With the sun of 2024 having scattered the last of its rays on Earth, it feels like freedom, independence and justice will soon be engulfed by darkness in Pakistan. Today, we find ourselves mired in a troubling quagmire of lawlessness and a hogtied judicial system. On Dec. 21, military courts in Pakistan sentenced 25 civilians [...]
“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 of the Taliban’s ban on [...]
On December 1, President Joseph Biden announced a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on charges of gun and tax violations, reversing his pledge not to pardon him if convicted. In his statement, the president wrote: Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter … The charges in his cases came about only after [...]
My grandfather told me once I was meant to be the heiress of a family-owned winery. Inside the courthouse gates, the ghosts of unfinished stories sit beside me in the cold, marble-columned silence. My grandfather’s voice echoes in my mind, recounting a spiel riddled with missing pieces about a winery that was never mine — [...]
The sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria marks a turning point for the country, but the path forward will require a carefully managed political transition, accountability for war crimes, and implementation of UN Resolution 2254 to ensure a stable and representative government. The end of an era The fall of Bashar al-Assad was [...]
As the news rolled in, state by battleground state turning from light pink to a deep scarlet, I couldn’t help but sigh and turn the television off. My partner’s cousin from India was in town for the week on a business trip and we quietly discussed the implications of what already seemed to be a [...]
Overview Recent developments in European Union migration and asylum policy have stirred significant political debate and actions among member states. The Netherlands has signaled a potential withdrawal from future treaty modifications in EU migration law. Hungary has supported this sentiment. Concurrently, Germany has intensified border controls amidst rising right-wing political influence, and Italy has temporarily [...]
As the Taliban continues its ever-expanding efforts to keep women and girls out of the public eye, one Afghan woman is leveraging her business acumen to challenge the new status quo. In late August, the Taliban issued a new law restricting women’s voices and faces in public spaces, the latest steps in their ongoing campaign [...]
In June, Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, called for an “all tools” approach to challenge and dismantle the Taliban’s institutionalized system of gender oppression and hold those responsible accountable in his report to the Human Rights Council. Despite international efforts and pressure on the Taliban to reverse [...]
On Tuesday, the Taliban-run Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan (MFA) announced a decision to sever ties with its diplomatic missions in several European countries and Australia. This unprecedented move marks a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s contemporary diplomatic history and presents significant implications for the nation’s position within the global community. However, it appears that [...]
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