There are 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees in the world, of whom 2.2 million are registered in Iran and Pakistan alone….reports Asian Lite News
A total of 4,986 Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland from neighbouring Iran over the past two days, the Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs in Kabul said on Thursday.
According to the Ministry, the returning process continues, and about 280,000 Afghan refugees have returned over the past six months, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to the UN, Afghans make up one of the largest refugee populations worldwide.
There are 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees in the world, of whom 2.2 million are registered in Iran and Pakistan alone.
Another 3.5 million people are internally displaced, having fled their homes searching for refuge within the country.
Taliban offers odd-even scheme to educate girls and boys in Afghanistan.(photo:IN)
This was the second International Women’s Day observed under the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, which swept back to power in August 2021, and more or less marked a year-and-a-half of increasing misery for Afghan women, writes Asad Mirza
The slew of anti-women measures adopted by the Taliban government in Afghanistan has essentially gone against them, further isolating them globally and making them a pariah.
Reportedly, a handful of Afghan women courageously held a demonstration in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 8 March, calling on the international community to protect Afghan women.
This was the second International Women’s Day observed under the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, which swept back to power in August 2021, and more or less marked a year-and-a-half of increasing misery for Afghan women.
In a statement to mark the International Women’s Day, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, RozaOtunbayeva said it has been distressing to witness the Taliban’s methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere.
The UN mission said the crackdown was a “colossal act of national self-harm” at a time when Afghanistan faces some of the world’s largest humanitarian and economic crises.
The anti-women Taliban decisions have faced international condemnation, including by some Muslim countries even. The State of Qatar, earlier this week expressed deep concern over the Afghan caretaker government’s decisions which negatively affect Afghan women and girls’ rights, especially suspending their studies in secondary schools and universities and banning their work in non-governmental organisations.
The Qatari condemnation was conveyed in a statement delivered by the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva, HE Dr. Hind Abdul Rahman Al Muftah during an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, within the framework of the 52nd regular session of the Human Rights Council.
The deputy foreign minister of Turkiye, Mehmet Kemal Bozay, has said that the international community must not allow the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate “even further.” The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, spoke in Geneva and, reiterated the OIC’s condemnation of Kabul’s edicts banning women from education and work, saying: “It is against our religion.”
Anti-women diktats
The biggest crackdown on teenage girls and university students came just days before Women’s Day, when earlier this week the authorities banned them from secondary schools and higher educational institutions. No country has officially recognised the Taliban government as Afghanistan’s legitimate ruler, with the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition.
According to UNESCO, currently, 80 percent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women – totalling 2.5 million people – are out of school.The Taliban’s decision to keep girls’ schools shuttered has reversed significant gains in female education during the past 20 years.
In another anti-women diktat, Taliban government has annulled divorce in Afghanistan, forcing divorced women to go back to abusive husbands. Lawyers say that several women have reported being dragged back into abusive marriages after Taliban commanders annulled their divorces.
Taliban PM calls for Muslim nations to recognise Afghan government(IN)
Latest international efforts
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said last Friday that a delegation headed by UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed to Afghanistan recently, found that some Taliban officials were more open to restoring women’s rights, but others were clearly opposed.
Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister is the UN’s highest-ranking woman, she was joined on the trip by Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, which promotes gender equality and women’s rights, and Assistant Secretary General for political affairs Khaled Khiari.
The UN team met with the Taliban administration in the capital Kabul and talks focused on the restrictive measures the Taliban government has imposed on women and girls since they re-took power.
The UN has stressed that Afghan women are crucial to delivering humanitarian help to civilians, the majority of them women and children.
The Taliban government adheres to an austere interpretation of Islam and has imposed severe restrictions on women’s lives that the United Nations called “gender-based apartheid”.
Notably, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan have been erased under the Taliban regime.
According to the UN Mission in the country, nine out of 10 women in Afghanistan experience physical, sexual or psychological violence from their partner. Divorce, however, is far greater a taboo than the abuse itself and women who part with their husbands sustain many atrocities at the hands of society.
The United Nations’ special representative for women in Afghanistan, Alison Davidian said the implications of the government’s policies “impact all Afghans and will resonate throughout generations”. Meanwhile, a prominent group of Afghan and Iranian women are backing a campaign calling for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime under international law.
The campaign, launched on International Women’s Day, reflects a belief that the current laws covering discrimination against women do not capture the systematic nature of the policies imposed in Afghanistan and Iran to downgrade the status of women in society.
The authors of the open letter, including international lawyers, argue that the legal definition of apartheid as a crime against humanity, adopted by the UN in 1973 and supported by the 1998 Rome Statute, does not fit the case of Afghanistan and Iran, even if the descriptive term does.
Taliban fire shots, beat women protesters in Kabul.
Taliban Mindset
Initially, when the Taliban 2.0 took over power in Afghanistan in August 2021, there was some euphoria that now they might be a changed Taliban, looking forward to mend their earlier ways and chart a new course of development for their country.
However, starting with their first diktat in September 2021, urging for segregated classrooms for boys and girls at schools, the caretaker Taliban government has followed it up with a slew of anti-women measures.
What perplexes one is that though the Taliban describe most of these decisions as Islamic, in fact they are completely unIslamic. Islam gives equal rights to men and women in all spheres of life, including, education, inheritance, right to work, say in marriage. Yet, in action Taliban goes completely against the spirit and teachings of Islam.
Instead, if they had adopted a new pragmatic and forward looking approach towards reorganising the Afghan society, it would have gone in their favour and would have helped them to consolidate their power in the country. As currently there seems to be no political force in the country, which could counter the Taliban. In addition, it would have provided them legitimacy and support from the so-called Islamic countries, if only they would have chosen to uphold the Islamic teachings, which in reality, they have failed to do.
Natural disasters have left substantial financial losses to the people suffering in the country…reports Asian Lite News
Natural disasters in Afghanistan have left over 1,000 people dead, and over 2,000 others injured, according to a Taliban led Disaster Management Ministry official, Khaama Press reported.
According to the World Bank report, natural disasters such as flooding, earthquakes, avalanches, landslides, and droughts are exacerbating vulnerability and poverty in Afghanistan. Disasters caused by natural hazards have since 1980 affected nine million people and caused over 20,000 fatalities in the country, the report stated, Khaama Press reported.
“Natural disasters have left over 1,000 people dead, and over 2,000 others injured across Afghanistan during the current solar year (1401), according to a Disaster Management Ministry official,” Khaama Press reported.
According to the Taliban, at least 70 people died due to cold weather in January this year. More than 70,000 cattle are reported to have perished in the Baghlan, Sare-ePul, Frayab, Takhar, Kandahar, Nimroz and Badghis provinces.
More than 180 people were killed in flooding in the country during August 2022, the report stated.
In June 2022, an earthquake killed at least 1,000 people and injured 1,500 in eastern Afghanistan, according to the document.
Natural disasters have left substantial financial losses to the people suffering in the country. Afghanistan is a natural hazard-prone country, including earthquakes, flooding, landslide, and freezing winters, according to Khaama Press.
Meanwhile, Tolo News reported that as Afghanistan continues to face the worst humanitarian crisis amid ongoing political chaos, the United Nations (UN) warned that two-thirds of Afghans are facing severe hunger and are in urgent need of aid, with six million facing the risk of famine.
With at least six million people facing the risk of famine in Afghanistan due to a reeling economic crisis, the deputy executive director of UNICEF, Omar Abid urged the international community not to forget the basic rights of women and children in Afghanistan, as well as to assist them.
The current population of Afghanistan is 41,201,762 as of Monday, February 6, 2023, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
This comes as Afghanistan’s most vulnerable citizens have requested assistance from relief agencies.
Safar Ali is working as a labourer–transporting materials by wheelbarrow in the capital city of Kabul.
“There is no good work now. It was good previously but not now. I can only make 50 Afs per day,” he said.
Another Kabul resident, Karim Shah also lamented about his situation and said, “There is no work to do, and nothing to do.”
Tolo News reported citing the economists who stated that a disaster will occur if international institutions do not pay attention to the situation in Afghanistan. (ANI)
The afghani has been tumbling against foreign currencies, especially the .S dollar over the past several months…reports Asian Lite News
Afghanistan’s central bank said on Monday that it sold $16 million by auction in a bid to stabilise exchange rate of the national currency afghani.
The afghani has been tumbling against foreign currencies, especially the .S dollar over the past several months, reports Xinhua news agency.
The exchange rate for $1 increased from last week’s 88 afghani to 88.50 afghani on Monday.
The Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) has injected millions of US dollars into the country’s money-exchange market over the past month to prevent the fall of afghani against foreign currencies.
The Afghan central bank also auctioned $16 million last week.
The war-torn Afghanistan has received nearly $2 billion in cash over the past 17 months as part of the international community’s humanitarian aid to stabilise its economy.
Afghanistan was supposed to present a candidate for the SAARC Secretary General Post this time, but since the member states do not recognize the Taliban…reports Asian Lite News
It was Afghanistan’s turn to suggest a candidate for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) Secretary General Position. The seat has, however, not been awarded to the country because the organization’s states have not recognized the current Kabul administration, Afghanistan-based Khaama Press reported.
According to Khaama Press, after Afghanistan, it was Bangladesh’s turn, and Golam Sarwar, a senior career diplomat, was appointed the next secretary general of the eight-member regional organization. Sarwar is stepping in to replace Esala Ruwan Weerakoon of Sri Lanka, whose three-year term ended in February 2023. Golam Sarwar’s application to serve as the regional bloc’s secretary general has been forwarded by the government of Bangladesh.
The SAARC council of ministers usually meet in person to choose a new secretary general, but that was not possible this time. Owing to this, Nepal’s Bharat Raj Poudel discussed Golam Sarwar’s nomination with his counterparts in SAARC members’ nations, including Pakistan but excluding Afghanistan, and proposed an endorsement via a circular, which all members’ states approved.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, which was established in 1985, seeks to accelerate its member states’ economic and social growth. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
During the organization’s 14th summit session on April 3, 2007, Afghanistan became one of the organization’s eight members.
Afghanistan was supposed to present a candidate for the SAARC Secretary General Post this time, but since the member states do not recognize the Taliban; Bangladesh has been given the opportunity.
Taliban recently called on the international community to recognise the “Islamic Emirate” of Afghanistan, claiming that if recognised, the concerns and complaints of the world community will be addressed in a better way, Afghanistan-based Tolo News reported.
“The Islamic Emirate will be paying more attention to its responsibilities and the complaints we have among ourselves or from other countries will be addressed in a good way. Because one side will feel responsible regarding the laws and regulation,” Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, as quoted by Tolo News.
According to Mujahid, if some powerful world countries prevent Afghanistan’s recognition, the rest of the world countries should not follow them.
This comes as the Taliban-led Ministry of Economy said that the lack of recognition of the “Islamic Emirate” by the international community since last August has caused challenges in the country.
“If the Islamic Emirate is recognized, the engagement of Afghanistan with the international community will increase and this will cause stabilization in the region,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, Afghan deputy Minister of Economy under the caretaker Taliban regime. (ANI)
Demonstrators raised slogans against the Taliban and also the interference of Pakistan in fghanistan Affairs…reports Asian Lite News
Afghan diaspora members incljuding women assoiciated with Afghan diaspora organizations AKIS (Afghanische Kultur, Integration und Solidaritat) staged a protest in Vienna against actions of the Taliban on women and children after regaining their control over Afghanistan.
On Friday (local Time), many prominent Afghan women diaspora members including Tamana Ayoubi, Fariba Sadig, Saleh Wasel, and Ali Baqeri protested at the entrance of the UN building in Vienna.
The AKIS was at the forefront of this protest.
Demonstrators raised slogans against the Taliban and also the interference of Pakistan in fghanistan Affairs.
They also spoke about the inhumane way Pakistan treats Afghan Refugees, especially women and children. Around 100 Afghan women participated in this demonstration. At the end of the protest, they also submitted a memorandum to UN authorities, urging all member states to act decisively on this issue.
The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, at least 20 years post they were ejected by US troops. Women’s rights have been neglected, ever since, under their harsh rule.
In November, last year, the Taliban intrusively disrupted a women’s press conference held in the Dasht-e-Barchi area and also arrested several women journalists, reported Khaama Press.
Taliban disrupted the event and took the women human rights protestors to an undisclosed place.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year, it rolled back women’s rights advances and media freedom revoking the efforts on gender equality and freedom of speech in the country.
Taliban banned women from attending university last December, nine months after the Islamist group barred girls from returning to secondary schools amid a brutal crackdown on women’s rights since it seized power in 2021.
Taliban also announced a ban on female NGO workers – prompting multiple major foreign aid groups to suspend their operations in the country.
Not only in education, but Taliban had also rolled back women’s rights advances and media freedom revoking the efforts on gender equality and freedom of speech in the country.
According to a report by the South Asian Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) over 45 per cent of journalists have quit since the terrorist outfit assumed power. (ANI)
governor of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province Hajji Mullah Mohammad Daud Mazamil.(photo:twitter.com/Zabehulah_M33)
They did not, however, specify which “rebel” group these individuals were allegedly affiliated to…reports Asian Lite News
The governor of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province was killed in a blast that targeted his office in Mazar-i-Sharif city on Thursday, the spokesman of the Taliban-run government in Kabul confirmed.
“Unfortunately I have received information that Hajji Mullah Mohammad Daud Mazamil was killed in a blast organised by enemies of Islam,” Mujahid said in a tweet.
According to police, the blast took place at 9.27 a.m. on the second floor of Mazamil’s office when a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing himself and two others including the Governor.
Two more people, including a civilian, were injured in the attack.
This is the first time that the armed elements opposing the Kabul regime has targeted a high profile official since the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.
This attack comes a day after provincial Taliban authorities claimed they had killed eight “rebels and kidnappers” in Mazar-e Sharif, the Balkh provincial capital, reports the BBC.
They did not, however, specify which “rebel” group these individuals were allegedly affiliated to.
Recently, Afghan police had killed eight alleged kidnappers in a crackdown against outlaws in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Asif Waziri said on Wednesday.
“Units of police launched an operation against the hideout of a kidnapping gang in Khwaja Khairan locality, Police District 7 of Mazar-i-sharif city Wednesday morning, killing eight and discovered arms and ammunitions including three assault rifles, two pistols and three cars from the site of the operation,” Waziri told Xinhua news agency.
Two police personnel had been injured during the fire exchange with the gang, the official added.
In similar operations, the police arrested 10 people on the charge of involvement in criminal activities in Balkh province some two weeks ago.
The Afghan caretaker government has vowed to crack down on criminal elements in Afghanistan to ensure law and order in the war-torn country.
Taliban fire shots, beat women protesters in Kabul.
The female protestors issued a statement saying the current challenges against women should not be forgotten…reports Asian Lite News
Young Afghani women protested against the Taliban demanding women’s access to education and work on the occasion of International Women’s Day, reported Tolo News.
The protest took place on Wednesday and they called for the removal of restrictions imposed women in Afghanistan. “It is March 8 but women in Afghanistan have no rights to celebrate this day. We are the women who are imprisoned in the country. The restrictions are worsened day-by-day,” said Jolia Parsa, a member of Junbish Itlaf Khodjosh Zanan.
Taliban banned women from attending university last December, nine months after the Islamist group barred girls from returning to secondary schools amid a brutal crackdown on women’s rights since it seized power in 2021.
Taliban also announced a ban on female NGO workers – prompting multiple major foreign aid groups to suspend their operations in the country.
“We want to be provided with our rights to work as in many other countries around the world. We should be able to work in the government and non-government organizations,” said Sufia Arifi, a member of Junbish Itlaf Khodjosh Zanan, reported Tolo News.
The female protestors issued a statement saying the current challenges against women should not be forgotten.
“Our specific request of the international community is to pay necessary attention to the situation of women in Afghanistan,” said Laila Bassim, a protestor, reported Tolo News.
“Today, the gates of gyms, schools, universities and parks have been closed for women,” said Marghlari Faqirzai, a member of Junbish Itlaf Khodjosh Zanan.
Taliban has repeatedly said that they are committed to the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and that their rights are preserved within Islamic laws.
On Monday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, presented a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva that said the Taliban’s ban on female education “may amount to gender persecution, a crime against humanity.”
The report listed various other compounding crises, such as the rise in forced and child marriages, sexual abuse and assault, the ban on women from other public spaces like parks and gyms, and other restrictions limiting women’s ability to work and travel independently.
These bans “deepen existing flagrant violations of women’s human rights, already among the most draconian in the world,” the report said.
The Taliban’s return to power preceded a deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, worsening issues that had long plagued the country.
After the takeover, the US and its allies froze about USD 7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cut off international funding – crippling an economy heavily dependent on overseas aid. (ANI)
governor of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province Hajji Mullah Mohammad Daud Mazamil.(photo:twitter.com/Zabehulah_M33)
This is the first time that the armed elements opposing the Kabul regime has targeted a high profile official since the Taliban assumed power ….reports Asian Lite News
The governor of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province was killed in a blast that targeted his office in Mazar-i-Sharif city on Thursday, the spokesman of the Taliban-run government in Kabul confirmed.
“Unfortunately I have received information that Hajji Mullah Mohammad Daud Mazamil was killed in a blast organised by enemies of Islam,” Mujahid said in a tweet.
According to police, the blast took place at 9.27 a.m. on the second floor of Mazamil’s office when a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing himself and two others including the Governor.
Two more people, including a civilian, were injured in the attack.
This is the first time that the armed elements opposing the Kabul regime has targeted a high profile official since the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.
This attack comes a day after provincial Taliban authorities claimed they had killed eight “rebels and kidnappers” in Mazar-e Sharif, the Balkh provincial capital, reports the BBC.
They did not, however, specify which “rebel” group these individuals were allegedly affiliated to.
This is the third earthquake within 8 days….reports Asian Lite News
An earthquake of magnitude 4.7 occurred 285 km East-northeast of Fayzabad, Afghanistan on Thursday, according to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS).
Taking to Twitter, NCS said, “Earthquake of Magnitude:4.7, Occurred on 09-03-2023, 07:06:38 IST, Lat: 38.22 & Long: 73.47, Depth: 107 Km, Location: 285km ENE of Fayzabad, Afghanistan.” This is the third earthquake within 8 days.
Yesterday also, magnitude 4.2 hit the country at 1:40 am. The earthquake struck at a depth of 136 km at a longitude of 65.91 and latitude of 34.53.
On March 2, another earthquake of magnitude 4.1 struck the Fayzabad region of Afghanistan at 2:35 am IST. According to National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the quake struck at a depth of 245 kilometres at a latitude of 37.73 and a longitude of 73.47.
In a tweet, the National Centre for Seismology stated, “Earthquake of Magnitude:4.1, Occurred on 02-03-2023, 02:35:57 IST, Lat: 37.73 & Long: 73.47, Depth: 245 Km, Location: 267km ENE of Fayzabad, Afghanistan.” (ANI)
