Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) has established new Sharia faculties across all universities in 17 provinces of Afghanistan, as per the group’s officials who confirmed the reports to Afghanistan International.
Mawlawi Ahmad Taqi, Taliban’s MoHE spokesperson, stated that teaching of Islamic culture has also been increased to 24 credits in every university.
Taliban officials stressed that these changes have been implemented based on the approval of the Taliban leadership.
Afghanistan International had learned earlier that the Taliban was implementing broad changes in the curriculum of Afghan universities.
Sources of Afghanistan International had reported at that time that the Taliban planned to reduce the teaching hours of the main subjects at the colleges and instead, increase the teaching hours of Islamic culture by three times.
At least 14 people have died and 12 others have been injured because of floods in the capital center and some districts of Paktia province, as per Bakhtar, the Taliban-controlled News Agency. The floods have destroyed over 1,000 houses, and 20 acres of agricultural land.
Bakhtar confirmed that 1,435 livestock too had been lost due to these floods.
According to the Taliban officials in Logar province, on Saturday, rain and floods in Khushi district of the province killed at least 14 people, including children and women, and four others were reported as missing.
Over the past few days, heavy rains and floods have continued to batter at least 20 other provinces, including Nangarhar, Laghman, Maidan Wardak and Ghazni.
The Taliban police command in Logar province said on Sunday that most of the victims of the flood in this province have been children. He added that there are nine children and two women among the dead.
Americans broadly oppose recognition of the Taliban government or releasing funds frozen by the United States to that government, as per the results of the 2022 Chicago Council Survey. Few Americans favour recognizing Taliban (14%) or releasing frozen funds to the group (18%).
One of the findings of the survey, which had been conducted between July 15 and August 1, was also that Americans support helping the people of Afghanistan through direct aid and by taking in Afghans leaving the country. There is broad bipartisan support for taking in Afghans who worked with the United States during the war (76% overall), and more limited support for any Afghan fleeing the country (56% overall). Three-quarters (73%) support providing food aid to the Afghan people.
Since the collapse of the US-backed government of Afghanistan in 2021, over 76,000 Afghans have been evacuated to the United States. A majority of Americans (76%), including majorities of Democrats (85%), Independents (78%), and Republicans (67%), support the United States giving refuge to Afghans who worked with the United States during the war. A smaller majority also back acceptance of any Afghan refugees into the United States (56%), but this support is partisan. While seven in 10 Democrats (72%) and over half of Independents (56%) say the United States should accept Afghan refugees, only a third of Republicans agree (34%; 64% oppose).
The survey comes as the Taliban completes a year of ruling the country after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
At a time when Afghans are experiencing dire levels of hunger, exacerbated by the slashing of Ukrainian grain exports due to war, bipartisan majorities of Americans support direct aid to the people of Afghanistan. Three-quarters overall (73%), including large majorities of Democrats (82%), Independents (73%), and Republicans (64%), support providing food aid to the Afghan people.
Following the Taliban takeover in 2021, the United States also froze billions in Afghan government funds, a policy tied to the government’s ongoing involvement with al-Qaeda and its now-dead leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Eight in 10 Americans (79%) oppose releasing those frozen funds back to the government of Afghanistan. That opposition is bipartisan, including nine in 10 Republicans (89%) and three-quarters of Independents (75%) and Democrats (74%).
This analysis is based on data from the 2022 Chicago Council Survey of the American public on foreign policy, a project of the Lester Crown Center on US Foreign Policy.
Sources from Panjshir province alleged that a man died when he was being tortured by Taliban members on Friday. Taliban members detained this civilian on Wednesday in Peshghor village of Hesa-e-Awal district, on allegations of fostering ties with the National Resistance Front.
According to the local residents, the man was the father of seven children and was a tribal elder in the Peshghor village.
In the past few months, watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Affairs, have repeatedly reported that the Taliban members have killed, arrested, and tortured civilians in Panjshir.
While these watchdog groups have called for an independent investigation of human rights violations by the Taliban in Panjshir, the Taliban have not yet given permission to human rights organisations and independent media organisations to visit the province.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Taliban to immediately release American journalist and independent filmmaker Ivor Shearer and Afghan producer Faizullah Faizbakhsh.
As per a report and sources who spoke to CPJ, Shearer and Faizbakhsh were filming in the Sherpur area of District 10 in Kabul on August 17, where a U.S. drone strike killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri earlier in August, when several security guards stopped them. The guards, then, called the Taliban intelligence and around 50 armed intelligence operatives arrived, who blindfolded Shearer and Faizbakhsh and transferred them to an unknown location, the journalists familiar with the case told CPJ.
Shearer and Faizbakhsh were questioned about their activities and their work permits, ID cards, and passports were checked and then confiscated along with their cellphones.
CPJ, while urging for cessation of detention of journalists, said, “The Taliban’s increasing pressure and escalating numbers of detentions of journalists and media workers, including the detention of American filmmaker Ivor Shearer and his Afghan colleague Faizullah Faizbakhsh, show the group’s utter lack of commitment to the principle of freedom of the press in Afghanistan.”
Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ Programme Director, added, “Taliban officials must immediately release Shearer and Faizbakhsh and stop their intimidation and pressure on the press in Afghanistan.”
CPJ has not been able to verify the reason for the detention of Shearer and Faizbakhsh or where they were being held. However, sources have informed CPJ of the constant summons Shearer got from the Taliban since he arrived in Kabul.
Shearer had arrived in Afghanistan in February to produce a documentary about the last 40 years of Afghanistan’s history. Faizbakhsh worked as a producer supporting international journalists in Afghanistan and was contracted by Shearer, according to the journalists familiar with the case.
Earlier too, Shearer had been summoned to the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi questioned and asked him to present his past work, one of the journalists familiar with the case told CPJ. According to that source, Shearer was told that he was summoned because Taliban intelligence was suspicious of his presence in Kabul.
Then, several Taliban intelligence agents had visited a guest house where Shearer was staying in Kabul in July. They too had questioned him about his work and stay.
We are ready to interact with all sides but will not accept orders against our "belief and national interests", said Mullah Yaqoob, the Taliban’s Defense Minister. Speaking on Afghanistan's independence anniversary, Yaqoob added that the "enemy" is trying to divide the Taliban.
According to the Taliban-affiliated News Agency Bakhtar, Yaqoob said that the Taliban have fought against the "occupation" of Afghanistan for two decades and do not want to lose it in any way.
"There are political and economic challenges, but we cannot accept anyone's orders against Islamic values. National interests should be preferred over personal interests. We do not want to live under someone else's shadow," Yaqoob said.
Over the past few years, there was a public holiday in Afghanistan on Independence Day, but the Taliban celebrated the Day without a holiday at the Ministry of Defense. Several Taliban military officials were present at this ceremony.
The Defense Minister of the Taliban at the ceremony added that efforts are being made to divide Afghans in the name of ethnicity, language, and position. He asked Afghans to forget the past and remain united.