NPR: Rasa is one of nearly 20 million Afghans struggling to put food on the dastarkhaan, according to a May report by the International Rescue Committee. Afghanistan’s economy crashed after the 2021 takeover, exacerbating steep increases in poverty that already had occurred because of COVID-19 and droughts, says Lutfi Rahimi, an economics professor at the American University of Afghanistan. Earthquakes last month killed hundreds and added to the country’s suffering. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – July 9, 2022
Anas says Haqqani Network never existed, that it was pure ‘propaganda’
Anas Haqqani
Ariana: Anas Haqqani said this week that the Haqqani Network never existed and that when he was arrested in Qatar, he had been a harmless student on holiday. In 2014, when he was 20, Haqqani was arrested in Qatar, tried in Kabul and sentenced to death. According information obtained by Der Spiegel, the only reason he wasn’t ultimately executed was because China intervened with the government in Kabul at the request of Pakistan. In the end, Anas Haqqani was freed in a prisoner exchange. Click here to read more (external link).
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – July 8, 2022
Taliban’s New Chaperone Rule Deprives Afghan Women Of Foreign Scholarships
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
July 8, 2022
For nearly two decades, foreign scholarships provided a golden opportunity for many Afghans to acquire knowledge, new skills, and degrees that few universities in Afghanistan offered.
Women particularly benefited from such international education, which allowed them to establish or enhance their careers. The foreign experience also propelled many to leadership roles in government and civil society.
But Afghan women are now being deprived of studying abroad because the Taliban is not allowing women to travel outside Afghanistan without a male chaperone.
The restriction follows a Taliban ban on education for teenage girls, which has kept millions of secondary-school students from the classroom since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August.
“I had a hellish experience because of this restriction,” says Hadia Tuba, who recently went to Pakistan to begin her university education on a scholarship from Islamabad.
The young Kabul resident says the day she crossed the Torkham border crossing connecting eastern Afghanistan to northwestern Pakistan was the hardest in her life.
“The Taliban stopped me at the border and questioned me for the entire day,” she told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “Eventually, I was let go after a stern warning [that I should never travel alone].”
Tuba says the intimidation she felt was difficult to describe.
“I will never forget what happened, but I don’t like to talk about it,” she said.
The restriction has forced entire Afghan families to leave the country.
Sonia Ahmadi was forced to bring her parents and siblings with her when she went to the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad to attend Ferdowsi University.
“It is a major problem that no woman is allowed to travel alone, whether by road or by air,” she told Radio Azadi. “The gender discrimination against women is pushing Afghanistan backward.”
Officials at the Taliban’s Higher Education Ministry and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Ministry did not respond to Radio Azadi’s repeated requests for comment.
The Taliban announced in February that women could not travel abroad without a valid legal reason. It also put a complete ban on women traveling alone when they go abroad.
Sources have told Radio Azadi that the Taliban has deployed officials at border crossings and airports to prevent women who are traveling solo from leaving Afghanistan.
The moves are part of a broader Taliban push for Islamization that has kept many women from getting an education, working, or having a visible role in society.
Since marching triumphantly into Kabul nearly 11 months ago, the Taliban has reversed nearly every advance Afghan women made since the collapse of the first Taliban regime in late 2001.
The hard-line Islamists have also detained, harassed, and beaten women protesting for their civil rights.
In the past two decades, scholarships from universities in the West helped many Afghan women overcome adversity in their lives. Recipients of U.S. Fulbright and British Chevening scholarships, in particular, rose through the ranks of the Afghan government and became prominent civil society leaders.
Thousands of others studied at other Western institutions and universities in neighboring countries. India was generous in accommodating thousands of Afghans in its vast network of educational institutions.
But most of the Western scholarship programs were suspended after the Taliban took power, leaving Afghan women to apply for only a handful of scholarships, mainly in nearby South Asian countries.
The latest order forcing women to be chaperoned has made it difficult for most and impossible for others to even take advantage of these diminished opportunities.
Naheed, a pseudonym for a resident of the western province of Herat, was recently awarded a scholarship for a master’s degree in India. Obtaining an Afghan passport was just the first hurdle she faced after completing the paperwork for her scholarship.
Accusations of corruption have bogged the Afghan passport office under the Taliban. And passport offices have been crowded, since many Afghans want to flee their country’s failing economy and the Taliban’s harsh rule.
The closure of most diplomatic missions and the suspension of visa services inside Afghanistan made it challenging to organize a trip abroad.
Naheed was able to overcome all these challenges but is now very nervous about trying to travel to India alone.
“The current government has deprived women of the right to travel independently,” she said.
Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Watchdog Alleges Taliban ‘Summarily’ Executed at Least 100 Suspected Islamic State Members
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
July 7, 2022
ISLAMABAD — Taliban security forces in eastern Afghanistan have extrajudicially killed dozens of suspected members and supporters of a local affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, according to Human Rights Watch.
The global human rights group has documented the alleged abuses in a report released Thursday, saying they were committed in eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.
“Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, residents of Nangahar and Kunar … have discovered the bodies of more than 100 men dumped in canals and other locations [between August 2021 and April 2022],” the report said.
The two provinces, which border Pakistan, are known for hosting active bases of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State.
Taliban forces in these areas had “carried out abusive search operations” against residents they accused of sheltering or supporting ISIS-K members, according to the report.
During these security actions, including night raids, residents allegedly had been subjected to torture and men detained without legal process or revealing their whereabouts to their families.
“Taliban authorities appear to have given their forces free rein to detain, ‘disappear,’ and kill alleged militants,” said Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The bodies showed evidence of torture and brutal executions: some had missing limbs, ropes around their necks, or had been beheaded or had slit throats, according to the report.
Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the report as baseless, saying local authorities had investigated these “rumors” but found not a single body in Nangarhar or other areas.
“The propaganda being spread by some well-known international organizations in this regard is disturbing and unfortunate,” Mujahid wrote on Twitter.
Human Rights Watch said while working with a local partner, it interviewed — mostly in person — 63 people between October 2021 and June 2022 for the report. The watchdog claimed to have found “substantial evidence of summary executions and “enforced disappearances” by Taliban forces of suspected ISIS-K supporters.
In November, a United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan was also informed the Taliban’s campaign against ISIS-K “appears to rely heavily on extra-judicial detentions and killings.”
Afghanistan has experienced a spike in ISIS-K-plotted bombings since the Taliban takeover, particularly targeting Hazara, Shiite and other minority communities in the country. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including security forces.
Taliban authorities have regularly conducted retaliatory raids against ISIS-K hideouts in Kabul and elsewhere in the country. The latest such operation was carried out Wednesday night in the Afghan capital, where Mujahid claimed it killed two ISIS-K militants and arrested several others.
“The ISKP’s numerous atrocities do not justify the Taliban’s horrific response,” HRW’s Gossman said, using a local acronym for the terrorist group. “Taliban forces have repeatedly carried out summary executions and other war crimes against people in their custody and have yet to hold those responsible to account.”
How Isolating the Afghan Taliban Could Mean More Young Landmine Victims
Deminer (file photo)
Reuters: The loss of de-mining funds could have profound consequences for the country of 40 million people which is one of the most heavily mined places on Earth after four decades of war. Click here to read more (external link).
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1TV Afghanistan Dari News – July 7, 2022
India Returns to Afghanistan with Small Diplomatic Presence
VOA News
July 7, 2022
Anjana Pasricha
NEW DELHI, INDIA — India has reestablished a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan by sending a technical team to reopen its Kabul embassy, ostensibly for humanitarian purposes, but analysts see it as an effort to secure New Delhi’s strategic interests in the conflict-ridden country, where the Taliban’s return has put Pakistan in a dominant position.
India closed its embassy after the Taliban takeover last August in what was seen as a major strategic setback for New Delhi.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the team is to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian assistance but analysts cite other reasons for the move.
“Reopening the Indian Embassy is really about keeping our eyes and ears on the ground and exploring the possibility of a working relationship with the Taliban, which includes security assurances that Afghan territory would not be used, particularly by Pakistan against India,” Gautam Mukhopadhaya, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, said.
“It’s an opening gambit so to speak, in some ways you are back in the game,” he said.
India has been concerned that Afghanistan will become a haven for militants from Pakistan who have been at the forefront of a three-decade violent separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir.
India and the Taliban have long been fiercely opposed to each other, but both sides have shifted their stance slightly. Analysts say that while New Delhi has accepted that the hardline Islamist group is there to stay for the foreseeable future, Afghanistan’s new leadership has also reached out to India.
“The Taliban has sent signals that it would like India to be present because they are trying to engage with the rest of the world and India is an important country in the region. From the Indian point of view, if the possibility emerged of keeping a presence in Afghanistan, then why not?” said Sushant Sareen, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
“However, this is in no way an endorsement of the Taliban regime. India has only gone back in a small way,” he added.
India has consistently called for an inclusive administration in Afghanistan and expressed concern at the erosion of women’s and girls’ rights under Taliban rule.
The first signal of rapprochement between the two sides came when India began sending food and medicine to the country earlier this year. So far it has sent 20,000 tons of wheat. It also sent aid in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake that wracked Afghanistan last month, along with the technical team posted to Kabul.
After India reopened its embassy, Afghanistan called on other countries to do the same thing.
“The arrival of Indian diplomats in Afghanistan and reopening of [Indian] embassy demonstrates that security is established in the country and all political and diplomatic rights are respected,” Abdul Qahar Balkhi, Taliban spokesperson said.
The next step could be to facilitate student and medical visas for Afghans wanting to come to India. Hundreds of students, including many who were given scholarships by the Indian government, were enrolled in Indian universities before the Taliban takeover but many had returned to Afghanistan during the COVID-19 pandemic, as colleges switched to online learning. India was also a popular destination for Afghans seeking medical treatment.
After a meeting between Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Afghan students this week, the Taliban said that Kabul will approach New Delhi to grant visas to students who have not been able to return to India after COVID restrictions were lifted.
“The premise on which India has gone back to Afghanistan is for the welfare of the people. If that is so, then giving student and medical visas are likely to be on the table although it may not happen in the near future,” Sareen said.
“India will first wait and watch whether the Taliban is willing to do business with us,” he said.
The Taliban outreach to India is also seen as helping the group as Afghanistan faces huge challenges.
“The Taliban better positions itself to make pitches for badly needed financial assistance from a major source of aid – even though New Delhi likely won’t make commitments to anything beyond humanitarian aid,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “And it can help the Taliban earn some backing from a public that has resented the Taliban’s historic deep ties to Pakistan,” he said.
However, India’s engagement with the Taliban is likely to be a slow, cautious process as it assesses the group’s attitude toward New Delhi.
“It is unlikely India will upgrade the embassy anytime soon or maybe at all, depending on the direction that the Taliban takes. You are treading water but with your foot in,” Mukhopadhaya said.
From the standpoint of India’s Western allies, such as the United States, New Delhi’s return to Afghanistan is a welcome development according to analysts.
“It’s important for Washington that it’s not just rivals like Pakistan, China, Russia, and Iran that are engaging with the Taliban,” according to Kugelman. “The US will also likely view India as an important player in its efforts to get the Taliban to improve its rights record.”
The embassy reopening could also be a step toward New Delhi, which some had thought sidelined in the region in August, regaining some of the leverage that it has lost in the country, where for two decades following the 2001 U.S. invasion it had built soft power with a slew of development projects such as roads, schools and hospitals.
“In Afghanistan, there is never any endgame,” Sareen said, “Every endgame is the beginning of a new Great Game.”
Taliban Offer Free Pass to Former Corrupt Officials
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
July 6, 2022
The Taliban say they will not hold former Afghan officials accountable for the massive corruption that derailed donor-funded development projects and contributed to the collapse of the former Afghan Republic.
“Those who nurtured and enriched themselves during the previous invasion and from the U.S.’s system own their properties and assets and it will remain so,” Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA’s Pashto Service.
Former officials suspected of corruption will face courts, he said, only if they seized private properties or public assets during the past two decades.
Asked about properties some former Afghan officials might have acquired via corrupt practices in the former Afghan government, Mujahid said, “individuals who abused the previous system” would not face legal accountability and will keep their wealth.
Bankrolled by foreign donors, the former Afghan Republic was consistently ranked among the five most corrupt states in the world.
“Corruption inflicted significant damage to U.S. efforts to reconstruct Afghanistan and strengthen its institutions,” said Philip LaVelle, director of public affairs for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government monitor for aid to Afghanistan. He spoke to VOA.
From 2002 to 2021, the U.S. spent more than $145 billion on reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan while other donors such as the European Union also channeled billions of dollars for the same purposes.
“Corruption was a major cause of the republic’s ignominious collapse,” Wahed Faqiri, an Afghan-American analyst, told VOA. “It undermined the entire system. It severely undermined the legitimacy of the republic. It strengthened the Taliban. Corruption made Taliban’s propaganda effective, real, and tangible.”
Mohammad Halim Fidai, a former senior Afghan official, said corruption was one factor but not the underlying cause of the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as the country was named from 2004 to 2021.
“Highlighting corruption is aimed at diverting attention from the wrongdoings by U.S. policymakers,” Fidai told VOA, adding that Taliban insurgents were also involved in corruption as they levied taxes and extorted money from development projects.
LaVelle said U.S. spending was flawed and even fueled corruption in Afghanistan.
“The United States failed to recognize the magnitude of corruption early on, empowered warlords and other corrupt actors, and poured too much money in so quickly it couldn’t be absorbed,” he said.
No anti-corruption body
Nearly a year in power, the Taliban have neither announced a policy nor appointed a government body to counter corruption.
The leadership’s anti-corruption performance has received mixed results.
Citing the findings of a survey of Afghan traders, Andrea Mario Dall’Olio, the World Bank’s lead economist for Afghanistan, said in April that corruption appears to have been “curbed significantly” at customs and border checkpoints.
Others say Taliban officials are succumbing to all sorts of corruption and abuses of power.
“On the whole, the Taliban are relatively cleaner than the republic. However, as time goes on, nepotism is creeping in. Corruption is taking root. Luxury is showing its ugly face,” said Faqiri.
Fidai, the former Afghan official who now lives abroad, accused the Taliban of more than monetary corruption.
“Occupying all political government posts by Mullah without merit and even having three ministers from one family in the cabinet is corruption,” he said, referring to the powerful Haqqani family that occupies several top cabinet positions in the ruling Taliban leadership.
Officials return to immunity
As the Taliban consolidate their grip on power, they have allowed and even facilitated the return of some former Afghan officials, including at least two ministers, offering them “immunity cards” against persecution.
Women, as in the Taliban’s other policy arenas, have been excluded from the process as no prominent female politician or former official has been repatriated to Afghanistan so far.
While the returning officials say they have come back to their country and want to live with their people, some observers say former officials want to retain the assets they could not take abroad when the former Afghan government abruptly collapsed last year.
The Taliban’s unconditional offer to let former Afghan officials return and retain their assets, and the group’s assurance of immunity from prosecution, could protect those who illicitly made riches out of projects and programs that aimed to build effective and viable institutions and services for Afghanistan.
SIGAR, which has investigated numerous cases of corruption and abuse in U.S. spending in Afghanistan — several cases of which have been heard in U.S. courts — said it will not cease criminal investigations into “theft, fraud, and abuse of U.S. reconstruction dollars, and we go where the facts and the evidence lead us.”