RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi Abubakar Siddique June 20, 2024 Leading Afghan women’s rights activists have sounded the alarm ahead of a major international conference on Afghanistan hosted by the United Nations. Rights campaigners have slammed the world body for inviting the Taliban to the June 30-July 1 event in Qatar, a move that they say providesRead More...
Afghanistan International: Sources have informed Afghanistan International that Salahuddin Rabbani, the leader of a faction of the Jamiat-e-Islami party and former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, has traveled to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials. This marks Rabbani’s first visit to Iran since the fall of the Republic order in Afghanistan. Additionally, sources revealed that theRead More...
WION: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Abdul Manan, also known as Hakimullah, was killed on Sunday (Jun 16) in Afghanistan’s Kunar province by unknown men. He was associated with the Malakand chapter of TTP. His killing is considered a big setback to the TTP and a major achievement for Islamabad. Manan was accused of carrying outRead More...
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation reported that 100-120 airplanes pass through Afghan airspace daily. The ministry stated that it charges a transit fee of USD 700 per airplane. This is in contrast to the last years of the previous government, when around 400 airplanes passed through Afghan airspace daily. ClickRead More...
AFP: A gender-balanced team of three men and three women will represent Afghanistan in Paris next month in a symbolic move for the first summer Olympics since the Taliban surged to power. The chief executive of Afghanistan’s national Olympic committee (NOC), Dad Mohammad Payenda Akhtari, told AFP all of the athletes, except the judoka, wereRead More...
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi June 18, 2024 Shugufta, an elementary school teacher, earned around $300 per month under the previous Western-backed Afghan government. But after the Taliban seized power in 2021, the extremist group cut the salaries of female government employees by half. Despite her lower income, Shugufta was relieved to work as the countryRead More...
Afghanistan International: Members of the Taliban have shared an audio file of Sheikh Abdul Ali Deobandi on X, in which he declares that teaching women to read and write, even at home, is prohibited. Ziaullah Hashmi, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, reposted the file, calling it an “important fatwa”. In theRead More...
AP: Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, who has written several books about Afghanistan and the Taliban, said Akhundzada’s appeals for unity were a sign of desperation because he refused to spell out the real issues facing Afghans such as unemployment, economic development, and building a consensus for social reform. “I would not be convincedRead More...
Afghanistan International: At least three sources from Kabul confirmed to Afghanistan International that an explosion occurred around 8PM on Wednesday, June 12, at the Tahia-e Maskan neighbourhood of Kabul. The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that one Taliban member was killed and another was injured in the incident. On Monday,Read More...
By Sarah Zaman VOA News June 14, 2024 ISLAMABAD — “We don’t need development. … We want to live in peace,” a frustrated Abdul Khaliq told VOA over the phone. Khaliq is a resident of Pakistan’s tribal district Kurram, where locals held a consultative gathering, or jirga, earlier this month to discuss rising insecurity. The gathering wasRead More...
Michael Hughes: A number of UNSC members in March of 2023 agreed that the Taliban needed to be held accountable for treatment of women, human rights abuses, and violations of international law. Last July, the Security Council released a disturbing report that shined a bright light on the Taliban-terrorist nexus plaguing Afghanistan. UN member states cited concerns over theRead More...
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 13, 2024 Amina was in the seventh grade when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. Shortly after their takeover, the militants banned teenage girls from attending school, dashing the 14-year-old’s dreams of completing her education. Months later, Amina’s family in the central province of Maidan Wardak forced herRead More...
Afghanistan International: More than 50 Shia figures from Afghanistan in Europe emphasised on the necessity of “firm resistance” against the Taliban at a meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. These activists said that the Shia community must, if necessary, stand against the oppression of the Taliban, even through armed resistance. This meeting, held on Saturday, June 8,Read More...
Ariana: The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation said Wednesday that Iran Air International Airlines has launched direct flights to Kabul for the first time. The ministry said in a statement that Iran Air will have flights to Kabul once a week. Click here to read more (external link).
ORF: In the past two and a half years, rapid clampdown on independent institutions like media and free speech has debunked the sham of a ‘reformed Taliban’. Estimates suggest over 450 documented cases of media violations by the Islamic Emirate since its takeover. This includes the murders of three journalists, 219 detentions, and a staggeringRead More...
8am: Local sources in Allahyar District, Ghor Province, accused individuals linked to “Mawlawi Jaber,” the Taliban district governor, of the murder after the bodies of the 45-year-old woman and her granddaughter were discovered. They alleged that the local Taliban official moved the family of one of his associates, who lived near the woman’s house, toRead More...
Ariana: Afghanistan faces a staggering daily toll of 24 maternal deaths and 167 infant deaths due to preventable causes, according to a new report released Sunday by the World Health Organization. The report underscores the continuing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, highlighting the multifaceted challenges that citizens endure daily. Click here to read more (external link).Read More...
8am: The Hasht-e Subh Daily’s findings from Herat, confirmed by sources within the Taliban, reveal that ISIS has significantly infiltrated the Taliban, particularly its intelligence service. These findings show that on the first day of the attack on the Mohammadia mosque, five individuals were arrested from two locations in Herat province on charges of membershipRead More...
Ayaz Gul VOA News June 5, 2024 ISLAMABAD — A senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan, wanted by the United States for terrorism, has concluded a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he met with the host country’s leadership, an Afghan official said Wednesday. Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani traveled abroad for the first time sinceRead More...
Jafar Haand Matiullah Abid Noor VOA News June 5, 2024 WASHINGTON — When the parents of Karim Sadiq and Taj Maluk fled a wrecked Afghanistan torn apart by the 1979 Soviet invasion and infighting warlords, they didn’t imagine their children — Karim and Taj — would return to reunite the war-torn nation through cricket. Taj MalukRead More...
By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda June 3, 2024 A centrist Iranian newspaper has accused a Taliban representative in Iran of “torturing” a photographer, ultimately leading to his expulsion from the country. The Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper claimed on June 1 that a Taliban representative in the Afghan Consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad had “dragged” the unnamed Iranian photographerRead More...
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi June 4, 2024 Atel hauls a wooden cart every day around the Afghan capital, Kabul, selling vegetables. The 70-year-old pensioner retired around five years ago. But since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban has stopped paying pensions. That has forced thousands of pensioners like Atel back to work, often as street vendors,Read More...
Ayaz Gul VOA News June 3, 2024 ISLAMABAD — The United Nations said Monday that flash floods in Afghanistan, caused by extreme weather events related to climate change, are impacting tens of thousands of children, especially in northern and western provinces. The impoverished South Asian country has experienced unusually heavy seasonal rainfall and flash flooding overRead More...
By RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service June 3, 2024 Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said on June 3 that his country has taken the Taliban off of its terrorist list. Addressing a session of the parliament speakers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Almaty, Toqaev stressed the move was made to develop trade and economic ties withRead More...
Ariana: The Polio Free Afghanistan organization announced Sunday in a post on X that a polio vaccination campaign will begin Monday and be carried out across Afghanistan. The organization stated that the campaign will target children under the age of five. Click here to read more (external link).