The New York Times: The blast in Mazar-i-Sharif, one of Afghanistan’s economic hubs, was the latest in a series of attacks on one of its religious minorities and was claimed by an ISIS affiliate. KABUL, Afghanistan — An explosion at a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 10 people and wounded more than two dozen others, local officials said, adding to the toll of a bloody week for one of the country’s religious minorities.      Full news...

Foreign Policy: Violence is intensifying in Afghanistan eight months after the United States’ retreat allowed the Taliban to return to power, fueling concerns that the country may again become a hub of instability and terrorism across South and Central Asia and beyond. Afghanistan has long been a base for militants with ambitions for global jihad. Dozens of groups that have been present since the Taliban’s last turn in power from 1996 to 2001 are again operational, looking for opportunities to expand their reach, said security, diplomatic, and military sources.      Full news...

The Washington Post: KABUL — At least six people were killed and 11 injured by two explosions Tuesday morning outside a large public school in western Kabul, police and school officials said. The death toll was expected to climb, as witnesses and survivors said scores of people had been injured and taken to nearby hospitals. The back-to-back blasts struck at the heart of the capital’s minority Shiite Hazara community, just outside the prominent Abdul Rahman Shahid school, where dozens of students were leaving after morning classes.      Full news...

Amnesty International: Responding to the deaths of at least six people and the injury of 11 others, including children, following bomb blasts in schools in predominantly Hazara Shiite communities in Kabul today, Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner, said:“These reprehensible attacks on schools highlight the violence that Afghan people continue to face in their daily lives. It also shows that the Taliban, as the de-facto authorities, are failing to protect civilians, especially those from ethnic and religious minority groups, from harm.      Full news...

Tolo TV: On Friday night, the Pakistani air strikes targeted civilians in Esperai district in Khost, killing dozens of people. Strong reactions continue at national level against Pakistani military’s air strikes and rocket attacks on Afghan provinces with many blaming Pakistan for violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.      Full news...

Tolo TV: Family members claim that US forces took their wounded six-year-old daughter with them after the attack, and they have no information about her fate.“We raised our voices, but no one heard us,” said Safir Khan, a member of the family. “These children do not have a father and do not have a supporter,” said Hassan Khan, a relative of the family.      Full news...

The Intercept: EIGHT MONTHS AFTER a U.S.-supported government in Afghanistan was defeated by the Taliban, violence against civilians and politically motivated violence persist in the country even as incidents have become harder to report and verify amid an intensifying information blackout, a report published today reveals. Journalists and women, particularly those participating in or covering demonstrations in opposition to Taliban rule, have been increasingly targeted, as have members of the former government and security forces.      Full news...

The Bharat Express News: Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last year, they have hunted down government officials aided by the United States. Contrary to their promise, they have been investigating these officials for months and, despite their promise of clemency, have finally punished them. According to a report, 500 government officers have been killed or disappeared so far. The Taliban, however, call these allegations baseless. According to media reports, the Taliban used numerous tactics to track the whereabouts of Afghan soldiers and government officials who aided the United States.      Full news...

The Washington Post: HERAT, Afghanistan — Without work, Khangul Sadiqi found himself heavily in debt. His children often went to bed hungry, shivering in their unheated home. And so, six months into Taliban rule, he began to see his three girls through the prism of survival. “Rather than all of my family members die, I decided it’s better to sell one of my girls to save the rest,” Sadiqi said. The daughter he sold is Zahra. She is 3 years old. Her buyer is a wealthy man in search of another wife. He is 50. The cost of the sale: roughly $500.      Full news...

The Print: Even as Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirate continues to deny education to girls beyond the sixth grade, more than two dozen top Taliban leaders are educating their daughters at schools in Doha, Peshawar and Karachi, sources familiar with the movement have told ThePrint.The leaders include Health Minister Qalandar Ebad, Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, and spokesperson Suhail Shaheen.      Full news...

8am: Sources in Bamyan province confirm that the Taliban have arrested 11 women in the province on charges of disrupting the group’s support program.The sources told the 8am newspaper on Thursday that 11 women have been detained by the Taliban since Saturday. According to these sources, first three people who had lowered the Taliban banners were arrested and then eight others were arrested on charges of disrupting the program.      Full news...

Etilaat-e-Rooz: Local sources in Bamyan province say female students tore down Taliban banners in response to a “staged” support program. This happened three days ago in Bamyan. According to sources, Bamyan University officials had asked female students to participate in a women’s rights program at the Bamyan Sports Stadium, but when the girls attended the program, they realized that the program was not in support of women’s rights, but in support of the Taliban.      Full news...

GALLUP: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Taliban’s recent decision to renege on its promise to allow girls to attend school past sixth grade is a stark reminder of how much life has changed for Afghans since the group returned to power last year -- and Gallup's surveys in the country show it hasn’t been for the better. As the Taliban completed its takeover of Afghanistan last year, nearly all Afghans (94%) rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering. This was not only a record high for Afghanistan, but also the highest level of suffering that Gallup has measured for any country since 2005.      Full news...

Daily 8am: The Taliban Ministry of Higher Education has written to all public and private universities that female professors are no longer allowed to attend men’s scientific conferences. The letter states that female professors, students and graduates are not allowed to participate in men’s programs.      Full news...

Subh-e-Kabul: “Nafisa worked at the Ali Chopan Clinic”, said the source. Yesterday evening, she was on her way home from work with her sister’s child and a colleague. “The Taliban said why did you get in a car with a non-mahram?”. According to the latest information received by Sobh-e-Kabul newspaper, a young girl who was killed in Balkh province was first tortured by the Taliban and then shot dead.      Full news...

Etlaat-e-Rooz: Relatives of a former government soldier in Herat say he was mysteriously killed and his body burned. He was named Hassan Qanuni and his body was discovered today (Thursday, March 31). Mr. Qanuni’s brother, Said Baqir Sajadi, said his brother had a background in the police force. He also studied pharmacology.      Full news...

Arab News: LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the Taliban on Monday for detaining at least seven journalists, warning that the group “must cease detaining journalists for their work and lift all bans on news outlets’ operations.”Since Saturday, the Taliban detained and subsequently released at least seven journalists and media workers, and have ordered local outlets to stop airing content from three international broadcasters.      Full news...

Global News: The Taliban have issued even more restrictive edicts in Afghanistan, after recent news that the all-male government would prevent girls from attending school after Grade 6, and that women would be disallowed from boarding flights without male chaperones. After the U.S. and NATO evacuated their troops from Afghanistan in mid-August and the country slipped back under Taliban control, the international community has waited to see if this new government would revert back to how the Taliban ruled in the late 1990s.      Full news...

Khaama Press: A small group of women took to the streets of Kabul on Saturday, March 26, 2022, to protest against the Taliban’s announcement banning teenage girls from going to schools. The female protestors said access to education is an alienable right of humans and girls likewise the rest of the boys in Afghanistan have the right to get educated.      Full news...

Etilaat-e-Rooz: A number of students have rallied in Kabul to protest the Taliban’s decision to block girls’ schools. Those who gathered in a house today chanted slogans such as “No religion restricts education and the ban on educating girls is blatant gender discrimination.” The students urged the Taliban not to be hypocritical about male and female students. They say closing schools is persecution for a generation.      Full news...

The Guardian: In January, some Taliban members in northern Mazār-e-Sharīf city allegedly gang-raped eight women in custody. These women were part of the group of people arrested while trying to flee the country following the Taliban takeover in the wake of the withdrawal of foreign troops. My friends in Kabul told me that the women who survived the gang rape were later killed by their families in the name of “honour” after they were handed over by the Taliban. The rest of the women, they said, were still “missing”.      Full news...

Etilaat-e-Rooz: A man in Faryab says unemployment, poverty and misery have forced him to sell his 10-years-old daughter. Assadullah, a resident of Faryab’s Belcheragh district, now lives in Maimana, the provincial capital, with a 10-years-old girl and two younger children. He says, he lost his wife eight months ago and now has a lot of problems with his underage children.      Full news...

Amnesty International: More than 80,000 global supporters and activists have signed a petition calling on the international community to urgently stand up for women’s rights in Afghanistan and hold the Taliban accountable for their unrelenting suppression of women and girls’ rights, Amnesty International said today on International Women’s Day. The petition, which calls for states to prioritize, monitor and support women’s and girl’s rights in Afghanistan, has been delivered to governments across the globe.      Full news...

Afghanistan International: Local sources in Dasht-e-Barchi, Kabul, confirm that the body of a young girl with her hands tied was found in the rubbish in the middle of an alley. The victim has not been identified and Taliban officials have not commented. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, cases such as killings and kidnappings of civilians have increased, and in recent months the bodies of a number of women have been found around the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.      Full news...

8am newspaper: Local sources in Balkh province say that two young girls have been mysteriously killed in the province, and their bodies have been found in the Shadian area of Mazar-e-Sharif. According to sources, the bodies of the two girls were found by locals on Thursday, May 12.Local sources told the 8am Newspaper that the girls had been shot dead. The bodies of the two victims were taken to the hospital for autopsy.      Full news...

RAWA News: A young Afghan boy named Yasin was shot dead by Taliban for playing music in his car in Sheigal district of Kunar. He was accompanying the wedding convoy of his brother - as per traditions, people take the bride and groom on a drive & play music along the scenic valleys of Sheigal. 2 more people were also wounded.      Full news...

RAWA News: The woman (name protected) shown in the photo is in her 40s and belongs to Chahrdara village of Kunduz province in the northern Afghanistan. Four years ago (2017) when heavy infighting was going on between Ghani government and Taliban rebels in Kunduz, the family escaped the area hoping to build a safer and better life for their children in the capital. Like thousands of other miserable Afghans who became victims of insecurity in Kabul, this family also faced a deep tragedy: she lost her husband in a suicide attack and due to nervous breakdown and a stroke, she became paralyzed in both legs.      Full news...

Xinhua: The United Nations is appalled by the slaying on Thursday of eight workers on polio-vaccination teams in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz and Takhar provinces, a UN spokesman said. "We are appalled by the brutality of these killings, across four separate locations," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.      Full news...

Etilaat-e-Rooz: On Monday night, Feb.21,2022, Taliban forces opened fire on a vehicles carrying three people in the Bakrabad area in central Herat city. Mahboob Shah, a former Herat police officer, was killed by Taliban insurgents along with two civilians. The Taliban displayed their bodies in several parts of Herat city. Photographs of the incident on social media show that the Taliban have dealt harshly with them.      Full news...

Etilaat-e-Rooz: The Taliban’s Ministry of Guidance, Hajj and Endowments has banned “establishment of educational circles in residential houses" by literacy institutes and banned adult women from teaching in "religious schools located in mosques.” The Taliban Ministry of Guidance, Hajj and Endowments recently announced this in a letter to a number of literacy institutes in Kabul and the provinces. The letter also emphasizes that girls and boys can not study in a mixed class.      Full news...