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☆ Blast in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province kills one, injures 5
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KABUL, March 11 (Reuters) - A blast hit the capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Saturday, police said, killing one person and wounding five a few days after the death of the province's governor in an explosion claimed by Islamic State. "A blast has taken placed in the second police district of Balkh," said Mohamad Asif Waziri, Balkh's police spokesperson. A journalist based in Balkh, Mohammad Fardin Nowrozi, told Reuters he and other journalists were injured in the explosion, but did not provide further details. Taliban authorities were already investigating the explosion that killed the provincial governor, Mawlawi Mohammad Dawood Muzamil, and two others at his office on Thursday. The governor of Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar will temporarily run Balkh, his spokesman Haji Zaid told Reuters, until Supreme Spiritual Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada selects a new governor for the northern province, an important trade hub with Central Asia.

☆ White-Collar Afghans Start Over in Nebraska
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Shannon Najmabadi | Photographs Rebecca S. Gratz For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LINCOLN, Neb.—Safiullah Arsala was behind the wheel of a Dodge Grand Caravan midway through a typical workday: As a translator and driver for Catholic Social Services, the 64-year-old shuttles Afghans to sewing classes, doctors’ offices and grocery stores across this eastern Nebraska city of 293,000. It is a far cry from Mr. Arsala’s past life in Kabul: Before the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, he was a civil engineer who oversaw multimillion-dollar electric-transmission projects for the U.S. Embassy. He had saved $120,000 in a bank account and was building a six-story house to live in with some of his 10 children, ages 11 to 32, he said.

☆ Afghan broadcaster airs rare all-female panel to discuss rights on Women's Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, March 8 (Reuters) - Afghan broadcaster Tolo News on Wednesday aired an all-female panel in its studio with an audience of women to mark International Women's Day, a rare broadcast since the Taliban took over and many female journalists left the profession or started working off-air. A survey by Reporters Without Borders last year found that more than 75% of female journalists had lost their jobs since the Taliban took over as foreign forces withdrew in August 2021. The Taliban last year restricted most girls from high school, women from university and stopped most Afghan female NGO workers. Another panellist, former university professor Zakira Nabil said women would continue to find ways to learn and work. The United Nation's Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Wednesday called on the Taliban to reverse restrictions on the rights of girls and women, calling them "distressing."

Life has become solitary confinement.” Some women went into hiding, fearing retribution after the Taliban seized power. When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, women were among the most profoundly affected. A Wrenching Change Afifa, 47, wishes more Afghan men would fight for women’s rights KABUL, Afghanistan — Walk around the capital, Kabul, and it often feels as if women have been airbrushed out of the city. When the Taliban seized power, girls’ schools remained open in a kind of limbo — neither officially sanctioned nor forbidden — for months. Zubaida, 20, teaches high school girls in secret “Regimes come and go all the time in Afghanistan.

☆ Taliban's persecution of women could be 'crime against humanity' - UN report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, March 6 (Reuters) - The Taliban's treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan could amount to a crime against humanity, according to a U.N. report presented on Monday at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. In a report covering July to December 2022, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, found that the Taliban's treatment of women and girls "may amount to gender persecution, a crime against humanity". "The Taliban's intentional and calculated policy is to repudiate the human rights of women and girls and to erase them from public life," Bennett told the United Nations Human Rights Council. "It may amount to the international crime of gender persecution for which the authorities can be held accountable." Bennett said the Human Rights Council should send a strong message to the Taliban that the "abysmal treatment of women and girls is intolerable and unjustifiable on any ground, including religion".

☆ 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.

☆ Swiss-based trust holds second meeting to discuss plans for Afghan funds -trustee
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Charlotte Greenfield | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The frozen central bank reserves were transferred from Washington into the "Fund for the Afghan People" last year where U.S. officials say it will be shielded from the Taliban. Trustee Shah Mehrabi, a U.S. academic who also remains on the Afghan central bank's Supreme Council, said a meeting of the four trustees was held virtually on Feb. 16. "The issue of disbursements of funds and the options for that was discussed," Mehrabi told Reuters. "The idea clearly here is the necessary steps to disburse funds and potential options for achieving monetary stability." Mehrabi said he believed the funds should only be used for achieving monetary stability and reducing volatility in Afghanistan's exchange rate.

☆ Watchdog Report on Afghan Collapse Points to Abrupt Withdrawal, Lack of Planning
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ben Kesling | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, whose Western-backed government collapsed in 2021 and the Taliban took over the country. A government watchdog said an abrupt, uncoordinated withdrawal from Afghanistan and years of problems with planning and oversight of U.S. assistance contributed to the collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban takeover of the country soon after American forces departed, according to a forthcoming report. Poor accountability on weapons and equipment provided to Afghanistan and a lack of systemic planning were also important factors in the military collapse there, according to the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, also calls out the Department of Defense for delaying answering official inquiries, missing deadlines and providing incomplete answers to questions.

The area, part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, is a hotbed for fighters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organisation of Sunni Islamist groups. A TTP spokesman, Muhammad Khurasani, told Reuters its main target was Pakistan's military, but the police were standing in the way. "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa pays a greater price for that" because of its exposure to the Islamist militants, he said. The TTP ended the ceasefire in November 2022, and regrouped militants restarted attacks in Pakistan soon after. Reporting by Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Jibran Ahmad in Bara, Pakistan; additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; editing by David Crawshaw.

☆ Main Afghan-Pakistani border crossing closed, residents report gunfire
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The main border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan was closed on Monday, officials from the two sides said, and residents in the area reported the sound of gunfire near the normally bustling border transit point. It was not immediately clear if Afghan or Pakistani authorities closed the Torkham border crossing, near the Khyber Pass, but it comes after relations between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply. Media reported that the border was closed on Sunday evening but did not give a reason. Clashes between Afghan and Pakistani security forces have also at times closed the second most important crossing between the two countries, at Chaman to the south. A Taliban foreign ministry spokesperson said later Pakistan should raise issues in private and not at public forums.

☆ Taliban plans to turn former foreign bases into special economic zones
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mohammad IsmailKABUL, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The Taliban administration will move ahead with plans to turn former foreign military bases into special economic zones for businesses, the acting deputy prime minister for economic affairs said in a statement on Sunday. "Following a thorough discussion, it was decided that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should progressively take control of the remaining military bases of the foreign forces with the intention of converting them into special economic zones," Mullah Baradar said in the statement. He added a pilot plan would begin to convert bases in the capital Kabul and in northern Balkh province. Afghanistan's economy has struggled and aid agencies are warning of a severe humanitarian crisis since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign troops withdrew after 20 years of war. The Taliban have said they are focused on boosting economic self-sufficiency through trade and investment.

☆ Biden’s test: Sustaining unity as Ukraine war enters second year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

One year ago, President Joe Biden was bracing for the worst as Russia massed troops in preparation to invade Ukraine. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was offered help getting out of his country if he wanted it. Now, as Biden prepares to travel to Poland to mark the anniversary of the war, he faces a legacy-defining moment. In Poland, Biden is set to meet with allies to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to the region and to helping Ukraine "as long as it takes." From the beginning of his administration, Biden has argued the world is at a crucial moment pitting autocracies against democracies.

☆ House Republicans request documents on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Amanda Macias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Friday called on the Biden administration to release information about the chaotic U.S. departure from Afghanistan. The departure effectively ended a two-decade conflict that began shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan in April 2021. At the time, he asked all American servicemembers to leave the war-weary country by Sept. 11 of that year. The U.S. launched its war in Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

☆ Former bodyguard arrested over shooting of Afghan female ex-MP
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KABUL, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Afghan police have arrested the former bodyguard of a female member of parliament who was shot to death at her home in Kabul last month, the Taliban administration said on Friday. Gunmen killed Mursal Nabizada, a female lawmaker during the previous foreign-backed government, and her bodyguard in an attack on her home in mid-January. Police said they had arrested a former guard, who had confessed to the crime, but the motive was not clear. "Further investigations are underway to determine the factors and other aspects of the crime," Kabul police, who are run by the Taliban administration, said in a statement. Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

He added that a government committee was looking into adding secular subjects to madrasas alongside religious study, a development that hasn't been previously reported. Other students and teachers said Islamic education played an important role in their lives, though they hoped to be able to study secular subjects too. He didn't elaborate on the government's plans for religious schools. Reuters was unable to determine the current number of madrasas, and Taliban authorities have not provided figures. "There's deep-seated mistrust of the formal education sector, despite the fact that it too incorporates Islamic education."

☆ Al Qaeda's new leader Adel has $10 million bounty on his head
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Michael Georgy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Zawahiri's death piled pressure on the group to choose a strategic leader who can carefully plan deadly operations and run a jihadi network, experts on al Qaeda say. The department’s Rewards for Justice programme is offering up to $10 million for information on Adel, whom it says is a member of "al Qaeda’s leadership council” and heads the organisation’s military committee. He and other Al Qaeda leaders were placed under house arrest in April 2003 by Iran, which released him and four others in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in Yemen. OPERATIVE TO LEADERAdel, one of the few remaining al Qaeda old guard, has been close to the central command for decades, experts say. Adel gained more jihadi credentials after he joined other Arab militants fighting Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan, where he eventually headed a training camp before becoming a senior figure in al Qaeda.

☆ Some Taliban fighters are sick of the 9 to 5 grind, complaining they've been sucked into urban life by working desk jobs to run Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Five young Taliban fighters described how their lives are now consumed by work and Twitter. In this picture taken on November 23, 2021, Taliban fighters ride on bumper cars. Last year, it was tolerable but in the last few months, it's become more and more congested," he told Samim. Now, if we complain, or don't come to work, or disobey the rules, they cut our salary," he told Samim. Salam, along with several other Taliban fighters interviewed, felt the public had also stopped respecting them.

☆ Frozen Afghan Funds Have Done Little to Sway Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Daniella Cheslow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. wants Kabul’s central bank, the Da Afghanistan Bank, to show it is independent and ready to counter money-laundering and terrorism financing. When the Biden administration seized $7 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank reserves two years ago, it set aside half for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, and deposited the rest in a Swiss-based fund that it said would benefit the Afghan people. Today, that $3.5 billion remains frozen. The Taliban-controlled central bank says it wants the money to stabilize its crippled financial sector. In the U.S., officials close to the situation say the money hasn’t been enough of an enticement to dissuade the Islamist regime from policies the U.S. and the West find objectionable.

☆ Taliban administration to send earthquake aid to Turkey, Syria
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] People look on as the search for survivors continues in the aftermath of an earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, February 8, 2023. REUTERS/Suhaib SalemKABUL, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban administration will send around $165,000 in aid to Turkey and Syria to help the response to a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck this week, according to a foreign ministry statement. The Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew, sparking enforcement of sanctions on its banking sector, and no capital has formally recognised its government. Many aid groups have partially suspended operations due to a Taliban administration ruling that most female NGO workers could not work, leaving agencies unable to operate many programmes in the conservative country. Western diplomats have said they will not consider formally recognising the administration unless it changes course on women's rights.

☆ A Darkening Future for Afghan Women
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Åsne Seierstad | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Female students take exams at Kabul University in October 2022, two months before the Taliban closed universities to women. At six o’clock in the morning on Christmas Eve I awoke from a ding on my cellphone. “Have you heard the rumors about women not being allowed to work?”

☆ Afghan women prosecutors once seen as symbols of democracy find asylum in Spain
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Afghan prosecutor S.M., who left her 4 years old daughter with her grandmother in Afghanistan while escaping to Peshawar, looks down in Islamabad, Pakistan, September 22, 2022. "Most Afghan women and girls that remain in Afghanistan don't have the right to study, to have a social life or even go to a beauty salon," Sharar said. due to fears over her safety and who specialised in gender violence and violence against children said, "I was the only female prosecutor in the province... The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was not in a position to comment on specific cases. "The Government of Pakistan has not agreed to recognise newly arriving Afghans as refugees," UNHCR said in a statement.

☆ ‘Nobody wants to come this way’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Filed: February 1, 2023, 11 a.m. GMTTheir journey starts with a humanitarian visa for Brazil: one of the few remaining exit routes for Afghans fleeing Taliban rule. More than a year after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Kabul, the number of Afghans crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum in the United States has soared. Hundreds of people each month are risking their lives to get there on a human smuggling route notorious for kidnapping, robbery and assault. Eleven said they made it to the United States; Reuters has not been able to confirm the whereabouts of one person a reporter interviewed in Mexico. In recent weeks, Taliban spokesmen have said that Afghanistan is the “home of all Afghans” and that those who have left can come back.

☆ The Taliban requires that all mannequins' heads be covered or cut off. Interviews with locals and eerie photos of storefronts offer a glimpse of Afghanistan's new reality.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

In Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, mannequins were once a symbol of fashion and culture. But in the past year, shop owners have resorted to displaying them headless or covered in cloth, just to keep their stores open. AP Photo/Ebrahim NorooziIn August 2021, the Taliban announced that shop owners must remove the heads of their mannequins, or do away with them all together. But several shop owners pleaded with the Taliban to let them keep their mannequins intact. Azizi told Insider that the Taliban forced locals to deface banners displaying photos of fashion models before trying to totally ban the use of mannequins.

[1/3] Sister of Amrullah, a child who died due to cold, stands at her home in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 30, 2023. They took baby Amrullah to hospital around two weeks ago for coughing and congested lungs. "The night that I lost my baby it was terribly cold, I was trying to… warm my baby boy, but I couldn't succeed," she said. "I am ... always thinking of my baby boy and my two other small children, they are also sick, I don't want to lose them as well," she said. "May God spare other mothers the pain of losing their children," Shamila said, by the rock marking his grave.

☆ The Taliban requires all mannequins' heads be covered or cut off. Eerie storefront photos offer a glimpse of Afghanistan's new reality.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

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