Taliban Setting Out To Exclude Women, Girls From Public Life, UN Experts Warn
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 17, 2022
Taliban leaders are attempting to institutionalize large-scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against Afghan women and girls, a group of 36 UN human rights experts warned in a statement on January 17.
The experts said an array of restrictive steps that have been introduced since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August, particularly those concerning women and girls, have caused alarm.
“We are concerned about the continuous and systematic efforts to exclude women from the social, economic, and political spheres across the country,” the experts said.
“These concerns are exacerbated in the cases of women from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities such as the Hazara, Tajik, Hindu, and other communities whose differences or visibility make them even more vulnerable in Afghanistan.”
Many women have been banned from returning to their jobs. Bus drivers and taxi drivers were ordered not to carry women in their vehicles unless they are wearing an Islamic veil. According to the same order, drivers also are not allowed to transport unmarried women in their vehicles more than 70 kilometers.
“Taken together, these policies constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices,” the experts said.
“These policies have also affected the ability of women to work and to make a living, pushing them further into poverty,” the experts said. “Women heads of households are especially hard hit, with their suffering compounded by the devastating consequences of the humanitarian crisis in the country.”
Of “particular and grave concern” is the continued denial of the fundamental right of women and girls to secondary and tertiary education, the statement said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week also sounded the alarm about the abrupt deterioration of women and girls’ rights since the Taliban takeover.
“In the weeks after the Taliban takeover, authorities announced a steady stream of policies and regulations rolling back women’s and girls’ rights,” HRW said in its annual report on January 13, mentioning severe restrictions in access to employment and education and restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly.
The Taliban has repeatedly responded with beatings, threats, or detentions to protests staged by Afghan women demanding their rights to education, work, and freedom.
With reporting by dpa
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.
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Regional Taliban Officials Ban Beard Trimming, Impose Turban For Male Employees
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
January 17, 2022
Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan Province have ordered male employees to stop trimming their beards and wear a turban at work.
Seeking to gain recognition and much-needed aid after taking over Afghanistan in August, the hard-line militant group indicated it would adopt a more moderate stance and rights-friendly image than during its previous brutal stint in power more than 20 years ago, when it enforced a radical form of Islamic law.
But the United Nations and many human rights groups have been voicing concerns, especially after local media reports surfaced claiming the militants’ actions differed sharply from the moderate image the group’s leaders were trying to project, mainly when dealing with women’s rights but also in other areas.
Mulawi Taib, a senior Taliban official in Uruzgan, told a gathering on January 16 that the hard-line Islamist group wanted people to obey Islamic Shari’a law.
“All employees…should understand that the policy of the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan] is based on Shari’a law. All employees are forbidden to shorten their beards and must come to work wearing turbans,” Mulawi Taib said.
In November, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a set of “religious guidelines” that imposed new restrictions on life under the Taliban.
Uruzgan is one of the provinces where the group has imposed strict rules after returning to power.
According to reports, Taliban officials have appointed people at mosques to monitor the observance of prayers and religious orders. An attendance book was introduced in mosques, resulting in punishments for those who do not attend prayers.
Such punishments are meted out mainly by employees appointed by the ministry, reports said.
The Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which replaced the Western-backed government’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and took over its building after the militant group seized Kabul, was notorious for its abuses, particularly against women and girls, during the previous Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001.
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.
Afghanistan’s Embassies Remain In Limbo As Most Staff Still Loyal To Toppled Government
Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 17, 2022
Many of Afghanistan’s diplomats watched from abroad as the government they served collapsed in August.
But five months since the Taliban takeover, many of them remain loyal to the fallen Western-backed government and have refused to hand over their diplomatic missions to the militant group.
Many Afghan embassies still fly the black-red-and-green tricolor flag. Even as they run out of funds, many are still offering consular services for Afghans abroad and foreigners seeking to travel to Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, the Taliban has ramped up its efforts to wrest control of Afghanistan’s 65 foreign posts. The move comes as the Taliban seeks international recognition for its Islamic Emirate, which no country has yet recognized.
‘Cannot Just Switch Over’
An exiled Afghan ambassador serving in Europe told RFE/RL that he recently moved his embassy to a rented home. To reduce costs, he has cut staff and abandoned the two grand villas that previously housed the embassy and the diplomat’s official residence.
“We cannot just abandon our embassies,” said the exiled diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his family members still in Afghanistan. “We are doing our best to turn our diplomatic missions into self-sustaining missions.”
He said the embassy was trying to raise funds by increasing the fees for consular services, including issuing, verifying, and extending documents for Afghans and granting occasional visas to Western humanitarian workers or journalists.
“We represented the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” the diplomat said, referring to the official name of the former Afghan government. “We cannot just switch over to representing the Islamic Emirate, which is not recognized by any country.”
Defying The Taliban
After the Taliban seized power on August 15, it sent letters and text messages to Afghan ambassadors ranging from introductions to demands for sharing personnel information and work plans.
But many of Afghanistan’s 45 embassies and 20 consulates have defied the Taliban. Some have rebuffed Taliban appointments and actively campaigned against the militants. Some embassies, including the one in neighboring Tajikistan, have become hubs for anti-Taliban opposition.
But the Taliban has recently stepped up its efforts to replace exiled diplomats who have resisted its rule, especially those serving in neighboring countries.
Soon after seizing power, the Taliban took over the Afghan diplomatic mission in neighboring Pakistan, where many Taliban leaders resided during the group’s nearly 20-year insurgency against the internationally recognized Afghan government and foreign troops.
On January 10, Afghanistan’s ambassador to China, Javid Ahmad Qaem, announced that he had left his post.
In a tweet, Qaem said that many diplomats at the embassy had already left and Kabul had not sent them salaries since August.
“There are many reasons, personal and professional, but I don’t want to mention them here,” he said of his decision to leave China, a close ally of Pakistan, which is a longtime backer of the Taliban.
Qaem said a new person had been assigned to the embassy, naming him only as “Mr. Sadaat.”
Weeks earlier, the Taliban appointed Abdul Qayyum Sulaimani as the head of the Afghan Embassy in neighboring Iran in a move that was described as a “power grab.”
On January 5, Afghanistan’s embassy in Rome said it was forced to call Italian police for help after a sacked Afghan diplomat attacked the ambassador.
The embassy said in a statement that the former diplomat — identified as Mohammad Fahim Kashaf — entered the embassy building a day earlier claiming he had been named ambassador by the Taliban.
The statement said Kashaf “attacked the ambassador in the presence of an embassy employee but the ambassador defended himself and called the Italian police.”
Kashaf was escorted by police out of the embassy, it added.
In Kabul, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry denied Kashaf had been appointed ambassador but also said he had not been dismissed.
Flying On Autopilot
Another Afghan ambassador serving in Europe told RFE/RL that the embassy had so far managed to rebuff the Taliban’s efforts to take control of the mission.
“They have tried to impose their control,” he said. “But our host country recognizes a state, not a particular government. They understood our circumstances.”
But he said it was unclear how long they could hold out for.
“Our main problem is financial,” he said. “We have not received money to pay salaries for four months and to pay for expenses for seven months. It will be difficult to operate the embassies in the long run.”
Some former Afghan officials have talked about the possibility of establishing a government in exile. But talks among the country’s squabbling former political figures have yet to make progress.
“We can perhaps keep operating for years, but to what end?” said the ambassador. “Individual actions will not amount to anything, and the leadership of the fallen republic must unite behind a vision.”
A female Afghan diplomat serving in Europe told RFE/RL that many ambassadors were struggling with how to serve a government that no longer existed.
“We are on autopilot,” she said.
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.
Earthquake Kills 22 in Afghanistan
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 17, 2022
An earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 22 people and injuring several others.
The epicenter of the magnitude 5.3 quake was about 40 kilometers east of Qala-e-Naw, the capital of Badghis province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Afghan official Bakhtar News Agency quoted local authorities as saying that women and children were among the victims. The death toll was expected to increase.
Most of the casualties and damage occurred in Qadis district, where the roofs of many residential houses collapsed.
Poverty-stricken Afghanistan frequently experiences earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
The South Asian nation is already in the grip of humanitarian crisis stemming from years of war, natural disasters and a prolonged drought. The crisis has deteriorated since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August on the heels of the withdrawal of U.S.-led international forces after 20 years.
Information from AFP was used in this report.
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