8am: Taliban allows Qatari nationals to hunt Afghanistan’s endangered birds. Sources confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that on Thursday (December 1st), Arab sheikhs, using Taliban helicopters, visited Nimruz province and are hunting rare birds. It is reported that these Arab sheikhs are residents of Qatar and until last week they were busy hunting birds in the western parts of Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: The [Taliban] state-run Bakhtar News Agency reported on Thursday, December 1, citing security sources in Panjshir province of northern Afghanistan that a National Resistance Front (NRF) commander relinquished to the new government. “Twelve rebels led by commander Baz Mohammad and his brothers Mohammad Arez and Nek Mohammad joined the Islamic Emirate,” Bakhtar reported quoting security officials in Panjshir province. The Ahmad Massoud-led NRF has yet to confirm and respond to the surrender of the NRF commander to the NRF’s opponent, the current administration in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 1, 2022
ISLAMABAD — The Islamist Taliban government has defended banning FM radio broadcasts from two U.S.-funded news media, including the Voice of America, in Afghanistan, alleging they were offending local laws.
The ban on VOA and Azadi Radio, an Afghan extension of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL, went into effect Thursday, a day after the Taliban’s ministry of information and culture said it had received complaints about programing content but shared no specifics.
It is unclear whether the ban will apply to other international broadcasters that have used the same system for FM broadcasts in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan has press laws and any network found repeatedly contravening these laws will have their privilege of reporting from and broadcasting within Afghanistan taken away,” Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban foreign ministry spokesman, said in his written comments to VOA.
“VOA and Azadi Radio failed to adhere to these laws, were found as repeat offenders, failed to show professionalism and were therefore shut down,” Balkhi asserted.
The two U.S. government-funded news organizations operate with journalistic independence and aim to provide comprehensive, balanced coverage.
VOA’s Afghan services broadcast 12 hours a day on 15 FM channels and two medium wave (MW) channels, with programming split between Pashto and Dari, reaching millions of listeners across impoverished Afghanistan, where radio remains a primary source of information.
The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August 2021, just days before American and NATO troops concluded their withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war with the then-insurgent Islamist group.
The Taliban have since implemented their harsh interpretation of Islamic law to govern the conflict-ridding country, restricting rights and freedoms.
The restrictions and financial hardships have forced dozens of private television channels, radio stations and print media reportedly to cease operation in Afghanistan, with thousands of journalists losing jobs. Hundreds of Afghan media personnel also have fled the country, fearing Taliban persecution.
France-based global media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, has reported that the country has lost 40% of its media outlets and 60% of its journalists since the Taliban takeover.
Dari and Pashto radio programs of VOA started broadcasting to Afghanistan in the1980s when the South Asian nation was being occupied by Soviet forces.
The local language broadcasts are widely respected as credible and reliable.
VOA also reaches a large Afghan audience via digital media. In March the Taliban stopped VOA’s Ashna TV news shows, which had been broadcast on Afghan National Television, Tolo News and Lamar for a decade, VOA Pashto reported.
Amnesty International said Thursday on Twitter that the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan “has resulted in sweeping changes to the lives of all Afghans, but even more for women and girls. They face dire restrictions on their rights in their daily lives.”
Since taking over the country, the Taliban have barred women from undergoing long road trips without a male relative, have ordered women to cover their faces in public and have prevented teenage girls from returning to secondary schools.
Akmal Dawi contributed to this report.
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A file photo of American soldiers at an unknown location in Afghanistan.
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
December 1, 2022
Despite its chaotic military and diplomatic withdrawal from Afghanistan over a year ago, U.S. global leadership approval has seen a slight uptick among some Afghans, a new survey conducted inside the country says.
Approval of U.S. leadership among all Afghans is measured at 18%, slightly more than the 14% measured last year, while U.S. popularity is sharply different among different ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
“The U.S. remains popular among Afghanistan’s Hazara ethnic community; 53% are still supportive of U.S. leadership,” Gallup said in a statement about its latest survey in the country.
The Shia Hazaras are an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan making up 10 to 12% of the country’s estimated 36 million people.
Gallup says its surveyors interviewed 1,000 men and women from 21 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces this year.
Among Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, the U.S. remains widely unpopular with only an 8% approval rate, while among Tajiks, the second largest ethnic group, it’s reported at 23%.
Most Taliban leaders are Pashtuns who fought against the United States in Afghanistan from 2002 until U.S. and Taliban representatives signed a peace agreement in February 2020.
Despite its complex history of engagement in Afghanistan, the U.S. remains more popular in the South Asian country than China and Russia, whose leadership approval rates are equally ranked at 14% in the survey.
The U.S. spent about $2 trillion on the Afghan war for over two decades. More than 150,000 people lost their lives in the war, including at least 2,400 U.S. military personnel.
A majority of Americans, 69%, said the U.S. mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan, according to an August 2022 Pew survey.
Loss of hope
The drastic changes Afghanistan has seen over the last year seem to have disappointed an overwhelming majority of ordinary Afghans, according to the Gallup survey.
Nearly all Afghans, 98%, rated their living conditions as “suffering” under the new regime and only 11% said they have hopes for better opportunities for the next generation.
Afghans are also increasingly concerned about a sharp deterioration in women’s rights.
“A record-low 22% of Afghans say women in their country are treated with respect and dignity — down from the previous low of 31% in 2021,” reads a Gallup statement.
“The one positive we did see was in relation to the safety that Afghans feel within their communities. The percentage of Afghans who feel safe walking alone at night in their communities increased from 22% to 52%,” said Julie Ray, a Gallup analyst.
The Taliban’s return to power has crippled the Afghan economy, pushing 90% of the population into poverty, the United Nations has reported.
“Taliban’s rules of the 90s and currently can be encapsulated in one word: suffering,” Malaiz Daud, senior research fellow with the European Foundation for South Asian studies, told VOA.
“They lack the management, organizational and resource mobilization skills to run a polity designed to look after an entire country.”
Taliban officials, however, redirect all criticisms of economic paralysis to the West saying financial sanctions, assets freeze and a cessation of development assistance have pushed the country to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote from Gallup analyst Julie Ray.
Ariana: As many as 875,000 children in Afghanistan are at risk of severe wasting, the United Nations agency for children said on Tuesday. Sam Mort, chief of communication of UNICEF in Afghanistan, said on Twitter that the organization needs urgent support to prevent and treat malnourished boys and girls. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Health News
8am: Local sources in Herat report new restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women in the hospital in Herat province. On Wednesday, November 30, the sources, talking to Hasht-e Subh said that the Taliban have banned Ultrasound (Television Examinations) for women in the mentioned hospital. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
November 30, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Wednesday that at least 15 students were killed and 27 others wounded when a bomb ripped through a religious school, or madras, in northern Samangan province.
Imdadullah Mahajer, the head of provincial information and culture directorate, confirmed the casualties to VOA by phone. He did not share further details nor did he say if a planted bomb or a suicide attack caused the blast.
Abdul Nafi Takoor, an Interior Ministry spokesman in Kabul, said the bombing in the provincial capital, Aybak, occurred while students were holding afternoon prayers. Takoor said Taliban security and intelligence forces had reached the site to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, although suspicions fell on Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISIS-K, the Afghan branch of the Islamic State militant group.
ISIS-K has stepped up attacks since August 2021, when the Taliban took over the conflict-ridden country and the United States, along with NATO allies, withdrew troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war with the then-insurgent Taliban.
DW: When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, many expected the fundamentalist group to rule differently this time around. More than a year later, the Taliban have proven them wrong. Recently, Taliban officials publicly lashed dozens of men and women that they found guilty of “moral crimes.” The punishments took place in the provinces of Logar, Laghman, Bamiyan, Ghazni and Takhar. The women were accused of “theft, adultery, and running away from home.” Taliban leaders are not even trying to keep these public punishments a secret. On the contrary, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban Supreme Leader, ordered all officials to implement Shariah law in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
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