3 Dead, 4 Missing After Flash Floods in Seven Afghanistan Provinces

Ahmad Taqi, Taliban’s spokesperson of MoHE, said that there will be changes in the hours and content of some university subjects.

According to him, experts and representatives of all public and private universities had been invited and many meetings had been held in order to revise and change the university curriculum.

Earlier, sources from the Ministry of Higher Education confirmed to Afghanistan International that the Taliban are looking for broad changes in the curriculum of Afghan universities.

According to the document obtained by Afghanistan International at that time, the Taliban reduced the teaching hours of the main subjects of universities and instead tripled the hours of Islamic culture.

Previously, the subject of Islamic culture was taught in eight credits across all faculties of Afghan universities, but the Taliban increased that to 24 credits.

Reports indicate that the Taliban intend to add Quran recitation and interpretation, intellectual awareness and religions and sects in the university syllabus.

Several university professors told Afghanistan International, "The Taliban are imposing their ideological curriculum, which is based on dogmatic beliefs, on universities."

They added that people in this area started their day with panic caused due to the Taliban search operation.

Residents told Afghanistan International that the Taliban continued the search operation in the city center Deh Afghanan area.

In a video obtained by Afghanistan International, the presence of Taliban military vehicles can be seen in the Deh Afghanan area.

Earlier, there were reports that the Taliban in Badakhshan and Takhar were marrying off young girls to the group’s commanders.

Earlier, in a letter attributed to the Taliban, which was widely shared on social media, people were asked to enlist their young girls to the Taliban.

The Taliban called these letters as fake.

However, in Panjshir, the Taliban have visited residents of Karamaan village at least three times in the past week to marry off young girls.

Afghanistan International's sources stressed that in the last few days, a family from Karamaan village managed to escape from Panshsir to avoid the Taliban’s demands for the daughters. Two other families too have so far resisted the group’s threats.

Some sources have said that Haqqani was killed in a suicide attack at his seminary in Kabul.

A video clip published on social media shows that the door and window of a house had been destroyed as a result of this explosion, and people had gathered around a human body, who is said to have been the suicide bomber.

The people were seen kicking and throwing stones at the dead body.

The HRW’s report highlights that the Taliban have broken multiple pledges to respect human rights and women’s rights since taking over Afghanistan a year ago. This has brought widespread condemnation and imperiled international efforts to address the country’s dire humanitarian situation. HRW said that the economy has collapsed, largely because governments have cut foreign assistance and restricted international economic transactions.

“After capturing Kabul on August 15, 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed severe restrictions on women’s and girls’ rights, suppressed the media, and arbitrarily detained, tortured, and summarily executed critics and perceived opponents, among other abuses,” Human Rights Watch said.

More than 90 percent of Afghans have been food insecure for almost a year, causing millions of children to suffer from acute malnutrition and threatening serious long-term health problems. “The Afghan people are living a human rights nightmare, victims of both Taliban cruelty and international apathy,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Afghanistan’s future will remain bleak unless foreign governments engage more actively with Taliban authorities while pressuring them vigorously on their rights record.”

The Taliban’s horrendous human rights record and their unwillingness to meaningfully engage with international financial institutions have furthered their isolation, Human Rights Watch said.

It called on foreign governments to ease restrictions on the country’s banking sector to facilitate legitimate economic activity and humanitarian aid, and also asked the Taliban to curtail rights abuses and hold those responsible for abuses to account.

“The Taliban should urgently reverse their horrifying and misogynistic decision to bar girls and women from secondary school,” Abbasi said. “This would send a message that the Taliban are willing to reconsider their most egregious actions.”

The report also noted that the US air strike on July 30 that killed the al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri does not appear to have derailed ongoing negotiations between the US and the Taliban. HRW asked each of the parties involved to act with urgency to reach a settlement to address the country’s economic crisis.

While adding that Afghans have been suffering from some form of food insecurity since last August, skipping meals or whole days of eating and engaging in extreme coping mechanisms to pay for food, including sending children to work, HRW said that the humanitarian situation would be even worse had the UN and other aid providers not substantially increased their operations in 2022.