COAS stresses swift supply of aid to Afghanistan By: APP on January 11, 2022RAWALPINDI: Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday stressed the urgency to swiftly devise an institutional mechanism for channeling humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in order to avert a looming catastrophe in the war-torn country. The COAS said this during a meeting with the military adviser to minister of defence of […]
Taliban issue posters ordering women to cover up By: AFP on January 8, 2022KABUL: The Taliban’s religious police have put up posters around the capital Kabul ordering Afghan women to cover up, an official said on Friday, the latest in a string of creeping restrictions. The poster, which includes an image of the face-covering burqa, was slapped on cafes and shops this week by the Ministry for the […]
Trickle-down misery: How Afghanistan’s asset freeze hurts everyone By: AFP on December 26, 2021KABUL: Afghan businessman Shoaib Barak is struggling to pay his workers and suppliers, unable to access funds from a banking system crippled by the freezing of the nation’s overseas assets. They, in turn, can’t pay their bills — and so the country’s economic woes trickle down and hurt everyone along an unbroken chain of misery. […]
Germany warns of “worst humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan By: AFP on December 24, 2021BERLIN: Germany’s new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, pledged on Thursday to work with international partners to help avert in Afghanistan what she called “the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our time”. Outlining an “action plan” two weeks after taking office, Baerbock said Berlin sought to assure that outside aid reached the neediest Afghans and step up […]
Taliban prepare new Afghan budget without foreign aid By: AFP on December 17, 2021Afghanistan’s finance ministry under the new Taliban government has prepared a draft national budget that, for the first time in two decades, is funded without foreign aid, a spokesman said. It comes as the country is mired in economic crisis and faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe the United Nations has called an “avalanche of hunger”. […]
UN says Taliban behind 72 extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan By: AFP on December 14, 2021The UN said Tuesday it had received credible allegations of over 100 extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in August, with most carried out by the Taliban. United Nations deputy rights chief Nada Al-Nashif said she was deeply alarmed by continuing reports of such killings, despite a general amnesty announced by the […]
Afghans seek help for women back home before it’s too late By: APP on December 11, 2021GOLEM: Women who were evacuated to Albania after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan are urging the international community to pay attention to the plight of Afghan women and girls still living in an environment of severe gender-based discrimination. Some 550 evacuated Afghans are in the Albanian coastal town of Golem, 50 kilometers west […]
‘We’re not giving up’: The radio station for Afghan women By: AFP on December 8, 2021From Taliban-controlled Kabul, Radio Begum is broadcasting the voices of women that have been muted across Afghanistan. Station staff fill the airwaves with programming for women, by women: educational shows, book readings and call-in counselling. For now, they operate with the permission of the hardline Islamists who regained power in August and have limited the […]
US welcomes Taliban’s command on women’s rights By: Web Desk on December 4, 2021KABUL: Reacting to the Taliban government’s command on women’s rights which said women should not be considered “property” and must consent to marriage, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West Saturday said that Washington welcomed the decree recognizing a woman’s right to determine if and whom she marries. A woman is not a property, but […]
Taliban leader decrees Afghan women’s rights must be ‘enforced’ By: AFP on December 3, 2021The Taliban issued a decree Friday in the name of their supreme leader instructing Afghan ministries “to take serious action” on women’s rights but failed to mention girls’ access to schools. The move comes after the Islamists seized power in mid-August and as they seek to restore Afghanistan’s access to billions of dollars in assets and […]