KABUL: Taliban security forces in the Afghan capital on Wednesday enforced a higher education ban for women by blocking their access to universities, with video obtained by The Associated Press showing women weeping and consoling each other outside one campus in Kabul.
The country’s Taliban rulers a day earlier ordered women nationwide to stop attending private and public universities effective immediately and until further notice. The Taliban-led administration has not given a reason for the ban or reacted to the fierce and swift global condemnation of it.
Journalists saw Taliban forces outside four Kabul universities Wednesday. The forces stopped some women from entering, while allowing others to go in and finish their work. They also tried to prevent any photography, filming and protests from taking place.
Rahimullah Nadeem, a spokesman for Kabul University, confirmed that classes for female students had stopped. He said some women were allowed to enter the campus for paperwork and administrative reasons, and that four graduation ceremonies were held Wednesday.
Members of an activist group called the Unity and Solidarity of Afghanistan Women gathered outside the private Edrak University in Kabul on Wednesday morning, chanting slogans in Dari.
“Do not make education political!” they said. “Once again university is banned for women, we do not want to be eliminated!”
Despite initially promising a more moderate rule respecting rights for women and minorities, the Taliban have widely implemented their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, since they seized power in August 2021.
They have banned girls from middle school and high school, barred women from most fields of employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms.
A letter shared by the spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education, Ziaullah Hashmi, on Tuesday told private and public universities to implement the ban as soon as possible and to inform the ministry once the ban is in place.
The move is certain to hurt efforts by the Taliban to win international recognition for their government and aid from potential donors at a time when Afghanistan is mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis. The international community has urged Taliban leaders to reopen schools and give women their right to public space.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan, all Muslim countries, have expressed their disappointment at the university ban and urged authorities to reconsider their decision.
Qatar played a key role in facilitating the negotiations that led to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan last year. It called on the “Afghan caretaker government” to review the ban in line with the teachings of Islam on women’s education.
Neighboring Pakistan said its position on the issue of women’s education has been “clear and consistent.”
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said late Tuesday that no other country in the world bars women and girls from receiving an education.
“The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,” he warned. “This decision will come with consequences for the Taliban.”
Abdallah Abdallah, a senior leader in Afghanistan’s former US-allied government, described universal education as a “fundamental” right.
“Depriving girls of this right is regrettable,” Abdallah said in a Tweet. He urged the country’s Taliban leadership to reconsider the decision.
Afghan political analyst Ahmad Saeedi said that the latest decision by the Taliban authorities may have closed the door to winning international acceptance.
“The issue of recognition is over,” he said. “The world is now trying to find an alternative. The world tried to interact more but they (the Taliban) don’t let the world talk to them about recognition.”
Saeedi said he believes most Afghans favor female education because they consider learning to be a religious command contained in the Qur’an.
He said the decision to bar women from universities was likely made by a handful of senior Taliban figures, including the leader Hibatullah Akhunzada, who are based in the southwestern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
He said the main center of power is Kandahar, rather than the Taliban-led government in Kabul, even if the ministers of justice, higher education and so-called “virtue and vice” would also have been involved in the decision to ban women from universities.
UN experts said last month that the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan may amount to a crime against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law.
They said the Taliban actions against females deepened existing rights violations — already the “most draconian globally” — and may constitute gender persecution, which is a crime against humanity.
The Taliban authorities have rejected the allegation.
Afghan women weep as Taliban fighters enforce university ban
https://arab.news/4mvf9
Afghan women weep as Taliban fighters enforce university ban
- Taliban forces stopped some women from entering, while allowing others to go in and finish their work
- Women are also banned from parks and gyms
UK leader Starmer slams ‘lies and misinformation’ after attacks from Elon Musk
The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July. Musk has used his social network, X, to call for a new election and demand Starmer be imprisoned. On Monday he posted an online poll for his 210 million followers on the proposition: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Asked about Musk’s comments during a question session at a hospital near London, Starmer criticized “those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” particularly opposition Conservative politicians in Britain who have echoed some of Musk’s claims.
Musk often posts on X about the UK, retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir -– shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing” with far-right protesters treated more harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. During summer anti-immigrant violence across the UK he tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Recently Musk has focused on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the “grooming gangs” out of a fear of appearing racist.
Musk has posted a demand for a new public inquiry into the cases. A huge, seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, though many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer’s government said it would act on them as quickly as possible.
Musk also has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer defended his record as chief prosecutor, saying he had reopened closed cases and “changed the whole prosecution approach” to child sexual exploitation.
He also condemned language used by Musk about Jess Phillips, a government minister responsible for combating violence against women and girls. Musk called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she deserved to be in prison.
“When the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” Starmer said. “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”
Musk has also called for the release of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right activist who goes by the name Tommy Robinson and is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
Starmer said people “cheerleading Tommy Robinson … are trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Starmer largely avoided mentioning Musk by name in his responses, likely wary of giving him more of a spotlight — or of angering Musk ally Donald Trump, who is due to be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20.
Musk’s incendiary interventions are a growing worry for governments elsewhere in Europe, too. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, another target of the X owner’s ire, said he is staying “cool” over critical personal comments made by Musk, but finds it worrying that the US billionaire makes the effort to get involved in Germany’s election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Starmer said the main issue was not Musk’s posts on X, but “what are politicians here doing to stand up for our democracy?”
He said he was concerned about Conservative politicians in Britain “so desperate for attention they are amplifying what the far right are saying.”
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters … then we are on a very slippery slope,” he said.
While some Conservatives, including party leader Kemi Badenoch, have echoed Musk’s points, the main UK beneficiary of his interest has been Reform UK, the hard-right party led by Nigel Farage that has just five seats in the 650-seat House of Commons but big expansion plans. Farage said last month that Musk was considering making a multimillion-dollar donation to the party.
But Farage is critical of Tommy Robinson, refusing to let him join Reform, and on Sunday Musk posted: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage tweeted in response: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.”
Emergency demonstration outside UK Parliament calls for action to protect Palestinian health workers
Emergency demonstration outside UK Parliament calls for action to protect Palestinian health workers
- Event in wake of reports of intensified assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system
LONDON: An emergency demonstration organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and its partners took place opposite the UK Parliament buildings in London on Monday.
Thousands attended the rally, demanding immediate action from MPs to safeguard Gaza’s health workers and medical infrastructure amid escalating attacks by Israel, according to organizers.
Prominent speakers expected at the rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, alongside healthcare professionals and civil society representatives.
The demonstration followed recent reports of intensified assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, including its neonatal unit, was recently destroyed in northern Gaza, and the Indonesian Hospital is under siege amid a forced evacuation.
Palestinian healthcare workers have been allegedly targeted, with scores killed and hundreds detained — including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan — amid accusations of inhumane treatment and the torture of detainees.
The International Court of Justice has identified Israel’s actions as a plausible case of genocide.
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals are especially protected, and attacks on healthcare facilities may constitute war crimes, with activists critical of the UK government for continuing to supply arms and extend political, diplomatic, and economic support to Israel.
Ben Jamal, director of the PSC, has condemned the British government’s stance.
He said: “Israel has been given impunity by the UK government to commit war crime after war crime over the last 15 months. We hoped this barbarity and the government’s support for it had a limit, a red line which could not be crossed, but we have not seen it yet.
“To attack and destroy hospitals, to target and kill medical staff and patients within them, has no possible justification and is completely unacceptable.
“These are crimes for which Israel will have to answer in world courts, but the UK government must also face its own reckoning for shamefully aiding and abetting Israel’s carnage.”
Still awaiting thanks for stopping extremists in Sahel, Macron says
- Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, he says
PARIS: France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was still waiting for Africa’s Sahel states to thank Paris for stopping them falling into the hands of militants and he dismissed suggestions his country had been forced out of the region.
Speaking to French ambassadors at an annual conference on foreign policy for 2025, Macron said France had been right to intervene in 2013 to fight militants even if those same states had now moved away from French military support.
“I think that they forgot to thank us, but that’s ok, it will come in time,” Macron said ironically.
French troops have in recent years pulled out of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso after successive military coups and are in the process of withdrawing from Chad, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
“None of them would have a sovereign state if the French army had not deployed in this region,” Macron said.
Macron dismissed the notion that Paris had been kicked out of the region, saying it had decided to re-organize its strategy.
“No, France is not on the back foot in Africa, it is just lucid and reorganizing itself,” he said.
Macron extended an olive branch to US President-elect Donald Trump, declaring that France is “a solid ally” as he outlined his vision for global diplomacy in 2025 during his address to French ambassadors.
“Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, an ally he does not underestimate, one who believes in Europe and carries a lucid ambition for the transatlantic relationship,” Macron said at the Elysee Palace, emphasizing France’s commitment to fostering cooperation while urging European nations to fortify their unity and resilience.
“If we decide to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance we will be respected by the United States under President Trump,” he warned.
Macron’s speech, delivered against a backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, laid out France’s foreign policy priorities, spanning the Ukraine war, European defense, and the Middle East.
China’s top diplomat heads to Africa as West’s attention dwindles
- “China firmly believes that Africa has never been a forgotten continent, but rather a source of vitality and a land full of development potential,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a regular news conference on Monday
BEIJING: China’s top diplomat began his annual New Year tour of Africa on Sunday, maintaining a 35-year-long tradition, to quietly advance Beijing’s already sizeable influence across the resource-rich continent as Europe’s presence wanes and America’s wavers.
While global capitals and investors brace for the return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and domestic politics keep German and French ministers occupied, Foreign Minister Wang Yi being in Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Nigeria highlights the consistency of China’s engagement with Africa, analysts say.
Wang’s visit through to Saturday also comes as the world’s No. 2 economy ramps up its financial support for the debt-laden continent and looks to strike more critical minerals deals and find markets to absorb its exports.
“The decision on which countries to go to each year rarely follows any external logic,” said Eric Orlander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project. “But it resonates in Africa as a reminder of China’s consistent commitment to the continent, in contrast to the approaches of the US, UK and EU.”
“China firmly believes that Africa has never been a forgotten continent, but rather a source of vitality and a land full of development potential,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a regular news conference on Monday.
SPEEDREAD
While global capitals and investors brace for the return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and domestic politics keep German and French ministers occupied, Foreign Minister Wang Yi being in Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Nigeria highlights the consistency of China’s engagement with Africa, analysts say.
As China’s economy slows, Africa offers a much-needed avenue for its state-owned infrastructure firms struggling for projects as indebted local governments hold off on spending, and a market for its electric vehicles and solar panels, areas where the US and EU say it has over-capacity.
Africa’s 50-plus votes at the UN could also help advance Beijing’s efforts to reshape multilateral institutions and reinterpret global norms so that they are more in line with its interests, particularly on issues such as human rights.
While current US President Joe Biden’s December trip to Angola was his only visit to sub-Saharan Africa in his presidency, China puts Africa at the front of its diplomatic calendar.
“China has become central to Africa’s policy, as an actor and an inspiration,” said Hannah Ryder, founder of Development Reimagined, an African-owned consultancy, referring to how candidates vying to chair the African Union Commission have talked up Beijing’s ability to improve Africa’s manufacturing capabilities and China’s track record in mass education ahead of February’s election. The commission is the secretariat of the 55-nation African Union.
Wang’s decision to visit the Republic of Congo, which this year takes over as co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that sets the agenda for China-Africa relations, also points to China’s commitment to implementing the outcomes of last year’s summit, Ryder said, where China pledged $51 billion in fresh financial assistance.
Beijing is also beginning to make its presence felt on pressing regional security issues, analysts say, which partly explains why Wang will travel to Chad.
France last month began the withdrawal of its military from the Central African country, after its government unexpectedly ended a defense cooperation pact that had made it a key Western ally in the fight against militants in the region.
“China has been a reliable and stable partner for the new military juntas in the Sahel and West Africa,” Orland said.
“For the French and US, who see a dilution of Western power in the region, China’s presence is seen as ‘controversial,’ but it’s a very different view from African perspectives.”
Mozambique protest leader says he will return from exile
- Thousands of Mozambicans have fled into neighboring Malawi and Eswatini since the unrest started, according to authorities, prompting alarm from the UN
MAPUTO: The Mozambique opposition leader who has led more than two months of deadly protests against disputed election results from outside the country announced on Sunday he would return ahead of the inauguration of the new president.
Venancio Mondlane, who left Mozambique after his lawyer was gunned down on Oct. 19, said in a Facebook live address he would arrive at Maputo’s Mavalane airport on Thursday.
From self-exile in an unknown location, he called for demonstrations against the results of the Oct. 9 election, which he says were rigged in favor of the ruling Frelimo party in power for 50 years.
The protests so far have been met with a tough police crackdown. The violence has left around 300 people dead, according to a tally by a local rights group, with authorities also reporting looting and vandalism. “If they are killing my brothers, they are murdering my brothers, then I will be there,” Mondlane said.
FASTFACTS
• From self-exile in an unknown location, Venancio Mondlane called for demonstrations against the results of the Oct. 9 election.
• The protests so have been met with a tough police crackdown. The violence has left around 300 people dead.
• Final official results of the poll said Mondlane took 24 percent of the presidential vote compared to 65 percent for the Frelimo candidate.
“If it’s for me, if it’s because of Venancio, then Venancio will be, on Thursday ... at Mavalane International Airport,” he said.
Final official results of the poll said Mondlane took 24 percent of the presidential vote compared to 65 percent for the Frelimo candidate, Daniel Chapo.
Mondlane, 50, insists the election was stolen from him and that another count said he was the winner. Several international observer missions have also said there were irregularities.
Chapo, 47, is due to be sworn in on January 15, taking over from President Filipe Nyusi at the end of his two-term limit. His Frelimo has ruled the country since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Mondlane, a charismatic speaker who appeals to Mozambique’s disenchanted youth, appeared to shrug off criminal and civil charges that the authorities have laid against him, including for damages caused during protests by his supporters.
“You can do whatever you want,” he said, addressing the authorities. “If you want to murder, murder. If you want to arrest, arrest too. I will be there.”
The opposition leader has previously claimed there had been attempts to assassinate him.
While Mondlane has been maintaining rejection of the results and his call for “electoral truth,” the leaders of the main political parties have agreed to take their seats in the new parliament, even if they say there were irregularities in the election.
Nyusi has called for dialogue among the parties to resolve the dispute.
On Dec. 27, Chapo called for “non-violence” and “unity,” saying several police officers had died during the clashes.
The unrest has caused major losses to Mozambique’s economy, stopping cross-border trade. Shipping, mining and industry has also been affected.
Regional grouping the Southern African Development Community was concerned that the situation “may jeopardize peace and security for the country concerned and the region as a whole,” said Tanzanian President Samia Hassan at a meeting Sunday focused on Mozambique.
“For the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed the spread of violent protests that have caused massive harm to human life, affected economic activities and disrupted cross-border trade,” said Hassan, who chaired the meeting of the SADC’s security troika.
Thousands of Mozambicans have fled into neighboring Malawi and Eswatini since the unrest started, according to authorities, prompting alarm from the UN.
“Refugees and civilians are facing immense risks, losing their livelihoods and relying on humanitarian assistance,” said Chansa Kapaya, UNHCR’s regional director for southern Africa, on Dec. 31.
“While we are grateful for the generosity of Malawi and Eswatini, immediate support is crucial to tackle the worsening crisis and prevent further suffering.”
