Afghanistan: Women set up secret businesses to escape Taliban bans
Women in Afghanistan are turning to home-based jobs and set up clandestine businesses to get around Taliban curbs on their freedom. BAHAAR JOYA and EMMA BATHA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, report…
Afghan Taliban celebrate return to power two years on amid erosion of women’s rights
Kabul, AfghanistanReuters Afghanistan’s Taliban marked the second anniversary of their return to power on Tuesday, celebrating their takeover of Kabul and the establishment of what they said was security throughout the country under an Islamic system. After a lightning offensive as US-led foreign forces were withdrawing after 20 years of inconclusive war, the Taliban entered […]
Essay: Two years after Taliban takeover – why Afghanistan still poses a threat to the region and beyond
In an article first published on The Conversation, STEFAN WOLFF, professor of international security at the University of Birmingham, says two years of Taliban rule have seen the regime in Kabul do little to assuage concerns over security…
Work ban: Shut out of jobs, Afghan women retrain as nurses
With Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers banning women from most jobs, BAHAAR JOYA and EMMA BATHA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, report that some are turning to nursing and midwifery as a way to keep working…
Beauty salon ban in Afghanistan a blow to women’s financial freedom
Kabul, AfghanistanReuters For the last eight years, Marzia Reyazee has supported her family with the earnings from her female-only beauty salon in Afghanistan, a business she spent more than $US18,000 setting up. But the 34-year-old mother of two is likely to find herself without her business, and with few other prospects for a livelihood, when […]
Taliban administration orders beauty salons in Afghanistan to close
Kabul, AfghanistanReuters The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has ordered beauty salons to close within a month, the morality ministry said, in the latest shrinking of access to public places for Afghan women. “The deadline for the closing of beauty parlours for women is one month,” Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesperson for the Ministry for the […]
Over 1,000 Afghan civilians killed in blasts, violence since August 2021 – UN
Reuters Over a thousand Afghan civilians were killed in bombings and other violence since foreign forces left and the Taliban took over in 2021, according to a report by the UN’s mission to Afghanistan released on Tuesday. Between 15th August, 2021, and May this year 1,095 civilians were killed and 2,679 wounded, according to the […]
Aid group NRC resumes work with female staff in Taliban heartland
United NationsReuters An international aid agency in Afghanistan has resumed operations in the southern province of Kandahar – the birthplace of the Taliban and home to its supreme spiritual leader – after its Afghan female staff were allowed to return to work. The move comes after Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland told Reuters […]
Key aid group says Taliban signals exemption for women in southern heartland
United NationsReuters An international aid agency in Afghanistan hopes to have an interim arrangement within days to allow its Afghan female staff to return to work in the southern province of Kandahar – the birthplace of the Taliban and home to the supreme spiritual leader. Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland spokes to Reuters […]
UK-based group documents rights abuses since Taliban takeover of Afghanistan with ‘witness map’
Islamabad, PakistanAP A UK-based rights group on Thursday launched an interactive map documenting rampant human rights abuses and violence against civilians since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan nearly two years ago. The documented violations – committed by both the Taliban and militant groups such as the Islamic State group – paint a harrowing picture […]