Afghan families would leave country if girls’ schools do not reopen: Hekmatyar

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Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Ariana: Many Afghan families would leave their country if secondary girls’ schools do not reopen, Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said on Friday. Hekmatyar, in his Friday sermon, said that a decision should be made regarding the issue of girls’ education at the gathering of religious scholars in Kabul. “What does Islam say? What does our religion say? What do our imams and jurists say? What does the Qur’an and Hadith say?” Hekmatyar asked. “A decision should be made in this regard and it should be acceptable to all Afghans.” Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Arrests and Severely Tortures a Resident in Badakhshan

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8am: The Taliban rebels have arrested and severely tortured a young man in Badakhshan province, sources in the province report. Sources reported Saturday that the detainee’s name is Ezatullah and was arrested a few days ago in Shuhada district of this province by the Taliban. According to the sources, the Taliban have tortured him after his arrest and have not allowed his family members to visit him so far. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Atrocities Reported In Crackdown On Rebel Hazara Commander

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Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
Abubakar Siddique
July 1, 2022

Residents and international human rights watchdogs are criticizing the Taliban for grave rights abuses that have been reported in its military campaign against a dissident commander in a remote part of northern Afghanistan.

Civilians in Balkhab, a rural district in the Sar-e Pul Province, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that they have faced atrocities and collective punishment — including extrajudicial executions — during a recent offensive.

The Taliban rejected the accusations and claimed to have restored security to the areas after subduing the rebellion.

The operation is targeting Mehdi Mujahid, formerly the most senior ethnic Hazara security official in the Taliban government. The former head of Taliban intelligence in the central province of Bamiyan, Mujahid was angered by the Taliban leadership after he was dismissed for unspecified reasons in early June.

Mujahid accused Taliban leaders of alienating the predominately Shi’ite Hazara minority by depriving them of government posts and civic rights.

The two sides clashed after the Taliban attacked Mujahid’s stronghold in Balkhab. Locals told RFE/RL about intense fighting as both sides claimed to have caused casualties, though it is impossible to verify the conflicting claims. Fighting appeared to have calmed down as of June 28.

Afghan media outlets have reported that scores of civilians in Balkhab have been killed. They have also said hundreds have been displaced from the region and fled to the neighboring Bamiyan Province.

‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Many of Balkhab’s some 100,000 residents are clearly in distress.

“Crimes against humanity are now taking place in Balkhab,” a male resident of the district who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons told Radio Azadi.

“Crime after crime is taking place. People are under threat,” he said. “I want to ask the United Nations and independent media to probe these abuses.”

Mujahid’s rebellion comes amid growing divisions within the Taliban.

While Uzbek, Tajik, and Hazara Taliban members are a minority of the Islamist group dominated by Pashtun clerics, they were instrumental in capturing northern provinces in the run-up to the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August.

But some prominent Taliban commanders who are ethnic minorities have been fired or demoted in recent months.

The current offensive has added to the Taliban’s difficulties.

The fundamentalist group’s government had already faced accusations of ethnic discrimination and armed resistance from the National Resistance Front (NRF), a predominantly Tajik militia in the northern Panjshir and Baghlan provinces.

The NRF and Taliban have engaged in clashes during the past three months, with civilians in the regions accusing the hard-line Islamists of beatings, arbitrary arrests, illegal killings, and forced displacement.

The Taliban is now facing growing criticism of its conduct in confronting the latest rebellion in Balkhab.

The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on June 29 that it is “concerned by reports of civilian harm, displacement, allegations of serious human rights violations, and property damage due to the recent outbreak of conflict” in Balkhab.

The organization tasked with assisting “the state and the people of Afghanistan in laying the foundations for sustainable peace and development” said it will follow up on the reports of atrocities.

‘Information Blackout’

Earlier in the week, Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said he regretted that the verification of rights abuses in Balkhab was hampered by an “information blackout, Internet [cuts,] and denial of access to media and HR monitors.”

He said reports of extrajudicial killings, civilian displacement, property destruction, and other rights abuses in Balkhab are “disturbing.”

Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, described as “alarming” reports from Balkhab, where Taliban forces reportedly carried out summary executions of detainees in retaliation for armed resistance.

She tweeted that the “Taliban should cease all such collective punishments and other war crimes and hold their forces accountable.”

Amnesty International also weighed in on the clashes that first broke out last week as the Taliban deployed forces against Mujahid after parleys ended.

The watchdog called on the conflicting parties to respect the “laws of war in all hostilities and avoid harming civilians and civilian objects.”

It called on the international community to pay attention to the increasing human rights violations in Afghanistan.

“As the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, the Taliban has a primary responsibility to end the attacks against civilians and ensure justice and accountability,” Amnesty said in a statement on June 27.

A Tipping Point?

But the Taliban continues to reject the accusations.

“In Balkhab, the situation has returned to normal,” chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted. “No one was abused or oppressed [and] the propaganda about the mistreatment of civilians or casualties is not true.”

But the Taliban has yet to allow independent observers assess the situation. In a sign that the region is reeling from significant military unrest, Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, the Taliban army’s chief of staff, visited Balkhab on June 23.

Mujahid, the dissident Taliban commander, had accused the group of “disenfranchising” the Hazara after he was fired from his post earlier this month. Some say he wanted control of a local coal mine in his native Balkhab.

Author Antonio Giustozzi, a Taliban expert at Kings College London, says the power struggle among various Taliban factions seems to have reached a tipping point. He cites the example of various ethnic Uzbek Taliban commanders who were sidelined since the beginning of the year. Giustozzi argues that even Fitrat is not happy over a gradual loss of real power during the past 10 months.

“This seems to be a classic conflict between a centralized government and local actors seeking autonomy,” he wrote recently for the BBC.

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.

Reclusive Taliban Leader Addresses Afghan Assembly, Lauds ‘Victory’

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Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
July 1, 2022

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mawlawi Haibuatullah Akhundzada, is addressing a grand meeting in Kabul of some 3,000 male clerics and tribal leaders discussing the running of the country.

The June 30-July 2 “grand assembly of ulema,” or religious scholars, is a tightly controlled event where women are banned and delegates are handpicked by the Taliban. Ethnic and religious minorities have been excluded.

Akhundzada heads the Taliban-led government that took control of Afghanistan after U.S.-led international troops withdrew and the UN-backed government collapsed in August.

In his speech, he reportedly congratulated attendees on their “victory” in Afghanistan.

He also expressed prayers for the victims of a recent devastating earthquake last week that killed more than 1,000 Afghans.

Akhundzada’s presence at the assembly on July 1 marks his first public appearance in Kabul.

Before October, Akhundzada had not been seen in public at all since becoming Taliban leader in 2016.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi said this week that the assembly’s participants would discuss Islamic governance, national unity and security, and economic and social issues, and that politicians, businessmen, and traders would attend.

The inclusion of some of those groups suggests the Taliban are trying to make it resemble a long-promised Loya Jirga (grand council) — a centuries-old institution that provides representatives from Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic, religious, and tribal communities an opportunity to say how the nation will be governed.

The United States and most of the international community have shunned the Taliban and its unrecognized government, demanding greater inclusivity and respect for minority and women’s rights.

The international isolation of the Taliban and the country’s financing have contributed to Afghanistan’s economic collapse and ongoing humanitarian crises, including dire food shortages.

Last week, Akhundzada called on the international community to donate to help with relief efforts after the earthquake struck early on June 22.

He urged outsiders “to join hands with the Afghan people in this great tragedy.”

Finance and central bank officials from the Taliban-led government are reportedly meeting with U.S. officials in Qatar to discuss economic and aid issues following the earthquake.

The Washington Post first reported on June 28 that senior Biden administration officials are working with the Taliban leadership on a mechanism to allow Kabul to use central bank reserves while erecting safeguards to ensure the funds are not misused.

With additional reporting by Reuters and AP

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.

Related

Last night Taliban killed two brothers in Kabul

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Aamaj: Relatives of the victims said that the incident took place in Char Qala Char Dehe neighborhood in Kabul, last night. They added that Taliban arrested another brother of them, and their father who is suffering from cancer; took them in an unknown whereabouts. They added their situation is not known as well. Click here to read more (external link).

Turkey awaits Taliban response to Kabul airport offer: Erdogan

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Erdogan

Ariana: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey had offered to operate Kabul airport in Afghanistan with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and was awaiting the response of the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] to the proposal. He was speaking at a news conference at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid. Click here to read more (external link).

US Visa Called Too Expensive for Afghan Students

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
June 30, 2022

For Breshna Salaam, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year meant a return to the same extreme poverty she and her mother had experienced under the Taliban’s first time in control of the country.

In 1996, the Taliban fired Salaam’s mother from a public service job, denying the widow and her daughter their only source of income. In August 2021, with her mother retired, the Taliban fired Salaam from a job at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Deprived of work and education in her own country, she applied for graduate programs abroad and was offered a scholarship at New York University.

“I cried out of happiness when I received news of the scholarship,” Salaam told VOA.

But her happiness did not last long.

First, she had to pay more than $2,000 in bribes to get a new passport and a short-term visa to Pakistan, where she needs to submit a student visa application at the U.S. embassy. The embassy in Afghanistan remains closed since the Taliban entered Kabul last year.

“I had to literally beg relatives and friends for money to pay for the passport and the Pakistani visa,” she said.

And, there are more expenses she has to cover.

“I have to buy a flight ticket to Islamabad, pay for my accommodation in Islamabad, have to pay $510 for U.S. visa fees, and finally, if I’m given a visa, I will have to buy my ticket to New York,” said Salaam, adding that she had no means to pay all the required expenses on her own.

Staff at her U.S. university contributed $350 for her SEVIS fee, a payment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security required from all international students before they submit an F-1 student visa application. Students also have to pay a $160 F-1 visa fee to the U.S. embassy. Both fees are non-refundable, even if the visa is denied.

Calls for help unanswered

Over the past four months, more than 500 U.S. academics and human rights activists have signed at least two appeal letters to the White House and the Department of State calling for assistance for Afghan scholars, particularly women, who strive to come to the United States to continue their education.

“We are deeply concerned about the lives and well-being of these Afghan academics, especially women,” reads a June 21 letter signed by academics from more than 20 U.S. colleges and universities. It is addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The letter criticizes the delays and rejections of student visas for Afghan scholars – even while a fully funded stipend and scholarship is provided by the inviting university – and calls on Blinken to personally intervene “to rectify this shameful situation.”

“We have received no response to the letter,” Chloe Breyer, executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York and a signee of the letter, told VOA.

In a separate letter sent to U.S. President Joe Biden in February, more than 450 academic organizations and individuals made a similar call for support for at-risk Afghan scholars.

“Please help facilitate access to our colleges and universities for the many Afghan scholars and students, who deserve our continued support and investment,” the letter asked Biden.

“We have received no updates from the U.S. government,” Edward Liebow, executive director of the American Anthropological Association, told VOA.

More than 80,000 Afghans have come to the U.S. over the past 10 months, mostly through Operation Allies Welcome, a U.S. government program designed to resettle former U.S. Afghan allies and at-risk individuals.

U.S. officials have repeatedly voiced support for Afghan women and minorities whose fundamental rights are reportedly violated under Taliban leadership.

Visa fees

Already one of the poorest countries in the world, Afghanistan has plunged deeper into poverty over the past 10 months largely due to a cessation of foreign development aid, rampant unemployment, and international banking and economic sanctions imposed on the Taliban leadership. Afghan women, deprived of work and education, are particularly suffering the brunt of the harsh poverty, aid agencies say.

To help Afghan scholars, U.S. academics have called on the Department of State to waive the student visa fees.

“The cost of J-1 visas for academics and F-1 for students is a non-refundable fee of $160, a considerable challenge to most applicants, with further expense for those with family, each of whom pays the same fee,” said Breyer.

A spokesperson for the Department of State said there is no exception in visa fees for Afghan students.

“The department does not have the authority to waive visa fees on an ad hoc basis and the department’s regulations contain no exemption from the payment of visa fees that would apply to Afghan students, in general,” the spokesperson told VOA.

For Breshna Salaam, the SEVIS and visa fees are as much an impediment to her education as are the Taliban’s outright denials of her right to work and learn.

“I hear a lot from U.S. officials in the media that they support the right of Afghan women and girls to education and work, but it would be good to see some actions like waiving student visa fees for Afghan women or making the visa process a little easier so we don’t have to travel to a third country only to submit a visa application,” Salaam said.

More than 914,000 international students were enrolled at U.S. academic centers in 2021, of which 354 were from Afghanistan, according to the Institute of International Education.

Emails show State Department did not cooperate with Afghan probe, internal government watchdog says

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John Sopko

NBC News: John Sopko, who runs the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said last week that two Biden administration agencies, the State Department and USAID, had told their staffers not to provide information or communicate with SIGAR, which is responsible for tracking waste and corruption. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan’s first female Olympian: IOC is funding the Taliban-controlled NOC in Kabul

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PlaytheGame: The new Taliban regime in Afghanistan has held power over the country’s sports sector since August 2021. But even though the regime almost immediately violated the Olympic Charter by declaring a ban on women’s sport, the Taliban-controlled National Olympic Committee of Afghanistan is still funded by money from the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity programme. According to the former Afghan judoka, Friba Rezayee, the first ever female Olympian from Afghanistan, an email correspondence earlier this year between the IOC and the NOC confirmed the transfer of 56,000 USD from the Olympic Solidarity programme to the Taliban-controlled committee in Kabul. But the money never seemed to reach the Afghan athletes they were meant for. Click here to read more (external link).