terrorist attacks in the country is being orchestrated by Afghanistan-based fugitive leaders of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which the U.S. also lists as a global terrorist organization.

Pakistani officials say the militants have enjoyed “greater operational freedom” since the Taliban took control of the neighboring country in August 2021, when all the U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of involvement in the war.

The Taliban deny the allegations, saying neither TTP, nor any other foreign terrorist groups are operating inside Afghanistan. The Taliban confirmed early last year that they had hosted and mediated peace talks between Pakistani officials and TTP leaders. The dialogue produced a temporary cease-fire, which collapsed last November.

The militant group, an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban, has killed hundreds of Pakistanis in recent months, mostly security forces.

Last month, the United Nations Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team estimated in a new report that more than 4,000 TTP leaders, commanders and fighters are sheltering in Afghanistan under the protection of the country’s Taliban authorities.

The Taliban foreign ministry rejected the U.N. findings as baseless.

U.S.-led international forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, in line with the February 2020 agreement with the Taliban in return for assurances by the then-insurgent group that it would not allow transnational groups to use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.

Taliban’s Brutality: Man Beaten and Detained Over Wife’s Dress in Herat

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8am: Local sources in Herat have reported a distressing incident where the Taliban subjected a man to physical assault and detainment. The reason cited for their actions was that the man’s wife was wearing a mantou, a loose-fitting coat worn by women. According to these sources, the man was apprehended on Sunday, July 23, near Herat city’s Malik Gate by the Taliban’s morality police. Click here to read more (external link).