KABUL — More than two years after Taliban fighters streamed into the Afghan capital, seizing power here and vowing to cleanse the country of Western decadence, many of them have come to embrace the benefits of urban life. Some spend their weekends in the city’s theme parks. Some watch cricket matches on large outdoor screens. Others are filling their Facebook pages with skyline selfies or buying self-help books published in the West. Most mornings, Kabul’s English schools are crowded with Taliban soldiers and employees in camouflage jackets, who appear as eager as other students to study abroad. As the Taliban continues to change Kabul, some here have started to wonder if the city may also have begun to remake the Taliban. “In many ways, they’ve been transformed,” said Abdulrahman Rahmani, 50, a former fighter who helped the Taliban conquer Kabul in 1996 and then again in 2021, speaking during a recent visit to Kabul’s zoo to see the lions. Some of the Taliban fighters now regret the material success they sacrificed to wage their armed campaign. Just the other day, Rahmani recalled, another Taliban soldier told him he was sad because he and his brother had given up their schooling. “If we had studied, we’d be sitting in offices now,” he told Rahmani. There are no signs that these changes have resulted in a softening of the Taliban’s repressive policies, in particular the campaign against women’s rights. And no doubt, for many of the fighters who in 2021 sped into the Afghan capital on the backs of pickup trucks, this city of about 5 million people is a disappointment. They say urban life is lonelier, more stressful and less religious than they had imagined. Some of the Taliban fighters had grown up here before departing for rural Afghanistan to join the insurgency. Others never left and supported the Taliban as informants. But for most of the men who overtook the Afghan capital, the city’s bright lights were unfamiliar, and Kabul posed a challenge full of seductions. ### Land Cruisers and computer classes Rahmani dreams that one day Kabul will become the Afghan equivalent of Dubai, the glitzy commercial hub in the United Arab Emirates. “Once the economic problems are solved, things will change massively,” he said. Some Taliban members are already developing expensive taste. While officials in the new government initially went shopping for motorbikes, they are now increasingly interested in shiny Land Cruisers, vendors say. City life already appears to have left a mark on Taliban soldier Abdul Mobin Mansor, 19, and his comrades. They agree that reliable internet access, for one, is of increasing importance to them. They say they have gotten hooked on several television series that are best consumed in high definition. Their favorites are Turkish crime drama “Valley of the Wolves” and “Jumong,” a South Korean historical series about a prince who must conquer far-flung lands. Mansor said he still prefers the countryside, where he might eventually return. “But I very much hope that there will be electricity and other modern facilities by then,” he said. Some soldiers, like Hassam Khan, 35, say they can hardly imagine having to move back. Khan said he initially struggled to adapt to the city. He said he felt that Kabul residents feared him, and his eyes hurt when he stared at a computer for too long. But access to electricity, water, English classes and computer science lessons have changed his mind. “I like this life,” he said. Some Afghans who had opposed the Taliban takeover say they have noticed a difference, too. Tariq Ahmad Amarkhail, a 20-year-old glasses vendor, said he has a growing feeling that the Taliban “is trying to adopt our lifestyle.” “They came from the mountains, couldn’t understand our language and didn’t know anything about our culture,” said Amarkhail. When they arrived, he said, they condemned jeans and other Western clothes and destroyed musical instruments. But when Amarkhail and his friends recently drove up to security checkpoints with music playing inside the cars, Taliban soldiers simply waved them through, he said. While Western civilian clothes have become a rare sight on Kabul’s streets, some residents were surprised to see the Taliban embrace military uniforms that bear striking similarities with those worn by their former enemies. In interviews, over half a dozen younger and older regime employees cited access to education as a primary reward for their struggles. “When we conquered Kabul, we vowed to become a better version of ourselves,” said Laal Mohammad Zakir, 25, a Taliban sympathizer who became a Finance Ministry employee. He said he had signed up for an intensive English course to be able to study abroad one day. Not all are tempted by the big city. Zabihullah Misbah and his friend Ahmadzai Fatih, both 25, were among the first fighters to rush into Kabul in 2021. Misbah still primarily associates Kabul with “bad things” such as adultery. “You’re more connected to God when you’re in the village,” he said. With fewer distractions there, “one is mostly busy with praying.” Social bonds in villages are tighter, Misbah said, and life there feels less lonely. “When you pursue jihad, it puts you at ease,” said Fatih. “But when we arrived here, we could not find peace.” While many Afghans fled Kabul during the Taliban takeover, it has turned back into the congested capital it once was. It can take hours to cross the smoggy city from one side to the other. Mansor and his friends acknowledged that the toxic air and the separation from their families in rural Afghanistan are making them reconsider city life. “Those who brought their families here are happier than we are,” said Mansor, who has yet to find a wife. Rent in the city is expensive and apartments too small, he said. When the Taliban’s soldiers need an escape, they climb a hill in the center of Kabul, where the new regime has installed a gigantic Islamic Emirate flag, or they head to the Qargha Reservoir on the city’s outskirts, where they snack on pistachios in their pickup trucks. ### Looking for signs of moderation Kabul residents who fearfully watched the Taliban arrive in 2021 said they hope that the number of former fighters who are embracing big-city life will outweigh those who are repulsed by it and the Taliban will become more moderate. Many women say they haven’t noticed such an evolution. Universities remain closed to them, and girls above grade six are barred from school. From the secluded city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s top leadership has turned Afghanistan into the world’s most repressive country for women, the United Nations says. “The Taliban won’t change,” said Roqya, 25. Sales in her women’s clothing market stall dropped abruptly last month after the Taliban-run Ministry of Vice and Virtue temporarily detained women over dress code violations, she said. “None of the girls dared to go outside alone anymore,” said Roqya, who completed a bachelor’s degree in physics just before the takeover. When no one is looking, she still reads science books behind her counter. ### Glitzy plans for the capital The Taliban has big plans for postwar reconstruction, but restrictions on women could become the primary obstacle. Many foreign donors have abandoned the country in protest during the past 2½ years. Private investors remain scarce. Could the lure of expensive skyscrapers, imposing new mosques and pothole-free roads eventually push the Taliban to compromise, as some Afghans hope? In recent months, the Taliban has moved ahead with plans to resume work on a model city on the outskirts of Kabul, which was first conceived more than a decade ago under the previous U.S.-backed government but was never built. “We will name it Kabul New City,” said Hamdullah Nomani, the Taliban-run government’s minister of urban development. Construction executive Moqadam Amin, 57, said early discussions between his company and the new government suggested that the Taliban wanted a less ambitious project with lower-cost housing options. But the Taliban now appears to have thrown its backing behind the glitzy original plans, which envision the construction of high-rise buildings, schools, universities, pools, parks and shopping malls. If Kabul’s “New City” is ever finished, its construction may take decades. For now, the designated property is accessible only on makeshift roads, lined by brick-stone factories and lone real estate agents who sit on carpets in the sand.

KABUL — During the Taliban’s first stint in power in the 1990s, its disdain for many sports meant that Kabul’s main stadium drew some of its biggest crowds on the days it was used for public executions. But since seizing control in Kabul a second time in 2021, the Taliban has turned to making Afghanistan into a global cricketing power, with ambitious plans for a state-of-the-art cricket stadium that could host international matches. The men’s national team was already on the rise before the takeover but has continued to thrive under the new regime, defying expectations and scoring stunning upsets in international play. Privately funded cricket academies have seen a surge in the number of new players. Cricket’s appeal to the Taliban may be partly rooted in the sport’s long-standing popularity in ethnic Pashtun communities, where the Taliban has traditionally drawn its strongest support. But as cricket’s reach expands across ethnic lines, the regime may also view the sport as useful. “Cricket brings the country together,” said Abdul Ghafar Farooq, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue. Within days of the takeover in August 2021, Anas Haqqani, the influential younger brother of the Taliban’s interior minister, visited the Afghan cricket board to demonstrate the new government’s support for the sport. Haqqani, a cricket fan who recently injured his foot while playing volleyball, said Taliban soldiers would have made excellent cricket stars. “If we hadn’t waged a war, many of us would be on the national team now,” he said in a rare interview. “The future of cricket here is very bright.” Taliban soldiers and other spectators closely followed the Cricket World Cup last fall in India, gathering to watch on large screens in parks, at male salons at wedding venues and in television shops. Cheering on their team as it delivered shocking victories against England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, some Taliban soldiers fired celebratory shots into the sky. “People don’t have anything to enjoy in Afghanistan, but cricket gives us happiness,” said Mohammad Gul Ahmadzai, 48, who used to watch soccer matches on the television in his travel agency in central Kabul until the broadcasts became less frequent. Although global soccer is dominated by teams that are often awash in money, he said, the smaller number of serious international competitors in cricket gives Afghans a more realistic chance of winning. Others say Afghanistan’s cricket frenzy is primarily fed by desperation. Farhard Amirzai, 17, said he and his friends have come to view a professional cricket career as the only path out of poverty. After the Taliban took power, boys “lost interest in education,” said Amirzai, who spends much of his time practicing on a barren field in Kabul with a makeshift tape-covered cricket ball. “Young people think that even if they graduate from school or university, they won’t find a good job under the current government. So, they try their luck with cricket.” Even though cricket academies have seen a spike in sign-ups since the Taliban took over, most young Afghans, including Amirzai, cannot afford them. Taliban soldier Abdul Mobin Mansor would love to join, too, but the 19-year-old said his job leaves him little time. He has wanted to become a national team player ever since he and his comrades — still waging the armed rebellion and hiding in caves at the time — started following the sport on battery-powered radios, he said. And for Afghan women, there is no chance at all. One of the Taliban-run government’s first actions after the takeover was to ban women from playing sports, reintroducing the policy the movement had put in place when it previously held power and shattering female athletes’ dreams. Believed to have been invented in England in the 16th century, cricket was one of the British Empire’s most popular cultural exports. By the early 20th century, the sport thrived in Australia, British India — which includes what is today India, Pakistan and Bangladesh — and other places in the region. But it was slow to catch on in Afghanistan, where the national sport remained buzkashi, an equestrian game in which horsemen try to score a goal with a carcass, traditionally that of a goat or calf but now almost always fake. Cricket’s fortunes began to change here after the 1979 Soviet invasion forced millions to flee to Pakistan. The sport rapidly caught on in northwestern Pakistan’s Afghan refugee camps, which were primarily home to Pashtuns. The sport later found its way to Kabul when some Afghans returned in the late 1990s during the Taliban’s first time in power. Among the first Afghan cricket players was Allah Dad Noori, then the national team’s captain. In an interview, Noori said he initially worried that the Taliban would not allow cricket. But his family’s ties to the regime may have helped convince them. “My brother-in-law, who later spent time in Guantánamo, had already told the Taliban about me,” Noori recalled. “He said to them, ‘This man is the greatest cricketer, and if you capture Kabul you should approve cricket.’” When British businessman Stuart Bentham arrived in Kabul a couple of years later, he became one of the first foreigners to attend an Afghan cricket match, held in the same Kabul stadium that the Taliban was using for executions. At the time, the Taliban had soccer players’ heads shaved as punishment for wearing shorts. The long trousers of cricket players may have raised fewer religious concerns, Bentham said, but cricket’s popularity in neighboring Pakistan probably also played a role in the Taliban desire to promote the sport. “Pakistan had a lot of influence over the Taliban at that time,” he said. ### Plight of female athletes The Afghan team’s importance to the Taliban has begun to prompt uncomfortable questions abroad. Australia’s national cricket team announced early last year that it would boycott matches against Afghanistan to protest the Taliban’s repression of girls and women. But during the Cricket World Cup, the Australians rescinded the boycott, disappointing many Afghan women and others. Weeda Omari, 35, said she hopes no foreign team would agree to play in a Kabul stadium under the Taliban. Omari used to work as a women’s sports coordinator for Kabul’s municipality until her team of colleagues was disbanded within days of the takeover. She has since fled the country, but 80 percent of the female athletes whom she supervised are still in Afghanistan. “Their families accuse them of having drawn the Taliban’s ire by becoming athletes, and now they’re being pushed to marry,” said Omari. “Many call me to cry.” Even though the Taliban-run government remains internationally isolated and under heavy sanctions, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s cricket board said it was recently granted about $16 million from the Dubai-based International Cricket Council, [with media reports](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2023/11/21/future-of-cricket-odi-icc-world-cup-india-final-england-australia-future-tours-associate-teams) suggesting that Afghan cricket can expect to receive similar annual contributions in coming years. In a statement, the ICC said it “will not penalise the \[Afghanistan Cricket Board\], or its players for abiding by the laws set by the government of their country,” but continues to advocate for women’s cricket in the country. The ICC does not release public details on member funding. In an interview, Hamdullah Nomani, the Taliban’s minister of urban development, said plans to construct a major new cricket stadium in Kabul have been discussed at the highest levels of leadership. Although the idea for a new stadium originated under the previous government, the Taliban-run government appears intent on helping to finish the project with private funding. The government’s primary concern is that the stadium might not be big enough. “There’s not enough land,” Nomani said. _Lutfullah Qasimyar and Mirwais Mohammadi contributed to this report._

The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said. Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s. “With this announcement by the Taliban leader, a new chapter of private punishments has begun and Afghan women are experiencing the depths of loneliness,” Arefi said. “Now, no one is standing beside them to save them from Taliban punishments. The international community has chosen to remain silent in the face of these violations of women’s rights.” The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced [at the weekend](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/25/taliban-leader-akhundzada-women-stoned-death-afghanistan/) that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery. In an audio broadcast on the Taliban-controlled Radio Television [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan) last Saturday, Akhundzada said: “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public \[for adultery\]. [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror#img-2) Hibatullah Akhundzada said: ‘The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun.’ Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty “You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” he said, adding: “\[But\] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.” He justified the move as a continuation of the Taliban’s struggle against western influences. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun,” he said. The news was met by horror but not surprise by Afghan women’s right groups, who say the dismantling of any remaining rights and protection for the country’s 14 million women and girls is now almost complete. Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Two years ago, they didn’t have the courage they have today to vow stoning women to death in public; now they do. “They tested their draconian policies one by one, and have reached this point because there is no one to hold them accountable for the abuses. Through the bodies of Afghan women, the Taliban demand and command moral and societal orders. We should all be warned that if not stopped, more and more will come.” Since taking power, in August 2021, the Taliban has [dissolved the western-backed constitution of Afghanistan](https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/01/1132662) and suspended existing criminal and penal codes, replacing them with their rigid and fundamentalist interpretation of sharia law. They also banned female lawyers and judges, targeting many of them for their work under the previous government. Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist and campaigner at Amnesty International, said: “In the past two and half years, the Taliban has dismantled institutions that were providing services to Afghan women. “However, their leader’s latest endorsement of women’s public stoning to death is a flagrant violation of international human rights laws, including [Cedaw](https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/cedaw) \[the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women\].” Hamidi said Afghan women were now in effect powerless to defend themselves from persecution and injustice. In the past year alone, Taliban-appointed judges ordered 417 public floggings and executions, according to [Afghan Witness](https://www.afghanwitness.org/reports/one-year-of-sharia-punishments), a research group monitoring human rights in Afghanistan. Of these, 57 were women. Most recently, in February, the Taliban [executed people](https://apnews.com/article/taliban-public-execution-convicted-man-fb6d07c01f304b97d16b1b505b98d422) in public at stadiums in Jawzjan and Ghazni provinces. The militant group has urged people to attend executions and punishments as a “lesson” but banned filming or photography.

In the two decades before the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had [a vibrant media](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210824-afghanistan-s-media-enters-the-unknown-under-taliban-rule#:~:text=Afghanistan%20now%20has,recent%20years%20too.) sector. There were newspapers, television channels, periodicals, magazines and more, invigorating the public discourse by allowing citizens to express their views on national and local issues. That is completely gone now. I have been the editor-in-chief of one of Afghanistan’s largest newspapers, Etilaat Roz, since 2022. When the Taliban dismantled the republican system of the country in [August 2021](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/15/the-fall-of-kabul-a-20-year-mission-collapses-in-a-single-day), establishing their own theocratic Islamic emirate in the process, they imposed the harshest restrictions possible on the media. This “[crackdown on free speech](https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/08/afghanistan-taliban-severely-beat-journalists)” was followed by the prolonged detention, gruesome beating and even death of journalists who defied the Taliban’s policies against the free press. Two of my reporters at Etilaat Roz were grievously assaulted and detained for doing their jobs. According to Reporters Without Borders, a [majority of female and half of male journalists](https://rsf.org/en/country/afghanistan#:~:text=Proportionally%2C%20women%20have%20been%20much%20more%20affected%3A%20more%20than%20four%20in%20five%20(84%25)%20have%20lost%20their%20jobs%20since%20the%20arrival%20of%20the%20Taliban%2C%20whereas%20only%20one%20in%20two%20men%20have%20(52%25).) lost their jobs in the first three months of the Taliban’s takeover. Not only did many talented journalists lose the ability to work, many were also forced to flee the country or go into hiding to escape persecution. Our offices, which were once located in the heart of western Kabul, were forced to close. Almost all our staff have now left the country, and those who remain are expected to leave in the coming months. But operations that have been forced out of [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan), like ours, did not bend to the will of the Taliban. While in exile, many Afghan journalists regrouped and relaunched their media outlets, despite huge uncertainty and financial pressure. As the Taliban quashed all independent media and the vacuum of information within the country became deeper and wider, newspapers, television channels and other online platforms launched by journalists in exile became a lifeline – the only sources of credible information for people inside Afghanistan. Since 2021, we have been operating from a suburb of Washington DC for the safety of our staff, with seven staff based there. However, this transition was not a smooth one for us. The first challenge was to muster all our courage and strength to revitalise our journalistic work after the traumatising collapse of the country that upended our professional life in such an appalling way. The second was to register Etilaat Roz, find an office for it and turn it into a viable media organisation in exile, while a number of its staff were still scattered in different countries, trying to come to the US. The third challenge was the safety and security of our reporters in Afghanistan who, despite having lost all of their legal protections, did not quit reporting. As the Taliban’s crackdown on independent journalists intensified, we were at a loss as to how to protect our reporters (this concern is still as present as ever). The fourth challenge was raising enough funds to support Etilaat Roz’s operating costs inside Afghanistan and abroad, which has remained a constant struggle. The fifth challenge was to make sure Etilaat Roz remained a credible source of information in exile, just as it had been inside the country. This was a challenge because we no longer had the same access to sources that we had in the past. Central to this have been the courageous journalists who stayed in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. Their reports from the ground to Afghan media outlets abroad, including [Etilaat Roz](https://www.etilaatroz.com/) and its English version, [KabulNow](https://kabulnow.com/), are the lifeblood of online newspapers, television channels and other social media platforms. Those journalists, both male and female, risk their own lives and the safety of their families to document and report about what is going on in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Had it not been for their courage and commitment to reveal and report the truth, Afghanistan would have sunk into darkness and the Taliban propaganda and distortion machine would have drowned out all dissenting voices. At great personal cost, they have succeeded in bringing to light stories of the Taliban harassing, detaining, torturing, and raping female dissidents. They uncovered the Taliban’s extrajudicial killings of former army officers and public servants, despite having [announced full amnesty](https://8am.media/eng/the-talibans-blanket-amnesty-strategy-over-200-detained-in-the-past-two-months/#:~:text=On%20the%20first,August%2017%2C%202021.) for them. They documented and reported on the Taliban’s campaign of [extortion](https://kabulnow.com/2024/01/law-of-the-gun/), [displacement of people](https://kabulnow.com/2022/10/villagers-forced-to-leave-properties-under-crackdown-in-panjshir/) from their homes and [requisition of their property and land.](https://kabulnow.com/2023/09/taliban-arrests-24-elders-in-bamyan-over-failure-to-pay-for-their-own-land/) The Taliban have consistently tried to portray themselves as more moderate than the Taliban of the 90s. But there are hardly any signs of their supposed moderation – they have stayed faithful to [opposing free speech](https://rsf.org/en/taliban-intelligence-agency-s-arrests-journalists-undermine-press-freedom-afghanistan) and non-state independent media. Their intelligence service, called Estekhbarat in the local languages, has been active from day one in finding interrogating, detaining, and torturing independent journalists. The Taliban spread fear and anxiety among the media community by the harsh punishments they impose on detained journalists. They use [detention](https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-taliban-journalist-detained/32787205.html), torture and prohibitive financial fines both to prevent detained journalists from returning to media activities and to intimidate other journalists by signalling what may await them. The Taliban also [harass journalists’ families](https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/no-pay-and-constant-harassment-the-lives-of-women-journalists-in-todays-afghanistan/#:~:text=Even%20if%20women%20journalists%20are%20still%20willing%20to%20work%20without%20pay%2C%20they%20face%20pressure%20from%20their%20family%20to%20quit%20their%20job.) to maximise the pressure on them. To legitimise their stifling of the free press, the Taliban also deliberately provoke religious and xenophobic sentiments among the public. They consistently promote the notion that independent journalists are mercenaries, hired by foreigners and tasked with corrupting and destroying the Islamic faith, Afghan family values and the traditional way of life in Afghanistan. As a result of the ceaseless suppression of the free press in Afghanistan, journalists are facing other challenges besides security issues. The chief professional challenges include the lack of access to reliable sources, difficulties in fact-checking and the verification of information, documents and sources. Journalists are also under extraordinary financial strain in the absence of financial support from within the country or from abroad. Today, the independent Afghan media (called “mercenary media” by the Taliban) is the only source of information for the citizens of Afghanistan and the only remaining force trying to prevent the country from completely falling into total darkness. Supporting it is of the utmost importance. This support could be in the form of providing journalism training and scholarships for those aspiring to join this struggle against tyranny and darkness; it could be in the form of technical and financial support to the independent media outlets to increase their effectiveness and reach, and weaken the Taliban’s overarching control of the country’s information channels. The Taliban are obviously trying to dispose of all free press and independent media in Afghanistan – because the independent media represents the only remaining channels of civil discourse, democratic deliberation and uncensored truth-telling. The future of Afghanistan, as a democratic and open society, hinges upon the continuation of an informed national dialogue, made possible by the free press, on how to move the country forward towards peace, non-violence, stability and development. The disappearance of independent media would plunge Afghanistan into tyranny and darkness. * Sakhidad Hatif is editor-in-chief of [Etilaat Roz](https://www.etilaatroz.com/) * Watch Guardian documentary [House No 30, Kabul](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/may/01/can-journalism-survive-the-taliban) (26 mins), a video diary by journalist Abbas Rezaie, shot inside the Etilaat Roz office when the Taliban seized power in 2021 and forced many of the journalists to flee abroad

The leader of the United Arab Emirates has met with an official in the Taliban government still wanted by the United States on an up-to $10 million bounty over his involvement in an attack that killed an American citizen and other assaults DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The leader of the United Arab Emirates met Tuesday with an official in the Taliban government still wanted by the United States on an up-to $10 million bounty over his involvement in an attack that killed an American citizen and other assaults. The meeting highlights the growing divide internationally on how to deal with the Taliban, who [seized control of Afghanistan in 2021](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-kabul-bagram-e1ed33fe0c665ee67ba132c51b8e32a5) and since have [barred girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-women-education-5bc5477a8e4599ac431e4d2e27ebaf85) and otherwise restricted women's role in public life. While the West still doesn't recognize the Taliban as Kabul's government, nations in the Mideast and elsewhere have reached out to them. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, met Sirajuddin Haqqani at the Qasr Al Shati palace in the Emirati capital, the state-run WAM news agency reported. It published an image of Sheikh Mohammed shaking hands with Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister who also heads the Haqqani network, a powerful network within the group blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks against Afghanistan's former Western-backed government. “The two sides discussed strengthening the bonds of cooperation between the two countries and ways to enhance ties to serve mutual interests and contribute to regional stability,” WAM said. “The discussions focused on economic and development fields, as well as support for reconstruction and development in Afghanistan.” For their part, the Taliban described the two men as discussed “matter of mutual interests,” without elaborating. It added that the Taliban's spy chief, Abdul Haq Wasiq, also took part in the meeting. Wasiq had been held for years at the U.S. military's prison at Guantanamo Bay and released in 2014 in a swap that saw [U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl](https://apnews.com/article/bowe-bergdahl-court-martial-overturned-12da397af78384788a6a09d6499936c0), captured after leaving his post in 2009, released. Haqqani, believed to be in his 50s, has been on the U.S. radar even after the Taliban takeover. In 2022, a [U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-al-qaida-ayman-zawahri-middle-east-taliban-2705b6638b8389e67624ad5e62b4781c), who had called for striking the United States for years after taking over from Osama bin Laden. The house in which al-Zawahri was killed was a home for Haqqani, according to U.S. officials. While the Taliban argued the strike violated the terms of the 2020 Doha Agreement that put in motion the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the accord also included a promise by the Taliban not harbor al-Qaida members or others seeking to attack America. The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks. The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on the Indian and U.S. embassies, the Afghan presidency and other major targets. They also have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activity. Haqqani himself specifically acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment over Haqqani's visit. The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the palace where the meeting took place. [The U.S. long has been a security guarantor for the UAE](https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-israel-dubai-united-arab-emirates-abu-dhabi-d37770c718713461a4dc2592e1d291b6), a federation of seven hereditarily ruled sheikhdoms also home to Dubai, and has thousands of troops working out Al Dhafra Air Base and other locations in the country. Since the Taliban takeover, [China is the most-prominent country to accept a diplomat from the group](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-china-ambassador-6e7f6fe404317dc18a99780808c97402). Other countries have accepted de facto Taliban representatives, like Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the U.S. and the group. American envoys have met multiple times with the Taliban as well. The UAE, which hosted a Taliban diplomatic mission during the Taliban's first rule in Afghanistan, has been trying to solidify ties to the group even as it sent troops to back the Western coalition that fought for decades in the country. The low-cost UAE-based carriers [Air Arabia](https://apnews.com/article/air-arabia-flights-kabul-airport-afghanistan-b43b991e1464402362e7d595dfee3786) and [FlyDubai have begun flying into Kabul International Airport again](https://apnews.com/article/flydubai-flights-kabul-dubai-afghanistan-taliban-c048a8460c425a2a4e33f4759e418cf5), while [an Emirati company won a security contract for airfields](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-politics-abu-dhabi-united-arab-emirates-0ac72c95852ae6e302b3ff45f0b95808) in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the international community led by the United Nations has tried to provide aid to Afghanistan, as millions struggle to have enough to eat, natural disasters kill those in rural areas and the country's economy has drastically contracted.

The UN has condemned the public flogging of more than 60 people, including more than a dozen women, by the [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) in northern Sari Pul province. At least 63 people were lashed on Tuesday by Afghanistan’s de facto authorities, the UN Assistance Mission in [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan) said in a statement, condemning corporal punishment and calling for respect for international human rights obligations. Taliban’s supreme court confirmed the public flogging of 63 people, including 14 women who had been accused of crimes including sodomy, theft and immoral relations. They were flogged at a sports stadium. [ Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror ](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror) The Taliban, despite promises of more moderate rule, began carrying out severe punishments in public – [executions, floggings and stonings](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/14/afghanistan-supreme-leader-orders-full-implementation-of-sharia-law-taliban) – shortly after returning to power in 2021. The punishments are similar to those seen during the Taliban’s previous rule in the late 1990s. Separate statements by the supreme court said a man and a woman convicted of adultery and trying to run away from home were flogged in northern Panjsher province on Wednesday. Earlier this year, the Taliban publicly executed a man convicted of murder as thousands watched at a stadium in northern Jawzjan province. The brother of the murdered man shot the convict five times with a rifle. It was the fifth public execution since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as USand Nato troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war.

Excluding Afghan women from an upcoming UN conference on [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan) would be a “betrayal” of women and girls in the country, say human rights groups and former politicians. The [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) are reportedly demanding that no Afghan women be allowed to participate in the UN meeting in Doha starting 30 June, set up to discuss the international community’s approach to Afghanistan, and that women’s rights are not on the agenda. Since [taking power in Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/16/taliban-declares-war-is-over-in-afghanistan-as-us-led-forces-exit-kabul) in August 2021, the Taliban have restricted women’s access to education, employment and public spaces. In March, it was [reported](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror) that they would reintroduce the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery. [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/21/shutting-afghan-women-out-of-key-un-conference-to-appease-taliban-a-betrayal#img-2) Sima Samar, former Afghan minister of women’s affairs. Photograph: Britta Pedersen/DPA Picture Alliance/Alamy The Taliban did [not participate](https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146657) in UN talks earlier this year, with the UN chief António Guterres saying at the time that the group presented a set of conditions for its participation that “denied us the right to talk to other representatives of the Afghan society” and were “not acceptable”. Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Excluding women risks legitimising the Taliban’s abuses and triggering irreparable harm to the UN’s credibility as an advocate for women’s rights and women’s meaningful participation.” In trying to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table now, the UN was giving in to their demands to exclude women’s rights, said the former Afghan minister of women’s affairs Sima Samar. “This situation is an indirect submission to the will of the Taliban. Law, democracy and sustainable peace are not possible without including half of the population of the society who are women. I don’t think we have learned anything from past mistakes. “As one of the main changes, the people of Afghanistan should protest against discrimination, especially against women. Because this is not only the problem of women, but the problem of every family and every father, brother, child and husband,” said Samar. [Habiba Sarabi](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/18/afghan-activists-warn-over-absence-of-women-in-peace-process), another former minister of women’s affairs in Afghanistan and the country’s [first female governor](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/26/afghanistan.declanwalsh), said the international community was prioritising engagement with the Taliban over women’s rights. “Unfortunately, the international community wants to deal with the Taliban, and that is why their own agenda has always been more important to them than the women of Afghanistan, democracy, or anything else,” she said. Heather Barr, from Human Rights watch, said: “What is happening in Afghanistan is the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world and the idea that the UN would convene a meeting like this and not discuss women’s rights and not have Afghan women in the room is beyond belief. “The only plausible explanation is that they’re doing this to get the Taliban to the table, but for what? Already, three years of diplomatic engagement has produced nothing and all this does is set an appalling precedent, emboldens and legitimises the Taliban and hands them a huge political win. It is a betrayal not just of Afghan women but all women around the world.” The UN has been approached for comment, but in response to questioning on the involvement of Afghan civil society representatives it [reportedly](https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-accuse-un-human-rights-expert-on-afghanistan-of-undermining-doha-meeting/7662476.html) said arrangements for the conference were ongoing.

Teenage girls and young women arrested by the [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) for wearing “bad hijab” say they have been subjected to sexual violence and assault in detention. In more than one case the arrests and sexual abuse that young women faced while in custody earlier this year led to suicide and attempted suicide, reporters from the Afghan news service Zan Times were told. In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death. [The UN say that many women were detained by the Taliban for “bad hijab”](https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146177) in December 2023 and January 2024, following a [Taliban decree](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/07/taliban-order-all-afghan-women-to-wear-burqa) that women must cover themselves from head to toe, revealing only their eyes. At the time the UN called the arrests “concerning” and [girls and women told the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/10/afghanistan-girls-detained-beaten-taliban-hijab-rules) they had been subjected to beatings and intimidation while in detention. Now the girls and young women are coming forward to report that they also faced sexual violence and abuse by the Taliban police, with devastating consequences. The family of 16-year-old Zahra\* said she and another teenage girl were arrested in a shop in west Kabul in December 2023. [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/25/afghan-women-girls-accuse-taliban-sexual-assault-after-arrests-bad-hijab-suicide#img-2) The Taliban bans women from parks. The sign, in Pashto, reads: ‘Dear sisters! Hijab and veil are your dignity and in your benefit in this world and the hereafter.’ Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/Getty Her mother, Somaia\*, says Zahra and her friend were detained for two weeks before being released. When she came home, Zahra was “not the girl who had left home two weeks before”. “I ran and hugged her, but she cried and said, ‘I am dishonoured.’ For the rest of that day, Zahra didn’t eat or talk,” her mother said. “She only sat in a room and cried. I couldn’t dare to ask about what had happened,” she said. Amina\*, a 22-year-old medical student, said she spent three nights in a Taliban prison after being arrested in January 2024. She said she was interrogated by an older man who asked her about her menstruation and whether she was married or not. “I fell at his feet and begged him, ‘Please, kill me but don’t harass me’,” she said. “He said: ‘Since you are keen to die, I will kill you, but before that, let us have fun with you.’ “Then he started touching my private parts,” Amina said. “I fainted twice during the interrogation, but every time, he poured cold water over my head.” Amina said what happened to her happened to every girl taken to that interrogation room and left alone with the man. “\[Now\] I can’t sleep at night, I am so scared, and every time I see the Taliban soldiers, I faint,” she said. “I have tried to kill myself twice. “Once I took all of my mother’s medication, but my family took me to hospital. Every time I remember that they touched me, I can’t bear living,” Amina said. For Zahra, the ordeal she said she had faced in prison proved too much for her to bear, her family said. “In the middle of the night I woke up and noticed Zahra was not there. I woke up my husband and we started looking for her in all the rooms. “My husband found her dead body,” said Somaia. “She had hanged herself.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/25/afghan-women-girls-accuse-taliban-sexual-assault-after-arrests-bad-hijab-suicide#img-3) Marina Sadat was detained by the Taliban ‘morality police’ in December. Her body was later found inside a sack in a canal. She had been sexually abused. Photograph: Handout Zahra’s death was not the only tragedy linked to the Taliban’s arrest of women over how they wore their hijab. In December 2023, a 23-year-old university student from the same neighbourhood was also reportedly arrested by the Taliban. Marina Sadat had been on her way to the Farabi Institute of Health Sciences, where she was studying midwifery, the only educational option available for women in the Taliban’s [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan). Twenty-two days later, people who know her family say her battered body was found inside a sack in a canal in Kabul’s Paghman district. Zan Times reporters were told that she had been sexually abused. “It is just brutal that a young girl goes to university and her dead body comes home,” one interviewee told the journalists. On 4 January a spokesman for the Taliban’s ministry of vice and virtue told the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-bad-hijab-women-09d5301ca830f1bdef26696add37fd02) that the women who were arrested “violated Islamic values and rituals and encouraged society and other respected sisters to go for bad hijab … \[i\]n every province, those who go without hijab will be arrested.” After condemnation in Afghanistan and abroad, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, later denied that arrests over “bad hijab” had taken place. In response to the allegations of sexual assault of young women in detention, a Taliban spokesman also denied there had been any arrests for “bad hijab” and said: “The issue of rape is not at all possible because there is not just one or two people \[in the room with a prisoner\] and when there are three people, such a crime would not happen …\[this is\] a very sensitive issue for the Taliban. I am sure such a thing did not happen.” The reports of sexual violence and assault against women and girls in detention comes as the Taliban are expected to attend a UN conference on Afghanistan in Doha on 30 June, where the UN has confirmed that [no Afghan women will participate](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/21/shutting-afghan-women-out-of-key-un-conference-to-appease-taliban-a-betrayal) and women’s rights will not be discussed. _Additional reporting by Freshta Ghani_ **\*** _Names changed to protect the identity of_ _interviewees and writers based in Afghanistan_ * Read a full version of this story at [Zan Times](https://zantimes.com/).

Since it became clear that the Taliban will be the only Afghan voices at the table and [women’s rights will not officially be on the agenda](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/21/shutting-afghan-women-out-of-key-un-conference-to-appease-taliban-a-betrayal) at the UN meeting on Afghanistan in Doha, I have received thousands of messages from women inside and outside the country expressing their deep despair, shock and disappointment. There is increasing concern about the tone that the international community – especially the UN mission in [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan), Unama – have adopted to normalise the human rights violations in Afghanistan in an effort to secure the Taliban’s participation in the Doha talks. The agenda for next week’s meeting will focus on counter-narcotics and the private sector, two peripheral issues chosen to ensure [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) participation by putting nothing more contentious on the table. This means the conference will ignore the fundamental issues of holding the Taliban accountable for their unprecedented violations of the basic rights of Afghan women and girls to have education, employment and active participation in society. On Wednesday, in response to the outpouring of criticism, UN undersecretary-general [Rosemary DiCarlo said that Afghan women’s rights, among other key issues, will be raised](https://apnews.com/article/un-meeting-taliban-afghanistan-doha-women-rights-ffaf316874ed2cd010ab1fbc97f7f2ae) in every meeting with the Taliban. She conveniently ignored the fact that the whole world, including Islamic scholars, have been raising the same issues with the Taliban for more than three years to no avail, while the the group continues to impose more bans and restrictions on the women of Afghanistan with impunity. > According to the UN, the Taliban bar on women’s employment is costing the Afghan economy more than $1bn a year The agenda also clearly contradicts the [UN’s own charter and the security council resolutions 1325 and 2721,](https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15548.doc.htm) which call on the UN secretary general to appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan and to ensure participation of all sides, especially Afghan women’s groups. It also disregards the lack of a legal framework and an inclusive and accountable governing system that ensures participation of all sides. Without a resolution to these two key issues, Afghanistan will never cease to be the centre of narcotics production and drug trafficking, nor will the country’s private sector develop without full participation of women – the two items on the UN’s agenda. According to the [UN’s own assessment](https://unsdg.un.org/latest/stories/one-billion-cost-excluding-women-afghanistan), the Taliban bar on [women’s employment is costing the Afghan economy](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/16/afghanistan-further-impoverished-as-women-vanish-from-workforce-taliban) more than $1bn a year. If Unama and others in the international community see the Taliban as the only reality for Afghanistan, they need to look at our history. Millions of Afghans risked life and limb to cast their votes in the 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections, despite threats, fraud and irregularities. They believed in the democratic values and principles which the international community propagated to them for more than 20 years. Yet Afghans today are bewildered that the same international community which championed free elections and women’s rights is willing to compromise its own moral values to cave in to an extremist ideological group. A group that represents a ruling armed clerical regime which has established gender-apartheid in Afghanistan and directed the subjugation of more than 20 million women and girls into an abyss of hopelessness. Given the moral collapse of the international community when it comes to upholding their own values for human rights, women’s rights, and equality for all, most Afghans feel there is no chance of a fair and transparent intervention by global bodies such as the UN to seek a reasonable and durable solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. They question the international community’s commitment to women’s rights when their own fundamental rights were so easily bartered in exchange for geopolitical convenience during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Taliban members, who came to power with guns, can hold on to power through violence but will never subdue the will of a nation which has never been colonised. Our people, men and women, need education, employment and the prospect of liberty for achieving their dreams in order to realise their full potential. And if the Taliban hope that by sticking to their gender-apartheid vision and forcing the morally compromised internationally community to grant them some level of recognition, will help them achieve their aims they are also wrong. It is the Taliban who launched their war on the women of our country. [Women](https://www.theguardian.com/society/women) are half of our population, and the country cannot move forward without full participation of Afghan women, incorporation of the magnificent diversity of our country, and the incredible talent and potential of our youth who are now fleeing Afghanistan because they do not see any future under Taliban rule. The Taliban have silenced women’s voices inside the country using violence and torture. And by excluding women’s participation at the Doha meeting, the UN and others in the international community have enabled the Taliban to try to silence our voices outside Afghanistan, too. If the international community and the UN want to be useful, let the women of Afghanistan directly talk to the Taliban. This is something that the leaders of the gender-apartheid regime fear the most. * Fawzia Koofi is a politician and women’s rights activist who was the first woman vice-president of the Afghan parliament and chair of its women’s affairs and human rights commission.

ISLAMABAD -- A United Nations-led [meeting held in Qatar with the Taliban](https://apnews.com/article/taliban-delegation-doha-meeting-d3af51909b06aa7b086e44b25c464c77) on increasing engagement with Afghanistan does not translate into a recognition of their government, a U.N. official said Monday. The gathering on Sunday and Monday in Qatar's capital of Doha with envoys from some two dozen countries was the first time that representatives of the Afghan Taliban administration attended such a U.N.-sponsored meeting. The Taliban were not invited to the first meeting, and [U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said they set unacceptable conditions](https://apnews.com/article/un-afghanistan-taliban-doha-meeting-d5a6fdca4ddeeb205ddb332161a5899c) for attending the second one, in February, including demands that Afghan civil society members be excluded from the talks and that the Taliban be treated as the country’s legitimate rulers. Ahead of Doha, representatives of [Afghan women were excluded from attending](https://apnews.com/article/un-afghanistan-taliban-women-girls-education-rights-88e7f5aadb25439b328c90283ae6ab5a), paving the way for the Taliban to send their envoys — though the organizers insisted that demands for women’s rights would be raised. “I would like to emphasize that this meeting and this process of engagement does not mean normalization or recognition,” Rosemary A. DiCarlo, a U.N. official for political and peacebuilding affairs said Monday. “My hope is that the constructive exchanges on the various issues over the last two days have moved us a little closer to resolving some of the problems that are having such a devastating impact on the Afghan people,” she added. Zabihullah Mujahid, chief Taliban government spokesman who headed the delegation to Doha, said there was an opportunity for them to meet with representatives of various countries on the sidelines of the gathering. He added that the messages from the Taliban “reached all participating” countries at the meeting. Afghanistan needs cooperation with the private sector and in the fight against drugs, he also said. “Most countries expressed their willingness to cooperate in these areas.” The talks took place behind closed doors with no media access. But that didn’t stop the Taliban delegation from posting videos of the sessions on the social media platform X featuring their officials. Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, said the Taliban got what they wanted from the Doha gathering because they discussed the issues that mattered to them the most and the meeting excluded those they didn’t want at the table. The talks also shielded the Taliban from much of the vitriol directed at the meeting, given that so much of the anger targeted the U.N. for excluding Afghan women, and not the Taliban for being there, he said. “The Taliban played their cards well. Their conditions were met and they took full advantage with a major PR blitz targeting audiences at home and abroad.” With images and interviews and statements, the Taliban projected the narrative of their officials engaging with the world and conveying the idea that the Taliban are not the pariahs their critics want them to be, he said. Nobody from the Taliban delegation was immediately available for comment about the Doha talks, the most high-profile and high-level international meeting they've attended since seizing power in 2021. No country officially recognizes the Taliban and the U.N. has said that recognition remains practically impossible while [bans on female education and employment](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-women-restrictions-4c4468d1df2cf3309ff2ac2724ad59fc) remain in place. However, some participants, including Canada, expressed disappointment over the exclusion of women and civil society representatives. "Canada is extremely disappointed that the U.N. organizers have excluded non-Taliban Afghan participants, including women’s advocates, religious and ethnic minorities, and human rights groups from participating in the meeting’s main sessions,” David Sproule, Canada’s special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement. DiCarlo, the U.N. official, said that "while women and civil society were not sitting across the table form the de facto (Taliban) authorities in last two days, we made their voices heard ... civil society has a rightful role to play in shaping Afghanistan’s future.”

The Guardian has seen video evidence of a female Afghan human rights activist being gang-raped and tortured in a [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) jail by armed men. There have been mounting reports that [sexual violence is being inflicted on women and girls](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/25/afghan-women-girls-accuse-taliban-sexual-assault-after-arrests-bad-hijab-suicide) being held in detention in Afghanistan, but this video is believed to be the first direct evidence of these crimes occurring. According to the activist, the mobile phone footage was later sent to her as a threat that it would be shared more widely if she continued to speak out against the [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) regime. In the video recording viewed by the Guardian, the young woman is filmed being told to take off her clothes and is then raped multiple times by two men. The woman in the video – recorded on a phone by one of the armed men – tries to cover her face with her hands. One of the men pushes her hard when she hesitates as he gives her orders. At one point she is told, “You’ve been fucked by Americans all these years and now it’s our turn.” The woman has said that she was arrested for taking part in a public protest against the Taliban and was raped while being held in detention in a Taliban prison. She has since fled [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan). She said that after she spoke out against the Taliban in exile, she was sent the video and told that if she continued to criticise the regime the video would be sent to her family and released on social media. “If you continue saying anything bad against the Islamic Emirate, we will publish your video,” she said she was told. She believes that the attack was deliberately recorded to be used to silence and shame her. The person filming the assault captures her standing naked with her face visible and she is identifiable during the attacks. Last week the Guardian [published accounts](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/25/afghan-women-girls-accuse-taliban-sexual-assault-after-arrests-bad-hijab-suicide) of teenage girls and young women who said that they were sexually assaulted and beaten after being detained under Afghanistan’s draconian hijab laws. In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death. The UN’s special rapporteur on Afghanistan has [recently reported that](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/un-human-rights-council-56-interactive-dialogue-with-special-rapporteur-on-afghanistan#:~:text=We%20have%20shocking%20reports%20of,increased%20domestic%20violence%20against%20women%2E) women were thought to be facing sexual violence in detention. [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/03/video-appears-to-shows-gang-rape-of-woman-in-a-taliban-jail#img-2) A protest against school exclusions for girls. The placards say the women are willing to accept the burqa if their daughters are allowed to go to school. There is no suggestion that any of the women pictured have been detained or harmed. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Since they took power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed what human [rights groups are calling a “gender apartheid”](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/06/gender-apartheid-must-be-recognized-international-law/#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20apartheid%20on,the%20Taliban%20in%20the%201990s.) on Afghanistan’s 14 million women and girls, excluding them from almost every aspect of public life. Women and girls are blocked from attending secondary school, banned from almost every form of paid employment, prevented them from walking in public parks, attending gyms or beauty salons and told to comply with a strict dress code. The Taliban have also [announced](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror) the reintroduction of the public flogging and [stoning of women for adultery](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror). The Guardian and Rukhshana Media spoke with multiple other female protestors and activists who have also come forward to allege that they have been tortured and beaten after being arrested for calling for women’s rights. Zarifa Yaqubi, 30, said she was imprisoned for 41 days in November 2022, after attempting to organise a movement for Afghan women. “They gave electric shocks and hit parts of my body with cables so that I would not be able to show in front of the camera tomorrow,” she said, adding that she had been tortured into admitting to taking money from foreigners to protest against the Taliban. Parwana Nejarabi, 23, said she was beaten and given electric shocks after being detained by Taliban forces when protesting for women’s rights in early 2022. She said she spent a month in solitary confinement and was shown a letter with an order for her to be stoned to death. “I could hear them saying, ‘She should be killed,’” she said. She was released after a forced confession and fled Afghanistan to live in exile. Despite the huge risks to their safety, women inside Afghanistan are still staging public protests and criticising the Taliban regime, with Rukhshana Media recording at least 221 acts of protest by women and girls over the past two years. A spokesperson for the Taliban, Zabhullah Mujahid, denied the allegations of the widespread sexual assaults on women in prison. Heather Barr, associate director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch said the Taliban continue to act with “complete impunity for abuses, particularly behind the prison walls.” “The Taliban are aware of how much stigma is involved around the issue of sexual violence in Afghanistan and how incredibly difficult – and usually impossible – it is for victims of sexual violence to come forward and tell their stories, even sometimes to their own families, because there is a risk of shame and potentially ‘honour’ violence,” said Barr. The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said: “I am alarmed by reports of torture and ill-treatment in Afghanistan, including allegations of sexual violence in detention, especially of women. We are continuing to look into these reports and to establish the facts.” Earlier this week, Taliban officials took part in a special meeting on Afghanistan hosted by the UN in Doha to discuss the country’s future. [No Afghan women were present](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/21/shutting-afghan-women-out-of-key-un-conference-to-appease-taliban-a-betrayal) at the meeting and women’s rights were not included on the agenda.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Frozan Ahmadzai is one of 200,000 Afghan women who have the Taliban’s permission to work. She should have graduated from university this year in pursuit of her dream of becoming a doctor, but the Taliban have [barred women from higher education](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-3cea615c4d5d6d5d7da68b593a7546f2) and [excluded them from many jobs](https://apnews.com/article/business-afghanistan-kabul-taliban-e44d8521940021e4e7ab11d3898978b5). Now, instead of suturing, she sews in a basement in Kabul. Instead of administering medication, she makes pickles. Half of Afghanistan's population now finds itself locked out of the freedom to work at a time when the country's economy is worse than ever. Few jobs are still available to women. They include tailoring and making food, which the 33-year-old Ahmadzai now does along with women who once were teachers or aspired to be one. Women's participation in the workforce in Afghanistan, always limited by conservative cultural beliefs, was 14.8% in 2021, before the [Taliban seized power](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-second-year-timeline-490bab098864b13d8f8cdb67ae044bee) and imposed harsh restrictions on women and girls. They include banning female education beyond sixth grade, barring women from [public spaces like parks](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-religion-womens-rights-taliban-177fd5045f692b2572b0f202d25c4d3a), and [enforcing dress codes](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-single-women-restrictions-c00c6cddf846957afc2ea43814cf374f). Women's participation in the workforce was down to 4.8% in 2023, according to World Bank data. Ahmadzai’s eyes flare when talking about the new reality for Afghan women. “We are only looking for a way to escape,” she said, referring to the work in the basement. It's a step, at least, beyond being confined at home. But profits are slim for her and her 50 colleagues in the collective. In a good month, the pickle-making and tailoring businesses bring in around 30,000 afghanis ($426). The women also have other complaints familiar to anyone in Afghanistan: The rent and utility bills are high. The sewing machines are old-fashioned. The electricity supply is erratic. Local retailers don’t compensate them fairly. They don’t receive support from banks or local authorities to help their businesses grow. Just obtaining permission from the Taliban to work is challenging for women, though under Afghan labor laws, the process for work permits ought to be the same for both sexes. The ministry responsible for issuing permits has banned women from its premises, setting up a female-only office elsewhere. It's to “speed things up and make things easier” for women, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Samiullah Ebrahimi. There, women submit their paperwork, including their national identity card, a cover letter and a health certificate from a private clinic. That’s assuming they have the documents along with the money to cover any costs. It also assumes they can move around without being harassed if [unaccompanied by a male guardian](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-women-restrictions-4c4468d1df2cf3309ff2ac2724ad59fc). Last year, a top United Nations official said Afghanistan had become [the most repressive country](https://apnews.com/article/taliban-afghanistan-women-rights-united-nations-591c39436d53f83e5a0c423c5e06891c) in the world for women and girls. Roza Otunbayeva, head of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, said that while the country needed to recover from decades of war, half of its potential doctors, scientists, journalists and politicians were “shut away in their homes, their dreams crushed and their talents confiscated.” The Taliban have a different view. They have tried to provide women with a “safe, secure and separate” working environment in line with Islamic values ​​and Afghan traditions in sectors where women’s work is needed, according to ministry spokesman Ebrahimi. They can work in retail or hospitality, but it must be a female-only setting. He said women don’t need degrees for the majority of permissible work including cleaning, security screening, handicrafts, farming, tailoring or food manufacturing. It’s heartbreaking for Ahmadzai and her colleagues to see their expertise go unused. Several also were training to be makeup artists, but [beauty parlors have been closed](https://apnews.com/article/taliban-beauty-salon-ban-women-rights-66c7151465679565d6332b61bf18a584). Some jobs for women remain in education and health care, so Ahmadzai has pivoted to a nursing and midwifery course so she can become a medical professional. But not a doctor. The Taliban don't want more female doctors. The challenges for Afghan women of obeying Taliban edicts while helping to support their families while living conditions worsen is a strain on health, including [mental health](https://apnews.com/article/mental-health-afghan-women-un-report-c0db1ebeb1506746c961c92fd67174c1). Ahmadzai said one of the few positives about her work in the basement in Kabul is the camaraderie and support system there. “Afghan women nowadays all have the same role in society. They stay at home, care for children, mind the house and don’t work hard," she said. "If my family didn’t encourage me, I wouldn’t be here. They support me because I work. My husband is unemployed and I have small children.” Salma Yusufzai, the head of Afghanistan Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, acknowledged that working under Taliban rule is a challenge. The chamber has almost 10,000 members, but the lack of female representation within the Taliban-controlled administration is a challenge. Yusufzai said the chamber supports women by giving them a platform at local markets and connecting them with the international community for participation in overseas exhibitions and other opportunities. Chamber members include key Afghan industries like carpet-making and dried fruit. The businesses are male-owned but kept alive by women who want to support the economy, which she said would collapse without them. She acknowledged that the chamber's limited work was only possible through engagement with the Taliban: “If I close the door then nothing will happen, nothing will remain." Yusufzai once had three gemstone businesses and gave them up because of her chamber role. But she can’t own them anyway under Taliban rule, so the businesses are in her husband’s name. “Since we are living in this country, we have to follow the rules,” she said. Her smile was tight. “From nothing, it is better to have something.”

KABUL, Afghanistan -- It’s been [three years since the Taliban took control](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-takeover-timeline-df3df916cae4b07d53a302dc9a2811d8) of Afghanistan. They have transitioned from insurgency to authority, [imposed their interpretation](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-high-school-ban-girls-7046b3dbb76ca76d40343db6ba547556) of Islamic law and sought to reinforce their claim to legitimacy. Despite no international recognition as the country's official rulers, the Taliban enjoy [high-level meetings](https://apnews.com/article/russia-taliban-talks-kazan-57b2207c7d350d97911a16d2021fdbe6) with major regional powers like China and Russia. They even attended United Nations-sponsored talks while Afghan women and civil society were [denied a seat at the table](https://apnews.com/article/un-afghanistan-taliban-women-girls-education-rights-88e7f5aadb25439b328c90283ae6ab5a). It was a triumph for the Taliban, who see themselves as the country’s [only true representatives](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-embassies-europe-5eb33173c4e8da20a5bfaf718112c2e2#:~:text=ISLAMABAD%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Taliban,associated%20with%20the%20previous%20administration.). There’s no domestic challenge to their rule, and no overseas appetite to support one. Wars in [Ukraine](https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine) and [Gaza](https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war) draw the international community's focus, and Afghanistan doesn’t represent the same terror threat it once did. But challenges remain. Here are five things to know about the Taliban in power. The Taliban [supreme leader](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-supreme-leader-eid-message-akhundzada-812d08d9fe70257818b8d31fa7d9eccf) sits atop a pyramid-like ruling system as a paragon of virtue. Mosques and clerics are on one side. On the other is the Kabul administration, which implements clerics’ decisions and meets with foreign officials. “There are different levels of extremism, and the Taliban are in an uneasy coalition of ruling hard-liners and [political pragmatists](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-religion-education-united-nations-kabul-0cae98224480b1f739dde83d80b3ad2b). It has put them in [a culture war](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-eid-supreme-leader-haqqani-8aa7009650cef7eb5bade479417d7ca5),” said Javid Ahmad, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. The most controversial policies are unlikely to be reversed while supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is in charge — and supreme leaders don’t retire or resign. They lead until death. It’s wishful thinking that [diverging opinions are enough](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-eid-supreme-leader-haqqani-8aa7009650cef7eb5bade479417d7ca5) to divide the Taliban, said Ibraheem Bahiss with Crisis Group’s South Asia program. “The Taliban are unified and will remain a political force for many years. They rule as one group, they fight as one group.” To maintain cohesion and ensure discipline, seasoned Taliban have moved from the battlefield into bureaucracy, getting top jobs in government and provinces. “You have to give them a reward for playing a significant role in the insurgency,” Ahmad said. Other perks can include a free hand in the running of a province or permission to have a third or fourth wife, a new pickup truck, a share in customs fees or the keys to a house. Bahiss called this "the strongest Afghan government in modern times. They can exact a decree to the village level.” Civil servants [keep the country running](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-united-nations-economy-kabul-08db064b2e1d8986b3f731ae7f6589f4) and are more likely to have a formal or technical education. But the Taliban leading civilian institutions have no proper knowledge of how such institutions are run. “Their qualifications come from God,” Ahmad said. The Taliban's legitimacy to govern doesn't come from Afghans but from their interpretation of religion and culture, said Leena Rikkila Tamang with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. If a government is defined by the [trust and buy-in](https://apnews.com/article/mental-health-afghan-women-un-report-c0db1ebeb1506746c961c92fd67174c1) of citizens, recognition by international powers and legitimacy through processes like elections, then the Taliban do not qualify as a government, she said. Afghanistan's [economy](https://apnews.com/article/hrw-foreign-aid-afghan-health-taliban-e7202c08f2ad4f6eeed3df20f55d343a) has weakened. In 2023, foreign aid still made up around 30% of the country's GDP. The U.N. has flown in at least $3.8 billion to fund international aid organizations during the past three years. The United States remains the largest donor, sending more than $3 billion in assistance since the Taliban takeover. But the U.S. watchdog assigned to follow the money says a lot is taxed or diverted. “The further the cash gets away from the source, the less transparency there is,” said Chris Borgeson, the deputy inspector general for audits and inspections at the [Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-fraudulent-ngos-us-watchdog-sigar-b3234372a0e80e6e9fadb04b3b1b06df). The Taliban also apply vigorous taxation. In 2023, they collected around $2.96 billion. But that’s not much in a country with [huge and complex needs](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-aid-un-economy-a903b70f57842d169d66d68203ade49f), and the Taliban don’t have the means to stimulate the economy. The central bank can’t print money. Cash is printed abroad. Interest transactions are banned because interest is forbidden in Islam, and banks aren't lending. The Taliban can't borrow money because they're not recognized as the government, and international banking is cut off. [Natural disasters](https://apnews.com/hub/2023-herat-earthquake/) and the flow of [Afghans fleeing](https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-afghanistan-migrants-deportations-taliban-9c10f3988d67444ea0642885185004c6) Pakistan under pressure to return home have underlined Afghanistan's reliance on foreign aid to meet essential needs. It’s a big risk if the international community can't send that kind of aid in the future. “We know Afghanistan will start receiving less money from the international community," said Muhammad Waheed, World Bank senior economist for Afghanistan. Another significant blow to the economy has been the [Taliban's ban](https://apnews.com/article/taliban-banned-afghanistan-girls-school-e49d168375edc1ef5df97fec301af662) on female education and most employment, removing half of Afghanistan's population from the [spending and taxpaying](https://apnews.com/article/taliban-beauty-salons-ban-womens-rights-afghanistan-06f401ddb19dc4176f0907f144995a99) that can strengthen the economy. In addition, the Taliban's [anti-narcotics policy](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-opium-production-farmers-un-poppy-85c25084b559c566a7a7b59fd038ba37) “has [wrecked](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-poppy-islamic-state-bombing-fbdc21002213a87809b6e8476a8b145f) the livelihood of thousands of farmers,” said Bahiss, warning that “just because the population is complacent right now, it won’t stay that way.” Afghanistan is a small country in a neighborhood of giants, Bahiss said, and there’s a regional consensus that it’s better to have a stable Afghanistan. But support from the West, especially the U.S., is key to unlocking billions in frozen assets and lifting sanctions. The Taliban's links with [China](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-china-ambassador-a31e0a5a435cac9286abddd2e3a210c7) and Russia are important because they are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. They have also occupied seats on the United Nations’ [Credentials Committee](https://apnews.com/article/un-credentials-committee-representation-who-gets-to-speak-ca2afb8b6155f95eaa9ac4d53b265a9b), which decides whether to withhold or bestow legitimacy on a government. For now, Gulf nations are engaging with the Taliban to hedge their bets. “Qatar likes to be seen as leading mediation efforts and the (United Arab Emirates) has been taking that away, especially through [supporting international aviation](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-politics-abu-dhabi-united-arab-emirates-0ac72c95852ae6e302b3ff45f0b95808),” Bahiss said. A meeting this year between the leader of the [UAE and a Taliban official facing a U.S. bounty](https://apnews.com/article/emirates-afghanistan-taliban-sirajuddin-haqqani-5a2c407eee5b0d37e4cf37511b550232) over attacks highlighted the growing global divide on how to deal with the Taliban. The Taliban are keen to stress how effective they are as a government and to show the country is peaceful and that services are being provided, said Weeda Mehran, an international relations lecturer at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Although Afghanistan has [lost dozens of media outlets](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-media-freedom-d49b156688dd0ddad2e632c6fd6fe641) due to a Taliban crackdown, the country’s rulers have grasped the impact of social media. Their content is intended to normalize their approach to Islamic law, which is where Arabic-language messaging is important. “It’s a watered-down and whitewashed account of what is happening in the country,” Mehran said. The Taliban have secured Afghanistan through checkpoints, armored vehicles and hundreds of thousands of fighters. But the country is not safe, especially for women and minorities, as civilian casualties from suicide bombings and [other attacks](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-spain-tourists-killed-bamiyan-82dc6e766cd8f60637ab42e7fc65e316) persist. The Islamic State group has repeatedly targeted the mostly Shiite [Dasht-e-Barchi](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-kabul-explosion-shiite-extremism-2125cc22b534704f9b71708fbe64865e) neighborhood in Kabul. The police, slow to confirm attacks and casualty numbers, tell the media that investigations are underway but don't say if anyone is brought to justice. A newer phenomenon is the [anxiety experienced by Afghan women](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-women-restrictions-4c4468d1df2cf3309ff2ac2724ad59fc) as the Taliban [enforce decrees](https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-vice-virtue-ministry-un-report-98c11cdfa5e12b9e0df9e5c085b622e8) on clothing, work and travel and the requirement to have a male guardian when traveling. “A message for the mainstream media is that it’s OK and there is good security in Afghanistan under the Taliban,” Mehran said. “My argument would be, well, whose security are we talking about?”

The 300-plus reported cases of Afghan women being killed by men since the Taliban seized power are just “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the true scale of gender-based violence in [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan), according to new data analysis. Open-source investigators at the [Centre of Information Resilience](https://www.info-res.org/faq)’s [Afghan Witness](https://www.afghanwitness.org/) project combed through social media and news sites to record 332 reported cases of femicide since the [Taliban took Kabul](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/15/the-fall-of-kabul-a-20-year-mission-collapses-in-a-single-day) on 15 August 2021. The [analysis](https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2024/08/14/240814_Erasure_of_Women.pdf), which is one of the first attempts to try to collect data on the levels of sexual and physical violence against women in Afghanistan, also found 840 women and girls had been subject to gender-based violence from 1 January 2022 – when Afghan Witness began collating data – to 30 June this year, almost one a day. More than half of the reported cases said that [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) officials were responsible. Analysis of crimes allegedly perpetrated by the Taliban revealed 115 incidents of sexual violence, including forced marriage, sexual slavery, assault and rape. Another 73 incidents concerned non-sexual violence and torture, while 113 involved the reported arrests of women, many for flouting the regime’s repressive policies on women and girls, which include forbidding them to travel significant distances without a male guardian. The Taliban’s shutdown of most independent media outlets and the widespread restriction and persecution of journalists – as well as continuing political repression and online intimidation – means that the number of cases reported is likely to be a vast underestimation of the true scale of death and violence inflicted on Afghan women, according to David Osborn, the project director of Afghan Witness. “What we have collected is only the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “\[It is\] more and more difficult for Afghan women to speak out and for us to document gender-based violence and the impact of Taliban rule on women and girls.” In the three years since seizing power from the US-backed government, the Taliban have imposed what human rights groups are calling a [“gender apartheid”](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/06/gender-apartheid-must-be-recognized-international-law/#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20apartheid%20on,the%20Taliban%20in%20the%201990s.) on Afghanistan’s 14 million women and girls, excluding them from almost every aspect of public life and denying them access to the justice system. Women and girls are blocked from attending secondary school; banned from almost every form of paid employment; prevented from walking in public parks, attending gyms or [beauty salons](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/01/afghanistan-taliban-repression-women-beauticians-secret-salons-hair-makeup); and told to comply with a strict dress code. [ Video appears to show gang-rape of Afghan woman in a Taliban jail ](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/03/video-appears-to-shows-gang-rape-of-woman-in-a-taliban-jail) The Taliban have also [announced](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror) the reintroduction of the public flogging and [stoning of women for adultery](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror). A [UN survey last December](https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2023/12/situation-of-afghan-women-q4) found that 76% of Afghan women and girls who responded classed their mental health since the Taliban seized power as “bad” or “very bad”, reporting insomnia, depression, anxiety, loss of appetite and headaches as a result of their trauma. [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/15/hundreds-of-cases-of-femicide-recorded-in-afghanistan-since-taliban-takeover-are-tip-of-the-iceberg#img-2) A Taliban guard stands by as an Afghan woman waits to receive a winter kit from Unicef at Fayzabad in Badakhshan province, 25 February 2024. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images In response to [repressive](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/08/halt-taliban-repression-afghan-women-girls-education) Taliban policies, some women have continued to resist, staging a series of street protests in Kabul and other major cities. Last month, the Guardian [published accounts](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/03/video-appears-to-shows-gang-rape-of-woman-in-a-taliban-jail) from female protesters who described how they were beaten, abused or jailed for speaking out – one video viewed by the Guardian appeared to show a female protester being raped inside a Taliban jail. Afghan Witness’s open-source data analysis also chronicles how public protests against the Taliban regime have declined significantly over the past three years. The research shows that in the months after the 2021 Taliban takeover, 88% of protests were held outdoors. This dropped to 49% in 2022 and continued to fall. Now 94% of demonstrations are held online, often with locations and identities hidden. The Taliban also appear to have tightened their enforcement of certain restrictions over the past year. Afghan Witness verified footage of women being arrested “en masse” in Kabul in January 2024, allegedly for failing to comply with hijab rules. Some young women who said that they were arrested for “bad hijab’’ [also say](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/25/afghan-women-girls-accuse-taliban-sexual-assault-after-arrests-bad-hijab-suicide) they were subject to violence and sexual assault while in detention. * _Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, [Rape Crisis](https://rapecrisis.org.uk/) offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in [Scotland](https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/), or 0800 0246 991 in [Northern Ireland](https://rapecrisisni.org.uk/). In the US, [Rainn](https://www.rainn.org/) offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at [1800Respect](https://www.1800respect.org.au/) (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at [ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html](http://ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html)_

New [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) laws that prohibit women from speaking or showing their faces outside their homes have been condemned by the UN and met with horror by human rights groups. The Taliban published a host of new “vice and virtue” laws last week, approved by their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which state that women must completely veil their bodies – including their faces – in thick clothing at all times in public to avoid leading men into temptation and vice. Women’s voices are also deemed to be potential instruments of vice and so will not be allowed to be heard in public under the new restrictions. Women must also not be heard singing or reading aloud, even from inside their houses. “Whenever an adult woman leaves her home out of necessity, she is obliged to conceal her voice, face, and body,” the new laws state. Men will also be required to cover their bodies from their navels to their knees when they are outside their homes. From now on, Afghan women are also not allowed to look directly at men they are not related to by blood or marriage, and taxi drivers will be punished if they agree to drive a woman who is without a suitable male escort. Women or girls who fail to comply can be detained and punished in a manner deemed appropriate by Taliban officials charged with upholding the new laws. The restrictions have been condemned by [Roza Otunbayeva](https://apnews.com/hub/roza-otunbayeva), the special UN’s representative for Afghanistan, who has said they extend the “intolerable restrictions” on the rights of women and girls already imposed by the [Taliban since they took power in August 2021](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/16/taliban-declares-war-is-over-in-afghanistan-as-us-led-forces-exit-kabul). “It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions,” [she said in a statement on Sunday](https://unama.unmissions.org/statement-special-representative-secretary-general-and-head-unama-0). “It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.” Speaking to Rukhshana Media, Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, the president of the Afghan Lawyers Association, said that the new laws contradicted Afghanistan’s domestic and international legal obligations. “From a legal standpoint this document faces serious issues,” he said. “It contradicts the fundamental principles of Islam \[where\] the promotion of virtue has never been defined through force, coercion, or tyranny. “This document not only violates Afghanistan’s domestic laws but also broadly contravenes all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” “The Taliban government does not have any sort of legitimacy and these new edicts designed to further erase and suppress woman are an indication of their hatred towards women,” says Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan human rights activist who was the first woman vice-president of the Afghan parliament. “When they say women cannot speak in public as they regard women’s voices as a form of intimacy it is incredibly frightening yet the whole world acts like this is normal. There have been very few reactions of comments to what is happening and the Taliban are emboldened by this indifference. It is not only women but all human beings they are targeting. They must be held accountable.” Shukria Barakzai, a former Afghan parliamentarian who was Afghanistan’s ambassador to Norway, agreed the international community’s silence on the Taliban’s oppression of Afghanistan’s 14 million women and girls had played its part in the criminalisation of women’s bodies and voices. “It is concerning that international organisations, particularly the [United Nations](https://www.theguardian.com/world/unitednations) and the European Union, instead of standing against these inhumane practices, are trying to normalise relations with the Taliban,” she said. “They are, in a way, whitewashing this group, disregarding the fact that the Taliban are committing widespread human rights violations.” In the three years since seizing power from the US-backed government, the Taliban have imposed what human rights groups are calling a [“gender apartheid”](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/06/gender-apartheid-must-be-recognized-international-law/#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20apartheid%20on,the%20Taliban%20in%20the%201990s.), excluding women and girls from almost every aspect of public life and denying them access to the justice system. Prior to the new “vice and virtue” laws, women and girls were already blocked from attending secondary school; banned from almost every form of paid employment; prevented from walking in public parks, attending gyms or [beauty salons](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/01/afghanistan-taliban-repression-women-beauticians-secret-salons-hair-makeup); and told to comply with a strict dress code. Earlier this year, the Taliban also announced the reintroduction of the public flogging and [stoning of women for adultery](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/28/taliban-edict-to-resume-stoning-women-to-death-met-with-horror). The Taliban have been approached for comment.

EPA Mixed martial arts had been growing in popularity before the Taliban government took over in 2021 Afghanistan's Taliban government has banned mixed martial arts (MMA), saying it is incompatibile with Islamic law. An official from the Taliban's sports authority, speaking to local broadcaster TOLOnews on Tuesday, said that MMA was too violent and posed a risk of death. The order was passed down by Afghanistan's morality police in the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. It comes after an investigation into the sport's compliance with Islamic law, or Sharia. "It was found that the sport is problematic with respect to Sharia and it has many aspects which are contradictory to the teachings of Islam," the Taliban's General Directorate on Physical Education and Sport said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency. "That’s why this decision has been made." MMA is a popular sport among young people in Afghanistan, and garnered a passionate local fan base in the two decades leading up to the Taliban's return to power in 2021. The Mixed Martial Arts Federation was founded in 2008, while the Afghanistan Fighting Championship (AFC) and Truly Grand Fighting Championship (TGFC) held dozens of fights. Although it does not seem to have been specifically named in official decrees, MMA has been under severe pressure ever since the Taliban took over. Competitions were effectively outlawed in 2021 when the Taliban introduced legislation prohibiting "face-punching". Some fighters also complained of threats and harassment from Taliban officials, according to interviews published in MMA publications. Yet the authorities did appear to soften their stance on some occasions. In 2022, leading fighter Ahmad Wali Hotak was able to hold a press conference in the capital Kabul to announce an upcoming fight, which he won in Russia. On his return to Afghanistan, he was met by government figures who posed for photographs. Most competitors, however, had long left the country before this latest announcement. MMA has not yet been recognised by the International Olympic Committee, primarily due to safety concerns. Four of the 11 Afghan who competed in sports at the Paris Games, on either the national or the Refugee Olympic teams, were originally martial arts athletes.

No education beyond the sixth grade. No employment in most workplaces and no access to public spaces like parks, gyms and salons. No long-distance travel if unaccompanied by a male relative. No leaving home if not covered from head to toe. And now, the sound of a woman’s voice outside the home has been outlawed in Afghanistan, according to a 114-page manifesto released late last month that codifies all of the Taliban government’s decrees restricting women’s rights. A large majority of the prohibitions have been in place for much of the Taliban’s three years in power, slowly squeezing Afghan women out of public life. But for many women across the country, the release of the document feels like a nail in the coffin for their dreams and aspirations. Some had clung to the hope that the authorities might still reverse the most severe limitations, after Taliban officials suggested that high schools and universities would eventually reopen for women after they were shuttered. For many women, that hope is now dashed. “We are going back to the first reign of the Taliban, when women did not have the right to leave the house,” said Musarat Faramarz, 23, a woman in Baghlan Province, in northern Afghanistan, referring to the movement’s rule from 1996 to 2001. “I thought that the Taliban had changed, but we are experiencing the previous dark times again.” Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021, the authorities have systematically rolled back the rights that women — particularly those in less conservative urban centers — had won during the 20-year U.S. occupation. Today, Afghanistan is the most restrictive country in the world for women, and the only one that bans high school education for girls, experts say. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fwomen-taliban-prohibitions-afghanistan.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fwomen-taliban-prohibitions-afghanistan.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fwomen-taliban-prohibitions-afghanistan.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fwomen-taliban-prohibitions-afghanistan.html).

The American actor [Meryl Streep](https://www.theguardian.com/film/merylstreep) has said that “a squirrel has more rights” than an Afghan girl under the current Taliban regime. [Streep](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/31/meryl-streep-criticises-phrase-toxic-masculinity), who attended an event on the situation facing women and girls in Afghanistan as part of the UN general assembly in New York, called the Taliban’s draconian restrictions on women’s lives a form of “suffocation”. “A squirrel has more rights than a girl in [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan) today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban,” Streep said on Monday. “A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not, and a woman may not in public.” In the three years since the [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) have taken control of Afghanistan, women have seen their rights and freedoms systematically stripped away. They have been barred from most forms of paid employment, prevented from walking in public parks and girls have been stopped from going to secondary school or university. Last month, the Taliban published [a new set of “vice and virtue”](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/26/taliban-bar-on-afghan-women-speaking-in-public-un-afghanistan) laws that said women must not leave the house without being fully covered and could not sing or raise their voices in public. Streep spoke alongside Afghan activists and human rights defenders, who called on the UN to act to protect and restore the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. Asila Wardak, a leader of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan, said that the system of what has been described as [“gender apartheid”](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/08/campaign-calls-for-gender-apartheid-to-be-under-international-law) being imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan, was not just an Afghan issue, but part of the “global fight against extremism”. Streep’s comments have been widely shared on social media by human rights activists, who praised the actor for using her fame and platform to [amplify the voices of Afghan women](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/commentisfree/2023/sep/06/women-in-afghanistan-fighting-an-unequal-war-against-taliban-we-need-support). A campaign for the Taliban’s treatment of women to be [recognised as gender apartheid](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/20/the-guardian-view-on-afghanistan-gender-apartheid-dont-embolden-the-taliban) and a crime against humanity [was launched](https://endgenderapartheid.today/) last year in an attempt to hold the group to account. Activists hope that codifying gender apartheid in Afghanistan under international law will be discussed and agreed at the UN general assembly over the coming weeks.

Four countries on Wednesday accused the Taliban of “gross and systematic” violations of the U.N. treaty on women’s rights in Afghanistan, saying they would take the group to the world’s highest court because of its harsh, widely criticized restrictions on women. The plan was described by foreign ministers from Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands at the United Nations in New York, where the General Assembly was meeting on Wednesday. The ministers said they intended to take the Taliban to the International Court of Justice, the top U.N. court. The treaty, regarded as an international bill of rights for women, was signed in 1979 and includes most of the world’s nations, including Afghanistan, which joined in 2003. (The United States is one of the few countries that has not ratified it.) Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has systematically rolled back many of the rights that women won during the 20-year U.S. occupation. Last month, the Taliban released a 114-page manifesto [codifying its restrictions](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/world/asia/women-taliban-prohibitions-afghanistan.html) on women, which include barring them from [secondary schools](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/world/asia/afghanistan-girls-schools-taliban.html) or [universities](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-women-education.html), [working for aid organizations](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/24/world/asia/taliban-women-ngos-afghanistan.html) and [traveling any significant distance](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban.html) without a male relative. Human rights monitors [say](https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5284-situation-human-rights-afghanistan-report-special-rapporteur) Afghanistan is the most restrictive country in the world for women, and the only country in the world where girls are barred from education beyond the sixth grade. Taliban authorities have dismissed criticism of the restrictions and defended its policies, saying they are grounded in the Islamic teachings that govern the country. At the United Nations on Wednesday, the four foreign ministers condemned what they called “the gross and systematic human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan, particularly the gender-based discrimination of women and girls.” Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Ftaliban-afghanistan-womens-rights.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Ftaliban-afghanistan-womens-rights.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Ftaliban-afghanistan-womens-rights.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F25%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Ftaliban-afghanistan-womens-rights.html).

The [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) are to be taken to the international court of justice for gender discrimination by Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands in a groundbreaking move. The move announced at the UN general assembly is the first time the ICJ, based in The Hague, has been used by one country to take another to court over gender discrimination. The case is being brought under the [convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women](https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/#:~:text=The%20Convention%20on%20the%20Elimination,bill%20of%20rights%20for%20women.), which was adopted by the general assembly in 1979 and brought into force in 1981. Afghanistan, prior to the 2021 Taliban takeover of the country, ratified the convention in 2003. In the first legal move of this type since the Taliban took over, it is expected that Afghanistan would have six months to provide a response before the ICJ would hold a hearing and probably propose provisional measures. Advocates of the course argue that even if the Taliban refuse to acknowledge the court’s authority, an ICJ ruling would have a deterrent effect on other states seeking to normalise diplomatic relations with the Taliban. Signatories to the ICJ are expected to abide by its rulings. There has been concern that the UN has held talks with the Taliban in which women’s issues have been excluded from the agenda in an attempt to persuade the Taliban to attend. The initiative has the support of three female foreign ministers: Penny Wong from Australia, Annalena Baerbock from Germany, and Mélanie Joly from Canada. It is also being backed by the Dutch foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp. In the latest round of suppression in Afghanistan the Taliban have decreed that Afghan women are prohibited from speaking in public, prompting an online campaign in which Afghan women sing in protest. At a UN side event this week the actor [Meryl Streep](https://www.theguardian.com/film/merylstreep) said: “A female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban. A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not.” The countries involved in the litigation say they are willing to negotiate with the Taliban in good faith to end gender discrimination, but will, if the necessary stages prove fruitless, seek a hearing at the ICJ. Last month, the Taliban published a new set of vice and virtue laws that said women must not leave the house without being fully covered and could not sing or raise their voices in public. Streep spoke alongside Afghan activists and human rights defenders, who called on the UN to act to protect and restore the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan Asila Wardak, a leader of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan, said that the system of what has been described as gender apartheid being imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan, was not just an Afghan issue, but part of the “global fight against extremism”. Akila Radhakrishnan, strategic legal advisor on gender justice at the Atlantic Council thinktank, said: “This case, by centering violations of women’s rights not only has the potential to deliver much needed justice to the women and girls of Afghanistan, but also forge new precedents for gender justice.”

For most of the three years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, their [erasure of women’s rights](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/world/asia/women-taliban-prohibitions-afghanistan.html) appeared to be setting them on course for near-total isolation in the world. Western and Islamic countries alike condemned the group’s most extreme strictures, particularly on girls’ education. Messages by Taliban officials that their government was eager to engage with the world were ignored. To this day, no country officially recognizes the Taliban as the lawful authorities in Afghanistan. But in recent months, the political winds have begun to shift in the Taliban’s favor. Dozens of countries have welcomed Taliban diplomats. Some have sent high-ranking officials to Kabul to build diplomatic ties and secure trade and investment deals. Taliban officials have won temporary reprieves from travel bans. There has even been talk of removing the group from international terrorist lists. The diplomatic activity reflects a subtle but significant shift toward normalizing the Taliban as political leaders and away from treating them as insurgents. It also reflects a growing consensus among world leaders that the Taliban government is here to stay. In January, China became the first country to formally welcome a Taliban diplomat as Afghanistan’s ambassador — a title typically reserved for envoys whose countries are formally recognized on the world stage. The United Arab Emirates followed suit in August. Many experts saw the moves as paving the way for the Taliban’s government to earn formal recognition eventually from the two countries. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-diplomacy.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-diplomacy.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-diplomacy.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-diplomacy.html).

EPA Haqqani, pictured in Kabul last month - the US had offered a $5m reward for information leading to his arrest Taliban refugee minister Khalil Haqqani has been killed in a suicide bombing inside the interior ministry in Kabul, the movement's most high profile casualty since it returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Six others died in the blast as Haqqani was leaving his office, interior ministry sources said. Khalil Haqqani was a top member of a powerful faction in the Taliban called the Haqqani network, and was designated a global terrorist by the US. The Islamic State group (IS) later claimed responsibility for the attack. According to a report issued by IS's "news agency" Amaq, an IS militant waited outside the minister's office and detonated explosives as he walked out. A Taliban spokesperson confirmed that Haqqani was killed by IS, Reuters news agency reported. Khalil Haqqani's brother Jalaluddin was a famous guerrilla leader who fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and founded the Haqqani network which was behind many attacks during the Taliban's 20-year insurgency. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the minister's nephew and son of Jalaluddin, is the current interior minister in the Taliban government. While the overall security situation in Afghanistan has improved since the Taliban gained complete control with the full withdrawal of foreign troops in 2021, there continue to be dozens of bombings and suicide attacks in the country each year. Many have been claimed by [Islamic State Khorasan Province](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58333533), or ISKP, the regional affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group, a major rival of the Taliban.

 ISLAMABAD — A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, officials said, in the most brazen attack on a member of the Taliban inner circle since they returned to power three years ago. The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil Haqqani, officials said. His last official photo showed him at a meeting chaired by the deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, earlier Wednesday. Khalil Haqqani is the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister who leads a powerful network within the Taliban. Haqqani was the most high-profile casualty of a bombing in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and the first Cabinet member to be killed since the takeover. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The government's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a post on X that Haqqani's death was a great loss and described him as a tireless holy warrior who spent his life defending Islam. Haqqani's killing may be the biggest blow to the Taliban since their return to power given his stature and influence, according to Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center's South Asia Institute. It also comes at a time when the Taliban have staked their legitimacy on restoring peace after decades of war, he added. "The killing of a top Haqqani leader inside one of its own ministries undercuts that core narrative," he said. Former President Hamid Karzai and Haqqani's nephew, Anas, also paid tribute to the minister. Taliban security personnel blocked the road leading to the blast site and barred filming and photography. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar condemned the killing as a "terrorist attack." "Pakistan unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," Dar said, adding his government was in touch with Kabul to get further details. The Islamic State group's affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has carried out previous attacks across Afghanistan. In early September, one of its suicide bombers in a southwestern Kabul neighborhood killed at least six people, wounding 13 others. But suicide attacks have become increasingly rare since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Such attacks have mostly targeted minority Shiite Muslims, especially in the capital. Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group's South Asia program, said the timing of the assault was interesting as it came days after Sirajuddin Haqqani gave a speech appearing to criticize the Taliban leader for his authoritarian decision-making and lack of consensus building, especially around more controversial edicts on women and girls. While the timing could fuel speculation that the suicide bombing was an inside job, Bahiss said he didn't expect a civil war among the Taliban. "They don't want to ruin their hold on power. They are the most unified political force in Afghanistan and have been able to manage their differences." Bahiss said he anticipated an outpouring of sympathy and support for Sirajuddin Haqqani and that this could provide an opportunity to strengthen the Haqqani network further.

An oasis stretched far into the desert, a vast sea of emerald stalks and scarlet poppy flowers that grew to the horizon. The Taliban operated openly, running a social experiment unlike anything in the country. Tens — then hundreds — of thousands of people flocked here to escape the war and grow poppy, fleeing the American efforts to wipe out the crop. The Taliban opened a trauma hospital to treat their wounded and earned a fortune, not just from opium, but also from methamphetamines and taxes on goods moving in and out of Afghanistan, bringing them millions upon millions of dollars every month. During the war, this remote district became a laboratory for a future Taliban state, providing money for the war and a sanctuary for the men fighting it. All that has changed. The Taliban boom town is rapidly going bust. The same insurgents who embraced opium to help finance their war have put an end to it, ordering a ban that has all but cleared Afghanistan of poppy and other illicit drugs. What the United States and its allies failed to do in two decades of war, the Taliban has managed in two years of peace. In an area where poppy once dominated the landscape, barely a stalk remains. Map locates Bakwa, Afghanistan and the Helmand Province.  By The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F18%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-opium-heroin-taliban.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F18%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-opium-heroin-taliban.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F18%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-opium-heroin-taliban.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F18%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-opium-heroin-taliban.html).

The Taliban were inching closer, encroaching on land that had once seemed secure, the American officer warned. Four of his men had just been killed, and he needed Afghans willing to fight back. “Who will stand up?” the officer implored a crowd of 150 Afghan elders. The people in Kunduz Province were largely supportive of the Americans and opposed to the Taliban. But recruiting police officers was slow going and, by the summer of 2009, local officials and the American officer — a lieutenant colonel from the Georgia National Guard — landed on a risky approach: hiring private militias. A murmur of discontent passed through the crowd. “I don’t think this is a good idea,” an old man stood up and said, according to four people at the meeting. “We have seen this before. The militias will become a bigger problem than the Taliban.” Over the grumbling, a onetime warlord named Mohammad Omar sprung up and denounced the others as cowards. “I will fight the Taliban!” he shouted. The gathering in Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, is not registered in any official history of the war. But people across the province say this seemingly unremarkable moment reshaped the conflict in ways that Washington has never truly understood. Map locates the Kunduz Province and the city of Kunduz in Afthanistan. The map also shows the Khanabad District.  By The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-us-militias.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-us-militias.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-us-militias.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F12%2F24%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan-taliban-us-militias.html).

Airstrikes by Pakistani warplanes inside Afghanistan have intensified tensions in recent days in an already volatile region. Once-close ties between Pakistan’s leaders and the Afghan Taliban have frayed, and violent cross-border exchanges have become alarmingly frequent. Officially, the Pakistani government has been tight-lipped about the strikes in Afghanistan on Dec. 24. But security officials privately said that the Pakistani military had targeted hide-outs of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant group also known as the T.T.P. or the Pakistani Taliban that has carried out a series of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. The security officials said that several top militants from the Pakistani Taliban had died in the airstrikes, which came days after 16 Pakistani military personnel were ambushed and killed in a border district. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan said that dozens of civilians had died in the strikes, including Pakistani refugee families. The group condemned the strikes as a blatant violation of Afghan sovereignty, and said it had retaliated by conducting attacks on “several points” inside Pakistan. Officials in Pakistan have not officially commented on those attacks. But they reported that they had thwarted a cross-border incursion by militants they said had been facilitated by the Taliban authorities. The airstrikes were the Pakistani military’s third major operation on Afghan soil since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, and the [second this year](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/world/asia/pakistan-airstrikes-afghanistan-taliban.html) alone. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F01%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fpakistan-afghanistan-taliban.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F01%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fpakistan-afghanistan-taliban.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F01%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fpakistan-afghanistan-taliban.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F01%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fpakistan-afghanistan-taliban.html).

Getty Images Malala Yousafzai addressed a summit on girls' education in Muslim communities in Pakistan Malala Yousafzai has urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban government in Afghanistan and its repressive policies for girls and women. "Simply put, the Taliban in Afghanistan do not see women as human beings," she told an international summit hosted by Pakistan on girls education in Islamic countries. Ms Yousafzai told Muslim leaders there was "nothing Islamic" about the Taliban's policies which include preventing girls and women from accessing education and work. The 27-year-old was evacuated from Pakistan at 15 after being shot in the head by a Pakistan Taliban gunman who targeted her for speaking out about girls' education. Addressing the conference in Islamabad on Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said she was "overwhelmed and happy" to be back in her home country. She has only returned to Pakistan a handful of times since the 2012 attack, after [making her first return in 2018.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43603844) On Sunday, she said the Taliban government had again created "a system of gender apartheid". The Taliban were "punishing women and girls who dare to break their obscure laws by beating them up, detaining them and harming them", she said. She added that the government "cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification" but actually "go against everything our faith stands for". The Taliban government declined to respond to a BBC request for comment on the advocate's remarks. They have previously said they respect women's rights in accordance with their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law. The Taliban government leaders were invited to the summit run by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Pakistan government and the Muslim World League, but did not attend. Conference attendees included dozens of ministers and scholars from Muslim-majority countries who advocated for girls' education. Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, its government has not been formally recognised by a single foreign government. Western powers have said their policies restricting women need to change. Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prevented from accessing secondary and higher education - some one and a half million have been deliberately deprived of schooling. "Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are completely banned from education beyond grade six," said Ms Yousafzai on Sunday. The Taliban has repeatedly promised they would be re-admitted to school once a number of issues were resolved - including ensuring the curriculum was "Islamic". This has yet to happen. In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively closing off their last route to further education in the country. Ms Yousafzai said girls education was at risk in multiple countries. She said in Gaza, Israel had "decimated the entire education system". She urged those present "call out the worst violations" of girls' right to education and pointed out that crises in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan meant "the entire future of girls is stolen".

It was a normal summer morning in July last year when 19-year-old Samira\* made her way to the carpet-weaving shop where she worked in Kabul to pick up her wages. She had no way of knowing that in just a few hours, her life as she knew it would be over. She would end the day in a [Taliban](https://www.theguardian.com/world/taliban) police station, a victim of forced marriage with her entire future decided for her by a group of strangers with guns. That morning, as she waited alone outside her employer’s shop to collect her salary while he ate his lunch, the Taliban’s “morality police” were on patrol nearby. “I had to wait because the workshop was an hour’s walk from home,” she says. “The shop was near a main road. Unluckily, I was sitting right outside the door when the Taliban passed by and suddenly noticed me.” The Taliban officials roam the streets enforcing the Islamic fundamentalists’ strict interpretation of sharia religious law, such as bans on women [speaking or showing their faces](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/26/taliban-bar-on-afghan-women-speaking-in-public-un-afghanistan) outside their homes, or travelling without a male relative. They can make decisions about people’s lives and liberties on the spot, say human rights activists, including forcing them to marry. > Taliban officials feel entitled to make decisions about people’s lives … they are coming up with rules on the spot Shaharzad Akbar Under Taliban rule, girls aged over 12 are not allowed to attend school, so carpet-weaving is one of the few areas where women and girls deprived of education can still work. More than 20 women and young girls along with Samira worked for the carpet-weaving business, located in the basement of an unfinished building in a poverty-stricken neighbourhood. They earned about 7,000 Afghanis (£80) a month. That day, Samira says, she was “frozen with fear” as they approached her. “They asked, ‘Who is this man \[her employer\] to you? Why are you alone? What are you doing here? How can you allow such a thing? What are you doing with a man who isn’t your relative?’” The Taliban officers arrested Samira and Mohammad\*, 42, on charges of an immoral relationship and contacted both of their families. [](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/13/afghanistan-women-taliban-forced-marriage-morality-police-kabul-human-rights#img-2) Weaving carpets is one of the few forms of work still open to women and girls. Photograph: Atif Aryan/Stockimo/Alamy “No matter how many questions they asked, I had no answers because they kept insulting me with hurtful words and curses. They pushed us into their car and took us to the police station.” Samira says that out of fear, she did not give the Taliban her father’s phone number, so her sister Yasmin\* and her sister’s husband came to the police station instead. Fearing for the teenager’s safety and worried she might be imprisoned, they told the Taliban that Samira and Mohammad were engaged. Mohammad’s family, who were also frightened, said the same thing. Without any further investigation, the Taliban forced Samira to marry her employer, a man who already had a wife and two children. His eldest son is the same age as Samira. The marriage was officiated at the station that same day by the Taliban police, who have been given the authority to perform marriage rites since the Islamists’ takeover in 2021. The only witnesses from their respective families were Samira’s sister and brother-in-law, and Mohammad’s father. Shaharzad Akbar, director of the Afghan human rights organisation Rawadari, says Samira’s story is not uncommon, but many women remain fearful of coming forward to share their story. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/13/afghanistan-women-taliban-forced-marriage-morality-police-kabul-human-rights#EmailSignup-skip-link-14) Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion > I asked him to let her come back now the Taliban were gone, but no one would listen, not even my mother Yasmin “\[In the minds of the ‘morality police’\] they have to do something when they find a man and a woman together,” she says. “Women are not supposed to be working with men and so this forced marriage is their solution. “The Taliban police’s power to marry two people is not something that is clear in law. Taliban officials feel entitled to make decisions about people’s lives and liberties and there are no consequences – they are coming up with rules on the spot,” says Akbar.After the marriage ceremony, the Taliban took them both to Mohammad’s house, but Samira’s nightmare did not end there. When her father, uncle and older brothers learned what had happened, they broke into Mohammad’s house with sticks, shovels and other tools and beat Samira. Samira does not even remember which of her relatives hit her with the shovel. The marks from the wounds on her forehead are still visible six months later, she says. Yasmin says she had intended to take Samira home before her father had arrived and had to tell Samira she could not now return home. Her father told her: “My honour is gone. How can I face the neighbours and the community?” Yasmin tried to persuade her father but to no avail. “I apologised repeatedly, telling him that Samira hadn’t done anything wrong and that it was a misunderstanding. I asked him to let her come back now that the Taliban were gone, but no one would listen, not even my mother. “Because of one word \[engaged\], my sister’s life was ruined,” she says. Before being [barred from school](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/20/taliban-ban-afghan-women-university-education), Samira says she had dreams of becoming an engineer, despite the mockery of her brothers, who told her: “What does a girl have to do with becoming an engineer? When you grow up, your father will find you a husband.” Samira, who remains living with Mohammad and his first wife, says she is now struggling with depression and that the only place where she is allowed to go is her sister Yasmin’s house. Neither her father nor her mother will speak to her. She says the men in her family are “no different from the Taliban”. “Without knowing the full story, without even asking me why I had gone to the factory’s office at that time of day, they feel entitled to call me a prostitute, just like the Taliban did, and enforce the marriage between Mohammad and me.” As well as frequent reports of the forced marriage of girls and women, Rawadari says [1,202 men and women](https://rawadari.org/140820241853.htm/) have been subjected to cruel punishments, including public execution, since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021. A spokesperson for the Taliban said: “This claim is incorrect. No organisation or individual can force any sister into marriage. So far, this matter has not been brought to our attention, but if it is, it will definitely be investigated. Such a claim is not true.” However, Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on human rights in [Afghanistan](https://www.theguardian.com/world/afghanistan), said there had been a worsening trend of forced and child marriages in Afghanistan, despite a Taliban order in December 2021 that banned forced marriages. “Many Afghans have informed me that forced and child marriages still occur widely with impunity, including with Taliban members, especially in rural and remote areas. “The ban on girls’ education above grade 6 increases exposure of girls to abuse, including early marriage. These marriages often lead to more suffering for women and girls, including marital rape, abuse, forced pregnancy and forced labour.” _\* Names have been changed to protect their identities_

MEA India India's foreign secretary Vikram Misri met acting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai India's latest diplomatic outreach to Afghanistan's Taliban government signals a marked shift in how it sees the geopolitical reality in the region. This comes more than three years after India suffered a major strategic and diplomatic blow when [Kabul fell to the Taliban](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58223231). Two decades of investment in Afghanistan's democracy - through military training, scholarships and landmark projects like building its new parliament - were swiftly undone. The collapse also paved the way for greater influence from regional rivals, particularly Pakistan and China, eroding India's strategic foothold and raising new security concerns. Yet, last week signalled a shift. India's top diplomat Vikram Misri met Taliban acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai - the highest level of engagement since Kabul's fall. The Taliban government expressed interest in strengthening political and economic ties with India, calling it a "significant regional and economic power". Talks reportedly focused on expanding trade and leveraging Iran's Chabahar port, which India has been developing to bypass Pakistan's Karachi and Gwadar ports. How significant is this meeting? Delhi has now given the Taliban leadership the de facto legitimacy it has sought from the international community since its return to power, Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think-tank, told me. "The fact that this treatment is coming from India - a nation that never previously had friendly relations with the Taliban, makes this all the more significant, and also a diplomatic triumph for the Taliban," he says. AFP Days before talks between India and the Taliban, Pakistani airstrikes killed dozens in eastern Afghanistan Since the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, countries have adopted varied approaches toward the regime, balancing diplomatic engagement with concerns over human rights and security. China, for example, has gone far: it has actively engaged with the Taliban government, focusing on security and economic interests, and even has [an ambassador](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-66805404) in the country. * [Taliban welcomes first new Chinese ambassador since takeover](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-66805404) No country has formally recognised the Taliban government, but up to 40 countries maintain some form of diplomatic or informal relations with it. That's why experts like Jayant Prasad, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, are more circumspect about India's outreach. For the past three years, he says, India has maintained contact with the Taliban through a foreign service diplomat. India had closed its consulates in Afghanistan during the civil war in the 1990s and reopened them in 2002 after the war ended. "We didn't want this hiatus to develop \[again\], so we wanted to engage. It is very simply a step up in relations," he says. India has ["historical and civilisational ties](https://www.mea.gov.in/lok-sabha.htm?dtl/37428/QUESTION+NO+183+Indias+Relationship+with+Afghanistan#:~:text=India%20has%20historical%20and%20civilizational,education%2C%20agriculture%20and%20capacity%20building.)" with Afghanistan, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told parliament in 2023. India has invested more than $3bn (£2.46bn) in over 500 projects across Afghanistan, including roads, power lines, dams, hospitals and clinics. It has trained Afghan officers, awarded thousands of scholarships to students and built a new parliament building. This reflects a lasting geopolitical reality. "Irrespective of the nature of the regime in Kabul - monarchical, communist, or Islamist - there has been a natural warmth between Delhi and Kabul," The Indian Express newspaper [noted](https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/india-taliban-talks-9770589/). Mr Kugelman echoes the sentiment. "India has an important legacy as a development and humanitarian aid donor in Afghanistan, which has translated into public goodwill from the Afghan public that Delhi is keen not to lose," he says. Interestingly, relations with Delhi appear to be easing amid rising tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan claims the hardline Pakistani Taliban (TTP) operates from sanctuaries in Afghanistan. Last July, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the BBC that Pakistan would [continue attacks on Afghanistan](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7289yvl84po) as part of an operation aimed at countering terrorism. Days before talks between India and the Taliban government, Pakistani airstrikes killed dozens in eastern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan government. The Taliban government condemned the strikes as violations of its sovereignty. AFP The Taliban is fully in control in Afghanistan, say experts This marks a sharp decline in relations since the fall of Kabul in 2021, when a top Pakistani intelligence official was among the first foreign guests to meet the Taliban regime. At the time, many saw Kabul's fall as a strategic setback for India. "While Pakistan isn't the only factor driving India's intensifying outreach to the Taliban, it's true that Delhi does get a big win in its evergreen competition with Pakistan by moving closer to a critical long-time Pakistani asset that has now turned on its former patron," says Mr Kugelman. There are other reasons driving the outreach. India aims to strengthen connectivity and access Central Asia, which it can't reach directly by land due to Pakistan's refusal of transit rights. Experts say Afghanistan is key to this goal. One strategy is collaborating with Iran on the Chabahar port development to improve access to Central Asia via Afghanistan. "It is easier for Delhi to focus on the Afghanistan component of this plan by engaging more closely with the Taliban leadership, which is fully behind India's plans as they would help enhance Afghanistan's own trade and connectivity links," says Mr Kugelman. Getty Images The inauguration ceremony for the first export convoy to India via Iran at Chabahar port in 2019 Clearly, India's recent outreach helps advance its core interests in Taliban-led Afghanistan: preventing terrorism threats to India, deepening connectivity with Iran and Central Asia, maintaining public goodwill through aid, and countering a struggling Pakistan. What about the downsides? "The main risk of strengthening ties with the Taliban is the Taliban itself. We're talking about a violent and brutal actor with close ties to international - including Pakistani - terror groups that has done little to reform itself from what it was in the 1990s," says Mr Kugelman. "India may hope that if it keeps the Taliban on side, so to speak, the Taliban will be less likely to undermine India or its interests. And that may be true. But at the end of the day, can you really trust an actor like the Taliban? That will be the unsettling question hovering over India as it continues to cautiously pursue this complex relationship." Mr Prasad sees no downsides to India's current engagement with Afghanistan, despite concerns over the Taliban's treatment of women. "The Taliban is fully in control. Letting the Taliban stew in its own juice won't help Afghan people. Some engagement with the international community might pressurise the government to improve its behaviour." "Remember, the Taliban is craving for recognition," says Mr Prasad. "They know that will only happen after internal reforms." Like bringing women back into public life and restoring their rights to education, work and political participation. [War in Afghanistan (2001-2021)](/news/topics/c6n97z84601t)

Anna Corbett Ryan Corbett pictured with his wife Anna in an undated photo Two Americans held by the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have been exchanged for an Afghan imprisoned in the US on drug trafficking and terrorism charges. The news emerged after Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty were freed. The Afghan, Khan Mohmmad, had been serving a life sentence in a federal prison in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges. A statement from the Taliban government in Kabul announced the agreement, which was concluded just before President Joe Biden ended his term in office. Mr Corbett's release was confirmed by his family. US media, quoting official sources, identified Mr McKenty as the second American. The deal – reportedly the culmination of two years of negotiations - was done just before Joe Biden handed over power to Donald Trump on Monday. "An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammed imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country," the Taliban foreign ministry said in a statement. The family of Ryan Corbett thanked both administrations as well as Qatar for what they described as its vital role. "Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan's life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives," the family said. Mr Corbett had lived in Afghanistan for many years with his family and was detained by the Taliban more than two years ago when he returned on a business trip. There are few details about Mr McKenty, whose family have asked for privacy. AFP Khan Mohammad spoke to the media on his return to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday Khan Mohammad was a member of the Taliban taken captive in Afghanistan during the US's military engagement. He was [jailed in 2008](https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/December/08-crm-1145.html). Joe Biden commuted his sentence just before he left office. The Taliban called the exchange the result of "long and fruitful negotiations" with the US and "a good example of resolving issues through dialogue". "The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalisation and development of relations between the two countries," it said. Since the Taliban took power in 2021, they have not been formally recognised by any government. While the move is not likely to change relations between Kabul and Washington, more negotiations may follow – [two other Americans are still in Afghanistan](https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/americans-taliban-custody-release-state-department-b2580454.html), believed to be George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi. The Taliban are also seeking the release of an Afghan who is one of the few remaining prisoners at the US's Guantanamo Bay detention camp. At a rally in Washington on the eve of his inauguration, President Trump threatened to cut humanitarian aid to Afghanistan unless the Taliban returned the military equipment seized after the US pulled out in 2021. A US [Department of Defense report in 2022 estimated that military equipment worth $7bn had been left behind](https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-seeks-return-of-us-military-equipment-from-afghan-taliban-/7943249.html) in Afghanistan after US forces withdrew. [ US hostage swapped for jailed Taliban ally ------------------------------------------ ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-62954203)