Taliban (IEA) Bans Two Female Training Centers in Kabul & Herat
Khaama: Roya Mahboob, the Founder of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team tweeted on Monday that the Taliban authorities forcibly shut the education centers in Herat and Kabul. More than a thousand female students were taking pieces training in business, Robotics, coding, and Information Communications Technology. Following the latest decree by the Ministry of Higher Education of the interim regime banning women’s university education, the dreams of thousands of school and university girls were buried. Click here to read more (external link).
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U.S.-Trained Afghan Soldiers Angry Over Their Plight Are Ready To Join Russia’s War Against Ukraine
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
December 27, 2022
Michael Scollon
Lost status and a desperate existence in Iran are driving thousands of former Afghan troops — many of them elite commandos trained by the United States — to consider fighting as mercenaries in Ukraine and other battlefields.
Many ex-Afghan security personnel accuse the United States of abandoning them after the Taliban regained power last year. They also say poverty and security concerns are factoring into their decisions to take a private Russian mercenary group up on its recruitment offers.
According to WhatsApp messages viewed by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, some former Afghan commandos are already making the move to join the Vagner Group, also known as Wagner, a private paramilitary organization that plays a prominent role in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
Others currently living in Iran, where thousands of former Afghan soldiers sought refuge following the Taliban’s seizure of their native Afghanistan in August 2021, say they are living a meager existence, resorting to manual labor or even rifling through garbage to sell to make ends meet.
It marks a major turnaround for the former members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and its elite commando force, which were trained by the United States and Western allies and formed the backbone of the former Afghan government’s efforts to defend the country and combat the Taliban and the Islamic State extremist group.
Afghan soldiers in Iran who have said they plan to take Vagner up on its recruitment offers say they were betrayed by the United States and the U.S.-backed Afghan government that they fought for. Many blame them for their current predicament.
The Taliban rapidly seized control of the country as the United States pulled out its forces from Afghanistan. Without U.S. assistance, Afghan forces quickly capitulated, and many Afghan leaders fled abroad as Taliban fighters descended on Kabul.
“After the fall of the country’s traitorous presidential regime, [the United States] sold us out and surrendered the country to terrorists (the Taliban),” one former member of the Afghan special forces, who did not provide his name, said in an audio recording posted on a WhatsApp channel subscribed to by former members of the Afghan military.
“We had no place to live in Afghanistan anymore, because the Taliban terrorists chased us,” he said in the audio, which was posted on December 3. “Several of our peers were captured and beheaded, and we were forced to leave Afghanistan.”
No Life On The Run
RFE/RL was unable to independently verify the soldier’s claims, but the extrajudicial killings of former Afghan military and government workers is well-documented, with 100 such slayings recorded in the first months of Taliban rule alone.
Also widespread and well-documented is the belief among former Afghan soldiers, translators, and government workers that they were abandoned by their U.S. allies and that the former Afghan government botched the war effort and stole funds that had been allocated to the army.
Those claims have been backed by a recent report by Business Insider documenting that former Afghan officials smuggled nearly $1 billion in gold and cash out of the country as their government neared collapse.
In November, the U.S. Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) cited corruption as among the factors that hastened the fall of the Afghan government and paved the way for the Taliban to reestablish control of Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of Afghan troops who fought alongside Western allied forces over nearly two decades in Afghanistan are believed to have been left behind when the United States withdrew the last of its forces on August 30, 2021.
While an estimated 80,000 at-risk Afghans were airlifted out, those who were not had to fend for themselves, leading to concerns that tens of thousands of U.S.-trained troops would have no alternative but to flee the country, or join the Taliban or a regional adversary.
Many of them went into hiding in Afghanistan at risk of being hunted down by the Taliban, or fled abroad. By some accounts, up to 30,000 former Afghan soldiers made their way to Iran.
Fighting For Dollars
The former soldier who discussed his situation on WhatsApp said he fled to Iran for his safety and had lived there for several months. After receiving word that the Vagner group was recruiting Afghans to fight in Ukraine, he said he signed up.
“Afghanistan, NATO, and the United States brought us in as young men and abandoned us,” he said. “Russia started a program. They were recruiting certain units and taking them to the war in Ukraine. So, a number of our fellow soldiers signed up, and we are going to Russia soon.”
Another former soldier, in an audio message posted on the same WhatsApp channel on December 3, said he and a group of colleagues had recently arrived in Iran with the intention of joining Vagner to fight for Russia in Ukraine after hearing about the mercenary group’s recruitment offers.
He claimed that Iran was aware of the recruitment effort and was even aiding the process of transferring Afghan soldiers to Russia.
“We were in Afghanistan, and there were many rumors being spread that former military personnel had gone to Russia through Iran,” the soldier said, speaking anonymously. “We registered here in Iran. They transferred a few people before us.”
The soldier said that former Afghan soldiers were being offered permanent citizenship in Russia in exchange for fighting in Ukraine.
The former special forces officer said that his decision to sign on with Vagner was influenced by safety concerns in Afghanistan, where he said he and his fellow soldiers had lived in hiding and poverty for 14 months, and the chance for a better life for his family.
“We came alone, but a number of those who were transferred earlier are now with their families [in Russia],” he said. “We decided to go because of our situation and that of our children.
“We couldn’t leave the house. Most of our friends were arrested and killed, and most of them, like me, fled to Iran or Tajikistan,” he said.
The former Afghan officer estimated that, based on his conversations, some 2,500 Afghan soldiers had left Afghanistan with the intention of going to Russia, where he said he was offered $2,500 for six months of training and $3,000 once he goes to Ukraine to fight.
Those figures correspond roughly with other reports and testimonials about Vagner’s recruitment drive, which also say that Afghan special forces troops and their families were being offered safe haven and $1,500 a month to move to Russia and subsequently fight in Ukraine.
General Farid Ahmadi, a former commander of the special operations corps of the deposed Republic of Afghanistan, told Radio Azadi that he believes security and financial concerns are driving many former Afghan soldiers to consider fighting with Vagner.
“Serious security and economic problems and extreme poverty and desperation have forced them to do this for a bite of bread, to survive, and to escape the pursuit and torture of the Taliban,” Ahmadi said in a live interview via Skype this month.
Radio Azadi has documented the lives of some former Afghan soldiers living in Iran, where they say they are reeling from their lost status and dire financial situations.
Sayed Ahmad Nouri, 38, said he used to serve as a special forces commander in western Afghanistan but now has to collect garbage in Mashhad to provide for his large family.
Nouri laments that he used to direct hundreds of troops and “tanks would move under my command, and I had complete authority,” while serving with the ANA. Now, he said, his family of 12 lives in a one-room apartment and “are sleeping on top of one another.”
Abdul Ahad Safi, a former ranking official who headed a government department fighting organized crime in Afghanistan’s Herat Province, now does manual labor at a Mashhad workshop to support his family of five.
He told Radio Azadi that he can “barely keep himself alive” because “my income does not cover our expenses.”
Bad Consequences
Aside from Russia’s war against Ukraine, a small number of former Afghan soldiers have been recruited to fight in other conflicts, including for Iran in Yemen, and in Syria and even in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to Ahmadi.
There has been no evidence that Afghan forces have actually reached the battlefield in Ukraine, and the country’s security service did not reply to queries sent by RFE/RL regarding the possibility that Afghans were fighting for Vagner in Ukraine.
In response to questions by RFE/RL, a U.S. State Department spokesman said in written comments that the department was aware of unconfirmed reports that the Vagner group is recruiting former Afghan soldiers living outside of Afghanistan.
“We understand some Afghans may be vulnerable to [Vagner’s] monetary inducements, but would caution anyone from joining in the illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the spokesman said, adding that the Vagner group “is used by the Russian government to support its dangerous and destabilizing foreign policy, while attempting to maintain deniability.”
Regarding claims by Afghan soldiers that they were abandoned by the United States in Afghanistan, the spokesman acknowledged the difficulties Afghans face in leaving the country, but said, “We continue to monitor the economic situation of Afghanistan and provide assistance, where possible, to the people of Afghanistan as part of our enduring commitment.”
Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Taliban’s Police Chief for Badakhshan Killed in Car Bomb Attack
8am: A car bombing targeted the Taliban’s police commander in Badakhshan, Abdul Haq Omar, on Monday morning, December 26, local sources confirmed. The Taliban’s police chief for Badakhshan among 3 people was reportedly killed and 4 others were injured. Witnesses reported that civilians were also killed in this bomb attack. Regarding the attack in Badakhshan, anti-Taliban NRF spokesperson, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, said that the Taliban’s infighting were the cause for this attack. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News in Dari – December 26, 2022
Clashes Between Taliban and NRF Forces in Baghlan’s Andarab Leave Dozens Dead and Wounded
8am: Local sources confirmed on Monday that the clashes between the Taliban and National Resistance Front (NRF) forces started last night following a Taliban campaign launched in the villages of Taghanak, Khej and Bagh Dara in Andrab, Baghlan province. There are reports indicating that Khair Mohammad Andrabi, a prominent NRF commander, was killed last night along with his subordinates following a gun battle with the Taliban. Click here to read more (external link).
More Repressive Measures In Pipeline As Taliban Reverts To ‘Old Practices’ In Afghanistan
Frud Behzan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 26, 2022
After forcibly seizing power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban made a public effort to assuage concerns by the international community that it would return to its brutal rule of the 1990s.
But the militant Islamist group has gradually reverted to its repressive policies of the past as the prospect of international recognition and assistance has diminished, experts said.
In recent weeks, the Taliban has reintroduced corporal punishments, including public floggings. The militants have also intensified their assault on women’s rights, including recently banning women from attending university.
Observers said there are likely more draconian edicts in the pipeline as the Taliban reestablishes a theocratic state governed by the militant group’s extreme and tribal interpretation of Islamic Shari’a law.
“It is very likely that the Taliban will increasingly impose more repressive measures,” said Weeda Mehran, co-director of the Center for Advanced International Studies (CAIS) at the University of Exeter. “This trend has been established.”
‘Draconian Policies’
In the past 16 months, the Taliban has imposed dozens of restrictions on women’s appearances, freedom of movement, and their right to work and receive an education.
Only girls below the sixth grade are allowed to attend school. High schools for girls have been closed, despite repeated promises to reopen them. In a major blow, the Taliban banned women from attending university on December 20.
The Taliban’s university ban has fueled speculation that the group will impose a blanket ban on education for girls and women like during its first stint in power from 1996-2001. The Taliban’s higher education minister has called female education “un-Islamic and against Afghan values.”
The militants have also reintroduced corporal punishments in recent weeks, including the public flogging of men and women for crimes such as theft, eloping from home, and committing adultery.
On December 7, a man was publicly executed in western Afghanistan, the first such event to be carried out since the Taliban takeover. The execution was attended by top Taliban leaders.
The public punishments came soon after Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered the group’s courts to employ strict interpretations of Shari’a law, which prescribes punishments such as stoning, execution, amputation, and public lashings. The Taliban handed down similar punishments during its previous rule.
Mehran of the University of Exeter said the Taliban has been gradually returning to its “old practices” as its hopes of recognition by the international community have dimmed.
“The only reason the Taliban did not originally implement its draconian policies at the same level and extent as its first regime in the 1990s was because the group was vying for international recognition, aid, and trade,” said Mehran.
In the Taliban’s first press conference after seizing power in Kabul, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid pledged to uphold the free press and women’s rights — though within the framework of Islam. But the militants have failed to live up to their promises and instead reimposed many of the repressive policies of the past.
Omar Sadr, an author and research scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, said the Taliban has strategically used the Islamic concept of “taqiya,” or deliberate deception, to mislead the international community.
“The group’s stance was ambiguous as it never promised basic human rights based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, gender equality, and democratic governance,” said Sadr. “Many interpreted the ambiguous stance as moderation. But there was no evidence to support the assumption that the Taliban aimed to moderate.”
Analysts said the Taliban is likely to impose more restrictions in the year ahead, including further eroding women’s rights, expanding its crackdown on dissent, empowering its notorious morality police to forcefully impose Taliban edicts, and increasing its use of corporal punishments.
‘Pure’ Islamic System
The Taliban’s supreme leader has repeatedly pledged to establish what he has called a “pure” Islamic system in Afghanistan, without offering any details.
Afghanistan was an Islamic republic under the political system that was ushered in after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban from power in 2001. The 2004 constitution prescribed that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” although it contained more liberal and democratic elements.
Observers said the Taliban has retained its goal of recreating a theocracy based on its radical interpretation of Islam.
“The key features of its medievalist vision of political order are a lack of differentiation between the public and private, extensive policing of individual behavior, and degrading of women to second-class subjects,” said Sadr.
In October Mujahid announced that the group was working on creating a new constitution.
In the late 1990s, the Taliban drafted a 14-page constitution — the first and only attempt by the group to codify its views on power and governance. But the document was never officially ratified, and it was unclear how much of it was ever implemented before the militants were ousted from power.
Haroun Rahimi, an Afghan academic who researches Islamic law, said the Taliban is moving toward a “greater use of codification.”
“The recent trend has certainly been a shift away from a more laissez faire approach to a more regimented enforcement of what the Taliban consider to be Islamic principles,” said Rahimi.
During the summer, Taliban Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani published a book that some observers have labeled the Taliban’s manifesto. The book, which was reportedly endorsed by the Taliban leadership, hints at the group’s political vision for Afghanistan.
“The book makes an argument for the extensive enforcement of Islamic rules through state force on par with the first rendition of the Islamic Emirate,” said Rahimi, referring to the official name of the Taliban government. “How this unfolds in practice remains to be seen.”
Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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Mental Illnesses Under Taliban
8am: Since the Taliban takeover, Afghan citizens have been dealing with many psychological disorders, and the mental health of millions has been damaged. Previously, with Taliban suicide attacks, roadside bombings, assassinations of government employees and foreign institutions, and other acts of violence by this group, the collective psyche of the society had been severely damaged, and Afghanistan was among the most mentally affected countries in the world. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – December 25, 2022
Tens of Thousands of Afghans Work Their Way Through US Immigration System
Aline Barros
VOA News
December 25, 2022
More than a year after the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghan families totaling more than 88,500 individuals have resettled in the United States through different immigration paths.
Some have access to permanent residence while the rest have permission for short-term stays without the chance for a more permanent status unless they apply for asylum or Congress passes legislation to change their status.
For those with temporary status, their best hope to stay is the Afghan Adjustment Act, draft legislation that would give Afghan evacuees with temporary status a pathway to permanent U.S. residence. Although the measure has been introduced in both chambers, it has yet to come up for a vote.
After the evacuation of Kabul in August 2021, the Biden administration partnered with nonprofit organizations to give Afghan refugees temporary assistance with housing, food and clothing and also help them to secure employment and qualify for health care.
Special Immigrant Visa
Approved by Congress more than a decade ago, the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) is for Afghans who worked as interpreters or guides for the U.S. military or were employed by the U.S. government or on its behalf in Afghanistan during the 20-year war. The SIV program leads to permanent residence and a path to naturalization for those Afghans and their families.
The number of SIVs available to people in Afghanistan is set by statute, and Congress can increase the number. In 2021, Congress approved 8,000 SIVs for Afghan principal applicants, bringing the total to 34,500 since 2014.
Since the start of the Biden administration through Nov. 1, 2022, the State Department has issued nearly 19,000 SIVs to principal applicants and their eligible family members, a department spokesperson told VOA on background via email. About 15,000 more SIV principal applicants are awaiting visa interviews, the step before being issued an SIV. About 48,000 more have submitted all of their documents and are awaiting the next step in the approval process.
The SIV program stumbled in the six months following the Taliban takeover in August 2021. During the evacuation, the program for Afghan nationals nearly ground to a halt when the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan suspended operations.
Afghan consular services were transferred outside Afghanistan. While some Afghans traveled to Pakistan to process their immigration cases and visa applications, some were flown to Qatar where they were processed for resettlement in the U.S.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, who spoke to VOA in November on background and did not want to be named, said that of the 88,500 Afghans who resettled in the U.S., more than 77,000 were allowed into the U.S. for humanitarian reasons on a case-by-case basis. About half of them could be eligible to apply for or continue the SIV process in the United States.
Humanitarian parole
Humanitarian parole is special permission given to those hoping to enter the United States under emergency circumstances.
In the last 16 months, more than 50,000 Afghans living outside the United States applied for humanitarian parole, but fewer than 500 have been approved.
The DHS spokesperson told VOA that in a typical year, the United States receives about 2,000 requests for humanitarian parole from all nationalities. Of those requests, about 500-700 are approved annually. There are several reasons applicants are rejected, but most often it’s because they could not prove they were in an emergency situation.
The DHS official told VOA that humanitarian parole is not intended to replace the refugee resettlement channel, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which is the typical pathway for individuals who have fled their country of origin to come to the United States seeking protection.
Still, the DHS official said, the U.S. government recognizes that in some limited circumstances, the need for protection is “so urgent that obtaining protection via the USRAP is not a realistic option,” because some refugees are not able to leave their countries and start the application process.
Humanitarian parole for Afghans living outside the U.S. is still available, but according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency is “currently receiving an extremely high number of requests for parole” and that “petitioners should expect to wait significantly longer than 90 days for their parole request to be processed.”
Afghan evacuees who arrived in the U.S. without a visa or any proper documentation had to file for humanitarian parole because of the urgent humanitarian reasons at the time. They were given parole under the authority delegated to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Officers use discretion to grant humanitarian parole if the person requesting protection is at a U.S. Port of Entry.
To qualify for humanitarian parole, a foreign national must show examples of the urgent humanitarian circumstances they find themselves in, and it is limited to one year, but U.S. immigration officials can extend it another year.
Anyone admitted under the humanitarian parole designation is temporarily protected from deportation and allowed to apply for authorization to work. Humanitarian Parole does not confer permanent immigration status or constitute a path to U.S. citizenship.
Family reunification
On Nov. 14, the State Department launched a website with information for Afghans in the U.S. who want to reunite with family members still in Afghanistan.
Afghans who are naturalized U.S. citizens or who hold a lawful permanent residence card, also known as green card, can file petitions with the government to bring their direct relatives to the U.S. under immigrant visas that lead to permanent status.
Afghans who received humanitarian parole can petition to bring their spouse or minor children to the U.S. as refugees. Some may even be eligible to receive help from the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan.
The number of applications under family reunification was not readily available.
Refugee program
This August, the State Department announced a priority eligibility under the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations, or American news organizations.
The program provides a straightforward path to the refugee resettlement process, but the refugees must, on their own, first reach a third country where they can contact the State Department to begin the resettlement process.
According to DHS, the State Department is managing referrals to the refugee program, but there generally is no direct contact with the U.S. government before an applicant leaves Afghanistan.
Approved applicants will then receive travel documents and resettle in the United States.
Under U.S. immigration law, refugees may apply for green cards to become permanent residents after one year in the United States. After five years of permanent residency, they can apply for U.S. citizenship.
In the first two months of fiscal 2023, which began Oct. 1, 540 Afghans were resettled through the program. In fiscal 2022, that number was 1,618. In the last two months of fiscal 2021, which coincided with the Afghanistan evacuation efforts, 378 Afghan refugees resettled in the U.S.
Asylum
Afghans in the U.S. who are unable to become permanent residents can apply for asylum. Afghan humanitarian parolees would generally apply for affirmative asylum through a process done by the USCIS.
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in general, “affirmative asylum cases have a somewhat lower average wait time,” but the current interview backlog is still at 1.6 million cases of asylum and other immigration applications.
The wait time for a hearing on an immigrant’s asylum claim is between two to six years.
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