Category Archives: Taliban

Taliban bans contraception calling use a ‘western conspiracy’

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Reports that fighters have threatened those issuing birth control medicines come as Afghan midwives and activists warn of impact on women’s health and rights

Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan’s main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population.

The Guardian has learned that the Taliban has been going door to door, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to clear their shelves of all birth control medicines and devices.

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North-west Pakistan in grip of deadly Taliban resurgence

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Misguided government efforts to rehabilitate militants have helped fuel recent terrorist activity

The bomber struck shortly before afternoon prayers, when the mosque in Peshawar’s bustling Police Lines district would be at its busiest. Hundreds of people, including many police officers, were inside as the device detonated, creating a blast so strong the roof and wall collapsed and 100 people were killed.

The attack on Monday was among the worst in years to hit Peshawar, a city in north-west Pakistan that has been ravaged relentlessly by deadly terrorist violence over decades. Hours after the attack, responsibility was claimed by a low-level commander from one faction of the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as revenge for the death of a fighter in Afghanistan.

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Twitter ‘verified’ check marks bought by Taliban appear to have been removed

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Afghanistan’s hardline Islamist rulers had never carried a verification tick mark before the launch of Twitter Blue

Twitter account verifications bought by the Taliban appear to have been removed, after many expressed outrage that the social media platform had given its blue check marks to Afghanistan’s hardline Islamist rulers.

Twitter previously only gave blue “verified” check marks to accounts that were considered “active, notable and authentic accounts of public interest”. But since Elon Musk acquired the platform last year, users can buy them from the Twitter Blue service for a fee – an option at least two officials of the Taliban government in Afghanistan had exercised.

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Former Afghan MP Mursal Nabizada shot dead in Kabul

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Bodyguard also killed at home of one of few female parliamentarians who stayed in Kabul after Taliban takeover

A former Afghan MP and her bodyguard have been shot dead by unknown assailants at her home in the capital, Kabul, police have said.

Mursal Nabizada was among the few female parliamentarians who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. It is the first time an MP from the previous administration has been killed in the city since the takeover.

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British Council workers in Afghanistan step closer to UK relocation

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Minister speaks of ‘progress’ on security checks, but Foreign Office clarifies no green light yet for contractors

A group of 47 British Council contractors forced to live in hiding since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have cleared the penultimate hurdle for being accepted on to a scheme designed to relocate them in the UK.

The group was said to have passed security checks and been invited to provide biometrics at a visa centre, after which they would have to have a final set of security checks.

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Army veterans criticise Prince Harry’s claim he killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan

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Col Tim Collins says ‘we don’t do notches on rifle butt’ and kill-count talk could increase Harry’s personal security risk

High-profile British veterans have criticised the Duke of Sussex’s claim he had killed 25 Taliban soldiers while serving with the British army in Afghanistan and warned the high-profile admission could increase the risk to his personal security.

The retired army veteran Col Tim Collins, best known for delivering a rousing speech before the start of the Iraq war in 2003, said the prince’s kill-count talk was crass and “we don’t do notches on the rifle butt”.

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Afghan aid at risk from Taliban ban on women, warns United Nations

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Standoff between UN and Taliban may lead loss of billions in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan

The UN’s lead humanitarian coordinator has said UN-supplied aid cannot continue if the Taliban do not lift their ban on women working for humanitarian aid agencies in Afghanistan.

Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is due to visit Kabul shortly to discuss the impasse.

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UN suspends some Afghanistan programs after ban on female aid workers

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Many humanitarian activities ‘paused’ as Taliban decision to bar women NGO workers prevents vital services across the country

The United Nations said that some “time-critical” programs in Afghanistan have temporarily stopped and warned many other activities will also likely need to be paused because of a ban by the Taliban-led administration on women aid workers.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths, the heads of UN agencies and several aid groups said in a joint statement on Wednesday that women’s “participation in aid delivery is not negotiable and must continue”, calling on authorities to reverse the decision.

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Faint hopes that Taliban will relax ban on NGO women after UN condemnation

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Security council’s rare display of unity adds pressure after most aid groups in Afghanistan suspend services

Faint hopes exist that the Taliban may relax its ban on all women working for the non-governmental aid agencies in Afghanistan after the UN security council condemned the ban in a rare show of unanimity.

Almost all the large NGO aid agencies operating in Afghanistan have suspended almost all their work while talks continue to persuade the Taliban to rescind or clarify their decision. Tens of thousands of aid workers – many of them the chief breadwinners for the household – have been told to stay at home during the suspension, as the UN seeks to persuade the Taliban of the consequences for ordinary people in Afghanistan.

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UN Afghanistan head meets Taliban over ban on female aid workers

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At least seven international NGOs have suspended aid, saying they cannot work without female staff

The acting head of the UN mission in Afghanistan met Taliban leaders on Monday in a bid to persuade them to withdraw their ban on all women working for aid agencies.

Ramiz Alakbarov met the Taliban’s economy minister, Din Mohammad Hanif, in Kabul, telling him that millions of Afghans need “humanitarian assistance and removing barriers is vital”.

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Taliban stop women from working for aid organisations

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Female employees of NGOs told to stop coming to work in latest move to curtail women’s freedoms in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration has ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to stop female employees from coming to work, according to a letter from the economy ministry.

The letter, the contents of which were confirmed by economy ministry spokesperson Abdulrahman Habib, said female employees of NGOs were not allowed to work until further notice.

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Taliban minister defends closing universities to women as global backlash grows

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Neda Mohammad Nadeem says ban was necessary to prevent mixing of genders as rare protests break out

The minister of higher education in Afghanistan’s Taliban government has defended his decision to ban women from universities – a decree that triggered a global backlash and protests inside the country.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration announced earlier this week it had closed universities to women partly due to female students not adhering to its interpretation of the Islamic dress code and interaction between students of different genders.

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Taliban ban Afghan women from university education

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Higher education ministry issues indefinite order three months after thousands sat entrance exams

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered an indefinite ban on university education for the country’s women, the ministry of higher education said in a letter issued to all government and private universities.

“You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” said the letter signed by the minister for higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.

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Taliban prisoners in Pakistan overpower guards and take hostages

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Counter-terrorism officer killed after militants seize compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

Taliban detainees overpowered their guards at a counter-terrorism centre in north-western Pakistan overnight, snatching police weapons, taking hostages and seizing control of the facility.

The incident quickly evolved into a standoff. Pakistani officials later confirmed that one counter-terrorism officer had been killed during the militants’ takeover at the detention centre in Bannu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and part of a former tribal region.

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Australia urged to offer asylum to Afghan women in ‘grave danger’ from Taliban

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Women facing deportation as Pakistan moves to expel refugees will be targeted by Taliban, crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie says

The Australian government is being urged to offer asylum to Afghan women targeted by the Taliban, as Pakistan moves to expel refugees by the end of the month.

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, working with crossbench support from across the parliament, has written to immigration minister Andrew Giles and home affairs minister Clare O’Neil, urging the government to act and bring the women to safety.

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Taliban carry out first public execution since taking over Afghanistan

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Man accused of fatal stabbing in 2017 executed by victim’s father before senior officials

The Taliban put to death a man accused of murder in western Afghanistan, its spokesperson said on Wednesday, in the first officially confirmed public execution since the group took over the country last year.

The execution in western Farah province was of a man accused of fatally stabbing another man in 2017, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said, and was attended by senior officials of the group.

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Revealed: UK has failed to resettle Afghans facing torture and death despite promise

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Those who risked their lives helping British government face a ‘toxic combination of incompetence and indifference’

Afghan nationals who were promised resettlement to the UK nearly a year ago are facing torture and death while they wait for a response from the British government, the Observer can reveal.

Not one person has been accepted and evacuated from Afghanistan under the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS), launched in January, prompting claims that ministers are showing a “toxic combination of incompetence and indifference”. The scheme was intended to help Afghans who worked for, or were affiliated with, the British government – including its embassy staff and British Council teachers – and all of whom face severe harm at the hands of the Taliban.

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UK aid to Afghanistan entrenched corruption and injustice, report finds

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Government watchdog says £3.5bn aid in 20 years to 2020 failed to achieve aim of stabilising Afghan government

The UK’s £3.5bn aid to Afghanistan between 2000 and 2020 was implicated in corruption and human rights abuses and failed to achieve its primary objective of stabilising the country’s government, an assessment by the UK government’s aid watchdog has found.

Describing the two-decade aid project as the UK’s single most ambitious programme of state building, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) says decisions to spend aid on counterinsurgency operations were flawed, adding that efforts to reduce gender inequality are likely to be wiped out by the Taliban.

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Pakistan summons US envoy over Joe Biden’s ‘most dangerous nation’ remark

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US president questioned country’s nuclear weapons safety protocols sparking outrage in Islamabad

Pakistan on Saturday summoned the US ambassador for an explanation after President Joe Biden described the south Asian country as “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” and questioned its nuclear weapons safety protocols.

Biden made the apparently off-the-cuff remark late on Thursday while talking about US foreign policy during a private Democratic party fundraiser in California, but the White House later published a transcript of his comments, which provoked outrage in Pakistan.

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Taliban release American engineer Mark Frerichs in prisoner swap

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Navy veteran exchanged for Bashir Noorzai, who had been held in US since 2005 on drugs charges

The Taliban have freed an American engineer in exchange for an Afghan tribal leader linked to the group whom the US had held on drugs charges since 2005.

Mark Frerichs was exchanged at Kabul airport for Bashir Noorzai, the acting Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, told a news conference in the Afghan capital.

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