Over 100 have lost their lives across Afghanistan due to firewood shortages and severe humanitarian crises…reports Asian Lite News
People in Afghanistan’s Paktika province who were hit by earthquakes have already been living a life of misery, and continue to face problems amid the cold spell in Afghanistan as they are forced to live in caves, TOLOnews reported.
Numerous people across Afghanistan have died as a result of extreme cold in the war-torn country. A number of residents of Paktika province’s Gayan, Barmal and Ziruk districts live in caves to survive the cold weather. According to information provided by provincial officials, 35 people, including women and children, have died as a result of the cold in these districts in less than two months, according to TOLOnews.
Over 100 have lost their lives across Afghanistan due to firewood shortages and severe humanitarian crises.
“It’s freezing, and I’m trying to find something to create a fire,” Keramatullah, who lives in a tent with his family, told TOLOnews.
Previously, earthquakes in the Paktia province killed many of these families who were enduring the cold; however, the cold is now affecting them. The cold is causing problems for many families right now.
According to official statistics, the earthquake that struck Paktika and Khost provinces this summer completely destroyed over 7,800 homes, 6,000 of which are in the Gayan district. (ANI)
168 individuals have died due to extreme weather conditions in 24 provinces of the country…reports Asian Lite News
Afghanistan’s Taliban-led Ministry for Disaster Management has said that 168 people have died in the country due to cold and harsh winter conditions, according to a report published by Afghan-based news agency Khaama Press.
As per Khaama Press, Rahman Zahid, a disaster management official in a video said that 168 individuals have died due to extreme weather conditions and gassing in 24 provinces of the country. These deaths have been reported in a month.
Zahid said that hundreds of houses in Afghanistan have collapsed and nearly 80,000 livestock has died across the country, leaving severe economic impacts on the living conditions of vulnerable families.
Afghanistan’s weather forecast authorities have warned of snowfall in at least 19 provinces in the coming days.
According to Zahid, this will further complicate the living conditions of the people who are in dire need of humanitarian support.
The country’s weather forecast bureau on Saturday announced there will be heavy snowfalls in the coming days in provinces including, Badakhshan, Nuristan, Kunar, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kapisa, Panjshir, Parwan, Kabul, Logar, Paktika, Zabul, Ghazni, Maidan Wardak, Bamyan, Daikundi and Ghor, Khaama Press reported.
Humanitarian aid organizations had warned of the consequences of the harsh winter.
About 50 per cent of Afghanistan’s 38 million population is in dire need of aid and winterization support. It is also stated that nearly four million children suffer from serious malnutrition in the country.
TOLO news recently reported that a sudden fall in temperature has severely affected people, already hit hard by poverty, and lack of food and fuel, in the trouble-torn country. At least 20 people have been killed.
In Badghis and other provinces, the cold has also killed at least 4,000 cattle.
Husain, a Herat resident, said he was hospitalised after being exposed to freezing temperatures on his way to illegal migration to Iran.
“We were on the way for four hours when snowfall started and we could move forward anymore,” he said, as per TOLO news. (ANI)
Reverse decrees limiting women's rights, UN urges Taliban.(Photo : Twitter.com/unwomenafghan)
Several aid agencies, who rely enormously on their Afghan female staff have already suspended their operations…reports Asian Lite News
A top UN official said that the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan are planning to set up new rules to allow women to work in some humanitarian operations.
Speaking to the BBC, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said he had received “encouraging responses” from a wide range of Taliban Ministers during talks in Kabul, even if last month’s edict banning Afghan women working for NGOs was not reversed.
“It’s worth remembering that, this year, Afghanistan is the biggest humanitarian aid programme in the world ever,” Griffiths said.
This year, agencies will try to reach 28 million Afghans, more than half the population, including six million who are “knocking on famine’s door”, the top UN official told the BBC.
This week, Griffiths has held back-to-back meetings in Kabul with senior Taliban government leaders about the edict banning Afghan women from working with aid organisations.
“They told me they will issue new guidelines in due course, which I hope will help us reinforce the role of women” @UNReliefChief tells us after 3 days of talks with #Taliban on edict banning Afghan female aid workers. #Afghanistanpic.twitter.com/y0DgbUmzxe
“If women do not work in humanitarian operations, we do not reach, we do not count, the women and girls we need to listen to. In all humanitarian operations around the world, women and girls are the most vulnerable,” he said.
“I think they’re listening… and they told me they will be issuing new guidelines in due course which I hope will help us reinforce the role of women.”
Griffiths’s trip to Kabul comes in the wake of last week’s visit by the UN’s second-in-command Amina Mohammed.
But Afghanistan is witnessing the coldest winter in a decade, the window is closing for an urgent relief effort.
Several aid agencies, who rely enormously on their Afghan female staff have already suspended their operations.
“I cannot think of an international priority as high as this one to keep this extraordinarily important massive programme alive,” Griffiths told the BBC.
Freezing temperature kills 104 people in Afghanistan in 2 weeks..reports Asian Lite news…reports Asian Lite News
Several provinces in Afghanistan are experiencing severe freezing weather and heavy snowfall.
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan on Monday confirmed that at least 104 people, including women and children, have died in the past two weeks amid the freezing weather and heavy snowfall.
Addressing the media, spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs Shafiullah Rahimi said the fatalities were reported from Takhar, Badakhshan, Nimroz, Kandahar, Laghman, Ghazni, Uruzgan, Jawzjan, Sari Pul, Faryab, Paktika, Balkh, Samangan, Bamyan, reports Xinhua news agency.
In cash-strapped Afghanistan where there is no heating system, people often use coal, wood or liquid gas to keep themselves warm, which in many cases claims human lives due gas leakage or carbon monoxide.
Extreme cold weather and snowfall have swept through parts of Afghanistan since the first week of January where the temperature fell down to minus 30 degrees Celsius in some areas of the country.
Last week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan had said that livestock losses due to the cold weather posed a further risk to families with more than 21 million people urgently needing food and agricultural support.
Half of Afghanistan’s population is experiencing acute hunger, and while conflict has subsided, violence, fear and deprivation remain, according to a recent UN report.
Photo taken on Nov. 30, 2021 shows the site of a blast in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Aria/Xinhua/IANS/IANS)
More than 40 wounded were brought to a surgical center in Kabul run by Emergency NGO, a humanitarian organization…reports Asian Lite News
Afghanistan on Wednesday was rocked by the suicide attack outside the Taliban Foreign Ministry in Kabul, resulting in the deaths of five persons and injuring others, according to officials reported Dawn.
Kabul police chief Khalid Zadran said an explosion took place on the road outside the Afghan foreign ministry in which five were killed and a number of others were injured. “The Islamic Emirate condemns such an aimless and cowardly attack on Muslims. The perpetrators will be found and punished for their evil deeds,” Zadran said.
More than 40 wounded were brought to a surgical center in Kabul run by Emergency NGO, a humanitarian organization. Stefano Sozza, Emergency’s director in Afghanistan, said casualty numbers were continuing to rise as the situation unfolded.
“The death toll is still rising,” he said. “This is the first mass casualty in 2023, but certainly one of those with the most patients since the beginning of 2022. So much so, that we have also set up beds in the kitchens and canteen.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its assaults since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of the country’s Shiite minority.
The Taliban-run administration has faced an insurgency by IS militants who have targeted foreigners at certain sites, including the Russian and Pakistani embassies and a hotel catering to Chinese businessmen, reported Dawn.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who lives near the ministry, condemned the explosion, calling it an “act of terrorism, a crime against humanity and an act against all human and Islamic values.”
The United Nations also condemned the attack.
“This is just another example of the rising insecurity which is of great concern to us,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. It is “no way to bring any sort of peace to Afghanistan.”
In a statement, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said expressed its condolences to the affected families and said that violence is not part of any solution to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan.
“UNAMA condemns today’s attack outside Foreign Ministry in Kabul. Reports of numerous casualties, including civilians. Rising insecurity is of grave concern. Violence is not part of any solution to bring lasting peace to #Afghanistan. Our condolences to the families affected,” UNAMA tweeted.
A number of blasts have been reported in Afghanistan since the start of 2023. Several blasts were reported in the capital city this month including one year Kabul military airport.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, armed groups linked to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State have carried out bombings targeting ethnic Hazaras, Afghan Shias, Sufis, and others, killing and injuring hundreds. (ANI)
UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths speaks at a Security Council meeting on Yemen at the UN headquarters in New York, on March 15, 2022. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua/IANS)
The UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said that there is a high chance that the UN will stop its aid programs in Afghanistan if the restrictions on female employees are not lifted, reports Asian Lite News
Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations has said that barring Afghan women from work will interrupt providing humanitarian aid to 28 million Afghans, reported Khaama Press.
According to Griffiths, humanitarian aid organisations working under the United Nations, need the support of women employees to continue delivering life-saving services to the Afghan people. He said that there is a high chance that the UN will stop its aid programs in Afghanistan if the restrictions on female employees are not lifted. He said that a halt in aid programs may lead to another catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country.
“Without the presence of women, we can’t deliver our much-need humanitarian support to the most marginalized groups, including women and girls in the Afghan society,” Martin Griffiths said, as quoted by The Khaama Press.
The United Nations and the International Community cannot rely on Afghanistan’s promises for they have failed to fulfil their promises regarding the rights of women and girls, Griffiths said according to the Khaama Press.
A large number of aid organisations have stopped their operation in Afghanistan after a ban on women employees working for national and international non-governmental organizations.
The TOLO News recently reported that the crisis in Afghanistan does not seem to die down as several people are under the grip of hunger and lack of basic amenities in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the Afghan land in August last year.
People receive humanitarian assistances in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 1, 2022. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua/IANS)
In a recent report released by Save the Children organization, it was said that Afghanistan, one of the nations with the highest rates of severe hunger, has more than 6.6 million people in a hunger crisis.
“The country with the highest number of people facing severe levels of hunger was Afghanistan where this number increased to 6.6 million in 2022 from 2.5 million in 2019,” Save the Children said.
Aid delivery to the Afghan people has not been very efficient under the Taliban regime as the projects to improve health and education are in shambles.
As per the latest report published (April 2022) by the Europe Asia Foundation (EAF) titled “Can ‘Softly-Softly’ address the Afghan crisis?”, the aid given by the world is not distributed efficiently by the Taliban, moreover, war-torn Afghanistan is facing a dearth of funds after sanctions were imposed by donor nations after the Taliban took control of the Country.
The report informs that international humanitarian aid to the tune of USD 1.88 billion pledged since mid-2021 has not been distributed efficiently and more than half of all Afghans go hungry. Similarly, the World Food Programme (WFP) is finding it difficult to find donors to fund its USD 4.4 billion plans, according to a think tank, Policy Research Group (POREG). (ANI)
It would be first major energy extraction agreement with a foreign firm since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021…reports Asian Lite News
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is to sign a contract with a Chinese firm to drill for oil in the war-torn country’s north.
It would be first major energy extraction agreement with a foreign firm since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, the BBC reported.
The 25-year deal underscores China’s economic involvement in the region.
On Thursday, Taliban officials said security forces had targeted Islamic State (IS) terrorists who attacked the Longan Hotel in Kabul used by Chinese businessmen.
Eight IS militants were killed and several more arrested, the Taliban said.
At least three people killed in the attack and 18 others injured, including five Chinese citizens.
The oil extraction agreement would see the Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (CAPEIC) drilling for oil in the Amu Darya basin, the BBC quoted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid as saying.
“The Amu Darya oil contract is an important project between China and Afghanistan,” China’s ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu told a news conference in the capital Kabul.
A Chinese state-owned company is also in talks over the operation of a copper mine in the east of the country.
Afghanistan is estimated to be sitting on natural resources, including natural gas, copper and rare earths, worth more than $1 trillion.
However, much of those reserves remain untapped due to decades of turmoil in the country.
Beijing has not formally recognised Afghanistan’s Taliban administration but it has significant interests in the country, which is at the centre of a region important to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), BBC reported.
Launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the BRI provides financing for emerging countries to build infrastructure like ports, roads and bridges.
The reality in Pakistan is that each government — from Musharraf to Shehbaz Sharif – has played both sides hunting with the army and supping with the militants to preserve their political constituency. The militants are ‘assets’ to be deployed to cause trouble in Pakistan’s neighbourhood – till they bite the hand that feeds them. This is the story of the TTP for which Pakistan plays the ‘victim’ of terrorism, misleading the world community … writes Dr Sakariya Kareem
The year 2022 ends on an alarming note in Pakistan as 33 Islamist militants under detention and interrogation snatched weapons from their captors and held them hostage in their own office for three days, killing two, before the security forces eliminated them.
The incident that the media called ‘audacious’ tops several killings in recent weeks amidst a tussle between the government and an array of militant groups operating from Afghanistan that Pakistan alleges has Kabul’s official nod and sympathy.
Cross-border and domestic killings have led to 145 civilians and policemen killed this year. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province the counter[1]terrorism department (CTD) office in Bannu was seized is located, has seen a 48 per cent increase in violence this year.
The world community led by the United Nations has expressed concern and the United States, ‘support’ as they conclude that bigger challenges await Pakistan’s counter-terrorism operations. Its politicians persist with their domestic dog-fights and abjectly look to the army that has itself faltered in tackling the resurgence in militancy. This is even as the continuing political spat has affected the army’s reputation.
Jointly and separately, these key stakeholders of the state seem clueless about how to tackle the Afghan Taliban whom they helped return to power in Kabul. Their expectations of gaining the much-touted “strategic depth” in Afghanistan and respite in militancy have both failed.
They are now forced to focus on a ‘live’ western border where clashes have seriously impaired bilateral ties. A worried Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan has no choice but to engage with Kabul.
Jointly and separately again, they are confused about tackling militancy, unable to combine the proverbial carrot-and-stick approach with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The body of domestic Islamists demands that the Pakistan Government undo the merger with the KP of the restive tribal areas carried out to facilitate counter-terror operations.
Security analysts and academics at a conference in Islamabad this week concluded that each time the government has engaged in talks – the last round was officially announced as “army-led” – failed when the TTP unilaterally ended the cease-fire – at the time when the militants regrouped and spread.
Media commentators note that none in the government talks of “foreign conspiracy” after the current spate of violence in KP and Balochistan has exposed weaknesses in domestic counter-terror planning and execution.
Security Analyst Muhammad Ameer Rana (Dawn, December 22, 2022) says the counter-terror policy and execution are ‘politicised’. Violence in KP, for instance, is criticised by the federal government as the former is governed by former premier Imran Khan’s party. The fact, he points out, is that KP’s counter-terror operations are essentially army-led, under federal control.
He also notes that “counter-terror actions are not merely a professional duty in Pakistan, but a highly politicised issue for several reasons.”
While militancy is more severe in KP and Balochistan, all-powerful Punjab has the best counter-terror facilities. The trend has continued with each government in the past, each focused on the populous and powerful province that favours Punjab.
According to data from the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, police have faced 1,116 terrorist attacks since 2006, and KP police alone have faced 650 attacks that have claimed the lives of 538 personnel, including officers.
The Bannu stand-off “has fully exposed the potential of the terrorist groups and the lack of preparedness of law enforcers. These militants gained strength during the ceasefire between the government and the TTP, formally ending last month.”
According to Rana, “In the past year alone, terrorists belonging to the (TTP), Gul Bahadur group, the Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K), and others with similar objectives have perpetrated at least 165 terrorist attacks in the province, which is an increase of 48 per cent from the preceding year. The TTP, along with its local Taliban affiliates alone, perpetrated 115 of these.”
KP is more affected by the spill-over of the situation in Afghanistan, where Kabul lends tacit support to the TTP, and it is mainly the military that looks after everything, from border security to dealing with the terrorists coming from the other side of the border.
Taking the larger view, Rana says: “Whenever the security situation worsens, people start questioning the National Action Plan (NAP), which is now almost a ‘dead initiative’, even after its revision last year.”
The reality in Pakistan is that each government — from Musharraf to Shehbaz Sharif – has played both sides hunting with the army and supping with the militants to preserve their political constituency. The militants are ‘assets’ to be deployed to cause trouble in Pakistan’s neighbourhood – till they bite the hand that feeds them. This is the story of the TTP for which Pakistan plays the ‘victim’ of terrorism, misleading the world community.
On Tuesday, Taliban-run Higher Education Ministry had announced that female students would not be allowed access to the country’s universities until further notice…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan has urged the Afghan authorities to revisit the decision to suspend university and higher education for girls in Afghanistan, a press statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday, local media reported.
The release said that Pakistan’s position on this issue has been clear and consistent, furthering that “we strongly believe that every man and woman has the inherent right to education in accordance with the injunctions of Islam”, Express Tribune reported.
On Tuesday, Afghanistan’s Taliban-run Higher Education Ministry had announced that female students would not be allowed access to the country’s universities until further notice.
A letter, confirmed by a spokesperson for the ministry, instructed Afghan public and private universities to suspend access to female students immediately, in accordance with a Cabinet decision.
The latest Taliban restriction on female education is likely to raise concerns in the international community, which has not officially recognised the de facto Afghan administration, Express Tribune reported.
Foreign governments, including the United States, have said that a change in policies on women’s education is needed before they can consider formally recognising the Taliban-run administration, which is also subject to heavy sanctions.
Former US special envoy to the region, Zalmay Khalilzad, has expressed resentment over the Afghan Taliban’s announcement to suspend university education for girls, terming the development as “shocking and incomprehensible”.
Fighting against the most oppressive regime in the contemporary world, Afghan women now amplify their voices and wishes for freedom in the new movement in Iran…reports Raha Azadeh
Since the collapse of the Islamic Republic women have been erased from the political and social spheres. However, women have been constantly demanding their rights through protests on the streets, rallies, and social media campaigns. Nowadays they are trying hard to change their circumstances and to shape the future of their country and the next generation.
From the women’s rally in Herat a few days after its fall on August 12, 2021, chanting “don’t be afraid, we are all together,” to “food, work, freedom,” in Kabul, women demanded their rights and the protection of their advances they had achieved over two decades of tireless work. Observing misogynous measures and forceful implementation of oppressive policies against women, such as covering their faces, banning them from walking in public parks, and traveling without a male accompanying/a male family member, Mahram, women have come up with numerous methods of protesting. They have been standing for their rights alone and without a single Afghan man accompanying them.
The rise of militant misogynist conservatism in the name of religion and culture in Afghanistan, where gendered contestations have recreated a crucial role in defining people’s national, cultural, and social identities, is constituting another gender apartheid regime. Under the Taliban regime, women are facing the same sexist and discriminatory rules as they did in 1990s. The transition from a “gender apartheid system” to a non-sexist constitution and public laws, which focuses on values like equality, human dignity, and advancing human rights and freedom, seems impossible in a patriarchal world, especially in Afghanistan.
Still Afghan women are demanding their rights and taking their issues to the streets. Soon in their neighboring country, Iran, another movement with a shared goal and slogan, “women, life, freedom,” began to spread across the country in 2022 after the young Mahsa Amini died as the result of being brutally beaten by Iran’s morality police, who enforces the country’s compulsory hijab law. Fighting against the most oppressive regime in the contemporary world, Afghan women now amplify their voices and wishes for freedom in the new movement in Iran.
Campaigns in Iran and Afghanistan inspire each other
The two movements share several characteristics and challenges: First and foremost, both Afghan and Iranian women’s movements stand against oppressive regimes. The Iranian and the Taliban regime’s responses to women’s protests have been ferocious, while the protesters have displayed extraordinary courage in their peaceful demonstrations. Women in Iran and Afghanistan have inspired one another in their struggle for emancipation. Women in both countries face extreme gender inequality in various fields due to male dominance, the intertwining of religion and culture, and the existence of cultural and religious patriarchal that constructs the power of resistance to equal rights. The Iranian regime and the Taliban, through their harsh interpretation of the hijab, the veil, as a religious symbol and its connections with notions of shame, honor, and identity, use the veil as an indicator of solid convictions regarding gender relations or a sign of religious devotion. This is just one manifestation of how women in Afghanistan and Iran face fundamentalist interpretations of Sharia.
The Afghan and Iranian women’s rights campaigns are a substantial inducement to one another. The Iranian protest movement is a true demonstration of the critical role that men can play in standing in solidarity with women and the popularity of the movement. Similarly, the Afghan women’s movement depicts that women can resist misogynistic male rulers with or without global attention and support. Even though not widespread, the Afghan women’s campaign has prevented a regime without respect for human rights from being recognized worldwide. They show that there is strength in women’s campaigns, even in a small crowd. Afghan women’s non-violent resistance provides an example of taking fearless and bold steps toward breaking gender apartheid and moving on the complex path to a non-sexist constitution, something the western power regards as impossible.
The Afghan and Iran societies are tight not only by culture and religion but by the oppression they experience in their daily lives and the challenges they face in the quest for freedom. The tragic death of Mahsa Amini, followed by widespread protests, connected women of two communities against all forms of oppression and teamed them together over a shared goal, eliminating gender-based violence and women’s rights to freedom.
Western powers must put the demand for gender equality into practice
Afghan and Iranian women have struggled for equality and against oppression for centuries, a battle that can be won if supported. At least in Iran, the women’s movement is assembled of women and men who fight and sacrifice daily to achieve gender equality and help women to enjoy the freedom they deserve. It is time for Western governments to apply a feminist lens in their relations with Iran and Afghanistan. With Iran’s and the Taliban’s discriminatory record on women’s human rights and freedom, the Western governments’ policy toward Tehran and Kabul must be gender aware. The Western powers need to show a more substantial interest in bringing their important invention for promoting gender equality into action, in terms of feminist foreign policy.
The Western countries can also support the women’s movements in Afghanistan and Iran by working with and strengthening the work of the civil society in the two countries. Civil society has long been the driver of social change in Afghanistan and Iran. The West can sustain civil society activists in Afghanistan and Iran to heighten their tactics to resist authoritarian constraints. Usually, civil society enjoys popular support due to its closeness to the people. Thus, they can link the broader public to social movements. This is particularly needed for the women’s movement in Afghanistan, as civil society can make its resources available for women. Many NGOs and civil society organizations have perished after the collapse of the Islamic Republic in Afghanistan and in the last four decades in Iran because they were considered radical by the government, but those still functioning should be supported.
In Afghanistan and Iran women demonstrate that women must prevail, when the loss of freedom is mounting and women’s human rights are facing backlashes. Afghan and Iranian women’s struggle for gender equality contribute to the strengthening of democracy and democratic values as well as to international peace. Thus, supporting women’s movements is supporting human rights and freedom.
