8am: At first, Trump will likely adopt a stance of neutrality toward the Taliban, essentially disregarding the current situation in Afghanistan. If forced to engage, his most straightforward and effective option would be to approach the Taliban for negotiation. It seems unlikely that he would engage with the anti-Taliban forces; after all, when the DemocratsRead More...
Khaama: In a report titled “The Global Education Status,” UNESCO revealed that 129 million boys and 122 million girls around the world are unable to attend school. The findings indicate that over the past decade, children’s access to education has improved by only one percent globally. UNESCO’s report shows that 33 percent of children inRead More...
Ayaz Gul VOA News November 4, 2024 Islamabad — Pakistan reported Monday that its border security forces killed at least five insurgents who were attempting to cross over from Afghanistan. The predawn encounter occurred after Pakistani troops detected the “movement of a group of khwarij” in the volatile South Waziristan border district and “effectively engaged” themRead More...
Afghanistan International: Local sources from Herat told Afghanistan International that the Taliban arrested two influential Shia clerics in the town of Jibril and transferred them to an unknown location. According to sources, Mohammad Akbari and Hossein Azimi had previously protested against the Taliban’s restrictions on Ashura ceremonies. In July of this year, during the AshuraRead More...
8am: With the Taliban intensifying restrictions on women in Afghanistan, women are more constrained than ever by the group’s ignorance and backwardness, finding life in these conditions intolerable. In a recent move, Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has prohibited adult women from hearing the voices ofRead More...
Ariana: AfghanAtalan will tour Zimbabwe next month for an all-format series that will feature two Test matches, three ODIs and three T20Is. According to the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) the tour will take place from December 9 to January 6. Click here to read more (external link).
Fox News: While the wall-to-wall press coverage of what’s been called President Biden’s “Saigon moment” has largely quieted down, the Afghan diaspora living in the U.S. has not forgotten relatives in the homeland. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Residents of Kunduz city have accused the Taliban municipality of extortion and imposing arbitrary fees. They allege that Taliban officials, along with local representatives, forcibly enter homes to measure them and collect money. Many residents, including female heads of households, express their inability to afford these payments and frustration that the Taliban, instead ofRead More...
Sky Sports: Women in Afghanistan have been banned from sports since Taliban regained control in 2021; Women cricketers have urged the ICC for help to form a refugee team with Amnesty International now adding support. Click here to read more (external link).
By Farangis Najibullah and RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi November 2, 2024 Barna’s working day begins early in the morning, hours before she enters her office at a private media outlet in Kabul’s trendy Karte-e Char area. Barna, a 26-year-old Afghan reporter whose name has been changed for security reasons, says she carefully chooses stories to pitch toRead More...
Afghanistan International: Richard Bennett, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, in his new report said that some “credible sources” testified about sexual harassment and rape of women inside Taliban prisons. Bennett added that he was deeply concerned by the numerous reports of sexual violence against women inside the Taliban’s prison. The UnitedRead More...
Asia Times: Armed resistance groups killing Taliban members, lighting bombs and stirring instability as country tilts back toward civil war. The Taliban’s desire for international legitimacy has been mocked by IS-K, which has accused the regime of bowing to the West, a message that has resonated with many disaffected Afghans. Concurrently, the regime’s inability toRead More...
Ariana: Public Health Ministry officials have confirmed that a polio vaccine campaign across 16 provinces was launched on Monday. Sharaft Zaman Amarkhil, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health, says that the campaign got underway on Monday in a number of provinces including Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Zabul, Farah, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan andRead More...
Afghanistan International: Rukhshana Media reported that the Taliban has established a jihadi school for followers of the Shia Ismaili sect in Shighnan District, Badakhshan. According to the report, Taliban’s Sunni mullahs teach Sunni religious books to children in the predominantly Shia Ismaili district of Shighnan. Rukhshana Media reported on Monday (October 28), citing its sources,Read More...
Khaama: The General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports confirmed in a statement that Khalilah Ali, the wife of Muhammad Ali, the world boxing champion, will arrive in Afghanistan to construct a sports stadium. Khalilah Ali is scheduled to arrive at Kabul airport on Thursday, October 24, to build a sports stadium named “Victory” andRead More...
Afghanistan International: Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue, in his recent visits to the provinces, has emphasised on the strict implementation of the Law on the Promotion of Virtue. Informed sources said that the main purpose of these trips was to enforce the ban on photography and filming. Hanafi called onRead More...
By Abubakar Siddique and RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi October 22, 2024 The Taliban’s repressive policies and extremist interpretation of Islam has turned Afghanistan into a pariah state. In 2021, Afghanistan became the only country in the world to ban teenage girls from going to school. Now, the country has become the first to outlaw any depictions ofRead More...
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi October 22, 2024 The Taliban conducted house-to-house searches in at least two districts of Kabul on October 22, local sources quoted by RFE/RL said. A resident of the Khair Khana district in Kabul, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFE/RL that the Taliban carried out the searches in Khair Khana and another districtRead More...
Ariana: Afghanistan U17 national football team defeated the Philippines 8-0 in their first match of the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2025 Qualifiers in Cambodia on Monday. Afghanistan U17 are placed in Group B of the tournament along with hosts Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Macau. Afghanistan U17 will next face Macau on Wednesday. Click hereRead More...
Afghanistan International: The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) announced on Sunday evening, October 20, that it had attacked the military section of the Kabul Airport from several directions. This front wrote in a statement that this operation started with the launch of several rockets and inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban. Click here to read moreRead More...
Afghanistan International: Pakistani customs officials announced the discovery and seizure of a shipment of weapons left behind by US forces in Afghanistan at the Torkham crossing. American media outlet The Media Line wrote that Pakistani officials believe the weapons were supposed to be delivered to militant groups in Pakistan. Click here to read more (externalRead More...
BBC: The government says it is allowing some “eligible” Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside the British military to resettle in the UK, after they were previously rejected. Under the previous government, about 2,000 Afghans who served with specialist units – known at the “Triples” – were denied permission to relocate to the UKRead More...
The Taliban announced in August that it had destroyed over 20,000 musical instruments in Afghanistan in the past year. The extremist group considers instruments un-Islamic and permits only unaccompanied singing. In interviews with RFE/RL, an exiled Afghan musician condemned the move, while the head of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music said, “Music was theRead More...
8am: The fall of Afghanistan to the extremist Taliban was a catastrophe that shattered the dreams and hopes of its people overnight. This group’s rise didn’t just bring suffering to women and girls; it unleashed destruction on the entire population, even impacting the soil and climate of Afghanistan. When asked how the past three yearsRead More...
Ayaz Gul VOA News October 9, 2024 ISLAMABAD — Hardline Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reported Wednesday that nine people, including at least two women, were publicly flogged after being convicted of various crimes, such as adultery. Five of the punishments took place at a sports stadium in Kandahar, capital of the eponymous southern province. Local TalibanRead More...
Afghanistan International: The US State Department spokesperson has said that the US position on the Taliban has not changed and that Washington continues to recognise the group as a “global terrorist organisation”. Matthew Miller said that normalisation of relations with the Taliban is contingent on fundamental changes in the Taliban’s behaviour towards human rights. Recently,Read More...