Times of India: Taliban fighters have taken Salima Mazari, one of the only three women governors of Afghanistan, into their custody, according to local reports. Mazari is the Hazara district Governor of Chaharkint, Balkh. Mazari, who is known for raising her voice against the Taliban, had said earlier there will be no place for women if the
The Guardian (UK): As one of only three female district governors in Afghanistan, Mazari has attracted attention simply by being a woman in charge. What sets the 40-year-old apart, particularly amid the recent wave of Taliban violence, is her hands-on military leadership. “Sometimes I’m in the office in Charkint, and other times I have to
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News August 10, 2021 KABUL – With seven family members to feed, Abdul Khaliq needed the money. But Monday morning, his small fruit cart in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan remained devoid of customers. “There is no business. There is fighting. … I am here since the morning, but I can’t make any
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi August 9, 2021 Afghan security forces battled Taliban fighters in the northern provinces of Balkh and Takhar on August 9, a day after militants overran three provincial capitals, including most of the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz, officials said. In Balkh, heavy clashes have been under way close to the provincial capital of
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi August 4, 2021 Police in Afghanistan’s northern province of Balkh say the Taliban killed a young woman for wearing tight clothing and not being accompanied by a male relative. Balkh police chief Zialuhaq Toofan told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on August 3 that the young woman was shot dead by Taliban extremists in
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News July 25, 2021 ISLAMABAD – The day the Taliban entered Balkh district, 20 km west of Mazar e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province last month, local radio station Nawbahar shuttered its doors and most of its journalists went into hiding. Within days the station started broadcasting again, but the programming
Frud Bezhan Mustafa Sarwar Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 14, 2021 MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan — Women banned from going outside alone. Girls barred from attending school. Unmarried women forced to marry fighters. This was life for many Afghans under the Taliban’s brutal regime in the 1990s when the fundamentalist Islamist group conquered much of Afghanistan.
1TV: Taliban militants have forcibly displaced residents and burned homes in northern Afghanistan in apparent retaliation for cooperating with the government, Human Rights Watch said Since May 2021, the Taliban have captured 150 districts in northern provinces, HRW said on Thursday. Click here to read more (external link). Related Taliban Put Strict Curbs on Women,
Tolo News: Balkh governor Mohammad Farhad Azimi said on Thursday that of the 5,000 fighters that were pledged by political leaders and other influential figures in Balkh as part of the public uprising forces, 1,500 have already been deployed in fighting positions to face the Taliban alongside security forces. Click here to read more (external
Tolo News: A mortar round landed inside the residence of Atta Mohammad Noor, the former governor of Balkh province this evening, wounding at least two people, said MP Sayed Zahir Masroor. “The mortar landed while Noor was in a meeting with political leaders, provincial council members and security officials to review the security situation of