Tag: Taliban

  • Taliban Suspends University Education For Afghanistan Women

    Taliban Suspends University Education For Afghanistan Women

    Afghanistan’s Taliban-run education ministry has suspended university education for female students until further notice.

    A letter published Tuesday, Dec. 20, by the higher education ministry instructed Afghan public and private universities to suspend access to female students immediately, in accordance with a Cabinet decision.

    This comes after girls were barred from returning to secondary schools in March, after the Taliban ordered schools for girls to shut just hours after they were due to reopen following months long closures imposed after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

    The announcement banning university education for women by the Taliban came as the United Nations Security Council met in New York on Afghanistan.

    Foreign governments have said that a change in policies on women’s education is needed before it can consider formally recognising the Taliban-run administration, which is also subject to heavy sanctions.

    “The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedom of women and girls,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood told the council, describing the move as “absolutely indefensible.”

    Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the suspension was “another egregious curtailment of women’s rights and a deep and profound disappointment for every single female student.”

    “It is also another step by the Taliban away from a self-reliant and prosperous Afghanistan,” she told the council.

  • Taliban Declares Afghanistan Islamic Emirate, Forms All-Male Government

    Taliban Declares Afghanistan Islamic Emirate, Forms All-Male Government

    The Taliban has declared Afghanistan an “Islamic Emirate”, and formed a new government to be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund.

    Akhund is one of the founders of the group, which took control of Afghanistan mid-August.

    “We know the people of our country have been waiting for a new government,” Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, said while unveiling the cabinet.

    Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the deputy leader and Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network, has been named as interior minister.

    Baradar was previously head of the Taliban’s political office, and oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement last year.

    The new interior minister is on the FBI wanted list as he the leader of the Haqqani militant group, who are affiliated with the Taliban and have been behind some of the deadliest attacks in the country’s two-decade-long war.

    Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar, is the Defence Minister, while Hedayatullah Badri is the acting Minister of Finance.

    Amir Khan Muttaqi as acting foreign minister, and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi as two deputies.

    The Taliban took full control of the after President Ashraf Ghani fled to avoid being captured.

    Ghani is currently in United Arabs Emirate where he is seeking assylum.

  • Taliban Warns Of Consequences If US Delay Troops Removal in Afghanistan

    Taliban Warns Of Consequences If US Delay Troops Removal in Afghanistan

    The Taliban warned on Monday there would be “consequences” if the United States and its allies extend the presence of troops in Afghanistan beyond next week, as chaos continued to overwhelm Kabul airport.

    The rapid fall of the country to the hardliners last weekend shocked Western nations, coming just two weeks before an August 31 deadline for all troops to fully withdraw from the country.

    Instead, thousands of soldiers have poured back in to manage the frantic airlifting of foreigners and Afghans — many who fear reprisals for working with Western nations — out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

    “If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News on Monday.

    Staying beyond the agreed deadline would be “extending occupation”, he added.

    The rush to leave Kabul has sparked harrowing scenes and killed at least eight people, some crushed to death while at least one person died after falling from a moving plane.

    One Afghan was killed and three others were injured in a dawn firefight on Monday that according to the German military erupted between Afghan guards and unknown assailants.

    German and American troops “participated in further exchange of fire”, the German army said in a statement.

    The Taliban, infamous for an ultra-strict interpretation of sharia law during their initial 1996-2001 rule, have repeatedly vowed a softer version this time.

    – Impossible to meet deadline –

    The Taliban’s victory ended two decades of war, as they took advantage of US President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the country and end America’s longest war.

    Biden has insisted he wants to end the US military presence and the airlifts by August 31.

    But with the European Union and Britain saying it would be impossible to get everyone out by then, Biden is under pressure to extend the deadline.

    Speaking at the White House on Sunday, Biden said talks were under way to explore the possibility of extending the deadline.

    He also acknowledged the tragic scenes at the airport, which have also included babies and children being passed to soldiers over razor-wire fences and men clinging to the outside of departing planes.

    But he said they were part of the cost of departure.

    “There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss and heartbreaking images you see,” he said.

    – ‘Peace and calm’ –

    Biden spoke after the Taliban, who have been holding talks with elders and politicians to set up a government, slammed the evacuation.

    “America, with all its power and facilities… has failed to bring order to the airport,” Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi said.

    “There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport.”

    In the streets of the capital, the Taliban have indeed enforced a calm of a kind, with their armed forces patrolling the streets and manning checkpoints.

    Visually, they have also been looking to stamp their authority, ensuring the tri-coloured national flag is replaced with their white banner.

    At a roadside in Kabul at the weekend, young men sold Taliban flags, which bear in black text the Muslim proclamation of faith and the regime’s formal name: “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”.

    “Our goal is to spread the flag of the Islamic Emirate throughout Afghanistan,” said seller Ahmad Shakib, who studies economics at university.

    – Resistance –

    Outside of Kabul, there have been flickers of resistance against the Taliban.

    Some ex-government troops have gathered in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital — long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.

    The Taliban said Monday their fighters had surrounded resistance forces holed up in the valley, but were looking to negotiate rather than take the fight to them.

    Taliban fighters “are stationed near Panjshir”, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted, saying they had the area surrounded on three sides.

    “The Islamic Emirate is trying to resolve this issue peacefully,” he added.

    The announcement follows scattered reports of clashes overnight, with pro-Taliban social media accounts claiming gunmen were massing, and Afghanistan’s former vice president Amrullah Saleh saying resistance forces were holding strong.

    One of the leaders of the movement in Panjshir, named the National Resistance Front, is the son of famed anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

    The NRF is prepared for a “long-term conflict” but is also still seeking to negotiate with the Taliban about an inclusive government, its spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP in an interview on the weekend.

    “The conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban are decentralisation, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights, and freedom for all,” he said.

  • Taliban Renames country to ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’

    Taliban Renames country to ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’

    The Taliban has renamed Afghanistan the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ after its fighters swept into the capital, Kabul, a bustling metropolis of six million that has turned into a male-dominated city without police or traffic controls.

    Aljazeera reports that scores of Afghans ran alongside a US military plane as it taxied on the runway and several clung to the side as the jet took off with Senior US military officials confirming to Aljazeera that the chaos left seven dead, as well as several who fell from the flight.

    According to AP, the Taliban, a militant group that ran the country in the late 1990s, have again taken control.

    The US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 ousted the insurgents from power, but they never left.

    After they blitzed across the country in recent days, the Western-backed government that has run the country for 20 years collapsed.

    CNN reports that hundreds of people poured onto the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport, desperately seeking a route out of Afghanistan on Monday after the Taliban’s sudden seizure of power sparked a chaotic Western withdrawal and brought to a crashing end the United States’ two-decade mission in the country.

    Meanwhile, at a special session of the UN Security Council in New York, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, urged Taliban to show “the utmost restraint to protect lives” and demanded that anyone who wanted to leave the country must be able to do so.

    US President Joe Biden also received a briefing by top security officials on the situation in Afghanistan, the White House said.

    “This morning, the President was briefed by his national security team, including the Secretary of Defense and Chairman Milley, on the security situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, and ongoing efforts to safely evacuate American citizens, US Embassy personnel and local staff, SIV (special immigrant visa) applicants and their families, and other vulnerable Afghans,” it said in a statement.

  • Afghanistan opens harmony summit in the midst of chats with U.S., Taliban

    Afghanistan opens harmony summit in the midst of chats with U.S., Taliban

    By Jennifer Y Omiloli

    In excess of 3,200 agents opened Afghanistan’s excellent committee Monday as pioneers all through the nation would like to discover some agreement on harmony exchanges with the Taliban.

    The four-day summit, called the Grand Consultative Jirga on Peace, confronted a blacklist by some Afghan ideological groups, however Umer Daudzai, an extraordinary emissary for President Ashraf Ghani, said each region was spoken to. The Taliban had approached Afghans to blacklist the summit also.

    Daudzai said Afghan displaced people from Iran and Pakistan went to the summit alongside 300 visitors.

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    Previous Afghan President Hamid Karzai had asked Ghani to defer the occasion over feelings of trepidation it could moderate dealings. The Taliban, the Afghan government and U.S. arbitrators have been secured complex exchanges for quite a long time over a conceivable withdrawal of U.S. powers, which have been in the Middle Eastern country since late 2001.

    A month ago, the U.S. furthermore, the Taliban achieved a draft concession to counter-psychological oppression confirmations and troop withdrawal however pushed the aggressor gathering to consult with the U.S.- upheld Afghan government. The Taliban so far has opposed arranging straightforwardly with Ghani’s organization.

    Ghani said Afghanistan has paid a cost after almost two many years of war to have a state all the while.

    “It is a need to hear from around the country about the price of war,” Ghani said Sunday. “Peace cannot be achieved in one day and the government has provided the ground for it. Peace belongs to the nation and it will be ensured, there, we all should surrender to the will and demand of the people.”