Reuters: Since seizing power in 2021, Afghanistan's Taliban administration has rolled back hard-fought rights won by Afghan women and girls during two decades of rule by American-backed governments.The International Criminal Court prosecutor on Thursday said he had applied for arrest warrants for Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of crimes against humanity for widespread discrimination against women and girls.      Full news...

Times Now News: Ever since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban have ordered the most brutal reversal of women's rights. Women and girls have lost access to education, jobs, public spaces, and even basic rights—many of which most of us would take for granted. Women around the world have been fighting for their rights, and this has dealt a grievous blow to all those efforts. Upon their return, the Taliban have established the most regressive government. Actor Meryl Streep, who attended an event in September last year as part of the UN General Assembly in New York, spoke about the situation facing women and girls in Afghanistan.      Full news...

AFP: Health officials met with directors of education institutes on Monday in the capital Kabul to inform them of the ruling, an official from the public health ministry who was not authorised to speak to the media told AFP. "There is no official letter but the directors of institutes were informed in a meeting that women and girls can't study anymore in their institutes," he said. "They were not provided with any details and justification and were just told of the order of the supreme leader and were asked to implement it."      Full news...

AFP: Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles — Taliban authorities are working to remove “un-Islamic” and anti-government literature from circulation. Checking imported books, removing texts from libraries and distributing lists of banned titles — Taliban authorities are working to remove “un-Islamic” and anti-government literature from circulation.      Full news...

The Guardian: Relief set in the moment Hasina crossed the border into Iran. For two years, the Taliban barred the 24-year-old medical student from continuing her studies. Now, as part of a growing exodus of Afghan women who desperately want an education, Hasina is pursuing her degree in Tehran. “I was terrified the Taliban would prevent me from leaving,” she says. Last year, they stopped 100 female Afghan students boarding a flight to take up places at university in the United Arab Emirates where they had won scholarships.      Full news...

Daily Wrap: It has been three years since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. Since then, they have been systematically stripping women of their rights. Now, in addition, the country’s ruling fundamentalists have reduced by 75% the salaries of the few women who are allowed to work. In August 2021, after the sitting president of Afghanistan fled, the Taliban entered Kabul and took control of the country. Women suffered the most, with their rights being regularly curtailed by the fundamentalists.      Full news...

RAWA NEWS: Hafiz Ziaullah Hashimi, the spokesperson for the Taliban's Ministry of [anti]Higher Education, shared a video clip of Sheikh Abdul Ali Deobandi on his X profile, labeling it an “important Fatwa.” In the clip, Sheikh Deobandi states that teaching women, even at home, is prohibited because it leads to writing letters to men, which he considers sinful. A Fatwa is an Islamic legal opinion issued by a qualified scholar on specific religious or legal issues.      Full news...

Business Standard: United Nations agencies have said that the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women and girls will increase the number of child marriages among Afghan girls by 25 per cent, Afghanistan-based TOLO News reported. UN Women, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) have released a joint two-page brief. In the brief, the UN agencies have highlighted the issues faced by Afghan women and their demands of the international community.      Full news...

U.S. Department of State:The United States has not decided whether to recognize the Taliban or any other entity as the government of Afghanistan or as part of such a government. All references to “the pre-August 2021 government” refer to the Republic-era government of Afghanistan. References to the Taliban in this report do not denote or imply that the United States recognizes the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.There was significant deterioration in women’s rights during the year due to edicts that further restricted access to education and employment, with a net result that women were increasingly confined to domestic roles. No decree or directive pertaining to women and girls’ education, or work, was reversed or softened. The Taliban did not purport to formally change existing laws as legislated by the Republic-era government; however, they promulgated edicts that contradicted those laws and were inconsistent with Afghanistan’s obligations under international conventions.      Full news...

BBC News: Teenage Afghan girls have told the BBC they feel “mentally dead” as the Taliban’s ban on their education prevents them from returning to school once again.More than 900 days have now passed since girls over 12 were first banned. The Taliban have repeatedly promised they would be readmitted once a number of issues were resolved - including ensuring the curriculum was “Islamic”. But they have made little comment as a third new school year started without teenage girls in class this week.      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...

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...

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...

Rukhshana: Fears are growing of the Taliban’s moves to expand extremist religious schools in Afghanistan, with more buildings allegedly being claimed for this purpose.Since taking power in Afghanistan over two years ago, the Taliban have been slowly building more religious schools across the country.Two buildings of the Herat teacher training center were turned into jihadist schools in April. Before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, more than four thousand men and women had been studying teaching in the center.      Full news...

UNICEF: An estimated 3.7 million children are out-of-school in Afghanistan. 60 per cent of girls and 46 per cent of boys of primary school age are currently not attending any level of education in Afghanistan. Even when children are enrolled in school, they are not always learning. Years of previous conflict, coupled with poor infrastructure, have made some schools unsafe for children. Many public schools lack adequate classrooms, qualified teachers, school supplies, and places where children can wash their hands.      Full news...

The Washington Post: Afghanistan’s primary mental health facility in Kabul has filled with patients who say they are experiencing a different kind of suffering, he said. With the Taliban leadership severely restricting female education and work, there are mounting concerns about the mental health of girls and women. The restrictions and “sudden changes,” said Azim, appear to be at the root of the trauma suffered by most women and girls now seeking help at this hospital.      Full news...

Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry of Education has introduced new uniforms for male and female schoolchildren in Afghanistan. According to the Taliban’s "Uniform Bill", boys should wear Shalwar Kameez and girls should wear skirts, scarves, and face masks. The Taliban has declared that wearing the new uniform is mandatory in public and private schools. The Taliban has introduced these uniforms for female students even though girls’ schools have been closed and millions of female students are deprived of education.      Full news...

8am: Local sources in Panjshir province report that Taliban have exploded the boys’ high school building “Dahan-Riyot” in the Khinj district of this province. Sources told Hasht-e Subh that Taliban destroyed the school with a mine explosion around 9:00 am on Monday.      Full news...

Radio Liberty: At least 20 Afghan women marched in the capital, Kabul, on March 26 to demand the right to education for women and girls before being rounded up by a Taliban patrol. The demonstration comes amid UN and other international condemnation over ongoing strictures under the Taliban-led government to keep women and girls out of schools, jobs, media, and other aspects of life since the hard-line militant group took power after U.S.-led international forces left in 2021.      Full news...

Nimrokh: As Afghanistan’s new academic year gets underway with the ringing of school bells, nearly half of the country’s students are denied the right to education. Despite the significance of Hamal 03 (March 23) as Afghanistan’s Education Day, the Taliban marked the start of the new school year on Hamal 01 (March 21) with a male-only ceremony at Amani High School in Kabul. No female teacher or student was allowed to attend the ceremony.      Full news...

The Guardian: It is six weeks since the Taliban closed the door on girls’ education across Afghanistan and Zeina’s last vestiges of hope for her future died. A very different kind of life now lies ahead for the 20-year-old, a life of domestic drudgery, boredom and seclusion that she has no power to change. Since the Taliban took control in August 2021, Zeina had managed to convince her frightened family to let her stay at school. She held on to the belief that she would somehow find a way to finish her education and achieve her dream of getting a master’s in medicine. This dream has now ended.      Full news...

VOA: ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban have indefinitely barred girls from taking private university entrance exams, tightening their ban on women’s education in the country. Ziaullah Hashmi, a spokesperson for the Taliban higher education ministry, Saturday confirmed to VOA they had sent out a letter to private Afghan universities across the country ordering them not to enroll female students for the upcoming spring semester.      Full news...

CNN:The Taliban administration on Saturday ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs. Non-compliance will result in the licenses of said NGOs being revoked, the ministry said. Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said.      Full news...

The Guardian: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered an indefinite ban on university education for the country’s women, the ministry of higher education said in a letter issued to all government and private universities. “You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice,” said the letter signed by the minister for higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.      Full news...

Etilaat-e-Rooz: the Acting Minister of Higher Education of the Taliban, called girls going to school an alien culture and said that this culture was brought into the country by Amanullah Khan. In a video published on social networks, he considers girls going to school as a version of “Revelry and obscenity”.      Full news...

Khaama Press: According to sources, the Taliban arrested women journalists and activists in Kabul, including Zarifa Yaqoubi, one of the demonstrators who attended a press conference announcing the formation of the Afghan Women’s Movement for Equality, on Thursday, November 3. The gun-wielding Taliban forces including women police officers invaded a women’s press conference held in Dasht-e-Barchi, a Hazara neighborhood in west Kabul, arbitrarily arresting women activists, journalists, and their male colleagues, sources told Khaama Press.      Full news...

8am: A number of female students in Badakhshan protested on Sunday morning (October 30th) after they were prevented from entering the university campus by the Taliban. The Taliban did not allow these students to enter Badakhshan University because they did not wear burqas and wore local clothes.      Full news...

VOA: The Taliban have imposed yet more restrictions on girls’ education in Afghanistan as the group barred girls from choosing certain subjects in the country’s national university entrance exam this year. The form given to female students at the exam, received by the VOA Afghanistan Service, shows that female students did not have the option of choosing civil engineering, journalism, veterinary, agriculture and geology in this year’s exam held at the beginning of this month.      Full news...

OCHA: People in Afghanistan are no strangers to hardships, having endured 40 years of conflict, poverty, displacement, drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. The country is now also facing a failing health system and an economy on the brink of collapse. Even before the Taliban entered the capital, Kabul, on 15 August, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was one of the worst in the world. Nearly half of the country’s 40 million people, or 18.4 million people, already needed humanitarian assistance. One in three Afghans faces food insecurity, and more than half of all children under age 5 are likely to face acute malnutrition.      Full news...