Category: Afghanistan

Asifa Stanekzai, a women’s rights activist in Iran, stated that undocumented immigrants in Iran are at risk of “forced” deportation, with the most significant restrictions being on education and employment….reports Asian Lite News

Millions of Afghan immigrants live in Iran under challenging economic conditions, out of which around one-third are women with limited employment opportunities, Khaama Press reported, citing published statistics.

Asifa Stanekzai, a women’s rights activist in Iran, stated that undocumented immigrants in Iran are at risk of “forced” deportation, with the most significant restrictions being on education and employment.

According to Stanekzai, migrant women in Iran are mostly engaged in home-based occupations such as sewing, which, in her view, is related to limitations in “employment generation” and “cultural” issues, Khaama Press reported.

Furthermore, the Iranian newspaper ‘Ham-Maihan’ also emphasised in a report titled ‘Migrant Women: Invisible Workers’ that Afghan women migrants in Iran are employed in underground workshops for low wages.

According to unofficial statistics, approximately 4 to 5 million migrants, of which 90 per cent are Afghan migrants, live in Iran, with 41 per cent of them being women, Khaama Press reported.

Stanekzai also attributes one of the reasons for women’s migration to Iran to the educational limitations in Afghanistan and the desire to go to European countries.

She adds that there is no legal organisation dedicated to addressing the problems of migrant women in Iran, and only the Immigration Department and people’s councils collaborate in this area.

However, it is worth noting that according to Iranian media reports, Afghan migrant women are actively involved in the production sector in Iran, but broader acceptance of Afghan women in the public sphere is still lacking, according to Khaama Press.

Stanekzai mentioned that human rights organisations in Iran have not been active in addressing the challenges faced by Afghan migrants.

It should be noted that an Iranian newspaper mentioned the life of an Afghan migrant woman who has spent twenty years working in various professions, including carpet weaving, nursing, and house painting. However, due to not having legal residency, she lost her job.

Iran has hosted millions of Afghan migrants for decades, imposing various restrictions on Afghan migrant families and forcing them into low-paying and labour-intensive jobs for many years.

At the same time, the trend of deporting Afghan migrant families from Iran is on the rise, with the Iranian Foreign Minister recently emphasising that Iran, unlike in the past, cannot provide services to Afghan migrants, Khaama Press reported. (ANI)

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With regard to the dire humanitarian situation, Afghanistan needs nearly $3.2 billion in aid, but just about $1.1 billion has been deployed so far, as per the UN estimates….reports Kavya Dubey

As the illusion of the Taliban “government”, which included some internationally designated terrorists, fell apart, and Afghanistan’s ethnic and regional fault lines lay bare, factions of Taliban vie for power in this basket case.

After the Doha Accord, the US-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 that formalised the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, appeared to be going defunct, the Taliban accused the US of not going by the agreement, whereby it would engage with the UN to remove Taliban members from the sanctions list.

Despite the pomp around US’ handover of Afghanistan to a ‘changed’ Taliban, little thought seems to have been spared to Pakistan in this context, with its military and nuclear potency and its tendency to stoke terrorism.

And despite the US’ withdrawal from the region, it banks on cooperation with Pakistan for its interests.

However, with respect to the hitherto abandoned Afghanistan, the country is plunging deeper in dire economic straits. With the Taliban not being recognised internationally, reviving Afghanistan’s economy is becoming increasingly difficult.

With escalating inflation and the US freezing $9.5 billion in Afghan reserves, World Bank and IMF having withdrawn their aid and funding programmes for Afghanistan, the war-ravaged country is left a basket case.

However, notwithstanding the dire economic conditions, and given the resource potential of Afghanistan, the region cannot be truly abandoned altogether. China’s Belt and Road Initiative to usher in with development there and in exchange, exploit its massive mineral resources worth $3 trillion, is a looming possibility.

Besides, the investment-seeking, cash-strapped Taliban government has finalised agreements with Chinese, British, and Turkish companies to develop large-scale mining operations.

However, China has a reason to not rush headfirst into an unstable Afghanistan as the extraction and commercial exploitation of its most valuable mineral resource, lithium, is a process that can take up to 16 years and cannot be a short-term project.

For such an investment-oriented development to take place, negotiation between Taliban and a willing country is inevitable, but even then, the humanitarian catastrophe is the elephant in the room that cannot be overlooked for ever.

Afghanistan’s post-war rebuilding efforts began before the US declared war on terror there in 2001 and retracted in 2021 after the Doha Accord. After Soviet invasion in 1978, Afghans became the largest protracted refugees in the world.

More than 10 million have fled Afghanistan in the anticipation of impending violence. About six million went to Pakistan (which it is intent on returning) and Iran. Besides, more than 1.2 million people have been internally displaced in Afghanistan due to terrorist invasion and expected atrocities.

With such scale of displacement comes the crisis of housing and managing the population and the challenge of sustaining the refugee population with the most basic amenities such as water supply.

As per the UN estimates, there is conflict in 31 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, after an expenditure of $650 billion fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban since 2001. The donor countries have additionally contributed $150 billion in development aid, most of which did not end up for its purpose but evaporated to corruption.

However, interestingly, in a recent and unprecedented development, Afghanistan’s currency outperformed several other currencies in the world. The reason behind tis is understood to be humanitarian aid and increasing trade with Asian neighbours.

However, with regard to the dire humanitarian situation, Afghanistan needs nearly $3.2 billion in aid, but just about $1.1 billion has been deployed so far, as per the UN estimates.

Given these dynamics and the silence around it, a Taliban-run Afghanistan will direct a geopolitical realignment. This will also impact India’s relations with major powers, considering terrorism emanating from this region.

It is hence a time when waiting and watching is the most pragmatic way forward.

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Endres expressed his concerns over the effects of climate change in Afghanistan….reports Asian Lite News

The UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan Daniel Peter Endres has said that Afghanistan ranks as the world’s sixth vulnerable, least-ready country to address the impacts of climate change, TOLO News reported.

Endres expressed his concerns over the effects of climate change in Afghanistan.

In a video released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Afghanistan, Endres said: “Over the past 70 years, Afghanistan has experienced rising temperatures, declining rainfalls and unprecedented levels of deforestation.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban-appointed spokesman of the State Ministry for Disaster Management, Mullah Jan Saiq, said that if the current impacts of climate change are not addressed in Afghanistan, it will cause huge damage to the country. The Taliban ruled government has also objected to not being invited to COP28 Climate summit in Dubai despite being a country vulnerable to Climate change.

Mullah Janan Saaiq, spokesman of the disaster management ministry, said in a video that Afghanistan is affected by climate change and that the representative of the Islamic Emirate should have been invited to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) in the United Arab Emirates. Mullah Janan Saaiq said if the representative of the Islamic Emirate was invited to the meeting, after the discussion, they would have focused on reducing greenhouse gases and its dangers in Afghanistan. According to Saaiq, nearly 20 million people in Afghanistan were affected by climate change last year

TOLO News also reached out to some farmers who shared their deep concerns about climate change’s effect on their harvests.

A farmer, Sadiq Khan, said: “There is a severe drought in the country. Farming is very challenging and the harvests are not good in their seasons.”

This comes as the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP 28 hosted by the UAE invited no representative from Afghanistan. (ANI)

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UNAMA called for support for individuals at risk….reports Asian Lite News

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the country has witnessed an increase in violence against the Shia and Hazara communities in the past month in the provinces of Kabul, Balkh, and Herat, Khaama Press reported.

UNAMA called for support for individuals at risk.

This comes in response to the recent attack on Shia Muslims in the Herat province, which has prompted strong reactions.

Four days ago, six individuals, including four men and two women, were killed as a result of gunfire by unidentified armed individuals in Herat.

As per reports, this incident occurred in the Hazara-populated area of “Jibril” in the city of Herat, where all the victims were riding in a rickshaw. Before this, on November 23, two Shia clerics were killed in an armed attack in Herat.

In the past month, dozens of people, including women have been killed and injured in separate attacks on a bus and a sports hall in the Hazara-populated area of “Dasht-e Barchi” in Kabul.

Following the recent attack in Herat, hundreds of people, including women in the province have protested during the funeral processions of the victims.

The Human Rights Defenders Assembly and Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan for the United Nations Human Rights Council, have also condemned the attacks on Shia Muslims in Afghanistan, according to Khaama Press.

The Human Rights Defenders Assembly has criticized the lack of restraint in the face of these attacks on Hazaras and Shia Muslims in Afghanistan, who have been subjected to collective and individual assassinations, bombings, and targeted attacks. So far, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for these attacks. (ANI)

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Analyst Sayed Muqdam Amin suggested that the meeting’s value lies in establishing a stability mechanism, recognizing Afghanistan, and clarifying its status….reports Asian Lite News

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has said that it will convene for its quarterly open briefing on Afghanistan in December, TOLO News reported.

As per the UN statement, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Roza Otunbayeva; Ambassador Jose de la Gasca (Ecuador), the Chair of the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee; and a representative of civil society are expected to brief.

Head of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan Sayed Ishaq Gailani said: “They should take fundamental action to benefit Afghanistan in the future, not to addict them (Taliban) with food assistance”, as per TOLO News.

A political analyst Sayed Muqdam Amin said: “The meeting could be beneficial in case it brings a mechanism for stability in Afghanistan and recognition of Afghanistan and specifying the status of Afghanistan.”

This comes as the Taliban said that meetings without the presence of its envoys would be meaningless.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that the international community is trying to put political pressure on it.

“Unfortunately, the world has politicised all humanitarian, climate change and economic issues and they want to use all of the issues as a political tool, which is not right,” he said, as per TOLO News.

In an earlier document accessed by TOLO News, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres recommended a roadmap for the reintegration of Afghanistan into the international community. (ANI)

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