Iran Expects Taliban to Ensure Security at Afghanistan Borders

“It feels beyond belief that we could be having a conversation in 2022 about whether girls should be allowed to study. The world should listen to Afghan women and do more to end this shocking abuse,” said Sahar Fetrat, assistant women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Heela Yoon, an activist and founder of Afghan Youth Ambassadors for Peace, said, “Afghan women are half of the society, and if they don’t have education, I don’t think we can contribute much to the prosperity of the country.”

Fetrat has urged diplomats, donors, and the UN to engage with Afghanistan in a meaningful manner. She said that the UN and international community must have concrete plans on how to respond if the Taliban maintain their draconian position. “I want the international community to look at the full picture and see girls’ education situation in light of the women’s rights and human rights situation in Afghanistan,” added Fetrat.

The assistant women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch also said that the world should not send out mixed messages to the Taliban. She said that flying Taliban delegations in private jets and meeting with them in different countries with smiling pictures and hopeful messages do not help the people of Afghanistan.

Tamana Ayazi, a filmmaker who was also interviewed, said, “Closing the school doors will not help the people of Afghanistan… even Taliban, will regret this later.”

On September 18, 2021, a month after taking over the country, the Taliban ordered the reopening of boys’ secondary schools, but made no mention of girls’ secondary schools. This was interpreted as a ban on girls’ secondary education. On March 21, 2022, the Taliban pledged to reopen all schools on March 23, but on that date, they closed girls’ secondary schools again. Afghanistan currently remains the only country where girls are forbidden from attending secondary schools.

The website had become unavailable hours after the group posted another claim of having hacked into the website of Taliban’s Ministry of Defense for the second time.

There is not much information about this group, however, their logo shows that it may be a supporter of the former government of Afghanistan.

The Taliban had previously denied the hacking of the Ministry of Defense website and managed to get it running on Sunday, but the website is inaccessible again.

The hacker group, Cyber Army of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, had hacked into the Taliban’s MoD website on July 8. The hackers claim that after the fall of the previous government of Afghanistan, many government websites, including the website of the office of the president, were unavailable. However, some websites of the former government are still accessible and operated by the Taliban.

The hacker group had then warned the Taliban, "Wherever you go, we are in hiding. Whether you are in Quetta or Kabul! Wait for us."

The website and domain had earlier been used by the Ministry of Defense of the Afghan republic government. Over the last 12 years, these websites were considered as the main sources of information of the previous government of Afghanistan and contained a part of the archives of the last 20 years.

The Taliban have not commented on the issue yet.

The group asked United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Committee of Red Crescent (ICRC) and other humanitarian organizations to ensure that aid reaches the vulnerable people timely.

The group added, “We, the women of Afghanistan, are seriously concerned about the inaction of the international agencies regarding Afghans who have been displaced as a result of the Taliban attacks in Balkhab, Andarab and Panjshir”.

The group said that “disturbing war crimes” are being committed by the Taliban against civilians in these districts and provinces and as well as reports of armed conflict which has already displaced thousands of families, including large numbers of women and children.

On Thursday, July 7, OCHA had announced that at least 27,000 people have been displaced as the result of recent clashes in Balkhab district of Afghanistan. As of now, there is no recorded data regarding the number of people who have been displaced in Panjshir and Andarab district of Baghlan province.

The group, however, appreciated the efforts and rapid response of the international aid organizations for the people affected by the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. They added that there would have been a humanitarian catastrophe, if not for the generous and timely assistance of these aid organizations.

Afghan women activists are members of the Afghan Women Advocacy Group, which has been raising their voice against Taliban’s violations of women and human rights in Afghanistan, ever since the Taliban took over Kabul

According to a video of the event published on YouTube, three people will be selected as the winners of the competition.

Jaghori is one of the largest districts in Ghazni province. Many book reading competitions have been held here before.

The competition has been held at a time when it has been more than 297 days since the Taliban has prevented the reopening of secondary schools for girls in Afghanistan.