Taliban beheaded female volleyball player, posted photos online, coach says

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New York Post: She was killed earlier this month, but her death remained mostly hidden because her family had been threatened not to talk, claimed the coach, using a pseudonym, Suraya Afzali, due to safety fears. Click here to read more (external link).

Putin Says Russia Mulling Removing Taliban From Terrorist List

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Putin

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 21, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is considering removing the Taliban from its list of extremist organizations as it expands engagement with the new rulers in Kabul.

The comments during a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club on October 21 come a day after Russia hosted a high-level Taliban delegation for talks attended by officials from China, Pakistan, and eight other countries.

Moscow has hosted Taliban representatives several times in recent years, but has stopped short of recognizing the group, which it considers a terrorist organization.

In a final statement, the 10 countries in Moscow noted that “further practical engagement with Afghanistan needed to take into account the new reality, that is the Taliban coming to power in the country, irrespective of the official recognition of the new Afghan government by the international community.”

Russia called for the mobilization of international aid to support Afghanistan and one of the aims of the meeting was to consolidate the “efforts of the international community to prevent a humanitarian crisis” in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover in August.

Putin said Afghanistan should receive economic support and get its financial assets unfrozen as stability in the war-torn country was in the interest of all its neighbors.

Washington has said it has no intention of releasing nearly $9 billion in Afghan central-bank reserves held in the United States that it froze after the Taliban seized power, despite warnings from humanitarian groups and the UN about the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy and deepening humanitarian crisis.

With reporting by Reuters

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.

Women protesting against Taliban rules in Afghanistan

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Kabul Residents Tired of Increasing Armed Robberies

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8am: Kabul residents complain of an increase in armed robberies, saying thieves are looting people’s homes under the name of the Taliban. Residents say they have contacted Taliban security officials several times to raise the issue, but the thefts have not been investigated. Meanwhile, the Taliban admit that armed robberies have been reported in some parts of Kabul and that thieves are abusing the Taliban name. According to Taliban security officials, their forces are trying to arrest perpetrators. Click here to read more (external link).

Dozens More Afghans Linked To Women’s Soccer, Basketball Are Evacuated From Afghanistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 21, 2021

World soccer’s governing body FIFA says a second group of 57 Afghan refugees linked to women’s soccer and basketball has been evacuated from Afghanistan to Qatar.

The group, comprising women and children, landed in Doha on October 20 on a Qatar Airways flight, FIFA said in a statement on October 21.

It thanked the Qatari government “for its support in facilitating extensive discussions and ensuring the safe passage of these individuals, deemed to have been at the highest risk.”

Last week, FIFA worked with Qatar’s government to evacuate almost 100 soccer players and their families from Afghanistan, including female players. Albania has also been collaborating with FIFA more recently to get endangered athletes out of Afghanistan.

Dozens of female athletes have managed to flee Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control of Kabul from the internationally recognized government in mid-August, with the refugees being accepted in Australia, Pakistan, Britain, Portugal, and elsewhere.

“I am also calling on all of our friends in governments and in the football community across the world to help us in obtaining residence permits and visas for the evacuees so that they can start a new life in safe and secure circumstances,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.

Under the Taliban’s brutal rule between 1996 and 2001, women and girls were not allowed to attend school or work or play sports.

The Taliban claims it plans to show more moderation than during its last reign, but the United Nations and rights groups have voiced concerns about the enforcement of severe restrictions on women.

The Taliban-led government hasn’t publicly stated its policy on the future of women’s sports, but a deputy head of the group’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said in September that Afghan women might not be allowed to play sports because their bodies would show during competitions.

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.

Afghan Musicians Face Uncertain Future

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Tolo News: According to the musicians, music was the only way of income but as they have abandoned it for over two months and are currently facing severe economic challenges. “Any country that doesn’t have culture and national music will never develop,” said Asif Khalili, a musician. The musicians called on the [Taliban] government to facilitate alternative job opportunities for them if music is not allowed anymore. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Strikes Journalists In Kabul As Women Protest For Their Rights

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Protest against Taliban (file photo)

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
October 21, 2021

Taliban militants have attacked several journalists covering a Kabul rally by a group of women demanding “work, bread, and education,” spurring concerns about the deterioration of the rights situation under Afghanistan’s new rulers.

After it toppled the internationally recognized government in Kabul in mid-August, the Taliban claimed it would show more moderation than during its brutal rule from 1996 to 2001, when girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work, education, and sports.

However, the United Nations and rights groups have slammed the Taliban’s “broken” promises to allow women to work and girls to have access to all levels of education, and blamed Afghanistan’s new rulers for imposing “wide-ranging restrictions” on media and free speech.

With girls in only five of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces allowed to attend secondary schools, and the vast majority of women ordered not to return to work, a group of about 20 women marched in the streets of Kabul on October 21 to defend their rights.

The demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Don’t politicize education” before the Taliban intervened.

At one point a Taliban fighter struck a foreign photographer with the butt of his rifle and kicked him as another militant punched the journalist, according to AFP.

At least two other journalists were hit as they scattered, pursued by Taliban fighters swinging fists and launching kicks, the news agency reported.

“The situation is that the Taliban don’t respect anything: not journalists — foreign and local — or women,” said Zahra Mohammadi, one of the protest organizers.

Taliban officials did not immediately comment. Afghans have staged scattered street protests since the Taliban takeover, many with women at the forefront, despite a ban on unauthorized demonstrations.

The previous day, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, tweeted: “The education of ALL girls in Afghanistan must resume now.”

“Millions of children have already lost out on learning because of conflict and COVID-19. As schools reopen, girls cannot, and must not, be left behind.”

The Taliban has announced 11 new “journalism rules” that rights groups say could be used to persecute journalists, and detained and beaten a number of them over the past weeks.

With reporting by AFP and Amaj

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.