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☆ U.N. aid chief asks Taliban authorities for more exemptions to female NGO worker ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Charlotte Greenfield | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KABUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The U.N. aid chief said on Wednesday the humanitarian community was speaking with Taliban officials to try and gain further exemptions and written guidelines to allow some female aid workers to operate despite a ban on women NGO staff. Taliban authorities ordered NGOs, many of whom carry out operations for the United Nations, to stop most female staff working last month. Griffiths said some exemptions to the ban had been granted in health and education and they were hearing signs of a possible exemption in agriculture. A spokesperson for the Taliban administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its plans over guidelines. "It's very important to engage with the Taliban movement as a whole, that includes ... Kandahar, and also with Taliban at the provincial levels," he said.

☆ U.N. aid chief raises women's rights concerns with Taliban in Afghan capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations' aid chief visited Kabul on Monday and raised concerns over women's education and work with the Taliban administration's acting minister of foreign affairs, an Afghan ministry statement said. U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths raised the issue of women's education and work and how this affected the U.N.'s operations, according to a ministry of foreign affairs statement. He said Griffiths would "underscore the message that humanitarian aid cannot be delivered without women." No foreign government has formally recognised the Taliban administration since it seized power, with some diplomats saying it must change course on women's rights. Enforcement of sanctions and a cut in development aid have contributed to the country falling into an economic crisis which has left more than half the population dependent on humanitarian aid, aimed at meeting urgent needs.

☆ Deputy U.N. chief pushes women's rights during visit to Taliban heartland
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed expressed alarm to Taliban officials in Kandahar over violations of women's rights in Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Friday after she made a rare visit to the Taliban's southern heartland. Mohammed finished a four-day visit to Afghanistan on Friday, also meeting Taliban officials in the capital Kabul after the administration banned most female aid workers and stopped women and girls from attending high school and university. The U.N. General Assembly last month postponed for the second time a decision on whether the Taliban administration can send an ambassador to New York. Dozens of Taliban leaders are also subject to U.N. sanctions. No government has formally recognized the Taliban administration since it seized power in August 2021.

☆ Davos 2023: Qatar says engagement with Taliban needed despite 'disappointing' actions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Qatar's foreign minister said on Tuesday that recent measures taken by Afghanistan's Taliban-led administration were "very disappointing" but that Doha would continue engaging as the only way forward to achieve change on the ground. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Doha was also consulting with other Muslim countries to establish a dialogue with Taliban officials in Kandahar, and while it would "not be an easy job" it was important to keep trying. The Islamist Taliban-led administration, which seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, has imposed bans on women working for aid groups or attending universities and high school. Reporting by Mahal El Dahan; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous, Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Former Afghan female lawmaker and guard are shot dead at home, police say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

KABUL, Afghanistan — A former Afghan female lawmaker and her bodyguard have been shot dead by unknown assailants at her home in the capital, Kabul, police said Sunday. Mursal Nabizada was among the few female parliamentarians who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Local police chief Molvi Hamidullah Khalid said Nabizada and her guard were shot dead around 3 a.m. Saturday in the same room. He said her brother and a second security guard were injured. A third security guard fled the scene with money and jewelry.

☆ Leg-lengthening surgery still has risks, despite recent advances, and should be a last resort, surgeons say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Patients are increasingly asking surgeons for leg-lengthening surgery for non-medical reasons. Surgery is safer now, but it still carries risks and should be avoided if possible, said surgeons. Two surgeons told Insider the procedure should be avoided if possible. However, one surgeon who had refused to do the surgery for cosmetic reasons said he had recently changed his mind. How leg-lengthening worksDuring a leg-lengthening procedure, the bone is purposefully broken.

☆ Major aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan AS Taliban bar women
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

KABUL, Afghanistan — Four major international aid groups on Sunday suspended their operations in Afghanistan following a decision by the country’s Taliban rulers to ban women from working at non-governmental organizations. Excluding women from schools and NGO work in Afghanistan “can and will lead to catastrophic humanitarian consequences in the short to long term,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned. Half of Afghanistan’s population, or 24 million people, are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the group. The International Rescue Committee said it was dismayed by the Taliban decision, adding that more than 3,000 of its staff in Afghanistan are women. The Economy Ministry’s order comes days after the Taliban banned female students from attending universities across the country, triggering backlash overseas and demonstrations in major Afghan cities.

☆ Female students turned away as Taliban fighters enforce university ban
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The country’s Taliban rulers a day earlier ordered women nationwide to stop attending private and public universities effective immediately and until further notice. Rahimullah Nadeem, a spokesman for Kabul University, confirmed that classes for female students had stopped. Taliban fighters stand guard at the entrance gate of a university in Jalalabad on Wednesday. AFP - Getty ImagesMembers of an activist group called the Unity and Solidarity of Afghanistan Women gathered outside the private Edrak University in Kabul on Wednesday morning, chanting slogans in Dari. AFP - Getty ImagesQatar and Pakistan, both Muslim countries, have expressed their disappointment at the university ban and urged authorities to reconsider their decision.

☆ Female students turned away from Afghan universities after Taliban ban
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KABUL, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Female university students in Afghanistan were turned away from campuses on Wednesday after the Taliban-run administration said women would be suspended from tertiary education. A professor at another university in Kabul who declined to be identified said staff turned female students away at the gate as they had no choice but to implement the instruction. The bar on women students is likely to complicate the Taliban administration's efforts to gain international recognition and to get rid of sanctions that are severely hampering the economy. Several Taliban officials, including the deputy foreign minister and administration spokesperson, have spoken out in favour of female education in recent months. The Taliban administration has said it is working on a plan for girls' secondary education but has not given a time frame.

The Taliban on Tuesday released two Americans who had been detained in Afghanistan, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price. The releases were announced as the United Nations Security Council was meeting about Afghanistan. “Out of respect for the privacy of these individuals and their families, we are not going to confirm names.”The release came the same day the Taliban banned women from private and public universities in Afghanistan. The U.S. "condemns in strongest terms the Taliban's indefensible decision to ban women from universities, girls from secondary schools," Price said. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it banned female education and most employment.

☆ One dead as fresh clashes erupt between Afghan, Pakistani border forces
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Abdul Khaliq AchakzaiQUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Clashes erupted once again between the border forces of Afghanistan and Pakistan near the key Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing on Thursday, resulting in one death and over a dozen injuries, Pakistani officials said. Thursday's fighting started when Pakistani forces repairing a portion of the border fence damaged during Sunday's clashes came under attack from the Afghan side of the frontier, a provincial official Balochistan, Zahid Saleem, told Reuters. Both sides blamed each other for instigating Sunday's clashes. Afghanistan's ministry of defence, run by the Taliban administration, said in a post on Twitter that Pakistani forces had opened fire first, and called for a resolution of the issue through negotiations. The police spokesman of the Afghan province of Kandahar did not reply to a Reuters request for comment on the casualties.

☆ Six Pakistanis, one Afghan soldier killed in cross-border clash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Six Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier were killed on Sunday in cross border shelling and gunfire, according to officials on both sides of the frontier. Six civilians were killed and another 17 wounded on the Pakistani side by the Afghan fire, leading Pakistani troops to retaliate, the Pakistan military said in a statement. Afghan security sources said the clash started after Pakistani forces demanded Afghan forces stop building a new checkpost on their side of the border. Kandahar police spokesman Hafiz Saber said one Afghan soldier was killed and 10 other people, including three civilians, were injured. The busy Afghan border crossing at Chaman, used for trade and transit, was closed for some hours before reopening, officials on both sides said.

☆ Taliban publicly execute man accused of murder, senior officials attend
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Taliban administration on Wednesday put to death a man accused of murder in western Afghanistan, its spokesperson said, in the first officially confirmed public execution since the group took over the country last year. The execution in western Farah province was of a man accused of stabbing another man to death in 2017, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, and was attended by senior officials of the group. The execution was carried out by the father of the victim, who shot the man three times, Mujahid added in a later statement. More than a dozen senior Taliban officials attended the execution, Mujahid said, including acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, and acting deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, as well as the country's chief justice, acting foreign minister and acting education minister. Public lashings and executions by stoning took place under the previous 1996-2001 rule of the Taliban.

[1/5] A police officer stands guard near a passenger van, cordoned after a blast at the entrance of the Confucius Institute University of Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. Even though months have passed since the attack, Pakistani authorities remain deeply worried. Shortly afterwards, schoolteacher Shari Hayat Baloch, 30, is filmed walking in a park with her young son and daughter and later addressing the camera in combat fatigues. The Chinese officials supported Pakistan's counter-terrorism forces in areas such as CCTV footage enhancement and data retrieval from cell phones, the ministry said. On the day of the Karachi attack, Habitan, a dentist, tweeted that he was "beaming with pride" at what his wife had done.

☆ They were on the run from the Taliban, abandoned by their US allies — until a Wall Street banker decided to smuggle them out of Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Nina Burleigh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

His daughter worked for the US-backed government in Kabul, prosecuting the Taliban and their followers for acts of violence against women. The war in Afghanistan effectively began on 9/11, with the attacks on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Last summer, when the Taliban overran Kabul, Calbos was in Greece visiting his father. "I see kind of a mirror image to mine in his history and his family," Calbos says. With the clock ticking on the family's temporary visas, Calbos scrambled to arrange a flight out of Pakistan.

☆ Taliban replaces Afghan acting education minister in reshuffle
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ali KharaKABUL, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Taliban's supreme leader issued an order on Tuesday announcing a reshuffle of several national and provincial positions, including replacing the acting education minister. Acting education minister Noorullah Munir would be replaced in the role by the head of Kandahar's provincial council, Maulvi Habibullah Agha. Afghanistan's education system has been in the spotlight since the Taliban took over the country just over a year ago. The group had largely banned education of girls when last in power two decades ago but had said its policies had changed. Taliban and diplomatic sources told Reuters that last week several ministers had gathered in Kandahar for a cabinet meeting led by the supreme leader.

While they were in Kandahar, Burch and her fellow service members were exposed to “burn pits, incinerators and poo ponds,” she said. The veterans camped out on the steps outside the Senate all weekend, braving the heat, the humidity and occasional thunderstorms and sleeping on the hard concrete stairs. At times, lawmakers and officials, including Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, joined the protesters to urge the Senate to pass the PACT Act. “As far as I can see, it passed 84 to 14, and then 25 Republicans switched their vote. “Switched it without an explanation, switched it without pointing to the bill and saying what was inserted.

☆ Talibanii au preluat controlul asupra unui district cheie din Kandahar
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-04 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +2 min

Sursa foto: ProfimediaTalibanii au preluat controlul asupra unui district cheie din KandaharTalibanii au preluat controlul asupra districtului-cheie Panjwai, din provincia Kandahar, după lupte în timpul nopţii împotriva forţelor afgane. Ultimii 100 de militari români au părăsit baza NATO Kandahar la jumătatea lunii mai. Talibanii au preluat controlul asupra sediului poliţiei din district şi asupra clădirii guvernamentale, transmite Digi24. În prezent, în jur de 50 de districte (conform ONU) sau 90 (conform talibanilor) din totalul celor 370 ale ţării au căzut sub controlul forţelor talibane. Trimisul special al ONU pentru Afganistan a transmis Consiliului de Securitate că „se teme” că ce e mai rău abia urmează.

Persons: Panjwai, Washingtonul, Mohammad Organizations: Kandahar Talibanii, NATO, Pentagonului, Talibanii, ONU, Securitate Locations: Kandahar, NATO Kandahar, Afganistan, SUA, Bagram, Kabul, Panjwai, afgane

☆ Talibanii se pregătesc să preia controlul Afganistanului după plecarea forţelor SUA şi NATO
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-16 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +4 min

Sursa foto: AFPTalibanii se pregătesc să preia controlul Afganistanului după plecarea forţelor SUA şi NATOTalibanii se pregătesc să preia controlul Afganistanului după aproape 20 de ani de când au fost alungaţi de la putere în urma intervenţiei militare americane, lăudându-se că i-au "învins" pe americani, comentează AFP. În timp ce discuţiile interafgane, care au debutat în septembrie în Qatar, bat pasul pe loc, talibanii profită de retragerea în curs de desfăşurare a forţelor americane pentru a câştiga teren. De la lansarea unei noi faze a operaţiunilor la începutul lunii mai, insurgenţii au preluat controlul a cel puţin 30 din aproximativ 400 de districte. Multora le este teamă că ei pregătesc o ofensivă majoră asupra oraşelor după plecarea americanilor şi a aliaţilor lor. Prezenţa crescândă a talibanilor în apropiere de Ghazni ridică temeri privind un posibil atac asupra capitalei provinciei.

Persons: Allah, Talibanii, îşi, Joe Biden, Combatanţii Organizations: NATO, Agerpres, Apărării, CICR Locations: Afganistanului, SUA, Ghazni, ţării, Afganistan, Qatar, american, Kabul, Kandahar, afgane, Peshawar, Pakistan

☆ Forţele americane s-au retras de la o importantă bază din Afganistan
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-14 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +1 min

"Această bază nu ne-a fost predată oficial, însă pot confirma că ei (soldaţii americani) au părăsit-o miercuri", a declarat Khoja Yaya Alawi, un purtător de cuvânt al armatei afgane la Kandahar. "Ei au predat toate instalaţiile forţelor afgane", a precizat directorul aeroportului din Kandahar.O predare oficială ar urma să aibă loc după Aid el-Fitr, sărbătoare musulmană care, până sâmbătă, marchează sfârşitul postului ramadanului, au precizat aceşti doi responsabili.Cândva această bază era a doua cea mai importantă pentru trupele americane şi internaţionale prezente în ţară.Provincia Kandahar este un fost bastion al talibanilor situat în sudul Afganistanului, iar în ultimele luni ea a fost scena unor confruntări între insurgenţi şi forţele afgane. Un armistiţiu de trei zile a început joi între cele două părţi, cu ocazia Aid el-Fitr, după săptămâni de confruntări intense în întreaga ţară.Afganistanul se confruntă cu o recrudescenţă a violenţelor începând de pe 1 mai, dată la care se presupunea că SUA şi-au retras cei 2.500 de soldaţi desfăşuraţi la faţa locului, în conformitate cu acordul încheiat în februarie 2020 cu talibanii de administraţia Trump.Washingtonul şi NATO s-au angajat să-şi retragă trupele rămase până la 11 septembrie, data la care se vor marca 20 de ani de la atentatele din 2001.Armata americană a anunţat marţi că a avansat în proporţie de 6-12% în procesul său de retragere din Afganistan.

Persons: Yaya Organizations: NATO, Armata americană Locations: Kandahar, ramadanului, Afganistanului, SUA, Afganistan

☆ Afghanistan is being overrun by crystal meth
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-07 | by ( Ali Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The US is leaving behind a flourishing, violent trade in heroin and crystal meth in Afghanistan. HERAT, Afghanistan — For weeks, Afghan police had been staking out a single-family house they believed was being used as a meth lab. Afghanistan's drug trade generates an estimated $35 million a month for the Taliban and drug gangs. A mysterious grassIn 2017, rumors circulated in western Afghanistan that a mysterious form of grass had been found to contain the key ingredient in crystal meth. "So long as this war continues, the drug trade will continue to grow bigger and bigger.

☆ România începe să-și retragă militarii din Afganistan, după aproape două decenii
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-01 | by ( Buzdugan Loredana | ) www.zdg.md time to read: +3 min

După aproape două decenii, România își retrage trupele din Afganistan. Mii de miliari români au participat la această misiune de-a lungul timpului, fapt care a sporit gradul lor de pregătire în condiții de luptă și a condus la profesionalizarea în ansamblu a Armatei României. El a apreciat că „drumul României către Bruxelles, unde funcţionează sediile NATO şi UE, a trecut şi pe la Kandahar, Kabul sau alte baze importante din Afganistan”. În şedinţa CSAT de luni a fost aprobată redislocarea în România a contingentului militar din Afganistan, la încheierea misiunii Resolute Support, conform unui calendar convenit cu partenerii din coaliţie. România va retrage forţele din Afganistan coordonat cu membrii de coaliţie NATO începând cu 1 mai 2021.

Persons: Nicolae Ciucă, El Organizations: Armatei Române, României, Apărării, Armata Română, NATO, Armata României, Agerpres, Armata, CSAT Locations: România, Afganistan, Bruxelles, UE, Kandahar, Kabul, Atlantică, Armata României, Irak, Atlantice

☆ I'm a photographer who covered 9/11 and its aftermath. Here are the most gripping photos I took, and the stories behind them.
▼ + stars: | 2001-09-11 | by ( Alan Chin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

A month after that, I got an assignment to go to northern Afghanistan. Their soldiers had repelled a Taliban offensive in 1997, and massacred thousands of the Taliban prisoners they had captured. Air Force flights from as far away as Germany were dropping American military and humanitarian food packets in an effort to win hearts and minds. This was taken aboard the ferry connecting the east and west sides of the American military base. Even as the American war in Afghanistan ends in both ignominy and relief, the conflicts there and in dozens of other places continue.

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