Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said the number of patients diagnosed with cancer has increased in state hospitals, saying that 13,500 patients diagnosed with cancer have been recorded since the beginning of the 1400 solar year. According to health officials, health care services are deteriorating every day as state hospitals face the lack of medicine and medical equipment. Click here to read more (external link).
Pakistan Slams Taliban Curbs on Afghan Women
ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani government minister Monday criticized neighboring Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban for placing curbs on women, denouncing the curbs as “retrogressive thinking” and as posing threat to his country.
Information Minister Fawad Hussain, while speaking to an Islamabad gathering, described the new Taliban government in Kabul as an “extremist regime.”
“We want to fully help the people of Afghanistan. But saying that women can’t travel alone or go to schools and colleges — this kind of a retrogressive thinking is a threat to Pakistan,” Hussain said.
It is extremely rare for Pakistani officials to publicly criticize the Taliban who have returned to power in Afghanistan, allegedly with the covert support of Pakistan’s military — charges Islamabad denies.
Hussain spoke a day after the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a new directive for women, limiting their ability to travel farther than 72 kilometers unless accompanied by a close male relative. It also advised taxi drivers in Afghanistan to offer rides only to women wearing an Islamic hijab or a headscarf.
Ministry spokesman Sadiq Akif Mahajer defended the restrictions, telling VOA they were in line with Sharia, or Islamic law.
The latest restrictions come weeks after the Taliban asked Afghan television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses and to require female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air.
The Taliban militarily regained control of Afghanistan in August as the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces collapsed in the final stages of the withdrawal by the U.S.-led international forces from the country.
The Islamist movement has since prevented most Afghan women from returning to work and schoolgirls from resuming classes across many provinces, despite pledging a more moderate rule compared with their harsh regime from 1996 to 2001.
No country has recognized the Taliban government, and the global community is refusing to directly engage with Kabul over human rights and terrorism concerns, even as Afghan humanitarian needs have risen to record levels.
The United Nations estimates nearly 23 million Afghans face hunger because of years of war, drought and extreme poverty.
Last week, Pakistan hosted an emergency conference of Islamic countries, with U.S, Russian, Chinese, and European envoys in attendance, to mobilize increased humanitarian assistance for Afghans. Islamabad has also dispatched scores of trucks carrying food and medicines to the conflict-hit country since the Taliban takeover in mid-August.
Islamabad is worried the worsening Afghan humanitarian and economic crisis could send more refugees to Pakistan and others neighboring countries.
Pakistani leaders have repeatedly urged the Taliban to listen to and address international concerns about rights of Afghan women, fighting terrorism and governing the country inclusively.
The Taliban, however, dismiss criticism of their government and polices as interference in internal Afghan affairs, saying they are ruling the country within the framework of Sharia.
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a recent media interview, defended his group’s interpretation of Islamic laws and condemned governance systems in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, as un-Islamic.
Afghan Women Banned From Making Trips Unless Escorted By A Chaperone
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 26, 2021
In a further move restricting women’s freedoms in Afghanistan, the Taliban says that women seeking to travel more than 72 kilometers should not be offered transport unless they are accompanied by a close male relative.
An advisory distributed by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice also directs all vehicle drivers to refrain from playing music in their cars, and not to pick up female passengers who do not wear an Islamic hijab covering the hair.
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq Akif confirmed the authenticity of the advisory on December 26.
A taxi driver in Kabul who did not want to be named told RFE/RL that for some time armed Taliban have been urging taxi drivers not to play music in their cars or take women without a hijab.
Exiled Afghan legal expert Haroun Rahimi criticized the Taliban’s directive, saying it means taxi drivers will effectively be in a position to “police Afghan women’s bodies & mobility.”
“This will create opportunities for harassment & make public spaces unsafe for women,” he tweeted on December 25.
“Muslim women [are] scientists, captains of industries & pol leaders across the world. Afghan women should be encouraged to follow in their steps,” he wrote in a separate tweet.
Heather Barr, an associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, said that the new instruction by the Taliban essentially moves “further in the direction of making women prisoners.”
It “shuts off opportunities for them to be able to move about freely, to travel to another city, to do business, [or] to be able to flee if they are facing violence in the home”, Barr told the AFP news agency.
After taking over Afghanistan in mid-August, the Taliban have named an all-male government that is dominated by veteran militants vowing a return to strict Shari’a law, in a stark blow to Afghan and international hopes that the Islamist groups’s second stint in power would prove less restrictive than two decades ago.
The hard-line Islamist group has shut down the former administration’s Ministry for Women’s Affairs, and significantly curtailed women’s rights. The vast majority of women have been banned from working, while many girls and women have been deprived of the right to an education.
Last month, the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered Afghanistan’s television channels to stop showing dramas featuring women actors and said female television journalists must wear a hijab.
Women’s rights were severely curtailed during the Taliban’s previous rule in the 1990s, when they were then forced to wear the all-covering burqa, only allowed to leave home with a male chaperone, and banned from work, education, and sports.
With reporting by AFP and dpa
This story also includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection.
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.
Related
Tolo News in Dari – December 26, 2021
Taliban collects more than 1.5 billion AFN from telecom tax
Ariana: “Since the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan took over the government, 1.55 billion Afghanis have been collected in revenue from the 10 percent tax on SIM cards,” said Enayatullah Alkozai, the Ministry spokesman. Meanwhile, mobile users called on the IEA to ensure transparency in the collection process of the 10 percent revenue tax. Click here to read more (external link).
Armed Clashes between Taliban Forces and Hamid Khorasani’s Men in Panjshir
8am: Local sources in Panjshir province say there has been an armed clash between Taliban forces and Abdul Hamid Khorasani’s men. According to sources, the clash took place after Taliban forces shot and killed a young man in the Anaba district of Panjshir today Sunday afternoon. Click here to read more (external link).
Anti Taliban protest in Panjshir
Civilians who live in the occupied main valley of Panjshir are rising up & are raising voices against the Taliban oppressors. They are chanting long live @AhmadMassoud01 & NRF. They are starting a peaceful uprising while their brothers in arms are resisting from the side valleys. pic.twitter.com/HOX38jKuqP
— Ali Maisam Nazary (@alinazary) December 26, 2021
NRF: “170 Taliban fighters killed and wounded in 23 provinces in past 9 days”
Aamaj: Spokesman of National Resistance Front, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, in a series of tweets released a long list of NRF guerrilla fighters’ attacks on Taliban across the country. Mr. Ahmadi also says that in past nine days 34 Taliban fighters killed and 52 others wounded in Samangan, Maidan Wardak, Kabul, Takhar, Ghor, Farah, Kapisa, Laghman, Nangarhar, Kunar, Nuristan, Sare-pul, Balkh, Parwan, Jawzijan, Faryab, Herat, and Ghazni. Click here to read more (external link).
Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Blast In Afghan Capital
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 25, 2021
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for a blast that took place near the gate of a passport office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on December 23.
IS made the claim on December 25 in a statement posted on a Telegram account affiliated to the militant organization.
There was no immediate comment from the Taliban-led government.
Taliban officials had said that a would-be suicide bomber was shot dead by security forces as he tried to enter the passport office. The details of the incident were not clear, but unconfirmed reports claimed that an explosion occurred at the entrance to the building, wounding several people.
Eyewitnesses said the area was locked down by Taliban security forces.
Large crowds of people have been gathering outside the passport office in a bid to get travel documents in recent days after the service was resumed following weeks of suspension.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are desperate to flee a growing humanitarian crisis in the country.
Thursdays are reserved for Taliban officials and soldiers to obtain passports because of huge demand and long queues. The attack took place on a Thursday, when around 200 Taliban fighters had gathered at the passport office from the early morning.
A local IS affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan Province, has intensified attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August.
The attacks have mainly targeted Taliban fighters as well as members of the minority Shi’ite Muslim community, killing and wounding hundreds of people.
The Taliban says it’s hunting IS affiliates by attacking their hideouts.
Based on reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AFP
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.
Taliban Dissolves 2 Ministries, Election Commissions
Tolo News: The Islamic Emirate in a new move dissolved the State Ministry for Peace, the State Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs, the Independent Election Commission (IEC), and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC). Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said currently there was no need for these institutions and the leadership decided to dissolve them. Click here to read more (external link).