Feminist Majority: In times of conflict, political instability, and social unrest, women and children have always been the ones who face the most dire consequences compared to the rest of the population. It is nearly three years since the Taliban returned to power and their extremist views and restricting edicts against Afghan women has been one of the major human rights crises. Afghan women’s rights are under constant attack by the Taliban. However, the silent struggle that Afghan women are facing on top of the restrictions on their rights and existence is food insecurity and malnutrition. Full story ...

Stars and Stripes: My sister Malala called me from Afghanistan: “Mom is in the final days of her life and wishes to see you and the rest of the family.” The call abruptly ended. I couldn’t shake the feeling that both the U.S. and the Taliban were monitoring incoming and outgoing calls. “Are you going to throw yourself to the wolves?” my daughter Shabnam said, referring to the Taliban. We have lived safely in the United States for many years now. Sandwiched between my children and my dying mom, I made the decision. Full story ...

Independent News: The Taliban in Afghanistan have announced plans to restrict or completely block access to Facebook, a move condemned by rights activists. The Taliban’s acting minister of telecommunications and information technology Najibullah Haqqani confirmed the plans in an interview with Kabul-based TOLO News last week.Reeling from two decades of siege and war, millions of people in Afghanistan have limited access to cellular services and internet connection in a widening information blackout. Full story ...

The Guardian: The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said. Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.“With this announcement by the Taliban leader, a new chapter of private punishments has begun and Afghan women are experiencing the depths of loneliness,” Arefi said. Full story ...

Foreign Policy: Al Qaeda is back to its old tricks in Afghanistan. Much as it did before masterminding the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group is running militant training camps; sharing the profits of the Taliban’s illicit drug, mining, and smuggling enterprises; and funneling the proceeds to affiliated jihadi groups worldwide. An unpublished report circulating among Western diplomats and U.N Full story ...

ANF News: The Kurdistan Women’s Community (Komalên Jinên Kurdistan, KJK) sent a message to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) on the occasion of March 8, International Working Women’s Day, saying the following: “First of all, we salute you on March 8, International Working Women’s Day, and with that, all women around the world who struggle against male domination, colonialism, religious fundamentalism, nationalism and capitalism. We respectfully commemorate all revolutionary women, who have lost their lives for this cause, and we renew our promise that we will keep their memories alive in our struggle and realize their dreams. Full story ...

UN Women News: Since August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been grappling with increasingly restrictive decrees limiting their participation in all aspects of social, economic, and political life. These have confined millions of women to their home, restricting their important contributions to society. Their already dire situation has been compounded in recent months by humanitarian crises. First, devastating earthquakes rocked western Afghanistan in October 2023. Then, since November 2023, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forced to return after a Pakistani decree on undocumented migrants went into effect. According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) data, an estimated 80 per cent of those affected are women and children. Full story ...

Rukhshana News: Eight people have been flogged and sentenced to prison on charges of “abuse and dishonor” in western Herat province, a Taliban court said Thursday.The Taliban Supreme Court newsletter said the eight people were punished with 20 lashes each and sentenced to five months imprisonment. The decision by Herat’s military court was endorsed by the Taliban Supreme Court, it added. Following its takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban has resumed its rule by severe corporal punishment and swift executions, sometimes as a public spectacle. Full story ...

RAWA NEWS: On 19th November 2023 the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, with this title, proudly presents on its website funds of 4.5 million euros for 2022 specifically aimed for supporting Afghan women.In particular, they said the support is in favor of “Fawzia Koofi, the first vice-president of the Afghan Parliament, as well as former President of the Commission for women’s Full story ...

The Hindu News:A Taliban official said journalists were committing “a major sin” by taking pictures, Afghan media reported on Wednesday. Television and pictures of living things were banned under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been imposed since authorities took back power in Afghanistan in 2021. “Taking pictures is a major sin,” Mohammad Hashem Shaheed Wror, a senior official in the justice ministry, told a seminar for department staff in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, according to footage broadcast by several media. Full story ...

ANF News: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) sent a message to the internationalist women struggling in Rojava on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the international conspiracy that led to Kurdish leader Abdullah ?calan’s abduction from Kenya and handover to Turkey on 15 February 1999.We, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, advocate united struggle and solidarity for the release of Abdullah ?calan and all political prisoners.For more than half a century, Afghan women have been living under the heavy burden of imperialism and oppressive fundamentalist regimes. Recently, the Taliban regime has further oppressed women and ignored everything related to them. It has usurped women's rights and dignity, confined them to their homes and imposed compulsory head covering, arresting those who do not comply. Full story ...

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 story ...

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 fr Full story ...

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 story ...