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☆ Hunted by the Taliban, Ignored by Washington—an Afghan’s Fate After Helping U.S. Forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Sune Engel Rasmussen | Photographs The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Hunted by the Taliban, Ignored by Washington—an Afghan’s Fate After Helping U.S. Forces Ahmad Jawed wonders which will come first, approval for a U.S. visa or his capture; ‘If they recognize me, they will kill me’Ahmad Jawed spends his days in hiding, awaiting a decision by U.S. officials that will provide him and his family an escape from Afghanistan.

Persons: Washington —, Forces Ahmad Jawed, ’ Ahmad Jawed Organizations: U.S, Forces Locations: Afghanistan

☆ Afghan women once worked in this popular national park. Now they’re not even allowed to visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Tara Subramaniam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Afghanistan’s Band-e-Amir National Park was known for having employed the country’s first-ever female park rangers. Now, women won’t even be allowed to visit, let alone work there, as the Taliban deepens its repressive rule over the country. Heather Barr, associate director of the women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Monday that the ban shows how “the walls are closing in on women” within Afghanistan. Since re-taking control of the country in August 2021, amid the United States’ chaotic, controversial withdrawal, the Taliban has rolled back decades of progress on human rights. In Afghanistan, “there is no such thing as women’s freedom anymore,” Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, said earlier this month.

Persons: CNN —, won’t, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Heather Barr, ”, Mahbouba, they’re, Richard Bennett, Dorothy Estrada, Tanck Organizations: CNN, Amir, USAID, United Nations Development, Human Rights, UN Locations: Bamiyan, ”, Afghanistan, States, “, Afghan

☆ In pictures: When the U.S. left Afghanistan, two years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[17/24]An Afghan child sleeps on the cargo floor of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, kept warm by the uniform of Airman First Class Nicolas Baron, C-17 loadmaster, during an evacuation flight from Kabul, Afghanistan, August 18, 2021. U.S. Air Force/1st Lt. Mark LawsonKabul, Afghanistan

Persons: Nicolas Baron, Mark Lawson Organizations: U.S . Air Force, . Air Force Locations: Afghan, Kabul, Afghanistan, Mark Lawson Kabul

The day is “full of honor and pride for Afghans,” Taliban deputy spokesperson Bilal Karimi told CNN. “Afghanistan was freed from occupation, Afghans were able to regain their country, freedom, government and will. “There is no such thing as women’s freedom anymore,” said Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. “The women in Afghanistan are being slowly erased from society, from life, from everything – their opinions, their voices, what they think, where they are.”Video Ad Feedback 'They can't go to school? “The only reason why I’m in Afghanistan and I’m staying here is to be next to my sisters and try to help them,” said Seraj, the women’s rights activists.

Persons: Zahra, ”, “, ” Zahra, Bilal Karimi, Zahra –, Mahbouba Seraj, CNN “, I’m, who’ve, ” Zabiullah Mujahid, haven’t, Heather Barr, Seraj, Mahbouba, “ They’re, they’re, Barr, what’s Organizations: CNN, “, Nations, United Nations, CNN “ I’m, UN, Taliban, Human Rights Locations: Afghanistan, Kabul, States, “ Afghanistan, Zahra, Afghan, United

☆ A US soldier may have falsely reported a US raid in Afghanistan while attempting to secure the adoption of a baby he found in the rubble
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Associated Press | Katie Hawkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

Maj. Joshua Mast, after a raid on an Afghan village, tried for years to adopt a baby he found in the rubble. The high-profile legal battle pits an Afghan family against an American one, and has drawn responses from the White House and the Taliban. The AP has located no records of the birth of the farmer's baby or photographs of her with the family before the raid. Four of the farmer's children had survived, so covered with dust and dirt they were almost unrecognizable, said neighbor Rahim. Less than two years after the raid, Mast helped the Afghan couple and the toddler flee as the country collapsed and the Taliban took over.

Persons: Joshua Mast, Mast, Major Mast, Patricia Gossman, Gossman, we'd, Neighbor Abdul Khaliq, Khaliq, they'd, aren't, Doe, Abdul Rahim, Rahim, Mohammad Zaman, Zaman, Neighbors, —, Erica Gaston, unquote, Gaston, Joshua Mast's, Richard Mast, Richard Mast's, David Yerushalmi, fidgets Organizations: Service, White, Taliban, Afghan, International Committee, Marine, Associated Press, Department of Defense, United, of Defense, Defense Department, AP, The Defense Department, Human Rights Watch, U.S, American, U.S . State Department, State Department Locations: Wall, Silicon, American, Al Qaeda, Virginia, Afghanistan, United States, Asia, Afghan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, U.S

☆ Displaced Afghan students face uncertain future as they await approval to come to US
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Jennifer Hansler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —For a group of roughly two dozen displaced Afghan university students, the future feels uncertain. More than 100 displaced Afghan students – 80 of whom were in Iraq – have already come to the US, where they are studying at more than 45 universities, according to sources familiar with the situation. The students told CNN they don’t have any clear sense of when they will get approval to come to the US, and they are worried about what the continued delay means for their future. “We Afghans lost almost everything, and this scholarship in the US is a very big opportunity for us,” a third student told CNN. A US State Department spokesperson said they are “aware of the Afghan students at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani,” but could not comment on individual cases.

Persons: Barham Salih, “ It’s, I’m, ”, “, Iraq –, “ I’m, Vance Serchuk, Institute of International Education “ Organizations: CNN, American University of Afghanistan, American University of Iraq, Afghan Future Fund, Qatar, Project, AUAF, US State Department, U.S . Refugee, Afghan Futures Fund, Qatar Fund For Development, Institute of International Education, American University Locations: Kabul –, –, Afghanistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, United States, Iraq, U.S

☆ Beauty salons banned in Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

An Afghan beautician removes a poster in a beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 24. The Taliban administration say they respect women's rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture. The ban on salons, released on...moreAn Afghan beautician removes a poster in a beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 24. The Taliban administration say they respect women's rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan culture. The ban on salons, released on July 4 by the morality ministry, said it was based on an order from the supreme spiritual leader.

Persons: Ali Khara Organizations: REUTERS Locations: Kabul, Afghanistan, Afghan

The audit has not changed the U.S. Treasury's view that the bank must make reforms before the department will support disbursements from the Afghan Fund to Da Afghanistan Bank, or DAB, as the central bank is known, said a U.S. Treasury official on condition of anonymity. It also must prove that it has "adequate" controls against money-laundering and terrorism financing and install a "reputable" independent monitor, said the Treasury official. A Taliban administration spokesman and a spokesperson for the Afghan central bank did not respond to request for comment. Afghanistan remains mired in grave humanitarian and economic crises that some experts say has been worsened by U.S. restrictions hampering DAB's ability to perform key central bank functions, such as ensuring stable exchange rates and prices. Calling the audit a "preliminary assessment," the Treasury official said its "limitations" suggested that "more comprehensive third-party assessment efforts may be needed."

Persons: ”, disbursements, Shah Mehrabi, Mehrabi, Anwar ul, Haq Ahady, Jonathan Landay, Charlotte Greenfield, Don Durfee Organizations: U.S ., Afghan, Da, Da Afghanistan Bank, Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank of New, DAB, U.S . Agency for International Development, USAID, U.S, Afghan Fund, State Department, The State Department, Reuters, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON, ISLAMABAD, U.S, Da Afghanistan, Swiss, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Afghan, Washington, United States, Afghanistan, American

☆ Taliban leader endorses Elon Musk's Twitter, accuses Mark Zuckerberg's Threads of having an 'intolerant' policy on free speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Charles R. Davis | Haley Tenore | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Anas Haqqani, a Taliban official, said Twitter is more committed to "free speech" than its rivals. Haqqani's father founded the Haqqani Network, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization. The Taliban was designated a terrorist group more than a decade earlier, following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "The Taliban wanted to counter their propaganda and that's why we too focused ourselves on Twitter," the Taliban member said. "Social media is a powerful tool to change public perception."

Persons: Anas Haqqani, Haqqani's, Haqqani, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, El Pais, Critics, Musk, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Hedayatullah Hedayat, Abdul Haq Hammad Organizations: Taliban, Twitter, Haqqani Network, Service, El, Haqqani, Radio Free, Radio Liberty, National Counterterrorism Center, Meta, Facebook, BBC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Turkey, India, Radio Free Europe, Afghanistan, WhatsApp

☆ Taliban compounds misery for women in Afghanistan with order to close all beauty salons
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Hilary Whiteman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The impending closure of beauty salons further diminishes the freedom of women and delivers a harsh economic blow to families who rely on them for income. An Afghan beautician attends to a customer at a beauty salon in Mazar-i-Sharif on June 27, 2023. My husband is jobless and this beauty salon is the only means to feed my family. “I don’t understand why beauty salons should be banned. According to their report, women are banned from working in most sectors outside the home, and are prohibited from attending public baths, parks, and gyms.

Persons: Mohammad Sidik Akif, Afghan beautician, Sharif, “, ”, Richard Bennett, Dorothy Estrada, Tanck, they’re, who’ve, Markus Potzel, Afghanistan’s “ Organizations: CNN, Ministry, United Nations, Getty, UN Locations: Afghanistan, United States, Afghan, Mazar, AFP, Kabul

CNN —The US State Department on Friday released its long-awaited Afghanistan After Action Review report, which found that both the Trump and Biden administrations’ decisions to pull all US troops from Afghanistan had detrimental consequences, and details damning shortcomings by the current administration that led to the deadly and chaotic US withdrawal from that country after nearly two decades on the ground. Sharper criticism of Biden admin actions than earlier White House documentThe State Department’s report contains much sharper criticism around the Biden administration’s actions than the White House summary document released in April. That added significantly to the challenges the Department and DoD faced during the evacuation,” the report said. The report noted that in the chaos, the State Department received an “overwhelming volume of incoming calls and messages to the Department from other government agencies, Congress, and the public inquiring about individual cases mostly with regard to at-risk Afghans,” which created an immense challenge. The report detailed 11 recommendations, mostly related to the Department’s crisis response and preparedness.

Persons: Donald, Trump, Joe, Biden, ”, Afghanistan “, “, Hamid, State Department “, ” “, Antony Blinken, I’ll, ” Blinken Organizations: CNN, US State Department, Trump, Biden, State Department, White, Department, Bagram Air Base, Hamid Karzai International Airport, US, “, DoD, United States, Task Force Locations: Afghanistan, United, United States, Kabul, Washington

☆ Taliban's treatment of women could be 'gender apartheid' - UN expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, June 19 (Reuters) - A United Nations expert said on Monday that the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women and girls could amount to gender apartheid as their rights continue to be gravely infringed by the country's de facto authorities. The U.N. defines gender apartheid as "economic and social sexual discrimination against individuals because of their gender or sex." "We have pointed to the need for more exploration of gender apartheid, which is not currently an international crime, but could become so," Bennett told reporters on the sidelines of the Council. In a report covering July to December 2022, Bennett found in March that the Taliban's treatment of women and girls "may amount to gender persecution, a crime against humanity." The Taliban authorities say they respects women's rights in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Persons: Richard Bennett, Bennett, Ali Khara, Gabrielle Tétrault, Farber, Marguerita Choy Organizations: United, Human Rights, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: GENEVA, United Nations, Afghanistan, Geneva, Afghan, Kabul

☆ Former Australian SAS veteran loses defamation case over reports of Afghan execution
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The ruling marks a win for media outlets seeking greater accountability for Australia's military, typically bound by confidentiality. A 2020 report found credible evidence that members of Australia's Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) killed dozens of unarmed prisoners in the lengthy Afghan war. Roberts-Smith sued the papers for portraying him as someone who "broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement". The papers had reported that Roberts-Smith pressured a lower-ranking Australian soldier to execute an elderly, unarmed Afghan to "blood the rookie", said Judge Besanko, adding they proved that account true. "This case is an important reminder that we need courageous public interest journalism to help us get there."

Persons: Ben Roberts, Smith, Anthony Besanko, Roberts, Judge Besanko, James Chessell, Chessell, Arthur Moses, Besanko, inadvertentely, Fiona Nelson, Byron Kaye, Shri Navaratnam, Michael Perry Organizations: SYDNEY, SAS, Australia's Special Air Service Regiment, China, Victoria Cross, Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, Nine Entertainment Co, Australian Centre for International, Thomson Locations: Sydney, Afghanistan, Afghan, Australian, Australia

☆ At Least Three Are Killed in Clashes on Iranian-Afghan Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Christina Goldbaum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least three people were killed and several others injured after clashes broke out along the Iranian-Afghan border on Saturday night, according to Iranian state media and an Afghan official, escalating tensions between the two countries amid a heated dispute over water rights in recent weeks. At least two Iranian border guards were killed in the fighting, which began around noon on Saturday and ended after six hours along the southwestern border of Afghanistan, according to Iranian state media and Afghan news reports. One soldier with the Taliban administration in Afghanistan was also killed, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said. An official in southeastern Iran said that calm had returned to the border area on Saturday night, according to Iranian state media. The mouth of the river is along the border in southwestern Afghanistan and southeastern Iran, where the clashes took place.

☆ Jennifer Lawrence-produced Afghan documentary premieres at Cannes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film "Anatomie d'une chute" (Anatomy of a Fall) in competition - Red Carpet Arrivals - Cannes, France, May 21, 2023. "Jen's first response was to find an Afghan filmmaker and give them a platform," Ciarrocchi told The Hollywood Reporter. They eventually found director Sahra Mani, whose 2019 documentary "A Thousand Girls Like Me" looked at a sexually abused woman's quest for justice. On Sunday, "Bread and Roses," Mani's documentary about the daily lives of three women after the Taliban's resurgence, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in a special screening. The safety of the camera crews and the people filmed was of top priority, said Mani, who currently lives in France.

☆ ‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant’ Review: Action in Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Dar Salim and Jake Gyllenhaal Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer PicturesThe possessive title is an odd choice for “ Guy Ritchie ’s The Covenant.” Mr. Ritchie made a name for himself in his native Britain directing kinetic and funny gangster comedies infused with hip comic dialogue and an ironic streak, notably “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” then carried that spirit with him to Hollywood in such efforts as the two Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey Jr. Yet his latest offering, an Afghanistan war yarn, is such a straightforward action drama that it could have been made by Clint Eastwood . Only the jokey homoerotic banter stamps it as typical of Mr. Ritchie’s work. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as John Kinley, a supremely competent master sergeant in 2018 Afghanistan tasked with finding and destroying Taliban bomb factories dotted around the country. He goes on a mission with a new local interpreter he doesn’t fully trust, Ahmed (Dar Salim), who despises the Taliban for killing his son and is further tempted by the prospect of earning a special visa to immigrate to the U.S. in exchange for satisfactory service.

☆ 'I screamed so loud, I blacked out': Afghans tell of the Taliban's return to their old torture playbook
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Zahid Mahmood | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

"There were about 12 Taliban members surrounding me, they tied me to a chair and started beating me from all sides," Zafri told CNN. He added: "I screamed so loud, I blacked out because of the trauma." Fereshta Abbasi, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, told CNN that, since the Taliban's comeback, a local journalist told her how bleak the media landscape is, threatening free speech. "Freedom of speech and media in Afghanistan was one of the country's biggest achievements, which has now unfortunately gone." Meanwhile, Zafri remains stuck in Afghanistan despite repeated attempts to leave following his detention and torture by the Taliban.

☆ Biden report on Afghanistan blames Trump for degraded US operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Nandita Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Biden inherited a depleted operation in Afghanistan from Trump that crippled its response, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters in a press conference on Thursday. Biden was left with a stark choice - withdraw all U.S. forces, or resume fighting with the Taliban. The Taliban overran Afghanistan in August 2021 as the former Western-backed government in Kabul collapsed with surprising speed and the last U.S. troops withdrew. Under Biden's Republican predecessor Trump, the U.S. made a deal with the Islamist Taliban to withdraw all American forces. Reporting by Nandita Bose and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Tim Ahmann, David Gregorio and Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Matt Gaetz's legislative aide is a convicted war criminal who murdered an Afghan civilian and dumped his body in a latrine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Sonam Sheth | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A legislative aide who works for GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz is a convicted war criminal, The Intercept reported. The aide, Derrick Miller, spent eight years in prison after murdering an Afghan civilian, the report said. Gaetz's office defended its decision to hire Miller, saying he was "wrongfully convicted." According to The Intercept, Miller shot Mohammed in September 2010. The Florida congressman also repeatedly criticized the war in Afghanistan before President Joe Biden withdrew US troops in 2021.

☆ Two people killed in knife attack in Lisbon's Ismaili centre
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LISBON, March 28 (Reuters) - At least two people died in an attack in the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon on Tuesday, Portuguese police said, without giving further details. CNN Portugal said the alleged author of the attack, an Afghan national who wielded a large knife, had been shot and detained. Reporting by Catarina Demony, writing by Andrei KhalipOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Afghan Bromand keeps alive her Olympic dream in exile
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Amlan Chakraborty | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Afghan boxer Sadia Bromand poses for a photograph, after her interview with Reuters, at a hotel on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, March 22, 2023. A series of reports in 2019 on the sexual abuse of Afghan female footballers made her parents fear for her safety. Once the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021, returning home ceased to be an option for the lone Afghan boxer who is attending the women's world championships in the Indian capital. Bromand was forced into exile to hold on to her dream of becoming the first Afghan female boxer to compete in the Olympics. Bromand says she is regularly contacted by Afghan girls who want to play sport and seek help either to train in Afghanistan or leave.

☆ California lawmaker introduces bill to ban caste discrimination in state
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - A bill to ban caste discrimination was introduced in the California Senate on Wednesday by a Democratic lawmaker, which, if passed, could make California the first U.S. state to outlaw the practice, a problem for the state's substantial South Asian diaspora. The Dalit community is on the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system; members have been treated as "untouchables." India outlawed caste discrimination over 70 years ago, yet several studies in recent years show that bias persists. Activists opposing caste discrimination say it is no different from other forms of discrimination like racism and hence should be outlawed. U.S. discrimination laws ban ancestry discrimination but do not explicitly ban casteism.

☆ Taliban Leader Faces Blowback Over Girls’ School Ban—From His Own Movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Saeed Shah | Photographs Elise Blanchard For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KABUL—A year ago, the Taliban’s supreme leader revived the Taliban’s signature policy from the 1990s and banned girls from attending secondary school. Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada is discovering that it is one thing to issue a fiat, and quite another to enforce it in an Afghanistan that has changed dramatically since the Taliban last ruled. The reclusive leader is coming under intense pressure even from within his own movement to reverse it, a clash that is spilling into the open as the new school year begins this week.

☆ Afghan Women, Banned From Working, Can’t Provide for Their Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Margherita Stancati | Sune Engel Rasmussen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fawzia Anwari , an Afghan widow, used to earn enough from her job at a foreign nongovernmental organization in Kabul to support her five children, the eldest of whom enrolled at university to study economics. But in December, the family lost their sole livelihood when the Taliban banned women from working at NGOs, one of the few places where the Taliban had still allowed Afghan women to work.

☆ The US military created an illusion of success in Afghanistan by handling tasks it was supposed to train Afghan troops to do, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new watchdog report details how Afghanistan's security forces collapsed in August 2021. It said the US handled tasks that it was supposed to be training Afghan troops how to do. Washington lacked the political will and effort to actually develop an Afghan security force in a "war-torn and impoverished country," which is a monumental task. Additionally, the report placed blame on the Afghan government, which it said was riddled with corruption that trickled down into the military. "However, nothing affected morale more than the realization in February 2021 that US military forces were leaving."

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