KABUL: When Salma was suddenly forced to stop her education in the eighth grade, she was left in limbo, every day waiting to return to the classroom. Almost three years later, the hope has faded not only for her, but also more than a million Afghan girls above the age of 13 who are no longer allowed to attend school.
Secondary schools for girls were suspended in September 2021, a month after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The ban resulted in about 1.1 million girls being denied access to formal education.
For Salma and her friends, it was an end to their dreams of the future.
“I used to go to school every day. Every morning felt very exciting. We would meet our friends and teachers. We used to play together, eat and, of course, study,” she said.
“Every time I sat with my classmates, we would talk about our dreams and plans. I always wanted to be a teacher, my friend wanted to become a doctor, another one wished to become a computer engineer ... Everything changed so suddenly.”
Neither appeals at home nor international pressure on the Taliban administration have since helped to lift the ban, which authorities have repeatedly said was an “internal matter.” The only education the Taliban have allowed for girls is at madrasas, Islamic schools that focus on religious training.
Some of Salma’s colleagues tried to continue their learning and took private lessons online.
“But they banned those classes as well,” she said. “We just pass days and nights without doing anything meaningful. Our lives have become purposeless.”
The ban was later extended to universities, with more than 100,000 female students blocked from finishing their degrees.
Testimonies of girls and young women such as Salma are now being collected under the “Iqra” campaign by Afghan activists trying to amplify their voices.
The word “iqra,” meaning “read” in Arabic, was the first word of the Qur’anic revelation, which is interpreted by many Muslims as emphasizing the importance of education in Islam.
The campaign is organized by Musawer and Rawadari, two civil society organizations working for children’s education and human rights.
“We started the Iqra campaign as we were getting closer to the 1,000 days of school closure for girls in Afghanistan. We were so saddened and really grieved by it because every day is a day that will never come back for these young women. They can never go back and be of the same age and go back to school,” Shaharzad Akbar, director of Rawadari, told Arab News.
Rawadari has been contacting girls across Afghanistan, asking how it feels to be out of school for so long, how it has affected them, and what was it that they wanted.
“Their main demand is the reopening of schools and universities so that they can continue their education. When you talk to an 11-12-year-old in other parts of the world, they will talk about personal ambitions. But for almost all of these girls, they are talking about serving their communities,” Akbar said.
“Almost every single person said I wanted to be educated so I can serve Afghanistan and my people. That was really moving. What a waste that they will not be able to serve in the ways that they want to serve because they are banned from education.”
Women activists and education experts say the ban on girls’ education has already damaged the entire social system.
Fazila Muruwat, former head of the Kunar Teachers’ Education College, said that the restriction is taking a toll on both students and educators.
“People are hopeless and sad,” she said. “Female teachers are also forgetting a lot of what they have learned and taught before.”
Mahbob Mowahed, principal of a private school in Kabul, highlighted the damaging psychological and social consequences of the ban.
“In order to have a progressive and independent country, it is imperative for everyone to have access to education, which means that men, women, boys and girls should have the opportunity to learn,” he said.
“Women are an important part of the society and we cannot keep them illiterate forever. Even religion cannot be properly learnt without education.”
Fears are growing that the prolonged denial of education is resulting in another lost generation in Afghanistan.
“An entire generation was thrown into darkness. This is such a loss that Afghanistan will not be able to compensate for it for decades. It is not just a problem of girls but it is a discussion of the survival of Afghanistan,” Shafiqa Khpalwak, director of Musawer, told Arab News.
“I don’t know what the society will be like if girls don’t go to school and remain illiterate ... This is a human disaster. This is a violation of human dignity.”
Testimonies of Afghan girls reveal grief, despair over Taliban school ban
https://arab.news/yyb5a
Testimonies of Afghan girls reveal grief, despair over Taliban school ban
- Fears of ‘lost generation,’ as education experts say ban has damaged Afghanistan’s entire social system
- ‘Iqra’ campaign by Afghan activists gathers stories of young women denied access to formal schooling
Indian troops kill 31 suspected Maoist rebels in forest battle
- Counterinsurgency troops cornered nearly 50 suspected rebels in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts in Chhattisgarh state
- Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth
PATNA, India: At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels were killed in a battle with Indian troops in central India, police said Saturday.
The fighting erupted on Friday when counterinsurgency troops, acting on intelligence, cornered nearly 50 suspected rebels in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts in Chhattisgarh state, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.
Sundarraj said the operation was launched on Thursday, and the battle began the next day, lasting about nine hours. He said search operations were continuing in the area and that the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles. There were no reports of casualties among the troops.
There was no immediate statement from the rebels.
Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the country’s poor indigenous communities. The insurgents are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
Years of neglect have isolated many local villagers, who face a lack of jobs, schools and health care clinics, making them open to overtures by the rebels. The rebels speak the same tribal languages as many local villagers and have promised to fight for a better future especially in Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states despite its vast mineral riches.
Authorities say at least 171 militants have been killed so far this year in Chhattisgarh.
Friday’s fighting was the deadliest clash this year.
In April, government forces killed at least 29 suspected Maoist rebels in in Chhattisgarh, three days ahead of the start of India’s national election.
The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. They’ve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves.
While Biden warns Israel against escalation, Trump suggests striking Iran nuclear facilities
- Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘should remember’ US support for Israel when deciding on next steps
- Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should ‘hit’ the Iranian nuclear sites
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, saying he was trying to rally the world to avoid the escalating prospect of all-out war in the Middle East.
But his predecessor Donald Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should “hit” the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
Making a surprise first appearance in the White House briefing room, Biden said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “should remember” US support for Israel when deciding on next steps.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden told reporters, when asked about his comments a day earlier that Washington was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.
Biden added that the Israelis “have not concluded how they’re, what they’re going to do” in retaliation for a huge ballistic missile attack by Iran on Israel on Tuesday.
The price of oil had jumped after Biden’s remarks Thursday.
Any long-term rise could be damaging for US Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue.
Meanwhile Trump, campaigning in North Carolina, offered a far more provocative view of what he thinks a response to Iran should be, referencing a question posed to Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
“They asked him, ‘what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?’ And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major US military base.
Biden “got that one wrong,” Trump said.
“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.
Trump has spoken little about the recent escalation in tensions in the Middle East. But he issued a scathing statement this week, holding Biden and Harris responsible for the crisis.
Biden’s appearance at the famed briefing room podium was not announced in advance, taking reporters by surprise.
It comes at a tense time as he prepares to leave office with the Mideast situation boiling over and political criticism at home over his handling of a recent hurricane that struck the US southeast.
Biden said he was doing his best to avoid a full-scale conflagration in the Middle East, where Israel is bombing Lebanon in a bid to wipe out the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.
“The main thing we can do is try to rally the rest of the world and our allies into participating... to tamp this down,” he told reporters.
“But when you have (Iranian) proxies as irrational as Hezbollah and the Houthis (of Yemen)... it’s a hard thing to determine.”
Biden however had tough words for Netanyahu, with whom he has had rocky relations as he seeks to manage Israel’s response following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The Israeli premier has repeatedly ignored Biden’s calls for restraint on Lebanon, and on Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
Biden deflected a question on whether he believed Netanyahu was hanging back on signing a Middle East peace deal in a bid to influence the US presidential election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden said.
“And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
Biden said he had still not spoken to Netanyahu since the Iranian attack, which involved some 200 missiles, but added their teams were in “constant contact.”
“They’re not going to make a decision immediately, and so we’re going to wait to see when they want to talk,” the US leader added.
Iran said its attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel since shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Twin babies who died alongside their mother in Georgia are youngest-known Hurricane Helene victims
- The twins died alongside their mother when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia, last week
Obie Williams said he could hear babies crying and branches battering the windows when he spoke with his daughter on the phone last week as Hurricane Helene tore through her rural Georgia town.
Kobe Williams, 27, and her month-old twin boys were hunkering down at their trailer home in Thomson, Georgia, with her mother, Mary Jones, who had been helping her take care of the babies. Williams’ father sensed his daughter was fearing for her safety, and she promised her father she would heed his advice to shelter in the bathroom with her babies until the storm passed.
The single mother had been sitting in bed holding sons Khyzier and Khazmir and chatting on the phone with various family members while the storm raged outside.
Minutes later, she was no longer answering their calls.
Jones, who was on the other side of the trailer, described hearing a loud crash as a tree fell through the roof of her daughter’s bedroom.
“Kobe, Kobe, answer me, please,” Jones cried out in desperation, but she received no response.
Kobe and the twins were found dead.
“I’d seen pictures when they were born and pictures every day since, but I hadn’t made it out there yet to meet them,” Obie Williams told The Associated Press days after the storm ravaged eastern Georgia. “Now I’ll never get to meet my grandsons. It’s devastating.”
The babies, born Aug. 20, are the youngest known victims of a storm that had claimed 200 lives across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas as of Thursday. Among the other young victims are a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south in Washington County, Georgia.
“She was so excited to be a mother of those beautiful twin boys,” said Chiquita Jones-Hampton, Kobe’ Jones’ niece. “She was doing such a good job and was so proud to be their mom.”
Jones-Hampton, who considered Kobe a sister, said the family is in shock and heartbroken.
In Obie Williams’ home city of Augusta, 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of his daughter’s home in Thomson, power lines stretched along the sidewalks, tree branches blocked the roads and utility poles lay cracked and broken. The debris left him trapped in his neighborhood near the South Carolina border for a little over a day after the storm barreled through.
He said one of his sons dodged fallen trees and downed power lines to check on Kobe, and he could barely bear to tell his father what he found.
Many of his 14 other children are still without power in their homes across Georgia. Some have sought refuge in Atlanta, and others have traveled to Augusta to see their father and mourn together, he said.
He described his daughter as a lovable, social and strong woman. She always had a smile and loved to make people laugh, he said.
And she loved to dance, Jones-Hampton said.
“That was my baby,” Williams said. “And everybody loved her.”
Two more found dead in Taiwan after Typhoon Krathon
- Around 20,000 homes were still without power Saturday, mostly in the worst-hit southern seaport city of Kaohsiung
- Krathon dissipated into a tropical depression on Friday after slamming into the island the day before
TAIPEI: Two people who went missing amid the destructive wind and torrential rains of Typhoon Krathon were found dead Saturday in Taiwan, doubling the death toll for the storm that lashed the island this week.
Across the island, around 20,000 homes were still without power Saturday, mostly in the worst-hit southern seaport city of Kaohsiung, where the typhoon made landfall.
Krathon dissipated into a tropical depression on Friday after slamming into the island the day before, bringing mudslides, flooding and record-strong gusts.
More than 700 people were injured.
On Saturday, two missing people were found dead in northern New Taipei city, bringing the typhoon’s death toll to four, the National Fire Agency said without providing details.
Heavy rains triggered landslides in several districts of New Taipei and flooded streets, temporarily stranding dozens of students at their schools, officials said.
The defense ministry said around 250 soldiers were dispatched on Friday to the city and nearby Keelung, which also reported landslides, to help clear roads and drain floodwater.
In Kaohsiung and neighboring Pingtung, about 1,500 soldiers were deployed for a second day to aid in typhoon relief work, according to the defense ministry.
Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October, but scientists have warned climate change is increasing their intensity, leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.
In July, Gaemi became the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in eight years, killing at least 10 people, injuring hundreds and triggering widespread flooding in Kaohsiung.
Drought has dried a major Amazon River tributary to its lowest level in over 122 years
- The level of the Negro River at the port of Manaus was at 12.66 meters on Friday, as compared with a normal level of about 21 meters
- It is the lowest since measurements started 122 years ago. The previous record low level was recorded last year, but toward the end of October
MANAUS, Brazil: One of the Amazon River’s main tributaries has dropped to its lowest level ever recorded, Brazil’s geological service said Friday, reflecting a severe drought that has devastated the Amazon rainforest and other parts of the country.
The level of the Negro River at the port of Manaus was at 12.66 meters on Friday, as compared with a normal level of about 21 meters. It is the lowest since measurements started 122 years ago. The previous record low level was recorded last year, but toward the end of October.
The Negro River’s water level might drop even more in coming weeks based on forecasts for low rainfall in upstream regions, according to the geological service’s predictions. Andre Martinelli, the agency’s hydrology manager in Manaus, was quoted as saying the river was expected to continue receding until the end of the month.
Water levels in Brazil’s Amazon always rise and fall with its rainy and dry seasons, but the dry portion of this year has been much worse than usual. All of the major rivers in the Amazon basin are at critical levels, including the Madeira River, the Amazon River’s longest tributary.
The Negro River drains about 10 percent of the Amazon basin and is the world’s sixth-largest by water volume. Manaus, the biggest city in the rainforest, is where the Negro joins the Amazon River.
For locals, the drought has made basic daily activities impossible. Gracita Barbosa, 28, works as a cashier on a floating shop on the Negro River. She’s out of work because boats that once stopped there can no longer navigate the river due to the low water levels. Barbosa can no longer bathe in the river and now has to travel longer distances to collect drinking water.
