Human Rights Watch: In the last two and a half years after regaining power in Afghanistan, the Taliban, have created the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis. They have systematically violated the rights of women and girls including as they relate to education, paid employment, freedom of speech and movement, and political participation among many others. The response of the international community has been tepid and seems to lack an appreciation of how the situation in Afghanistan has grave implications for the rights of women and girls globally. More needs to be done to prevent this from developing any further and to reinforce global commitment to gender equality.      Full news...

Dawn News: ALMOST two years after they seized control of Kabul, the Afghan Taliban are still engrossed in suffocating Afghan women. Education for girls in secondary school and women in university was banned a while ago. Then a ban was imposed on women working in NGOs, adding to the restrictions on women working for the government. This plethora of curbs eliminating and erasing women from the public sphere was not enough for the Taliban. Recently, women working in beauty parlours came to work to find out that the faces of women on signs advertising their parlours had been erased.      Full news...

Khaama Press: According to the report published on Tuesday, January 30th, al-Qaeda has managed to maintain a “holding” position under the rule of the Taliban, leading to tensions between the Taliban and some al-Qaeda leaders due to the Taliban’s efforts to restrict the group’s activities in Afghanistan.The United Nations Security Council had previously expressed concerns about the presence of terrorist groups and their activities in Afghanistan. The latest report from the council indicates that al-Qaeda lacks the operational capacity to organize large-scale attacks with its remaining members.      Full news...

Afghanistan Time:United Nations Assistance Mission in its latest report has said that the Taliban’s Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice played a key role in enforcing restrictions on women’s rights, particularly in areas of work, education, and freedom of movement. The ministry’s actions, including impeding unmarried women and those without a male guardian from working or accessing services, were documented during the reported period.      Full news...

East London Advertiser: The Taliban are restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and healthcare if they are unmarried or do not have a male guardian, according to a UN report.In one incident, officials from the Afghan vice and virtue ministry advised a woman to get married if she wanted to keep her job at a healthcare facility, saying it was inappropriate for an unwed woman to work.The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade (aged 11-12) as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule.      Full news...

Khaama Press News:The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported on Friday, January 19th, citing the United Nations Office (UNAMA) that this cash is held in a dedicated account at a private bank and is not transferred to the Central Bank under the Taliban control. However, critics argue that the Taliban still influence how this money is spent. In June 2023, a reliable source at the Central Bank of Afghanistan under Taliban control confirmed that $40 million packages of humanitarian aid are being sent to Kabul, but the Taliban no longer publicizes this news through the media.      Full news...

The Washington Post: Their names are Khoshbakht, Saliha, Fawzia, Benazir, Farzana and Nazia — Afghan girls ages 6 to 10 who have been sold into marriage. Desperation forced their parents to thrust them into brutal adulthood. In Shahrak-e-Sabz, a settlement of makeshift mud-brick homes and tents for the displaced in Herat province that we visited last month, our researchers counted 118 girls who had been sold as child brides, and 116 families with girls waiting for buyers. This amounts to 40 percent of families surveyed, even though the Taliban decreed in late 2021...      Full news...

CBS News: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have rounded up dozens of women in an apparent crackdown on perceived violations of the group’s strict dress code. Dozens of women and girls were detained briefly last week in Kabul, a senior Taliban spokesperson told CBS News on Monday, confirming what appeared to be a new tactic in the group’s efforts to curb women’s rights. The arrests by the Taliban’s morality police occurred over several days and first came to light via videos and photos posted on social media. The Taliban confirmed the arrests after photos and video clips showed women being loaded onto the back of police pickup trucks in the capital city.      Full news...

Al Jazeera: After five years of medical training, Lima, 28, should be one year into her residency as a doctor, perfecting her diagnostic skills. Instead, she takes temperatures and administers injections, tasks she has been doing at an emergency room in Kabul for three months now. While this is not the work she expected to be doing at this point in her career, she’s happy to at least be doing this.“Being at the hospital means I can stay close to my field.It helps me to stay connected to it,” Lima told Al Jazeera over the course of several telephone calls. She is identified by her first name only for safety reasons.      Full news...

Arab News: KHOST, Afghanistan: Zubaida traveled from the rural outskirts of Khost in eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specializing in complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women — her death or her child’s.She lay dazed, surrounded by the unfamiliar bustle of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run hospital, exhausted from delivery the day before, but relieved.Her still-weak newborn slept nearby in an iron crib with peeling paint, the child’s eyes lined with khol to ward off evil.      Full news...

The Hill: Abandoned by the world, Afghanistan’s youth are trapped in a nightmare. They grew up under two decades of American influence, dreaming of a future where they could pursue their education. But the Taliban have snatched away their dreams, turning education into a joke.Education is like a window to the world, as my grandfather used to say. A window that lets you breathe in the wisdom of others and exhale yours to them. It sets you free.      Full news...

CNN: Arzo is so weak she spends most of her day lying on a thin mattress in a dimly lit room under a ceiling fan that steadily circulates the polluted air of Pakistan’s largest city.To pass the time, she watches makeup videos on her cellphone, the glow of the screen illuminating the faded freckles of a teenager whose skin now rarely sees the sun. Arzo is a long way from her home in Afghanistan, where she lived with her parents before being smuggled across the border for medical treatment. Her older brother and sister, Ahamad and Mahsa, now care for her in a rented room in Karachi, their temporary refuge from life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.      Full news...

Save the children: Almost 8 million children in Afghanistan – or one in three - will enter the new year facing crisis levels of hunger as increasingly freezing conditions threaten communities already reeling from drought, earthquakes, and economic hardship, said Save the Children. New figures[i] released today by the IPC, the global hunger monitoring system, predict an increase in the number of people experiencing crisis or emergency levels of hunger in Afghanistan during the winter months, although the situation has improved compared with the same period last year.      Full news...

CBS News: The U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions over the weekend against two Taliban regime officials in Afghanistan, accusing the men of roles in the systemic “repression of women and girls."”p The Treasury specifically noted the Taliban’s ban on girls attending school beyond the sixth grade as “severe and pervasive discrimination”. ut while the impact on Afghan women and girls of the Taliban’s draconian crackdown on education has been well documented, a report from the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch warns that the Islamic fundamentalists’ approach to schooling is “causing irreversible damage to the Afghan education system for boys as well as girls.”      Full news...

ABC News: The Taliban must embrace and uphold human rights obligations in Afghanistan, the U.N. mission in the country said Sunday on Human Rights Day and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have erased basic rights and freedoms, with women and girls deeply affected. They are excluded from most public spaces and daily life, and the restrictions have sparked global condemnation.      Full news...

Afghanistan Women News: Local sources in Takhar province report the detention of Nabila Rahimi, a human rights activist and trainer of health programs of a contractor organization with United Nations development programs, by the Taliban. According to the sources, Nabila Rahimi was arrested from her work place on Wednesday, November 22 after being beaten by Taliban forces. One of Nabila’s relatives confirmed her arrest on Saturday, November 25, 2023, and said that Nabila was arrested by Taliban forces due to continuing her activities from the area of ​​Oil Selling Road, Taloqan city, Takhar province.      Full news...

VOA News: The Taliban’s “abusive” educational policies are harming boys as well as girls in Afghanistan, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday. The Taliban have been globally condemned for banning girls and women from secondary school and university, but the rights group says there has been less attention to the deep harm inflicted on boys’ education. The departure of qualified teachers including women, regressive curriculum changes and the increase in corporal punishment have led to greater fear of going to school and falling attendance.      Full news...

Afghanistan Women News: After gaining power in Afghanistan, the Taliban group systematically, violently and cruelly treats women. This extremist group forcefully imposes that women must be kept in their homes and are not allowed to leave the house and be in the community. The Taliban group is specifically targeting and harassing women’s rights activists who have fought against the group in various fields in the past. Taliban forces persecute them by keeping in prisons, enduring tortures and beatings.      Full news...

Afghanistan Wmen News: Hosna Sadat, the former presenter of Khurshid private TV, ended her life by jumping from the fourth floor of a building in Qala-e-Fathullah area of ​​the 10th district of Kabul. A number of Hosna Sadat’s friends called the reason for her suicide to escape from the hands of the Taliban and said that last night the Taliban had invaded her house, she had to jump from the fourth floor of her residential building to save herself and eventuated to committing suicide.The news of Hasna’s suicide has become public today, Friday, December 1.      Full news...

Khama Press: Sources from Herat confirm that the Taliban administration has prohibited women’s tailoring in the central region of this province. Simultaneously, some media outlets have reported establishing a specialized women’s market in Balkh. The source, who preferred not to be named in the report, informed Khama Press that Taliban forces entered the city Wednesday morning to inspect commercial markets. Several markets, including all women’s clothing tailoring centres, have been closed as part of this inspection.      Full news...

Hasht-E Subh: Local sources in Baghlan province report that the Taliban targeted an unarmed civilian in Andarab, unleashing a barrage of gunfire. The incident occurred on Monday, November 20, in the Qasan Dara area of Andarab.The young man subjected to the gunfire was named Mir Aqa. Following his arrest, the Taliban reportedly executed him by firing squad. Sources indicate that Mir Aqa had no affiliations with any military factions. As of now, the Taliban in Baghlan have not issued any statements regarding this incident.      Full news...

UNHCR: Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are returning to their country from Pakistan with no work or shelter. Pakistan is host to 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees while another 840,000 hold Citizenship Cards that give them some protection. A further 1.5 million Afghans are estimated to be living in Pakistan without any documentation, including some 600,000 who arrived in the country following Afghanistan’s takeover by the de facto authorities in August 2021.      Full news...

BNN News: Taliban fighters in Herat province, Afghanistan, launched a crackdown on girls’ education, forcibly shutting down several educational centers. The closures were enforced by physically blocking entrances and sealing gates, striking a blow to female education in a country where it has already been severely curtailed. In Ghazni province, schools were previously closed due to reasons such as male teachers shaving their beards and female teachers not adhering to the hijab dress code. For over two years, the Taliban has enforced a ban on girls attending universities and schools beyond the sixth grade.      Full news...

Human Rights Watch: Hauling women off of a plane when they had almost made their escape to study overseas. Banning women from one of the world’s most stunning national parks. Pushing girls out of school at age 10. Dismissing female nursery school teachers. Shuttering all beauty salons at a cost of 60,000 women’s jobs.The last month or two has been a busy time for the Taliban. As we mark the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that led to the Taliban being toppled, they are fully back in charge and deeply unchanged, despite promises to the contrary. These are the latest among what UN experts describe as their “widespread, systematic, and all-encompassing” attack on the rights of women and girls.      Full news...

Investing News: The World Bank has expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating state of Afghanistan’s economy, with monetary poverty affecting half of the country’s citizens. The findings were relayed by TOLO News Today, based on insights from a critical discussion held at the US Institute of Peace. Senior economist at the World Bank, Silvia Redaelli, unveiled that monetary poverty has ensnared half of Afghanistan’s population, while Naheed Sarabi from the Institute for Development and Economic Affairs underscored the deepening economic plight of Afghan women. Sarabi traced this rising feminization of poverty back to numerous factors, including restrictive policies imposed by the Taliban.      Full news...

The Express Tribune: Amidst the deportation drive initiated by the Government of Pakistan against illegal immigrants, including Afghan nationals, Amnesty International on Friday urged Islamabad to “halt the continued detentions, deportations, and [alleged] widespread harassment of Afghan refugees”. In a statement, Livia Saccardi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns for South Asia, accused Pakistan of using Afghan refugees as “political pawns”, emphasising the risk they face upon return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan amidst a crackdown on human rights.      Full news...

Gallup News: Prospects remain grim for women and girls inside Afghanistan in 2023, as well as the hundreds of thousands of undocumented refugee women and girls whom Pakistan is currently forcing to return to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. As they have since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, Gallup surveys continue to show that nearly all Afghan women are suffering and most do not feel women in their country are treated with respect. But this year, women’s satisfaction with the freedom they have to choose what they do with their lives has dropped to an unprecedented low. Just 11% of Afghan women interviewed in July said they are satisfied with the freedom they have to choose what they do with their lives, which is a new record low, not just for Afghanistan but for any country or population that Gallup has ever polled.      Full news...

VOA: Taliban officials in Afghanistan said Tuesday that a bomb blast ripped through a minibus in Kabul, killing at least seven civilians and wounding 20 others. A police spokesman confirmed the casualties, saying the evening deadly bombing occurred in the western Dashti Barchi area, a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim neighborhood in the Afghan capital. The spokesman, Khalid Zadran, said an investigation into the attack was underway. The United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan denounced the bombing, saying it was the third attack in less than a month against members of the ethnic Hazara Shiite community.      Full news...

Play the Game: For more than two years, the Taliban regime in Kabul has been in full violation of the Olympic Charter thanks to its religious war on women’s sport in Afghanistan. But the Islamic rulers of the Asian country have not yet been sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their discrimination against female athletes.“That the Taliban allow a single female flag bearer at a major tournament, while simultaneously crushing the rights and hopes of millions of Afghan women athletes is more likely a cruel strategy by the Taliban to cover up systematic rights abuses than any mark of meaningful progress,” Worden says to Play the Game.      Full news...

Hasht-e-Subh: The Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, under the Taliban’s rule in Ghazni province, has issued a directive prohibiting the treatment of male and female patients in the same building within the province’s hospitals, according to sources.Officials from the Taliban’s Department for the Promotion of Virtue in Ghazni province have warned healthcare facility authorities that violations will result in penalties.      Full news...