When the U.S. government started formally negotiating with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, in 2019, Tamana Ayazi was concerned the process excluded prevalent fears of Afghan women that a Taliban return to power would deprive them of their basic human rights. A filmmaker, Ayazi, decided to tell the world what was at stake for Afghan women through a documentary centered […]
Tag: Afghanistan
Millions Of Afghans Facing Catastrophic Hunger
A top U.N. official in Afghanistan said Monday that millions of Afghans are on the brink of starvation as winter approaches and humanitarian funding is running low. “The situation can be best described as pure catastrophe,” U.N. deputy special representative and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov told reporters via video from Kabul. He said 19 million people are food […]
UN Rights Council: Taliban Seek To Erase Women, Girls From Public Life
GENEVA — Delegates attending an urgent debate at the U.N. Human Rights Council on the status of women and girls in Afghanistan are urging the international community to exert maximum pressure on the Taliban. In opening Friday’s debate, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet accused the Taliban of systematic oppression and of the exclusion of women and girls from public life […]
Taliban Call For Unfreezing Of Bank Funds After Deadly Earthquake
Aid groups said that, in the past, Taliban authorities tried to divert aid to areas and people that supported their views. Afghanistan’s Taliban administration has called on international governments to roll back sanctions and lift a freeze on the country’s central bank assets as the country deals with the aftermath of an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and […]
Taliban Say U.S. Is ‘Biggest Hurdle’ To Diplomatic Recognition
ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban have alleged the United States is blocking their way to securing international recognition for the Islamist group’s new government in Kabul. The insurgent-turned-ruling group seized power last August and installed an all-male interim administration following the end of almost 20 years of U.S.-led foreign military intervention in the war-torn South Asian country. “As far as recognition by […]
Afghanistan’s Female TV Presenters Bow To Taliban Demand
Days after the Taliban’s latest order, women presenters on Afghanistan’s top news channels went on air on Sunday with their faces covered. On Saturday, many of the news anchors had reportedly defied the edict to conceal their appearance on TV but their employers had come under pressure. After seizing power last year, the Taliban have increasingly imposed restrictions on women’s […]
Afghan Taliban Tells Women TV Presenters — Cover Your Faces
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have reportedly ordered female presenters on TV channels to cover their faces on air, the country’s biggest media outlet said Thursday. The order came in a statement from the Taliban’s Virtue and Vice Ministry, tasked with enforcing the group’s rulings, as well as from the Information and Culture Ministry, the TOLOnews channel said in a tweet. The […]
Taliban Orders Afghan Women To Cover Their Faces In Public
The move is one of the harshest restrictions imposed on Afghanistan’s women since the Taliban seized power last year. Afghanistan’s supreme leader has ordered the country’s women to cover their faces in public – one of the harshest restrictions imposed on them since the Taliban seized power last year and an escalation of growing restrictions on women that are drawing […]
Afghan Public Universities Reopen With Gender Segregated Classes
Universities have reopened six months after Taliban returned to power, but only a trickle of women have returned to classrooms. Afghanistan’s main universities have reopened six months after the Taliban returned to power, but only a trickle of women have returned to now-segregated classes. Most secondary schools for girls and all public universities were shuttered following the Taliban’s August 15 takeover, […]
Rep. Michael McCaul — The U.S. Must Project Strength
Photo credit: Ed Schipul Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has argued that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has emboldened Russia in its ongoing conflict with Ukraine. In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, McCaul told host Jake Tapper the key to preventing a Russian invasion into Ukraine is deterrence. “But I’m not seeing a lot of deterrence,” McCaul said. […]