UN warns Taliban that restrictions on Afghan women and girls make recognition 'nearly impossible'

Afghan school girls attend a class at an open air primary school in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province on May 14, 2023. (AFP/File)
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Updated 22 June 2023
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UN warns Taliban that restrictions on Afghan women and girls make recognition 'nearly impossible'

  • Taliban decrees limiting the participation of girls and women have impacted foreign aid to the country
  • Taliban have also brought back their strict interpretation of Islamic law, including public executions

UNITED NATIONS: The UN envoy for Afghanistan warned the country’s Taliban rulers Wednesday that international recognition as the country’s legitimate government will remain “nearly impossible” unless they lift severe restrictions on women and girls’ education and employment.

Roza Otunbayeva told the UN Security Council that the Taliban have asked to be recognized by the United Nations and its 192 other member nations, “but at the same time they act against the key values expressed in the United Nations Charter.”

In her regular discussions with the Taliban, she said, “I am blunt about the obstacles they have created for themselves by the decrees and restrictions they have enacted, in particular against women and girls.”

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of withdrawing from the country after two decades of war. The group’s decrees limiting the participation of girls and women have impacted foreign aid to the country, whose citizens face the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

The Taliban initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001 but started to enforce restrictions on women and girls soon after the 2021 takeover. Women are barred from most jobs and public places, including parks, baths and gyms, while girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.

The Taliban also have brought back their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, including public executions.

Despite UN appeals, Otunbayeva reported no change to the restrictions, including an April ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations. She called the prohibition a violation of Afghanistan’s obligations as a UN member nation “to respect the privileges and immunities of the United Nations and its officials, including Afghan women who work for us.”

Otunbayeva, a former president of Kyrgyzstan, reiterated that all non-essential Afghan staff, both women and men, are still staying at home, and she said the UN is “steadfast” that female national staff will not be replaced by male staff “as some Taliban authorities have suggested.”

In late April, the Security Council unanimously approved a resolution calling on the Taliban to swiftly reverse the increasingly harsh constraints imposed on women and girls and condemning the ban on Afghan women working for the UN, calling it “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.”

Based on discussions with many people across Afghanistan, Otunbayeva said, it is clear the Taliban’s decrees “are highly unpopular among the Afghan population” and cost the country’s rulers “both domestic and international legitimacy, while inflicting suffering on half of their population and damaging their economy.”

In a frank political assessment, she told council members that the Taliban regime “remains insular and autocratic,” with “an unaccountable central authority” and an all-male government almost entirely from its Pashtun and rural base.

While the Afghan economy “remains stable, albeit at a low equilibrium,” 58 percent of households struggle to fulfill the basic needs of their families, and the UN continues to address the needs of 20 million people who need assistance, Otunbayeva said.

She said cash shipments, required for UN humanitarian operations, “are expected to decrease as donor funding declines,” which could negatively effect Afghanistan’s monetary stability. And despite the bans, she said, “the international community can do more to ensure the future stability of the Afghan economy in a way that directly improves the lives of Afghans.”

The humanitarian organization Save The Children said Monday that a large-scale plague of locusts is ravaging Afghanistan’s northern provinces and has the potential to destroy 1.2 million tons of wheat, approximately one-quarter of the country’s annual harvest.

It said the infestation comes at the worst possible time, pointing to 8 million Afghans cut off from food aid in the past two months due to funding shortfalls, and over 15 million people – one-third of Afghanistan’s population – projected to face crisis levels of hunger over the next five months.

US deputy ambassador Robert Wood blamed the continued deterioration of humanitarian conditions in large part on “Taliban interference,” warning that it will lead to more displacement, migrants and refugees.

While generous donors and “bold action” prevented widespread famine in 2021, he said this year Afghans are already seeing the impact of reduced international support, the closure of women-led humanitarian organizations, ration cuts, and a reduction in people receiving food.

Nonetheless, Wood said the United States, the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, “cannot turn our backs on the Afghan people’s growing humanitarian needs” despite obstacles and competing global priorities and will continue providing assistance.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the US and other Western nations of bringing Afghanistan “to ruins over 20 years,” being uninterested in “a genuine settlement and the rebuilding of Afghanistan.”

China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun called it unacceptable for donors to cut assistance “and to link humanitarian aid to other issues.”

He also expressed hope that “Afghan authorities will take firm and strong measures to combat all terrorism and to prevent Afghanistan from becoming again, a center of gravity for terrorism,” warning that terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State “are colluding with each other and jeopardizing the security of the country, the region and the world at large.”


Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest

Updated 10 sec ago
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Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest

MAPUTO: Police in Mozambique fired tear gas and deployed dogs to disperse protesters in the capital Maputo on Thursday, after the opposition called a demonstration against the contested election results.
The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since the Oct. 9 vote won by the Frelimo party, which has been in power for almost 50 years.
Leading opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who says the results were false and that he won, called for a mass protest on Thursday, saying in an interview that it was a “crucial moment” for the country.
“I feel that there is a revolutionary atmosphere ... that shows that we are on the verge of a unique historical and political transition in the country,” said Mondlane, speaking from an undisclosed location.
The 50-year-old former radio presenter said he could not reveal his whereabouts other than to say he was not in Africa.
Several thousand people took to the streets on Thursday to protest the election result, some throwing rocks and setting up barricades using burning tires and bins. “This is not so much about Venancio (as Mondlane is popularly known). It’s more about change,” said Richard, a protester who asked to be identified only by his first name.
The uprising was to reflect “the voice of the people,” he added.
“Either they change and think about the people, or the country doesn’t move forward.”
Heavily armed riot police and soldiers flanked by tanks dispersed the crowds with tear gas, according to reporters at the scene.
“It’s scary ... we’re all here shaking from time to time, we run away, but it’s going to be worth it,” said Vadi, a woman who also only gave her first name. “We want change, that’s all.”
Shops, banks, schools, and universities were closed in the coastal city, which had around 1 million people.
“Our first objective ... is certainly the restoration of electoral truth,” Mondlane said.
“We want the popular will expressed at the polls on Oct. 9 to be restored.”
He was “waging a struggle” with “national” and “historical purpose,” he added.
“People have realized that it wasn’t possible to bring profound change in Mozambique without taking risks,” he said.
“Now they have to free themselves.”
Mondlane has used social media to rally supporters onto the streets on several occasions for demonstrations that have led to clashes with police.
At least 18 people have been killed in the post-electoral violence, according to Human Rights Watch.
One local NGO, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, has put the toll at 24.
A police officer was also killed in a protest at the weekend, Defense Minister Cristovao Chume said on Tuesday, warning the army could intervene “to protect the interests of the state.”
“There is an intention to change the democratically established power,” he added.
President Filipe Nyusi is expected to step down early next year at the end of his two-term limit, handing over to Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo, who won the presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission.
Mondlane, who has lodged a case at the Constitutional Council to request a ballot recount, said that he was “open to a government of national unity.”
The authorities have restricted access to the internet across the country, which HRW said was an apparent effort to “suppress peaceful protests and public criticism of the government.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned against “unnecessary or disproportionate force.”
Police should “ensure that they manage protests in line with Mozambique’s international human rights obligations,” he said.
The Southern African Development Community has called for an extraordinary summit between Nov. 16 and 20 in part to discuss developments in Mozambique.
Mondlane left the country last month following the unrest.
He initially said he would be at Thursday’s march but on Wednesday told AFP he wouldn’t return after all due to safety concerns.
“I wanted so much to be in Maputo with my people. But unfortunately, I received more than 5,000 messages ... Ninety-nine percent discouraged me from going to Maputo,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to be there.”

Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40

Updated 3 min 27 sec ago
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Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40

  • Russian forces have stepped up their attacks in Zaporizhzhia in recent days
  • “The death toll as a result of Russia’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia has risen to four,” the emergency services said

KYIV: Russian aerial attacks on the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday killed at least four people and wounded another 40, including children, officials said.
Another two were killed in a separate attack on the eastern Donetsk region, strikes that followed a wave of overnight drone attacks, including on the capital Kyiv.
Russian forces have stepped up their attacks in Zaporizhzhia in recent days and are making rapid advances in the industrial territory of Donetsk, both of which the Kremlin says are Russian territory.
“The death toll as a result of Russia’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia has risen to four,” the emergency services said in a statement on social media.
“Forty were wounded, including four children,” governor Ivan Fedorov said in a separate statement.
Officials said earlier that a hospital had been damaged in Zaporizhzhia, which had a pre-war population of more than 700,000 people and lies around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the nearest Russian positions.
A four-month old girl and boys aged one, five and 15 were wounded in the attacks, Fedorov said.
Officials posted images showing rescue workers pulling victims from the rubble and holding back distressed locals from getting to the destroyed buildings.
The strikes later in the Donetsk region killed two people and wounded five more in the village of Mykolaivka, the region’s governor Vadym Filashkin announced on social media.
“One of the shells hit a five-story building and four buildings nearby were damaged,” he wrote on social media.
He posted a photo of a Soviet-era residential building on fire, dozens of its windows blown out with debris littering the ground beneath it.


Grenade attack targeted Israeli embassy in Denmark: report

Copenhagen Police investigated two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen last month. (AP)
Updated 36 sec ago
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Grenade attack targeted Israeli embassy in Denmark: report

  • The grenades landed on the terrace of a house adjacent to the embassy
  • Two Swedes aged 17 and 19 have been detained

COPENHAGEN: Israel’s embassy in Denmark was likely the target of grenades thrown nearby last month, Danish media reported Thursday, citing the pre-indictment of two teenage suspects detained in the case.
Two Swedes aged 17 and 19 went before a judge in Copenhagen who remanded them for another 20 days.
Their pre-indictment, citing investigations, said they were suspected of violating terrorism laws by “throwing hand grenades at the Israeli embassy in Denmark on October 2,” the Ritzau news agency reported.
The grenades landed on the terrace of a house adjacent to the embassy, where they exploded, causing no injuries.
The two suspects were arrested at a Copenhagen railway station hours later initially on suspicion of violating gun laws.
They have since been accused of a terror offense and police, who have arrested a man in his fifties in connection with the incident, are also looking for other accomplices.
“It makes no sense to imagine this is an act they committed alone. There must be accomplices,” Ritzau quoted prosecutor Soren Harbo as saying at the start of the hearing.
The teens deny the accusations.
The case comes against a backdrop of severe tensions in the Middle East, with conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as increasing gang violence with Danish criminal gangs suspected of recruiting underage Swedes to settle scores.


Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80

Updated 23 min ago
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Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80

KALABURAGI, India: Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini, a prominent scholar, educationalist, philanthropist and chancellor of Khaja Banda Nawaz University in India’s Karnataka state, died on Wednesday evening aged 80.

Funeral prayers were held on Thursday evening at the Sharif Mosque. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

He completed a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada and was awarded a Ph.D. from Belford University, US, for his research work.

Since 2007 he brought significant changes to the Khaja Education Society on the organizational, administrative and functional levels. He also expanded existing institutions and was instrumental in establishing Khaja Bandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences at Kalaburagi in 2000.

Through perseverance, he established Khaja Bandanawaz University in August 2018. As vice-president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and chancellor of Khaja Banda Nawaz University, he played a vital role in promoting modern and Islamic education in India.

In addition to his administrative skills, Hussaini was known for his deep and scholarly understanding of Sufism. He was awarded the prestigious Karnataka Rajyotsava Award for excellence in education by the government of Karnataka in 2017.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and other political leaders expressed their condolences over his death.

Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote

Updated 53 min 12 sec ago
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Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote

  • The Kremlin earlier welcomed Trump’s claim that he could negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine
  • ″I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president,” Putin said

SOCHI, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on winning this week’s US presidential election and said on Thursday he was ready to speak to Trump, as any ideas on facilitating an end to the Ukraine crisis merited attention.
Putin said he was impressed with how Trump, who decisively defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to secure his return to the White House, handled himself in the moments after an assassination attempt in July, describing Trump as a brave man.