Amu: Saudi Arabia announced that Sunday, March 30, 2025, will mark the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, following the sighting of the crescent moon, according to a statement from the Haramain on Saturday evening. “The crescent moon has been sighted in Saudi Arabia,” the Haramain said in a post on X. “Eid al-Fitr will be celebrated on Sunday, 30th March 2025.”Click here to read more (external link).
Related
8am: The investigative report by the Hasht-e Subh Daily, based on findings from seven provinces across the country, reveals that following the Taliban’s imposition of restrictions on women’s education, academic pursuits, and employment, many women and girls have turned to various addictive substances. Girls and women in these provinces state that the use of tobacco products—particularly cigarettes, Tablet K, Tablet Zeegap, and electronic hookahs—is the only means they know to escape psychological pressures, mental strain, and depression. Click here to read more (external link).
The Guardian (UK): Against a backdrop of Taliban rule and corruption claims against FA president, Zohib Islam Amiri sees demoralisation setting in. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: The Afghanistan Journalists Center reported that the Taliban issued a ban on the publication of live animal images to media outlets in Badakhshan, Baghlan, and Nimroz provinces. This directive was communicated to local media outlets on Thursday, March 7. According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center, the Taliban’s Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice informed local media in these provinces to refrain from publishing any images of live animals. This order came through voice messages from local officials. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan International: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani attended a recent security meeting in Kandahar chaired by Taliban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. Haqqani briefed Akhundzada during the meeting, which also included Defence Minister Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid and Intelligence Chief Abdul Haq Wasiq. Click here to read more (external link).
Amu: Iran’s top diplomat in Afghanistan, Alireza Bigdeli, said Afghan migrants living in Iran have played a “vital” role in supporting the country’s economic development, and called for stronger cultural and economic ties between the two neighbors. Speaking during a visit to Herat to follow up on bilateral cooperation projects, Bigdeli described Iran-Afghanistan relations as a “rushing river” that must be safeguarded through consistent efforts to remove existing obstacles. Click here to read more (external link).
By Malali Bashir
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 27, 2025
The new school year started in Afghanistan on March 22, but for the fourth consecutive year, millions of teenage girls were barred from attending classes.
Among them was Khalida, who was in the ninth grade when the Taliban seized power and banned education for girls above 12 years old.
“The ban has had a big impact on my life,” Khalida, now 18, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “I used to spend all my time on my studies. Now my time passes aimlessly.”
The school ban has had a catastrophic impact on an estimated 2.2 million girls in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has erased women from public life and severely restricted their fundamental rights.
There has been a surge in forced, early, and child marriages. Child marriages have increased by around 25 percent since the Taliban takeover, according to the UN.
The lack of educational and professional prospects for women has fueled a rise in female suicides, making the country one of the few in the world where more women take their own lives than men.
“The lack of access to education not only threatens our future but also hinders our country from progress and development,” said another teenage Afghan girl, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
“We have the right to study, progress, and have a bright future,” she told Radio Azadi.
UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, said the repercussions of the school ban will last for generations.
“The ban negatively impacts the health system, the economy, and the future of the nation,” UNICEF said in a March 22 statement.
“With fewer girls receiving an education, girls face a higher risk of child marriage with negative repercussions on their well-being and health.”
The agency warned that over 4 million girls will be out of school if the ban lasts until 2030.
Calls To Do More
Senior UN officials and Afghan female activists have termed the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan girls and women as “gender apartheid.”
They have called for the international community to put more pressure on the Taliban to reverse its ban on education for girls beyond the sixth grade.
No country has recognized the Taliban’s government, which is under international sanctions. But a growing number of countries, including some in the West, are cooperating with its government on trade, security-related issues, and immigration.
“The Taliban still go around and travel freely,” said Pashtana Durrani, a prominent Afghan education activist who lives in exile.
“They give interviews. They have bank accounts. Their families live abroad yet they have banned Afghan women from getting an education.”
She added: “The international community should be asked whether they truly want the Taliban to open girls’ schools or not?”
Related
Khalilzad
The Independent (UK): Donald Trump could once again turn to his ally Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief architect of the Doha Deal, as his Afghanistan go-between. Some experts fear that would be a mistake, as Arpan Rai reports. Click here to read more (external link).