News
- UN warns of rising food prices due to climate change and energy price hikesThe United Nations reported on Friday that the cost of key foods increased in July as a result of searing heatwaves and ongoing geopolitical instability, which have affected crop yields and global energy prices amid persistent hunger risks in multiple countries. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),… Read more »
- Afghanistan humanitarian crisis has intensified since Taliban’s return to power, rights group reportsHuman Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday reported that in the five years since the Taliban’s resurgence, the group has fostered a hostile environment and spurred one of the world’s worst human rights crises. HRW called on governments around the world to take decisive action as opposed to passively providing condolences,… Read more »
- Rights group warns of increasing food insecurity in AfghanistanHuman Rights Watch on Friday warned of the dangerously deteriorating economic state in Afghanistan. Millions of citizens are at risk of severe hunger due to a sharp decline in international aid and restrictive Taliban policies that target women and hinder humanitarian access. Statistics from the United Nations indicate that 46… Read more »
- UN agencies warn Afghanistan faces one of world’s biggest displacement crisesUN agencies warned on Monday that Afghanistan faces one of the world’s biggest displacement crises. This warning was based on a series of overlapping challenges identified in the country’s latest socioeconomic review by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP chief Alexander De Croo noted, “In Afghanistan, crises rarely happen one… Read more »
- UN rights experts condemn Afghanistan’s Taliban government for arbitrary arrests and excessive use of forceUN rights experts on Thursday condemned the de facto Taliban government in Afghanistan for detaining 30 women for alleged dress code violations and using excessive force against protestors demonstrating against the restrictive dress codes in the city of Herat. The protests concerned “increasingly repressive restrictions” and the detention of multiple… Read more »
- UN Child Rights Committee condemns Afghan decree legitimizing child marriageThe UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Monday condemned Afghanistan’s Taliban government for adopting a new decree that legitimizes child marriage and treats a minor female child’s silence as consent to marriage. The Committee, which is composed of 18 independent child rights experts, expressed further concern that… Read more »
- UN Chief denounces returns of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees as violation of international lawUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday condemned the forced repatriations of refugees and asylum-seekers to Afghanistan by countries in the name of concerns over national security or economic strains, deeming it a clear violation of international human rights law. In emphasizing the urgency of the humanitarian… Read more »
- UNICEF warns Afghanistan restrictions on women’s education deprive nation of skilled professionalsThe UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday that the ongoing restrictions on girls’ education and women’s employment in Afghanistan could result in a shortage of more than 25,000 women teachers and health workers by 2030, urging authorities to lift the ban on secondary education for girls. In a new… Read more »
- Rights group praises Australia arrest of hailed war hero for crimes in AfghanistanHuman Rights Watch on Tuesday welcomed the recent arrest by Australian police of Ben Roberts-Smith, an Australian soldier accused of committing five counts of war crimes in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, as a step towards justice for victims. The arrest comes almost six years after release of the Independent… Read more »
- Taliban must lift ban blocking Afghan women from UN premises, advocates sayA coalition of United Nations experts on Tuesday issued a press release calling for Taliban authorities to immediately lift their ban on Afghan women entering UN premises, calling the policy a clear violation of international law with life-threatening humanitarian consequences. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed… Read more »
Commentary
- Fully Covered, Still Arrested: A Cancer Patient’s Detention Lays Bare the Taliban’s War on WomenIn mid-June, 17-year-old Shakiba* was arrested by the Taliban’s morality police (the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) along with dozens of other women. Her alleged crime was “improper hijab.” Shakiba was fully covered in a chadar namaz—a full-body prayer veil—but she was wearing a little… Read more »
- Between Taliban Bans and Vanishing Aid, the Last Lifeline for Afghan Girls’ Education Is BreakingThis month marked the beginning of the academic year in Afghanistan. Usually it follows immediately after Nowruz, which fell on March 21st this year. But this year, because several festivals—Ramadan, Eid and Nowruz (the beginning of the new year)—came one after another, the Taliban government announced that the school year… Read more »
- The Lionesses of Afghanistan Are Still FightingThere are moments in everyone’s life when it feels as though everything has come to an end—overwhelmed by pressure, stress, and problems. As a woman living in Afghanistan under the systematic violence of the Taliban, I have experienced this deeply. I remember the day my younger sister walked toward school… Read more »
- Why ‘Gender Persecution’ Doesn’t Capture What’s Happening to Afghan WomenIn recent years, several countries—including Croatia, Malta, and others—have recognized femicide as a distinct crime. The Italian government and parliament also took this step, acknowledging that killing a woman solely because of her gender is not just homicide, but a crime rooted in gender-based violence. These legislative shifts are historic… Read more »
- Threads of Resistance: How Afghan Women Are Turning Online Shops Into Lifelines Under Taliban RuleIt was a late September afternoon when I spotted a pair of beautiful earrings on Instagram. Curious, I followed the account’s links to an online shop. Alongside the other items, they offered curated gift packages. When I messaged them, I learned the owner was a young woman. The shop owner,… Read more »
- Between Deportation and the Taliban: Afghan Women’s Impossible Choice“Left out here and driven away from there” — this old Dari proverb describes a person who has been rejected from both sides, meaning they can neither stay in the first place nor be accepted in the second. For 20-year-old Yasna, a young Afghan woman, and hundreds of thousands of… Read more »
- The Durand-Deobandi Nexus: How the Taliban Threatens Pakistan’s SovereigntyPakistan, established in 1947 as a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims, occupies a pivotal position in regional geopolitics, navigating complex relationships with neighboring Afghanistan and global powers. While Pakistan seeks strategic autonomy through cooperative alliances, its most pressing challenge emerges from the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a nation it regards as a… Read more »
- The Internet Is Our Only Light Under Taliban RuleIs this the last time you’ll hear from me? It could be, as the Taliban’s crackdown on all of our rights has extended to internet technology. A ban on fiber optic internet has begun its slow trickle from province to province, and it could be only a matter of time… Read more »
- How the Taliban’s Repression of Women Deepens Afghanistan’s Earthquake TragedyThe earth shook beneath Afghanistan once again, and as rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble, one devastating truth became clear: half our population remains invisible even in our darkest hour. As aftershocks continue to rattle the earthquake-stricken regions, the images and videos emerging from the disaster zone tell a… Read more »
- ‘We Saw Women Die at Home’: Taliban’s Midwife Ban Threatens Rural Afghan Healthcare“I never wanted to study midwifery,” a 20-year-old woman from Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar told me. “But after the university ban, I couldn’t continue to study computer science – the major which was my dream and what I had worked so hard for.” December 20 marked the second anniversary… Read more »
