KABUL: Over the past two-and-a-half years, Afghan women have been facing increasing limitations on their participation in society, including on movement, personal attire, as well as access to work and education.
Since the Taliban regained control of the country in August 2021, after 20 years of fighting US-led forces and Afghanistan’s Western-backed administration, they have introduced numerous restrictions widely regarded as the world’s most serious violations of women’s rights.
With the situation largely absent from the news, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan warned on Friday, as the world observed International Women’s Day, that the crackdown by the Taliban was “pushing women into even greater isolation.”
For Bibi Hasina, a 38-year-old mother from Kabul, there has been a constant fear of arbitrary arrest.
“The Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice officials are regularly roaming in the city and they often stop women that don’t have a male companion for questioning. A few girls were reportedly detained in Kabul for not wearing proper hijab recently,” she told Arab News.
“Sometimes, we are also questioned in security check posts for our relations with the driver or with other passengers.”
Women are not allowed to travel long distances without a male guardian and have been barred from attending secondary school and university, leaving religious schools the only option and making Afghanistan the only country with such bans in place.
They have also been excluded from employment in most public and private companies. Their presence in the workforce is limited to only “essential” positions in education and health care, as well as some other positions where women’s work is deemed appropriate.
Afghanistan was in last position on the 2023 Women, Peace and Security Index, with its society being increasingly gender-segregated. But despite international pressure, Taliban authorities say the situation has improved, even as the livelihood of Afghan women has been increasingly constrained.
“Women’s access to justice has increased and become easier,” Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban government’s deputy spokesperson, told Arab News.
“More than 120,000 women are working in the business sector while 150,000 others are employed in the health sector in the country. Many women also got work through the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries.”
The improved security since the Taliban takeover has been observed and some women see it as bringing hope.
“The security has improved as the war has finally ended in the country. There’s no fear of explosions and bombings anymore. The level of street harassment by random men and boys has lowered notably. Islamic rules are enforced by the current government, which is a positive step,” said Samira Rahimi, a teacher at a religious school in Kabul.
“If the Taliban allow girls to continue their education and make some necessary arrangements for women’s work according to Islamic rules, things will get even better. The overall situation of women compared to the 20 years of the US occupation has seen major positive changes.”
However, those who had dreamed of studying and becoming professionals, disagree.
“Nothing in the country will be complete without girls being able to get an education,” said Parisa, a grade 12 student from Herat, who is hoping to become a journalist.
“More than two years have passed and there is no major pressure on the current government in Afghanistan to reopen girls’ schools. In the beginning, there were some efforts but with no results,” she said.
“We feel like the world has abandoned us in the most stressful times.”
‘World has abandoned us’: Afghan women’s rights plunge in global silence
https://arab.news/mr5bn
‘World has abandoned us’: Afghan women’s rights plunge in global silence
- UN warns restrictions are pushing Afghan women into increasing isolation
- Taliban say security and women’s access to justice, jobs have improved
Amnesty International says at least 30 dead in separatist attack in southeastern Nigeria
The rights group said “international law requires the Nigerian government to promptly investigate unlawful killings”
ABUJA: At least 30 people have been killed after gunmen attacked travelers on a major highway in the southeastern part of Nigeria, rights group Amnesty International said.
The rights group said more than 20 vehicles and trucks were set ablaze during the Thursday attack along the Okigwe-Owerri highway in Imo state. Police confirmed the attack but not the death toll.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police suspect the Eastern Security Network, the paramilitary wing of the proscribed separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra.
The secessionist campaign in southeastern Nigeria dates back to when the short-lived Republic of Biafra fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from the West African country. An estimated 1 million people died in the conflict, many from starvation.
The rights group said “international law requires the Nigerian government to promptly investigate unlawful killings with a view to bringing perpetrators to justice.”
One suspect connected to the attack was killed in a joint operation by law enforcement agencies, police spokesperson Okoye Henry said in a statement.
“An intensive manhunt is ongoing to apprehend the fleeing suspects and bring them to justice,” Henry said.
Two of the group’s prominent leaders, Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa, are in custody in Nigeria and Finland, respectively.
Kanu is standing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Nigerian government said Friday it has not begun extradition proceedings but is in talks with Finnish authorities to ensure Ekpa is held accountable for his alleged actions.
For many years Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation with at least 210 million people — has been wracked by violence related to the activities of armed extremist groups.
Polish nationalists stage anti-immigration demo ahead of polls
- The protest, organized by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland
- Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election
WARSAW: Several thousand people demonstrated in Warsaw on Saturday against illegal immigration and the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a week before the EU member chooses a new president.
The protest, organized by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland, who carried the red and white national flag and chanted slogans such as “no to immigration.”
Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election.
Poland currently hosts around one million refugees from the war in neighboring Ukraine, and has accused Russia and Belarus of orchestrating a wave of immigration into the European Union member.
The protesters made their way toward the seat of government in central Warsaw, chanting the name of nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.
The 42-year-old fan of US President Donald Trump has the backing of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party and outgoing President Andrzej Duda.
He is polling second in the presidential race, with around 25 percent support.
The frontrunner, Warsaw’s pro-European Union Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Tusk’s Civic Coalition and is polling on 32 percent.
“Poland has to defend itself against illegal immigration. These migrants have their own countries. They should stay there,” 66-year-old farmer Boguslaw Uchmanowicz told AFP.
Taliban arrest 14 people for playing music and singing
- Those detained were under investigation
- Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music
KABUL: Taliban authorities have arrested 14 people in northern Afghanistan for playing musical instruments and singing, activities they restricted since taking power, provincial police said on Saturday.
The Taliban government has steadily imposed laws and regulations that reflect their austere vision of Islamic law since seizing power in 2021.
This includes cracking down on music in public, from live performances to playing at gatherings, in restaurants, in cars or on radio and TV.
The police said in a statement that on Thursday night in the capital of northern Takhar province “fourteen individuals... took advantage of the nighttime to gather in a residential house where they were playing musical instruments and singing songs, which caused disturbance to the public.”
Those detained were under investigation, it added.
After their takeover, Taliban authorities shuttered music schools and smashed or burned musical instruments and sound systems, saying music caused “moral corruption” and public disturbance.
Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music, though segregated women’s sections often do so secretly.
Many Afghan musicians fled the Taliban takeover out of fear or in need of work after losing their livelihoods in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The Taliban authorities have encouraged former musicians to turn their talents to Islamic poetry and unaccompanied vocal chants — the only forms of music allowed under their previous rule from 1996-2001.
Newly elected Reform UK councillors face scrutiny over Islamophobic social media posts
- Party made major breakthrough at last week’s local elections
- Campaign group: ‘They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed’
LONDON: Up to a dozen newly elected councillors from Reform UK have been accused of posting Islamophobic and far-right content on social media, The Guardian reported on Saturday.
It comes a week after the party made a major breakthrough in local elections across the country, winning 677 of the more than 1,600 contested seats.
Reform UK councillors at three country councils have shared social media content from Britain First, a far-right party known for its anti-Islam views.
Paul Harrison, who was elected to Leicestershire’s county council, retweeted and voted “yes” to an X poll asking if the UK should conduct mass deportations.
The post was accompanied by an image, generated by artificial intelligence, of Muslim men holding Pakistani flags.
Reform UK officials are facing greater scrutiny in the wake of the local elections, with many of the social media posts being revealed by counter-extremism campaign group Hope Not Hate.
Its director of campaigns, Georgie Laming, said: “(Party leader) Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK have the ‘most in-depth vetting procedure’ of any party. Our investigation shows that their processes leave much to be desired.
“Not only have they admitted using ‘AI techniques and other things’ to do the vetting, but Reform UK continue to shirk responsibility for their candidates’ online behaviour. They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed.”
The campaign group previously uncovered Islamophobic content posted by Reform candidates on social media, as well as far-right conspiracies and support for extremist figures including Tommy Robinson and David Irving.
Nigerian state bans petrol aiming to curb militant attacks
- “I have directed the immediate ban on the sale of petrol in Bama town,” Borno state governor said
- The ban is part of the “state government’s strategic response to counter insurgency operations“
KANO: Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, the epicenter of the militant insurgency, on Saturday said it was banning the sale of petrol in a bid to curtail a resurgence of militant attacks.
“I have directed the immediate ban on the sale of petrol in Bama town, ...and other parts of Bama Local Government Area with immediate effect,” Borno state governor Babagana Umara Zulum was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.
The ban is part of the “state government’s strategic response to counter insurgency operations,” the statement added.
The cutting of fuel supplies for vehicles is expected to restrict the militants’ mobility.
The town targeted by the ban is the largest after the state capital Maiduguri, and sits on the fringes of Sambisa forest, a major enclave of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram.
The town witnessed the worst devastation by Boko Haram militants who seized it in 2014 and killed hundreds of residents.
Northeastern Nigeria has seen an upsurge in Islamist militant attacks in recent weeks, reigniting a grinding 16-year conflict that has left more than 40,000 dead and displaced some two million people.
More than 100 people have been killed in the region since April.
The state of Borno in particular, where the Boko Haram militant group emerged 16 years ago, remains the epicenter of the conflict in Africa’s most populous country.
