Tolo News: Ali Arabzada, an Afghan national futsal team player, has died in Iran. Officials at the Afghanistan Football Federation on the futsal committee have confirmed his death, but said it is still not clear how he died. Arabzada performed with distinction in the 2019 Asian Futsal Championship which was hosted by Iran and in which the Afghanistan’s National Futsal Team ranked second. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Militants Threat Residents of Ghazni’s Nawur District
8am: “Taliban forces entered the village without coordination with the local people, representatives, elders, and searched the houses. They entered the houses by force, regardless of the etiquette and the usual principles, and threatened the locals that we would kill you, and that each of you would suffice with a bullet. When they could not find weapons from the houses, the women of the village were threatened to show them the houses of those who had weapons,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Safid Ab village. Click here to read more (external link).
Kabul Blast Targets Religious Scholar, Causes ‘Slight Injuries’
Tolo News: A bomb blast targeted the vehicle of a religious scholar, Mawllawi Abdul Salam Abid, the Interior Ministry said, adding that Abid and three companions suffered slight injuries. Eyewitnesses told TOLO news that the explosion was due to a magnetic bomb blast. The incident occurred on Friday afternoon in the Parwan-e-Si area of PD4 of Kabul city. Click here to read more (external link).
Fallen Afghan Government’s UN Envoy Leaves Post
AFP: The Afghan ambassador appointed by the country’s overthrown government has left his post at the United Nations, the U.N. said. Ghulam Isaczai “relinquished his position as of December 15,” according to a letter received Thursday, assistant U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told AFP. Click here to read more (external link).
Related
Girl shot dead by Taliban while family was preparing to flee to Canada
Global News: The girl, Nazifa, was killed when gunfire erupted near a Taliban checkpoint in Kandahar on the night of Dec. 10, her father and the Canadian veterans group Aman Lara told Global News in interviews. The father had worked for the Canadian military in Kandahar until 2011. The family was approved for resettlement by Canada, but was stuck in Afghanistan due to the lack of evacuation efforts. Click here to read more (external link).
NRF: “Neither a tribal jirga nor the 1964 constitution is the solution to this conflict”
Nazary
Aamaj: Head of foreign relations for National Resistance Front (NRF), Ali Maisam Nazary, reacted to former president, Hamid Karzai’s remarks saying that forming a modern institution which represents everyone can end the vicious cycle of violence in Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – December 16, 2021
Silent Death of Afghan Addicts: Death Toll Rises in Winter
8am: With the rise of the Taliban, officials at drug treatment centers in Herat say that the process of providing services and treating addicts in these centers has dropped by nearly 50 percent. Click here to read more (external link).
Kabul Women Stage Rare Protest For Jobs, Food, And Freedom
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 16, 2021
Several dozen women have taken to the streets of the Afghan capital to demand the right to education, jobs, and political representation from the Taliban-installed government.
As they marched through Kabul amid bitter cold conditions on December 16, the protesters chanted slogans calling for food, careers, and freedom, and held banners demanding women get political posts.
Some of them carried placards calling on the international community to restore aid to their country as it teeters on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe with rising poverty, a lack of food, and a collapsing economy.
Reports said the rally was not disrupted by the Taliban, which banned unsanctioned rallies after taking over the war-torn country in mid-August.
For weeks, the women staged almost daily demonstrations to demand their rights, representation in government, and roles in the deeply religious and conservative country, but following a violent Taliban crackdown on protests, such street rallies waned.
The hard-line Islamist group has pledged a softer rule after they overthrew the internationally backed government, compared with their first stint in power in the 1990s.
However, the vast majority of women have been banned from working, while many girls and women have been deprived of the right to an education.
The international community has refused to recognize Afghanistan’s new rulers. Key global donors have blocked most of their aid to the country, and reserves of the Afghan central bank held abroad were also frozen.
Last week, the World Bank said donors approved the transfer of $280 million from a frozen trust fund to two aid agencies to help Afghanistan respond to its humanitarian crisis, while the United States formalized guidance allowing personal remittances to flow to Afghanistan.
With reporting by AFP and TOLOnews
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.
Afghani Value Climbs, Now 94 Afs Per Dollar
Tolo News: Afghan currency has stopped its steep drop against the dollar, which severely affected food prices across the country. On Wednesday, one US dollar was exchanged for 102 Afs. On Tuesday money exchangers said a US dollar was traded for around 123 Afs, and in some cases 130Afs. Today, one US dollar is being exchanged for 94 Afs, according to the money exchangers. Click here to read more (external link).