Afghan women who work in beauty salons in Kabul gathered on July 12 to protest a Taliban decree that would shut down their businesses by July 25. In interviews with RFE/RL, women said the closures would leave their families with no means of subsistence. Taliban officials say such services are forbidden under Shari’a law.
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Roshan Noorzai
Nazrana Ghafar Yousufzai
VOA News | July 12, 2023
WASHINGTON — The Taliban may have achieved a diplomatic win in an agreement to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan, analysts said, but implementation of the project still faces challenges.
“The three sides reaffirmed their resolve to fully harness Afghanistan’s potential as a hub for regional connectivity,” said a joint statement released in May following a meeting of officials representing the three countries in Islamabad. The countries restated their commitment “to further the trilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and to jointly extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.”
“I think it’s a big diplomatic success for the Taliban. It further legitimizes the regime,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization.
But she added, “I don’t expect any significant new projects. … I think there are serious obstacles” in terms of regional connectivity.
The $62 billion CPEC connectivity project is a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. The initiative is a series of infrastructure projects and investments that span the globe with the aim of connecting China to foreign trade.
Felbab-Brown said the decision to extend CPEC to Afghanistan “has really much more to do with China’s global posturing and trying to separate itself from the United States.”
She said China continues its narrative “that the West is to blame for the humanitarian crisis [and] that the West should not be holding [the] money of the central bank of Afghanistan.”
Since the withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO forces and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, China has been vocal in criticizing the U.S. for freezing Afghanistan’s assets.
“[B]y seizing Afghanistan’s overseas assets and imposing unilateral sanctions, the U.S., which created the Afghan issue in the first place, is the biggest external factor that hinders substantive improvement in the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in April.
Chinese investment
The ministry’s position paper on Afghanistan stated that China would “do its best” to support Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development.
In recent months, Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan.
Last week, in a meeting with Taliban officials in Kabul, officials of Fan China Afghan Mining Processing and Trading Co. announced an investment of $350 million in various sectors ranging from construction to health to energy in Afghanistan, according to the Bakhtar News Agency, Afghanistan’s state news agency. The company is a joint venture between China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co. (CAPEIC) and Afghanistan’s Watan Group.
In January, the Taliban signed a contract with CAPEIC to extract oil in the north of the country by investing $150 million annually.
China has also shown interest in the development and operation of mines in Afghanistan. A Chinese company, Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), signed a contract with the then-Afghan government in 2008 to extract copper from Mes Aynak in Logar province.
But that work has not started yet. Last month, the Taliban’s mining and petroleum minister, Shahabuddin Delawar, urged MCC to begin “practical” work on the development and operation of the mine.
Security concerns
“I do think that China continues to have very substantial security interests and frustrations in Afghanistan, and the security agenda is still the dominant one,” Felbab-Brown said.
A U.N. report, published last month, said the Taliban still has ties with al-Qaida and other groups, including the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party.
China considers ETIM, which was founded in Pakistan by a Uyghur religious figure, Hasan Mahsum, in 1997, as a threat to its security. However, the U.S. removed the ETIM from its terror list in 2020.
Hamidullah Farooqi, a former Afghan minister of transport and civil aviation, told VOA that the Taliban tried to reassure China and Pakistan that “they can address their security concerns, and no terrorist groups will be allowed to use Afghan soil.”
“I do not think that Chinese and Pakistani officials are convinced,” said Farooqi, adding that the Taliban have to act on their counterterrorism commitment.
Farooqi said that the extension of CPEC to Afghanistan was “considered years before the Taliban’s takeover,” but, because of security concerns, it was not implemented.
He said that because of a “lack of security in the country and the activities of TTP [Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan] and other terrorist organizations in the region, the project was not implemented.”
Instability
“Though the security situation improved under the Taliban, Afghanistan does not have political stability, and that is the reason for no foreign investments in the country,” Farooqi said.
He added that the Taliban have to make “fundamental changes in their policies.”
“They [the Taliban] have to respect human rights, women’s rights and form an inclusive government. These are the things that would bring stability to Afghanistan,” he said.
“Though the Taliban claim that they have brought stability in Afghanistan, I think it will take some time to have full control of Afghanistan,” Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, a political economist in Islamabad, told VOA.
Geopolitics
He said geopolitics presents another challenge for Afghanistan in getting investments and deals.
“There is a competition going on among the major powers and some big players in the region,” said Ramay, adding that rivalry between powers can “create some hurdles in the implementation of this policy to include Afghanistan in CPEC.”
Citing an example, Azarakhsh Hafizi, former head of the international relations committee at Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries, told VOA that China is interested in investing in Afghan natural resources, but the Taliban are not recognized by any country as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
“This will make it difficult for any country to deal with the Taliban,” Hafizi said.
This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
Al Jazeera: Afghans fleeing deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions find themselves with few pathways to seek refuge. Of more than 66,000 Afghans who have sought humanitarian parole since July 2021, fewer than 8,000 had their applications processed, according to an investigation last year from the news outlet Reveal. The success rate was even narrower, with only 123 applications granted. Click here to read more (external link).
Mohammad Nabi
Ariana: Veteran Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi has become the second highest wicket-taker in ODIs after completing 150 ODI wickets during the third ODI against Bangladesh in Chattogram on Tuesday. Although Afghanistan lost the last ODI, they won the series 2-1. The only other Afghan player to reach this milestone has been Nabi’s teammate Rashid Khan, who has scalped 167 wickets in ODIs. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The Afghanistan Oil and Gas Corporation (AOGC), a state-owned institution, plays a crucial role in the country’s energy sector, encompassing the transportation, procurement, supply, storage, and distribution of petroleum and gas products in adherence to both national and international standards. The corporation’s charter mandates that it be led by competent, professional, and experienced individuals, without political interference. However, since the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan, they have dismissed around 400 employees and replaced them with their own affiliates. In the past three months, the General Director of AOGC, operating under Taliban administration, has appointed approximately 20 associates, all residents of Chak Wardak district in Maidan Wardak Province, to key positions within the institution. Additionally, employees have raised concerns about favoritism, coercion, death threats, demotions, and unauthorized promotions occurring within specific circles. Disturbingly, information obtained by the Hasht-e Subh Daily reveals that individuals affiliated with the Taliban in this institution have received salary and benefit increases that violate the corporation’s charter and administrative procedures, with highly paid positions being created based on their requests. Click here to read more (external link).
RFE/RL EPA-EFE: With living conditions continuing to deteriorate under the Taliban regime, Afghan migrants are fleeing their country in pursuit of a better life wherever they can find it, including on a tea plantation in Turkey. Click here to view photo essay (external link).
Taliban militant (file photo)
Al Arabiya English: Taliban forces in Afghanistan violently evicted hundreds of people from a settlement in the country’s capital city, Kabul, reportedly killing two children, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Tuesday. “Several families [the] NRC spoke with reported having to evacuate their homes under traumatic conditions,” the NRC said. “Bulldozers began demolishing the camp early yesterday morning – by the end of the day, nothing remained.” In 2021, Afghan [Taliban] authorities informed the humanitarian agencies of their plans to return internally displaced people to their areas of origin, closing these informal settlements across the country. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 11, 2023
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The Taliban Tuesday ordered the suspension of all Swedish activities in Afghanistan because of the public burning of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, at a protest in Sweden last month.
The June 28 authorized protest saw an Iraqi national resident in Stockholm tear and burn a copy of the Quran outside the capital’s largest mosque as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Adha worldwide. The incident sparked outrage and condemnation in Islamic countries.
“The Islamic Emirate suspends Sweden’s activities in Afghanistan for granting permission to insult the Quran and the Muslim faith,” the Taliban said, using the official name for their government in Kabul.
According to the statement, the order will remain effective “until they (Sweden) apologize to the Muslims for this heinous act.” The Taliban called on other Islamic nations to “reconsider” their relations with the Swedish government over its “blasphemous” act.
The Quran burning incident in Sweden saw immediate reaction from the Middle East and North Africa, with governments strongly condemning the act. Morocco recalled its ambassador from Stockholm.
A crowd of angry protesters in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad quickly assembled at the Swedish embassy and stormed its compound before being dispersed by security forces. Tens of thousands of people staged protest rallies across Pakistan last Friday.
Like other Western countries, Sweden closed its embassy in Afghanistan and evacuated all its staff, including Swedish and Afghan citizens, in August 2021, when the then-insurgent Taliban regained control of the country.
Aid workers said Tuesday’s Taliban order would likely disrupt the humanitarian operations of the non-governmental Swedish Committee for Afghanistan in the impoverished war-ravaged country.
The charity group manages development programs, including health care and education, in 19 Afghan provinces, employing around 6,000 people, mostly Afghans. It provides education to nearly 90,000 children and health care to two million people through its hospitals and medical centers in Afghanistan.
The SCA did not immediately comment on the possible suspension of its activities by the Taliban.
Humanitarian operations in Afghanistan have already been under severe pressure after the Taliban banned the United Nations and other non-government organizations from hiring Afghan female workers. The Taliban have also barred girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade and ordered most female government employees to stay home since seizing power nearly two years ago.
The restrictions on women’s freedom to access education and work and a decline in donor funding have prompted the U.N. to cut its annual humanitarian aid plan for Afghanistan by more than $1 billion, forcing aid agencies to stop giving critical assistance to millions of people across the country.