Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said that according to Moscow’s information the United States is seeking relations with anti-Taliban armed groups. In an interview with Russia 24 TV, Kabulov claimed that the US wants to avenge its "failure" in Afghanistan.
He also said that the US, in addition to contacting the armed opposition in Afghanistan, secretly supports the ISIS.
The Russian envoy’s accusations towards the US comes at time when Washington has clearly said that the Taliban must adhere to the Doha Agreement and respect human rights.
In a new report, international rights group, Freedom House has highlighted how 90% of Afghan Human Rights Defenders have experienced violence or mistreatment ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan and they are on the run and still at high risk.
Freedom House with the Afghan Canadian Civil Society Forum—formed the Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism and conducted a survey last year to learn how they are faring, determine their needs, and gauge the effects of Taliban rule.
As per the survey, answered by 663 people, only one-third managed to escape Afghanistan but are also frightened—for themselves as they cope with precarious living arrangements and for their families back home—and are often unable to resume their advocacy.
The two-thirds who remained in Afghanistan, stated the survey, reported a multitude of risks. “A staggering 46.8 percent specifically said that they faced intimidation and harassment, 24.1 percent said they encountered threats to life and physical safety, and 16.4 percent pointed to arbitrary arrest and torture,” the survey found.
Apart from violence, human rights defenders also reported defamation, searches of their homes, violence against family members, physical and psychological harm, kidnapping, and imprisonment in smaller numbers.
Of those who could manage to flee the country, 45.4 percent said that they experienced psychological harm, while 33.7 percent said that authorities in transit countries harassed them or threatened their deportation.
The report also emphasised that women had faced a unique set of challenges as they were particularly vulnerable to allegations of prostitution or immorality, punishable by whipping or death by stoning under the Taliban.
The report stressed that despite the threats to their lives, human rights defenders made sure to help humanitarian assistance, an issue which was less controversial for them.
The human rights defenders called for the return of a national mechanism to protect individual rights, like the joint commission established by the former elected government.
The report also urged that governments should not deport or intimidate in-transit Afghans who already live in fear. It sought for visas, access to formal labor, and dignity for such individuals.
It also called for settlement of such human rights defenders in more welcoming and safer nations.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that 28.3 million people in Afghanistan will need life-saving aid in 2023. At the same time, the Taliban confirmed that 78 people have died due to severe cold in Afghanistan.
The humanitarian assistance process in Afghanistan has been disrupted to the Taliban’s opposition to women's right to work.
Aid organisations have stressed that without the presence of Afghan female staff, they will be unable to distribute humanitarian aid across the country.
However, the Taliban officials have not yet allowed women to work for humanitarian organisations.
The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported that at least 50 children have died due to respiratory diseases in Baghlan province. According to Baghlan Hospital officials, in the past month, 1,000 children have been infected with respiratory diseases in the province.
In December 2022, Save the Children Fund had announced that 135 children had died in Afghanistan.
The organisation had said that with the collapse of the health sector in the country, cases of pneumonia have increased in Afghanistan.
According to Save the Children Fund, the collapse of the healthcare system has taken a deadly toll on Afghan children.
With the winter season, there is an increasing risk of deaths of children due to various diseases.
Taliban’s deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, has said that the United Nations has not cooperated in recognising the group and accepting the group’s representative to the UN. Hanafi has also said that aid should not be linked to political issues in Afghanistan.
Hanafi has talked about aid and the right to education and work of Afghan women during a meeting with Amina Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary General in Kabul.
The Taliban in a statement quoted Mohammed as saying that Afghans abroad will return to Afghanistan if job opportunities are created in the country.
After more than one and a half years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, no country has recognised the group and the United Nations has not accepted the representative of the Taliban.
On the other hand, recently the members of the UN Security Council didn’t extend the travel exemption of the Taliban leaders.
Amina Mohammed is the highest UN official who arrived in Kabul after the Taliban banned the women's right to work and education for Afghan women. Earlier, the United Nations had announced that the ban on women's work and education has a negative impact on humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
Khalil ur Rahman Haqqani, Taliban’s minister of refugees, said that the group is trying to find solutions to educate women in a way that is not "against Sharia". Haqqani added that unemployment of a few women should not deprive all Afghan women from humanitarian assistance.
Haqqani spoke about the right to education and work of Afghan women during a meeting with Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, in Kabul.
While the Taliban believe that the ban on work and education of Afghan women is justified, the issue has caused serious concerns for international humanitarian organisations.
These organisations have said that without female employees, they cannot help women and children in need in Afghanistan.
However, the Taliban's minister of refugees said that the group was not against girls' education, but Afghanistan was a "traditional society" and these traditions must be considered while making decisions.
In the meeting with Haqqani, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, said that the ban on women's education and work will not have good consequences for Afghans.
A high-ranking delegation of the United Nations headed by Amina Mohammed, the deputy UN Secretary General, had arrived in Kabul on Tuesday.
During the meeting with the Taliban officials, the delegation had asked for lifting the ban on education and work of Afghan women by the Taliban.