International Taliban Ban All Afghan Women From Higher Education, Parks, Gyms, Working for NGO's.

This is what you stated in regards to someone asking you how you could justify completely destroying a country and killing millions of innocent people.

I'm just curious, how far does your logic extend?

Should a murderer on the run decide to hide underneath the house of someone in your or your family's neighborhood, do you think it would be a good idea just to bomb the entire neighborhood and call your family necessary collateral damage?

No believe in going after the people directly hiding and protecting that person.

You warn them to turn them over if a country then the country is responsible.

I don't believe in the bullshit of hearts and minds or nation building.
 
Report says donors ‘turning away’ from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
By Al Jazeera Staff| 23 Feb 2023



A new report by Crisis Group warns against international donors cutting aid to Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s curbs on women’s education and ability to work at NGOs, instead arguing for Western countries to find a “liminal space between pariah and legitimate status” to respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The report, released on Thursday, focused primarily on two Taliban edicts announced in December – the first suspending female education at private and public universities, and the second banning Afghan women from working at local and international NGOs. The moves led to protests and global condemnation, while sounding a possible death knell for the Taliban’s initial openness to engage with the international community following its takeover of the country in August 2021.

Accompanying the Taliban’s clampdown has been a reassessment of international aid from key international government donors, according to the report’s authors. That aid, despite being immediately paused in the wake of the group’s rise to power, had resumed amid concerns over widespread hunger and poverty in the country of about 40 million.

“Donors are turning away from Afghanistan, disgusted by the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s basic freedoms,” Graeme Smith, Crisis Group’s Senior Consultant on Afghanistan, said in a statement accompanying the report.

“However, cutting aid to send a message about women’s rights will only make the situation worse for all Afghans,” he added. “The most principled response to the Taliban’s misogyny would be finding ways to mitigate the harms inflicted on women and other vulnerable groups.”

The report – which drew on dozens of interviews with “Afghan and international women activists, current and former Afghan officials, teachers, students, aid workers, human rights defenders, development officials, diplomats, business leaders and other interlocutors” – noted Western governments in the second half of 2022 warned aid agencies of a growing sense of donor fatigue towards Afghanistan. It did not name the governments to which it referred.

The authors further warned that following the most recent rights rollbacks, “many Western politicians fear voters will not accept the idea of their taxes helping a country ruled by an odious regime,” while adding that “consultations in January 2023 among major donors produced initial thinking that aid should be trimmed back to send a message to the Taliban, although the governments involved did not agree on which budgets to cut”.

Again, the report did not name the countries in question.

Western threats

The United Nations, which has already had to roll back some aid operations in the wake of the ban on NGO workers, has appealed for $4.6bn to aid Afghanistan. The sum is the largest request for a single country ever. The UN has warned that 28 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, accounting for two-thirds of the country’s population.

But Crisis Group warned that “Western governments seemed poised to fall significantly short” of that appeal.

The report authors added that options discussed in the wake of the December edict have included “deepening sanctions, cutting aid or levying other forms of punishment in response”.

They noted that the G7 grouping of the world’s most wealthy countries had said there would be “consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban” in the wake of the December edicts. The grouping had provided $3bn in humanitarian funding for Afghanistan in 2022, the report noted.



In the United States, which imposed a raft of new sanctions on the Taliban in October over their treatment of women, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “There are going to be costs if this is not reversed”.

The report’s authors argued any approach that included short-term cuts to aid in the hopes of undermining the Taliban’s authority would further harm those targeted by the Taliban’s recent moves.

“Testing such assumptions would involve a high-stakes gamble with potentially millions of human lives. Win or lose, the costs of taking the gamble would be paid in large part by Afghan women, as the burdens of the crisis fall disproportionately on them,” the report said.

It noted that “women and girls often get the smallest share of food in Afghan families, which means that in times of scarcity they are most vulnerable to malnutrition and disease”, while child marriages tend to increase during times of increased hardship.

Change of approach
Instead, Crisis Group argued that continuing to offer humanitarian aid, while supporting longer-term development aid, would address the population’s immediate needs, while undermining the “Taliban’s overheated rhetoric about a titanic clash between Islam and the West”.

The authors further cautioned against expecting outside pressure to change the Taliban’s approach, highlighting the opaque nature of the group’s decision-making. They noted its reclusive leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has appeared to insist on the strict measures out of “personal conviction and to assert his authority over the movement and the country”.

“As the world considers its options, the idea of coaxing the Taliban into behaving like an internationally acceptable government should be set aside for the moment,” the report said.



There is little room for opposing views within the Taliban leadership, it added, and influence from outside Muslim figures has proven ineffective as “the Taliban’s policies are drawn not only from their atypical interpretation of Islam, but also from aspects of local culture”.

Meanwhile, political talks with the Taliban aimed at creating a “roadmap” to normalisation have all but stalled. It also remains unclear how much money the group may be earning from narcotics and other forms of smuggling, bringing into question how much sanctions will actually affect the upper echelons of leadership.

“Western policymakers must stand up for Afghan women and girls. At the same time, they should be careful to avoid self-defeating policies,” the report concluded.

“Practical steps that materially benefit Afghan women, improving their lives in tangible ways, would be superior to angry denunciations of the Taliban’s wrongheadedness.”

The authors added: “The Taliban should find a better way of making decisions, instead of following the whims of a leader who has proven his determination to oppress women and block the rebuilding of his country. Until that happens, the future of Afghanistan looks bleak.”


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...s-turning-away-from-taliban-ruled-afghanistan
 
Taliban Announce Reopening of Universities, but Only for Male Students
By Akmal Dawi | March 01, 2023

WASHINGTON — De facto Taliban authorities have announced the reopening of state-run universities in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and several other cities, but say only male students will be allowed to attend.

“According to a decision by the Supreme Council for Higher Education,” reads a short statement from the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, “studies of the male students at governmental higher education institutions in the colder provinces will officially start from [March 6] of the current year.”

Schools and universities go on annual winter break in about 24 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

The Islamist government banned higher education for female students last year, saying women had not appropriately observed gender-based religious restrictions under the prior government, which was backed by the United States.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have also shut down secondary schools for female students, saying the ban is temporary.

“Taliban are running out of time to make a decision on reopening girls’ secondary, high school and universities,” said Orzala Nemat, an Afghan activist and researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. “This is the demand of the general public, community elders, religious scholars and even some of their own members feel embarrassed to support this un-Islamic and unjustified act.”

Afghanistan is the only country where women and girls are officially barred from education and work, according to human rights groups.

The gender-based discriminatory policy has been maintained even while it costs hundreds of millions of dollars for Afghanistan’s beleaguered economy, the United Nations has reported.

Possible internal divisions

Facing domestic and global condemnation, some Taliban officials have reportedly shown disapproval of the government's misogynistic policies.

“The Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, appears to insist upon these measures out of personal conviction and to assert his authority over the movement and the country,” the International Crisis Group said in a report last month.

Not seen in public, Akhundzada is nevertheless revered as a god among the Taliban. He has no term limit and has unchecked powers over everything within the Taliban government.

“The Taliban are in an internal power struggle,” said Pashtana Durrani, director of Learn Afghanistan, a nongovernment organization supporting education for girls and women.

“Right now, the Taliban are in a stalemate where they can't remove or impeach the amir, and the amir is a man who thinks women in schools and universities are haram,” Durrani told VOA, using the Islamic term for forbidden.

For Farahnaz Forotan, a prominent female journalist who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban captured Kabul, the denial of education for girls and women is a sadistic power play by the Taliban leader with catastrophic consequences for millions of Afghans.

“How can a poor country compensate for two years of no education for girls? The losses are catastrophic and irreparable,” said Forotan, who spoke to VOA from her home in the U.S. state of Maryland.

Cracking down on internal dissent, the Taliban have defied international calls, including from renowned Islamic institutions, to lift the bans on women’s work and education, saying the world should not interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

“It’s an Islamic obligation and in the national interest of Afghanistan to have its women as educated as its men,” said the University of London’s Nemat. “A well-educated new generation of women and men will eventually ... dismantle the vicious cycle of colonialism in the country where our political leaders become a pawn in the hands of the superpowers of their time.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-a...ities-but-only-for-male-students/6985700.html
 
No believe in going after the people directly hiding and protecting that person.

You warn them to turn them over if a country then the country is responsible.

I don't believe in the bullshit of hearts and minds or nation building.

lol spoken like someone who has never faced any hardship in his life

Don’t take human life so lightly

Ending lives behind a keyboard is easy

not so much in real life
 
lol spoken like someone who has never faced any hardship in his life

Don’t take human life so lightly

Ending lives behind a keyboard is easy

not so much in real life

You have no idea of anything about my life.

The winning harts and minds is bullshit by war. You can help people that truly want it. You don't convince them they need your help.

If attacked you go after them and make sure they never want to do it again.
 
Taliban ban women from national park in Afghanistan



The Taliban have banned women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks, adding to a long list of restrictions aimed at shrinking women’s access to public places.

Thousands of people visit Band-e-Amir national park each year, taking in its stunning landscape of sapphire-blue lakes and towering cliffs in the country’s central Bamiyan province.

The ban was announced after the acting minister of vice and virtue complained that women visiting the park had not been adhering to the proper way of wearing the hijab.

“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” said Mohammad Khalid Hanafi as he asked security forces to begin stopping women from entering into the park.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the ban as the latest in a growing list of restrictions imposed on Afghan women. Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, authorities have closed most girls’ secondary schools, barred women from university and stopped many female Afghan aid staff from working. A raft of public places, including bathhouses, gyms and parks, have also been made off-limits for women.

“I’ve heard more than one Afghan woman talk about how next the Taliban won’t allow them to breathe,” said Heather Barr of HRW. “That sounds very hyperbolic until you see them doing things like actually trying to stop women from being outdoors and enjoying nature.”

In 2013, the park became a potent symbol of change after it was announced that four female park rangers had been hired, in a first for the country. More than two years after the Taliban’s return to power it has become the latest plank in their systematic effort to push women out of the public sphere.

Barr said: “Step by step the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison.”

The park ban also prompted comment from the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. “Can someone please explain why this restriction on women visiting Band-e-Amir is necessary to comply with sharia and Afghan culture?” Richard Bennett wrote on social media.

The Taliban have long held that they respects women’s rights in accordance with the group’s interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan customs.

Barr said it was hard to conceive of any rational reason that this ban had been put in place. “What explanation can you think of, other than cruelty?” she asked.

“It’s a magical place to go because you see families laughing and picnicking and enjoying themselves,” Barr said. “And that’s what the Taliban have just taken away – the ability of families to enjoy a day out together, with the women in the family being part of that.”

 

2 years ago, the Taliban banned girls from school. It’s a worsening crisis for all Afghans

By RIAZAT BUTT | September 17, 2023

90


ISLAMABAD (AP) — Two years after the Taliban banned girls from school beyond sixth grade, Afghanistan is the only country in the world with restrictions on female education. Now, the rights of Afghan women and children are on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly Monday in New York.

The U.N. children’s agency says more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban, although it estimates 5 million were out of school before the Taliban takeover due to a lack of facilities and other reasons.

The ban triggered global condemnation and remains the Taliban’s biggest obstacle to gaining recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. But the Taliban defied the backlash and went further, excluding women and girls from higher education, public spaces like parks, and most jobs.

Here’s a look at the ban on girls’ education:

WHY DID THE TALIBAN EXCLUDE GIRLS FROM HIGH SCHOOL?

The Taliban stopped girls’ education beyond sixth grade because they said it didn’t comply with their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. They didn’t stop it for boys. In the past two years, they’ve shown no signs of progress in creating the conditions they say are needed for girls to return to class.

Their perspective on girls’ education partly comes from a specific school of 19th century Islamic thought and partly from rural areas where tribalism is entrenched, according to regional expert Hassan Abbas.

“The ones who went on to develop the (Taliban) movement opted for ideas that are restrictive, orthodox to the extreme, and tribal,” said Abbas, who writes extensively about the Taliban. The Taliban leadership believes women should not participate in anything social or public and should especially be kept away from education, said Abbas.

The Taliban also stopped girls’ education when they ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

WHAT DO MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRIES SAY ABOUT THE BAN?

There’s a consensus among clerics outside Afghanistan that Islam places equal emphasis on female and male education. “The Taliban have no basis or evidence to claim the contrary,” said Abbas. But pleas from individual countries and groups, like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, have failed to sway the Taliban.

Syed Akbar Agha, a former Taliban front-line commander, said the insurgents espoused an Islamic system the day they entered Kabul in August 2021.

“They also gave Afghans and the outside world the idea that there would be an Islamic system in the country,” said Agha. “There is currently no (other) Islamic system in the world. The efforts of the international community are ongoing to implement democracy in Islamic countries and turn them away from the Islamic system.”

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THE BAN ON WOMEN?

Roza Otunbayeva, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ special representative for Afghanistan and the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, said one of the obvious impacts of an education ban is the lack of training of aspiring health care professionals.

Female medical students had their studies halted after last December’s Taliban edict banning higher education for women. Afghan women work in hospitals and clinics -- health care is one of the few sectors open to them — but the pipeline of qualified people will dry up. Afghan women cannot see male doctors, so children will also lose out on medical attention if women are their primary carers.

“Looking into the future and a scenario where nothing changes, where will the female doctors, midwives, gynecologists, or nurses come from?” Otunbayeva said in an email to The Associated Press. “In a strictly gender segregated society, how will Afghan women be able to get the most basic healthcare services if there are no female professionals to treat them?”

WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON AFGHANISTAN’S WIDER POPULATION?

The high school ban is not just about girls’ rights. It’s a worsening crisis for all Afghans.

Tens of thousands of teachers have lost their jobs. Support staff are also unemployed. Private institutions and businesses that benefited financially from girls’ education have been hit. Afghanistan has a shattered economy and people’s incomes are plummeting. Excluding women from the job market hurts the country’s GDP to the cost of billions of dollars, says UNICEF.

The Taliban are prioritizing Islamic knowledge over basic literacy and numeracy with their shift toward madrassas, or religious schools, paving the way for a generation of children with no contemporary or secular education to improve their or the country’s economic future.

There are other consequences for the general population, like public health and child protection.

U.N. data says birth rates are higher among Afghan girls aged 15-19 who don’t have secondary or higher education. A woman’s education can also determine if her children have basic immunization and if her daughters are married by the age of 18. The lack of women’s education is among the major drivers of deprivation, says the U.N.

Aid groups say girls are at increased risk of child labor and child marriage because they’re not at school, amid the growing hardships faced by families.

WILL THE TALIBAN CHANGE THEIR MINDS?

The Taliban waged a decades-long jihad to implement their vision of Sharia. They are not backing down easily. Sanctions, frozen assets, the lack of official recognition, and widespread condemnation has made little difference.

Countries that have a relationship with the Taliban could make an impact. But they have different priorities, reducing the prospects of a united front on girls’ education.

Pakistan has concerns about a resurgence of militant activity. Iran and Central Asian countries have grievances about water resources. China is eyeing investment and mineral extraction opportunities.

There’s a bigger likelihood of pressure coming from within Afghanistan.

The Taliban rule of today is different from that of decades ago. Senior leaders, including the chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, rely on social media for key messaging to Afghans at home and abroad.

They point to their success in eradicating narcotics and cracking down on armed groups like the Islamic State. But improving security and wiping out poppy crops will only satisfy people to a point.

While Afghans are concerned about the loss of girls’ education, they have more immediate worries like earning money, putting food on the table, keeping a roof over their heads, and surviving droughts and harsh winters.

There is a desire within Afghanistan for the Taliban to have some kind of international acceptance, even if it’s not recognition, so the economy can thrive.

Public opinion is much more relevant and influential today than it was during Taliban rule in the 90s, said Abbas. “Internal pressure from ordinary Afghans is going to ultimately push Kandahar in the corner and make a difference.”

But it could take years for the ban’s consequences to hit Afghan men and trigger a groundswell of unrest. Right now, it only affects girls and it’s mostly women who have protested the slew of restrictions.

Agha said Afghans will support the ban if the end goal is to enforce hijab, the Islamic headscarf, and finish gender mixing. But they won’t if it’s simply to end girls’ education outright.

“I think only the nation can lead the way,” he said.

 
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We spilled American blood for these pathetic people and their pathetic worthless stretch of desert. I wish the civilians no ill will but the Taliban can go eff themselves. And the civilians prefer the Taliban rule it seems since they didn't resist. The blood of too many empires have evaporated uselessly in that wasteland: Alexander, the Brits and their auxiliaries, the Soviets and us.

You spilled American blood for the people of Afghanistan?

Lmao. You invaded them. How noble lmao
 

Taliban spokesman says ban on Afghan women's education "small issue"

KYODO NEWS - Nov 22, 2023


The Taliban's ban on girls in Afghanistan studying beyond primary school is "a small issue" and should not prevent the international community from recognizing it as the country's legitimate government, a spokesman said in a recent interview.

Zabihullah Mujahid told Kyodo News in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, that female education is "an internal matter" and that it is difficult at the moment to convince conservatives and moderates to "be at one table" on the issue.

The Taliban has suspended secondary and higher education for girls and prohibited female employees of national and international organizations operating in Afghanistan from working, a move that has provoked strong condemnation from Western countries.

The Taliban, which returned to power in August 2021, are not recognized by the international community as the legitimate government, due in part to concerns over the rights of women and girls.

Mujahid described criticism of the restrictions on women's education as a "propaganda tool by Western countries to isolate us."

"If we reopen girls' schools (now), people would think that we came under pressure from the United States and the international community," he said, adding, "We do not want that."

But while it is not a current priority, the spokesman said it is possible to resume secondary and higher education for girls and women within several years.

After the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet said its treatment of women and girls would be a "fundamental red line" that should not be crossed.

But Mujahid insisted resuming education for women should not be a condition for recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate government.

"If we are recognized, we will be able to pursue this issue even better and more easily," he said, adding the country will need help from Japan in transportation and buildings once it is ready to reopen girls' schools.

The Japanese government has said it will continue to work with the international community to urge the Taliban to reverse its policy toward women and girls, while continuing efforts to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a hard-line religious scholar, and ministers discussed the issue of resuming education for girls and women but they failed to reach an agreement due to opposition from hard-liners.

 
Global governments should engage with the Taliban because some in the regime support reversing the ban, says Rangina Hamidi

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There are many Taliban officials who would support reversing the ban on schooling for girls in Afghanistan, according to the country’s last education minister before the takeover.

Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become the only country in the world where girls are banned from schooling beyond the age of 11. The group has also imposed what has been described as a policy of “gender apartheid”, banning women from most work and public spaces.

But internal fractures that exist within the Taliban on girl’s education could be leveraged by the international community to lobby with them to reopen girls schools, said Rangina Hamidi, who recently visited the country.

“The Taliban are not a monolith. There are differences of opinions within the Taliban, just as with any other group. And it is evident, particularly on the issue of the ban on girls’ education, there are many within the Taliban who support reversing the decree,” she said.

“Whether or not the world recognises the Taliban, for nearly 40 million Afghans, at least half of whom are women and girls, this is a lived reality,” she said. “And it pains me, that even after two years, the international community hasn’t figured out how to deal with the Taliban, at the expense of the people and girls of Afghanistan.

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“Not that long ago the US government, along with its allies and international agencies, were engaged in the political talks with the Taliban. Why then, does the same global community today have a problem with working with the Taliban?”

Hamidi has proposed supporting homegrown solutions from Afghans who are finding ways to work around Taliban bans, including the use of spaces where girls are allowed, such as madrassas – religious schools – as an alternative avenue for education.

“Madrassas are synonymous today with religious schooling only, but historically these are spaces for learning,” she said, urging people to “look beyond semantics [for] indigenous opportunities for girls to continue their learning”.

“The country has lacked funds to invest in schools and there are communities where boys and girls are out of school. Yet, as a Muslim country, there are mosques – which are also places of learning – at least one in every 2km radius. So, why can’t we use this space to help our children learn using a standardised curriculum?” she said.

Hamidi’s views received a mixed reaction at a feminist gathering in Istanbul this month, organised by the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (Ungei), where she spoke. Some Afghan female participants were critical of any proposal to normalise relations with a group that continues to restrict women’s basic rights.

Selma Acuner, a member of the Women’s Coalition in Turkey, part of the Ungei feminist network, said: “Working with the Taliban, who intentionally suppress women’s rights and enforce their interpretation of radical fundamentalist ideologies through madrassas, presents a highly paradoxical situation.”


Classroom-1-640x427.jpg

Acuner acknowledged that religious schools may provide girls an opportunity to continue engaging in a learning space, but said: “We cannot expect religious institutions to compensate for the lost access to formal secondary education … they do not match the broader educational scope and future opportunities it provides.”

Acuner said it was crucial to hear from and understand the experiences of women in Afghanistan before agreeing to such an approach. “Otherwise, it would mean consenting to a deepening regression in women’s rights worldwide,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...chools-says-afghanistan-ex-education-minister
 
My sister in laws family are Afghan. They fled the Taliban. Most of the women have scars from beatings and acid burns. Many have been raped and were forced into marriages. I have known them for 30 years, a beautiful family. As the brother in law, I hold a big place in their family. After hearing all the stories, I will only wish the destruction and removal of the Taliban. Truly disgraceful brainwashed extremists.
 

Taliban defends record on women as UN looks at path forward

By Michelle Nichol | November 21, 2023

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban-led administration is "obligated" to consider religious values and will not allow interference in internal affairs, it has told the United Nations in response to an assessment on how the world could deal with the Islamists.

The U.N. Security Council asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the independent assessment, which was submitted this month. It proposes a path for political engagement aimed at reintegrating Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.

The Taliban-led administration's desire for recognition - and the country's seat at the United Nations - is seen as key international leverage to press for an inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.

"The basic rights of women and girls, including the right to education and to work, and representation in public and political life – are not only fundamental obligations of a state, but also critical to build state capacity for long-term development and economic growth and peace and security," read the assessment submitted to the 15-member council.

"Any formal re-integration of Afghanistan into global institutions and systems will require the participation and leadership of Afghan women," it read. The assessment was written by veteran Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu.

Since the Taliban returned to power, most girls have been barred from high school and women from universities. The Taliban have also stopped most Afghan female staff from working at aid agencies, closed beauty salons, barred women from parks and curtailed travel for women in the absence of a male guardian.

The Taliban say they respect rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law.

"This government is obligated to take into consideration the religious values and national interests of the country during all engagements, and will not allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs," the Taliban-led administration wrote in a response this week to the assessment, seen by Reuters.

It said that since the end of the war Afghan women had been able to secure some of their most basic rights, that about 23.4% of all Afghan civil servants are women, and that unprecedented numbers of Afghan women were participating as leaders and job creators in the business, commerce and manufacturing sectors.

"The Islamic Emirate has collected thousands of street beggars, a legacy of the previous regime, majority of whom were women and allocated them regular stipends," it added.

The United Nations says two-thirds of Afghanistan's 43 million people need humanitarian aid.

The independent assessment given to the Security Council recommended the appointment of a U.N. special envoy on Afghanistan, which the Taliban rejected as "unacceptable."

 
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It's funny how left of the east and right of the west are against this while left of the west and right of the east defends this
 
As they should. they are essentially reducing their nation's IQ by half.
but I seriously doubt it.
 

Taliban's new ambassador to China arrives in Beijing as they court foreign investment​

ByThe Associated Press | December 1, 2023

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban government's new ambassador to China arrived in Beijing on Friday — the first time Afghanistan's rulers have officially sent an ambassador to another country since returning to power more than two years ago.

No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but some, including China, have embassies in Kabul. Many other diplomatic missions were shuttered and their staff evacuated as Taliban fighters bore down on Afghanistan's capital in August 2021.

China is of particular importance to the Taliban, who are courting foreign investment and regional alliances amid their continued isolation on the international stage because of their restrictions on Afghan women and girls.

The new ambassador, Bilal Karimi, who has no diplomatic experience and is in his late 20s or early 30s, was welcomed in Beijing by China’s special envoy for Afghan affairs, Yue Xiaoyong, according to a Taliban statement. Karimi presented his credentials to the Foreign Ministry’s director-general of the protocol department, Hong Lei.

Before his appointment as ambassador, Karimi was a spokesman in the Taliban-controlled administration and worked with its chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, who is close to the Taliban supreme leader.

Lei welcomed Karimi and called his appointment an important step in the development of relations between the two countries, the Taliban statement said. Lei said Karimi’s credentials will be presented to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a special ceremony.

Karimi praised China’s positive policies toward Afghanistan, especially for not intervening in domestic issues, and said the country was a good neighbor.

The Taliban have been trying to gain control of Afghan embassies over the past two years, sometimes publicly rebuking their staff for not cooperating.

In India, Afghanistan’s embassy closed last week, citing a lack of support from New Delhi and the absence of a legitimate government in Kabul.

The Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Stanikzai, told state television this week that some countries did not hand the embassies over because of political considerations or U.S. pressure. Some embassies, including the one in India, were working against the Taliban, Stanikzai claimed.

“We have consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad. They are active and in touch with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and provide consular services daily,” Stanikzai told RTA. “After two to three days, the embassy will open again and provide services.”

The Taliban frequently complain about the lack of official recognition.

They don’t have Afghanistan’s seat at the U.N. General Assembly — that is still held by officials from the former Western-backed government — and earlier this week they condemned their exclusion from the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

They said summit organizers were depriving Afghans of their rights. The National Environmental Protection Agency of Afghanistan said it had prepared a comprehensive plan for this year’s meeting, but was not invited.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Friday that the country was among the top 10 most vulnerable and least ready countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. It warned that humanitarian funding continues to decline and climate financing remains largely suspended.

The U.N. also noted that Afghan voices are absent from global climate discussions and Taliban authorities have yet to create “a conducive policy and operational environment under a codified system of governance" to support access to global funds.

Much of the international community’s reluctance to engage with the Taliban stems from their restrictions on women and girls. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with bans on female education. Women are banned from most jobs and public spaces. Girls cannot go to school beyond the sixth grade, including university.

 
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