Afghanistan’s cricket team under fire as players meet with Taliban and say “politics” shouldn’t stop sports

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CBS News: The national cricket team’s players and board members have met on multiple occasions with Taliban leaders, including the head of the notorious Haqqani network, and posed for photos with them. Sirajuddin Haqqani is the current acting Minister of the Interior under the Taliban regime. The FBI has offered $10 million to anyone who can provide information that leads to his arrest.  The U.S. says his Haqqani network was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and dozens of American forces, many of them in suicide attacks, across Afghanistan during the two-decade war.  Holding meetings with such figures has eroded support for even Afghanistan’s most beloved cricketers. Click here to read more (external link).

Kabul’s notorious drug ‘den’ cleared of addicts: officials

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Ariana: Pul-e-Sokhta, in the west of Kabul, has for more than 20 years been the hub for drug addicts and their dealers in the city, but this week, the area was cleared by police, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) [Taliban] officials said. Khaled Zadran, Kabul Police Command spokesman, said that Pul-e- Sokhta has been completely cleared of drug addicts and that those rounded up have been sent to rehabilitation centers. The addicts mostly lived under a bridge over the Kabul River. Click here to read more (external link).

UN Envoy Visits Afghanistan, Discusses Bans on Women

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 18, 2023

ISLAMABAD — A top U.N. diplomat held talks with the foreign minister of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan to convey international concern about restrictions they have placed on women’s access to work, education and public life.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, the highest-ranking woman in the world body, arrived overnight in the capital, Kabul, at the head of a high-level U.N. delegation.

Her visit comes nearly a month after the Islamist Taliban tightened their already sweeping crackdown on Afghan women, ordering most female NGO staff to stop work until further notice and barring girls from attending universities. The latest curbs sparked global outrage and calls for immediately reversing them.

Mohammed told Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in the meeting Wednesday that the purpose of her visit was aimed at “witnessing the situation up close” and delivering the international community’s message about women’s access to education and work, according to Taliban officials.

Muttaqi in turn complained about a lack of cooperation from the international community to address concerns such as granting recognition to his government and removing sanctions on the banking sector and Taliban leaders, saying they were causing problems for ordinary Afghans.

“Traders are faced with extreme difficulties and they are unable to transfer funds to even import food items,” he said in his remarks at the meeting, captured on camera and released by the Taliban.

“If 1 million [girl] students are without education here, but what about those 9 million students, including boys and girls, who are going to schools?” Muttaqi asked. “They are also humans and need assistance to overcome issues facing them.”

The Taliban have banned teenage girls from attending school beyond grade six.

“Women are engaged in educational and health sectors in significant numbers, whereas those who used to work in government offices are paid salaries at home; the number of female inmates has reduced considerably,” Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement that quoted Muttaqi as telling the U.N. delegation.

The foreign minister recounted that his government had established peace in Afghanistan on its own returning to power and “narcotics cultivation has dropped to zero,” noting the country used to be the biggest drug producer in the world before the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

“Ms. Mohammed … pledged to convey the realities as witnessed to the international community, taking firm steps for continued assistance to Afghanistan,” Balkhi said.

A U.N. report published in November acknowledged that the Taliban had imposed a strict ban on opium production in April 2022 but said the ban had been ineffective and that the world body estimated that opium production increased by 32% last year.

Muttaqi was also quoted as telling the U.N. team that the number of drug addicts in Afghanistan had risen to around four million before the Taliban takeover. “They are now being treated in 83 therapy centers” across the country, but these efforts have not been acknowledged by the world nor has there been any assistance in return for these efforts, the foreign minister said.

Mohammed also met with U.N. staff, aid groups and Afghan women “to take stock of the situation, convey solidarity, and discuss ways to promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights,” deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York.

In those talks, Mohammed “stressed the need to uphold human rights, especially for women and girls,” and was “encouraged by exemptions” to the ban on female aid workers, Haq said. The exemptions have allowed some work to restart in areas such as health care.

Mohammed was in Kabul as part of a series of meetings that had included stops in Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with diplomats, Afghan diaspora and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The Taliban have defended the ban on NGOs, claiming female workers were not adhering to Islamic dress codes and other Shariah principles in violation of official directives. The ban has prompted major foreign aid groups to suspend operations in Afghanistan, though some said this week they had resumed health and other programs where the Taliban have allowed women to work.

The Taliban seized power 17 months ago when U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of war with the then-insurgent Taliban.

The Taliban appear to be making kill lists

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The Washington Examiner: While the world fumes about the far-reaching impacts of Taliban misogyny, Afghanistan’s leaders have quietly begun assembling apparent kill lists of their remaining enemies. Media reports indicate that the Taliban have asked village elders and lawyers in Kabul and several northern provinces to create lists of those who worked with the former Afghan National Army or who supported foreigners prior to the Taliban’s takeover of the country. In Panjshir, where Taliban forces are actively engaged in military operations against the National Resistance Front, the Taliban are said to be searching for former government soldiers at checkpoints. In one district, Talibs have allegedly arrested several residents. Click here to read more (external link).

Education department in Afghanistan instructs employees to keep beards

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Minute Mirror (Pakistan): In Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, the education department has instructed male employees to keep beards and female employees to wear hijab. The Directorate of Education warned employees that employees who do not follow the order can be dismissed from service. Click here to read more (external link).

The Taliban bought Twitter’s $8 a month blue ticks. They appear to have been removed after outrage.

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Business Insider: The Twitter accounts of at least two Taliban officials were sporting blue ticks on Monday, per the BBC. That sparked an outrage and by Tuesday, the ticks appear to have been removed. Governments around the world the world are still grappling with whether to recognize the hardline Islamist regime. Click here to read more (external link).

Last two Sikh’s Holy Scriptures arrive in New Delhi from Afghanistan

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Khaama: The last two holy religious scriptures of Sikhism (Saroops) of the Guru Granth Sahib arrived from Afghanistan’s Kabul in Delhi Wednesday. The two Sikh’s Holy Scriptures were carried out by three Afghan Sikhs from Kabul to New Delhi by a non-Scheduled Kam Air flight. Six Holy Scriptures were successfully flown into New Delhi on August 24, 2021, and December 10, 2021, in two groups. These were transported on a particular evacuation flight of Afghan Sikhs from Kabul. Click here to read more (external link).

Some Afghan Female NGO Staff Resume Work Amid Taliban Ban

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
January 17, 2023

Hundreds of Afghan women employed by international non-governmental organizations have started returning to work despite a Taliban order banning their work.

At least three NGOs — CARE International, Save the Children, and International Rescue Committee — have confirmed resumption of humanitarian operations in Afghanistan with Afghan women on staff.

“CARE will be resuming its health and nutrition operations in Afghanistan after obtaining the necessary assurances from the Ministry of Public Health that our female staff will be able to carry out their work safely and unfettered, both in community-based and support roles,” the international humanitarian agency said in a statement on Monday.

“We have received clear, reliable assurances from relevant authorities that our female staff will be safe and can work without obstruction,” Save the Children said in a statement on Sunday.

The NGOs had suspended their activities following a December 24 edict by the Taliban barring Afghan women from NGO work.

The Taliban gave no further explanation for their highly controversial edict that was widely condemned as violating women’s rights. On January 13, the U.N. Security Council called on the Taliban to immediately reverse the ban and allow women to return to work.

The Islamist regime has also barred women and girls from secondary schools and universities.

Aid agencies had warned that a suspension of relief activities, caused by the Taliban’s ban on women’s work, would push Afghanistan deeper into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Almost 19 million Afghans, out of the country’s estimated 36 million population, face critical food insecurity and more than 29 million people need humanitarian assistance, according to aid agencies.

Limited return

Women’s return to work in Afghanistan has been limited to the health sector and some educational activities, NGOs say.

The Taliban’s ban remains active on women’s work in other relief activities such as sanitation, food distribution and economic recovery.

“Women make up 50% of our workforce… [the] majority of our programs remain on hold,” Save the Children said.

“Without female staff at all levels and across all sectors, we cannot accurately assess needs and deliver aid and programs at the necessary scale,” the International Rescue Committee said.

On Tuesday, Amina Mohammed, U.N. deputy secretary general, arrived in Kabul to talk with Taliban authorities about lifting the ban on women’s work.

Some aid agencies have called on Western diplomats to return to Afghanistan and press Taliban on critical issues such as women’s rights.

“Based on our religious principles and values, we are ready to cooperate in any field,” Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban’s chief spokesman, tweeted last week.

Taliban officials have previously said the group’s bans on women’s work and education were temporary.