Former president Hamid Karzai, in a meeting with Markus Potzel, the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kabul, once again sought the reopening of girls' schools. Karzai had earlier too supported the protest of schoolgirls in Paktia.
On Monday, Karzai wrote on his twitter account that during the meeting with Potzel, he emphasised on the need for intra-Afghan talks to achieve lasting peace and stability in the country.
It has been over a year since Afghan girls have been denied secondary education, and the Taliban have failed to meet the demands of the Afghan people and the international community on reopening the secondary schools for girls across Afghanistan.
On Sunday, the Minister of Education of the Taliban during a trip to Uruzgan province said that people in remote parts of Afghanistan do not want girls above 16 to attend school.
A Taliban official announced that a military recruitment programme has started in Panjshir province. Qari Hassan Al-Banna, the Taliban’s recruitment official in Panjshir, claimed that dozens of young men have already registered at the Taliban’s base in Bazarak district.
The programme is supposed to be implemented by the Taliban in other provinces of Afghanistan.
Since coming to power last year, the Taliban has been continuously facing resistance in Panjshir province and Andrab district, and these two areas have become the center of resistance against the group.
It seems that the Taliban have devised a new strategy to counter the National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir as the war intensifies in the province.
According to al-Banna, the initiative to recruit local residents of Panjshir to fight for the Taliban has been taken by Qari Fasihuddin, the chief of staff of the Taliban army.
Qari Fasihuddin, one of the known commanders of the Taliban, has claimed that "the entire territory of Panjshir" is under the control of the group and has accused the media of exaggerating the numbers regarding the forces of the resistance front.
However, the National Resistance Front announced that they had repelled "heavy attacks" of the Taliban in different parts of Panjshir on Saturday. The NRF claimed that 32 Taliban members had been killed and 13 others were wounded in the latest battle in Panjshir.
A source told Afghanistan International that the forces of Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir attacked parts of Panjshir province on Sunday, but faced strong resistance from the NRF forces.
Sources said that the Taliban leadership in Kandahar summoned the provincial director of education in Paktia province and questioned him regarding the reopening of girls’ schools. Taliban officials arrested the principals who had reopened the girls’ schools in the province.
Sources from southern Afghanistan said that the principals of four schools from Gardiz city and one school from Samkani district were imprisoned by the Taliban.
Local sources told Afghanistan International last week that four girls' secondary schools in Gardiz, the capital city of Paktia province, and one high school in Samkani district had been reopened for girls.
On Saturday, however, when female students went to school, they were prevented by the Taliban members.
The students, then, protested and chanted slogans about the right to education for Afghan girls in Gardiz city.
Amnesty International called on Permanent representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council to support a strong resolution on the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
Citing that the situation in Afghanistan is extremely worrying as the country faces an increasingly intertwined spate of crimes under international law, gross human rights violations and a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, the rights body said that despite such crimes, there is no independent and impartial national human rights monitoring body in place in the country
Amnesty urged for a need for investigations into violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Afghanistan and establishment of an independent accountability mechanism with a mandate to comprehensively investigate and document crimes under international law and serious human rights violations and abuses committed in Afghanistan. It also requested the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to enhance its monitoring of the human rights situation in Afghanistan and report on a regular basis.
“The Taliban have been grossly and systematically violating women`s rights since their takeover on 15 August 2021. They have imposed a ban on girls beyond grade six from attending schools and dismantled institutions such as Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and other structures that were addressing women’s human rights. Now, women facing different forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence and increased instances of early and forced marriages are left without avenues to seek shelter and redress,” the letter stated.
Amnesty International also said that the Taliban takeover has led to increasing attacks and marginalisation of minority groups in particular Shia/Hazara, Hindu and Sikh, and ethnic groups who have little or no presence in their de facto structure according to various reports. It cited at least 11 attacks against the Shia/Hazaras after the Taliban takeover by the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (IS-KP).
The report also touched upon the forced eviction of ethnic Hazaras/Shia and Tajiks; disappearances, detentions and killings of former security personnel and government officials; arbitrary arrests of critical voices, such as journalists, human rights defenders, women activists and protestors.
Amnesty International added that the humanitarian situation has been worsening due to cuts in international development assistance, freezes of Afghanistan assets, challenges in transferring humanitarian aid and severance from international market because of sanctions, which has been exacerbated by the increasing drought and flash floods due to climate change.
Apart from this, Amnesty also sought support for the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and enhance the Special Rapporteur's capacity to "seek receive examine and act on" human rights information as mandated by UN Human Rights Council resolution 48/1 and asked them to develop a set of benchmarks or indicators on immediate measures that should be adopted by all actors (including the Taliban, UN member states, regional and international organisation, as well as international financial institutions) towards addressing human rights concerns.
Female students of the secondary schools in Gardiz city of Paktia province protested against the closure of their schools for the second time by the Taliban on Saturday morning.
The students chanted slogans regarding the right to education in front of the provincial directorate of education of Paktia province.
Earlier this week, reports from Pakita had indicated that a few schools had been reopened for girls based on the residents’ demands in Gardiz city.
Since seizing power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have stopped girls in Afghanistan from attending school for secondary education.
The Taliban’s ban on girls’ secondary education has been met with widespread domestic and international criticism while global rights organisations have continuously called on the group to reopen girls’ schools across Afghanistan.
The Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan urged the international community to support the formation of a legitimate government in the country. The council in a statement called the Taliban a terrorist group that rules Afghanistan.
In a statement on the 21st anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the national hero of Afghanistan, the council stressed that Afghans’ fight for their rights must be supported.
The council has addressed the international community and said that in the absence of a legitimate, decentralised, and inclusive government, the prospect of the Taliban rule will be dark and will spread terrorism in the region and across the globe.
Atta Mohammad Noor, a member of the Supreme Council of National Resistance for the Salvation of Afghanistan, has published the statement.
Other members of this council include former vice-president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum; Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq; anti-Taliban Jihadi leader Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf; former speaker of Afghan Lower House of Parliament Mir Rahman Rahmani; former Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani; jihadi leader Ismail Khan and some other political figures of Afghanistan.
This council had previously asked the Taliban to negotiate with them regarding ruling Afghanistan. The Taliban did not respond to these demands of the council.