KABUL: Taliban authorities said on Saturday that demands over women’s rights were “Afghanistan’s issues” to solve, ahead of United Nations-led engagement talks where the exclusion of Afghan women has sparked outcry.
The Taliban government, which has imposed restrictions on women since seizing power in 2021 that the UN has described as “gender apartheid,” will send its first delegation to the third round of talks starting in Qatar on Sunday.
Civil society representatives, including from women’s rights groups, will attend meetings with the international envoys and UN officials on Tuesday, after the official talks.
Rights groups have condemned the exclusion of Afghan women from the main meetings and the lack of human rights issues on the agenda.
The Taliban authorities “acknowledge the issues about women,” government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul on the eve of the latest talks.
“But these issues are Afghanistan’s issues,” said Mujahid, who will lead the delegation.
“We are working to find a logical path toward solutions inside Afghanistan so that, God forbid, our country doesn’t again fall into conflict and discord.”
He said the Taliban government would represent all of Afghanistan at the meetings and, given their authority, should be the only Afghans at the table.
“If Afghans participate through several channels, it means we are still scattered, our nation is still not unified,” he said.
The talks were launched by the UN in May 2023 and aim to increase international coordination on engagement with the Taliban authorities, who ousted a Western-backed government when they swept to power.
The Taliban government has not been officially recognized by any state and the international community has wrestled with its approach to Afghanistan’s new rulers, with women’s rights issues a sticking point for many countries.
Taliban authorities were not invited to the first talks in Doha last year and refused to attend the second conference, demanding that they be the sole Afghan representatives to the exclusion of invited civil society groups.
That condition has been met for the third round.
Mujahid reiterated that the Taliban government sought positive relations with all countries.
However, he added that “no major or key discussions” would take place in Doha and that the meeting was an opportunity to exchange views, particularly with Western countries.
The agenda will include combating narcotics and economic issues, key topics for authorities in the impoverished country.
“We have hurdles blocking economic development, which should be removed,” Mujahid said.
“If the economy were fine, then all other issues could be solved.”
Afghan women’s rights an internal issue, Taliban government says before UN-led talks
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Afghan women’s rights an internal issue, Taliban government says before UN-led talks
- Civil society representatives, including from women’s rights groups, will attend meetings with the international envoys and UN officials on Tuesday, after the official talks
‘This is genocide’: Indonesian medics in shock over scale of Israeli violence on Gaza
- Indonesian doctors, nurses have been arriving to volunteer in Rafah since March
- They recall lack of basic equipment, being forced to treat wounded children without anesthesia
JAKARTA: When Ita Muswita arrived in Rafah in March to volunteer at Al-Halal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital, she was overwhelmed by the scale of malnourishment among the newborn babies she was helping to deliver.
The hospital was one of the few that remained partly operational in Gaza and was providing medical care to thousands of pregnant women and new mothers, handling between 50 and 65 births each day with only five delivery beds.
Many of them were underweight.
“It is likely for them to become sick or die … It’s because the mothers are not meeting their (nutritional) needs,” Muswita told Arab News.
“Underweight babies are vulnerable to diseases, which means we need more hospital rooms for babies, which require equipment and medicines, and that was a problem … We often ran out of medicines … gauze, and suture instruments.”
The Indonesian midwife from Banten province was part of the first team of doctors and nurses from the Jakarta-based nongovernmental organization Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, which since March has been sending medical volunteers to the besieged enclave as part of a larger emergency medical deployment led by the World Health Organization.
While she was prepared to face the situation, knowing from UN estimates that most of the 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza had limited access to maternal healthcare, the situation she faced on the ground was worse than she imagined.
“This isn’t war, this is extermination, this is genocide, it’s true,” Muswita said.
Since October, Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives in Gaza have killed nearly 37,900 Palestinians and wounded more than 86,000 people, while thousands remain missing under the rubble.
Israel has also cut off the enclave from supplies of water, food, fuel and medical aid, as its forces destroyed most of its vital infrastructure.
Nadia Rosi, a nurse who was a member of another MER-C team that arrived in Rafah on April 21, said she was shocked when she saw the healthcare situation in Gaza.
Even the possibility of disinfecting equipment was rare.
“Where do we look for gauze, equipment? We don’t know because there wasn’t any,” she said.
“I was also scared of course, because even when we were at the hospital, we could hear the bombs exploding, the loud sounds from shooting, and this goes on as the attacks continue for 24 hours.”
When she served at the Tal Al-Sultan health center, children made up the bulk of her patients. She recalled their screams when there were no painkillers or anesthesia available.
“I was working in wound care and most of the patients were children. Maybe out of 50 patients, around 35 were kids. We didn’t have anesthetic … I would give them candy to calm them down,” she said.
“I would also invite them to recite the Qur’an, starting together with them before letting them continue on their own, and they would almost immediately settle down … These children are bravely withholding the pain, can you imagine how deep the cuts usually get? We already feel such great pain with small wounds, and these are lacerations that require stitches.”
After weeks of witnessing Israeli violence against Palestinians, Indonesian medics refused to describe the situation in Gaza as war.
“This isn’t war … It’s mass murder, mass annihilation. What kind of crazy person comes with their tanks to tents, killing children, killing babies, killing the elderly, killing women?” Asrina Sari, another nurse who arrived in Rafah in April, told Arab News.
“This is truly genocide that the whole world must know about, how ruthless Zionists are.”
Following her return to Indonesia last month, she has joined other Indonesian volunteers in raising awareness about what is happening in Palestine.
“You only need to be human to defend Palestine,” she said. “Let’s continue to pray for Palestinian independence and always use social media to update the latest situation on Palestine, to share all matters related to Palestine so that people know.”
Mauritania’s Ghazouani wins re-election with 56.12% of vote
- Victory gives the former army chief a second term as head of the vast desert country, seen as a rock of relative stability in Africa’s volatile Sahel region
NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritania’s incumbent President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has comfortably won re-election, receiving 56.12 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said Monday.
The victory gives the former army chief a second term as head of the vast desert country, seen as a rock of relative stability in Africa’s volatile Sahel region and set to become a gas producer.
Ghazouani placed well ahead of his main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, who won 22.10 percent of votes in Saturday’s election, according to results announced by CENI chief Dah Ould Abdel Jelil.
Abeid said Sunday he would not recognize the results of CENI, which he accused of being manipulated by the government.
Ghazouani’s other main rival, Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar, who heads the Islamist Tewassoul party, came third with 12.78 percent, according to CENI.
“We did everything we could to prepare the conditions for a good election and we were relatively successful. I congratulate everyone,” said the head of the electoral commission.
German court convicts a prominent far-right politician for using a Nazi slogan
BERLIN: A high-profile politician in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has been convicted for the second time of knowingly using a Nazi slogan at a political event.
Björn Höcke, who plans to run for governor in the eastern state of Thuringia in a September election, was fined Monday for using the banned Nazi slogan “Everything for Germany.”
The Halle Regional Court sentenced the 52-year-old to a fine of 130 daily rates of 130 euros each.
He was already fined 13,000 euros ($13,900) in May for using symbols of an unconstitutional organization, a verdict that his lawyers are appealing.
‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Beryl hurtles toward Caribbean
- Beryl had weakened earlier on Monday to Category 3 and then picked up again to 4 on a five-point scale
Hurricane Beryl barreled across the Atlantic Ocean toward the Caribbean’s Windward Islands as an “extremely dangerous” storm on Monday, threatening to devastate communities with floods, storm surges and life-threatening high winds, officials said.
Locals boarded up shops, stocked up on food and filled their cars with petrol as the storm approached. The prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, said he was expecting a natural disaster that could continue for days.
It was an unusually fierce and early start to this year’s Atlantic hurricane season — the earliest Category 4 storm on record, according to National Hurricane Center data on Sunday.
Beryl had weakened earlier on Monday to Category 3 and then picked up again to 4 on a five-point scale, packing maximum sustained wind speeds exceeding 193 kph, with some higher gusts, about 180 km southeast of Barbados, the NHC said.
It would likely bring catastrophic winds and a storm surge early on Tuesday in the Windward islands, it said.
“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its core moves through the Windward Islands into the eastern Caribbean,” the NHC warned.
It advised people in the storm’s path to take heed of authorities’ advice on evacuations and preparedness.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago. A tropical storm warning was issued for Martinique and Trinidad, with storm watches for parts of the Dominican Republic and parts of Haiti.
Tobago has opened shelters, closed schools for Monday, and canceled elective surgeries in the hospitals, authorities said.
The hurricane is expected to bring 8 to 15 cm of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands throughout the day on Monday, which the NHC warned could cause flash flooding in vulnerable areas.
Large, dangerous swells are also expected to batter the southern coasts of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in May predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic in 2024, amid near-record warm ocean temperatures.
Hurricane Dennis became a Category 4 on July 8, 2005, according to NHC data, making it the second earliest on record in the June-November season.
Russia says captured two more east Ukrainian villages
- Gains come after Russia claimed two other villages over the weekend
- Moscow has announced the capture of a fresh village in Ukraine’s east almost every week this summer
MOSCOW: Russia said Monday it had captured two more east Ukrainian villages, as Moscow’s forces have continued to put pressure on the struggling Ukrainian army in several directions for weeks.
The gains came after Russia claimed two other villages over the weekend.
Following the weekend’s advances, Russia’s defense ministry said it took the village of Novopokrovske in the eastern Donetsk region and the village of Stepova Novoselivka in the north-east Kharkiv region.
Novopokrovske lies north of a village that Moscow took on Sunday, in an area of the front where Moscow has been steadily pushing westwards since it took the industrial hub of Avdiivka in February.
Moscow has announced the capture of a fresh village in Ukraine’s east almost every week this summer.
Stepova Novoselivka lies south-east of the city of Kupyansk, where Russia has also been on the advance for months.
Russian forces took Kupyansk at the start of their 2022 offensive but Ukrainian forces retook the city several months later.
In May, Russia launched a renewed local offensive in the Kharkiv region.
