Several Afghan citizens told Afghanistan International and have reported on social media that Taliban has banned celebration of Valentine's Day. The Taliban ministry of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice have asked the public in Kabul not to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
One and a half years after the Taliban’s return to power, celebrating Valentine’s Day, like some other occasions, has become a dream in Afghanistan.
During the era of republic Afghanistan, the shopping malls in Kabul and other cities of Afghanistan had been selling gifts for Valentine's Day, and young men and women bought flowers, sweets and gifts for their loved ones.
Last year and on the first Valentine's day after the Taliban’s return to power, the group did not show much opposition to buying gifts and celebration of the day.
However, this year, reports from Kabul indicate that the Taliban members have put in place heavy presence of the group’s fighters across the city and have warned the public not to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) announced that of the 28 million people in need in Afghanistan, 23 million have been prioritised to receive aid. UNHCR added that if the organisation receives enough funding, it is possible to support the people.
The United Nations urged countries to respond to the call of the organisation to support the people of Afghanistan.
The United Nations has requested 4.6 billion dollars to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
After the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, more than 90% of the Afghan people have been facing severe economic and food crisis.
Afghanistan International has gained exclusive access to a recent speech of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, in which he widely criticises Taliban members. Lashing out, Haqqani said that now in the Taliban everyone only thinks about their personal interests.
The speech, which has received many reactions, had been delivered in the stronghold of the Haqqanis in Khost province. During the speech, Haqqani said that in contrast to now, during the time that he calls the Jihad of the Taliban, religion remained firm by religious scholars.
The Taliban’s interior minister added that some people [Taliban members] think that now "jihad is over and they have to work for themselves”.
Haqqani criticised the members of the group and said that they have forgotten the interests of people.
According to Haqqani, Taliban members do not think about "what service they can provide to the people" after they get appointed to positions in the Taliban regime.
In his speech, Haqqani added, "We reached our goals with many sacrifices. Now, the responsibility has been placed on our shoulders and it requires patience, morals, and proper behaviour and engagement with the people."
Addressing the Taliban, he stressed, "Let's not behave in such a way that people hate religion."
This Taliban senior official urged members of the group not to be arrogant and understand others. He also said, "We are all questioned because of extremism. This [extremism] is not worthy of us.”
Haqqani emphasised that the behaviour of the Taliban members will make everyone hate them. According to him, people's hatred against the Taliban "is not limited to one person”, but to the entire group.
Sirajuddin Haqqani also asked the Taliban members to have good engagement with the people. He asked the group’s officials not to abuse their "positions in the government", otherwise people will criticise them.
Haqqani said, "There should not be rifts between the people and the government."
The Taliban’s interior minister also reminded the audience that he did not achieve his current position "by flattery and begging others". Haqqani said that he lost his "youth" on this path and has faced many challenges. However, he said that "many others have jobs and lives a luxurious life”. Haqqani didn’t specifically mention any person, but it seems that he pointed out to many Taliban leaders.
The Taliban’s interior minister added that some people in the Taliban regime give themselves the right to challenge the regime of this group based on their "theories".
Without naming anyone, he said, "Some people want to make the regime unpopular and monopolise it, and they are proud of their work." However, Haqqani, added that the current situation is not acceptable.
This senior Taliban official said, "Our responsibility is something else. We have to mobilise people and bring them closer to us."
Sirajuddin Haqqani said that he doesn't want to name a specific country, but in many meetings, "foreigners have said that they don't want to repeat the past experience and apologised for their mistakes”.
He stressed that the West and its supporting countries "accept their mistakes. We also communicate to them what they have done to our people”.
Haqqani added, "We don't want to experience the past and want to engage with the world.”
At the same time, the Taliban interior minister stressed that they are faithful to their commitments in the Doha agreement.
Haqqani added that the Taliban have adhered to the commitments they made in the Doha talks. However, he mentioned the implementation of only one part of the Doha agreement wherein it has been stated that "Afghanistan will not be a threat to any country”.
The other section of the agreement on intra-Afghan dialogue, has been ignored by the Taliban, despite continued pressures from international community. But, Haqqani said that the Taliban are "faithful" to their commitments and have proven it.
He added that on the first day of the Taliban's arrival in Kabul, "If we had broken our commitment, we would not have left a foreign soldier alive around the [Kabul] airport."
Sirajuddin Haqqani said in Khost province that if they don’t receive support from the world, they have to reach out to Afghan businessmen and private sector to join hands and change the situation of Afghanistan.
Haqqani stressed that we should "rely on our own resources" and "not wait for anyone else’s support”.
He asked the people of Khost to start building a hospital for themselves.
The Taliban's interior minister said that he felt "ashamed" to face the people. He added that only in the Ministry of Interior of the group, 5,000 applications are submitted by people every day.
"I'm ashamed, but we're not powerless," he said. “We will use our resources for the welfare of these people."
Haqqani said, "If we want people not to doubt us and not distance themselves from us, we must pay attention to them."
These statements of the Taliban's interior minister in Khost has caused a ripple among a number of senior members of this group. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Taliban, said at Kabul University on Sunday, without naming anyone, that if there is any criticism, the leader should not be disrespected.
He added, "If someone criticises the Amir [supreme leader], a minister, or a deputy minister, Islamic ethics requires that he should not insult him and convey the criticism to him in a way that no one else hears."
The Taliban announced on Tuesday that the group has marshalled 28,433 beggars from all over the city of Kabul. The Taliban added that 11,169 of these people have been identified as needy, but 17,194 others have been engaged in professional begging.
The Taliban did not explain what the criteria has been for identifying the needy people.
Among those rounded up, 12,272 are women, 12,445 are children and 3,716 are men.
Among them, 5617 women, 4359 children and 1193 men have been identified as "needy people".
A statement from the office of the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs stated that 70 orphan children had been among them. The orphans have been sent to educational centers of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and "needy beggars" will be given "permanent cash assistance" by the Taliban.
An Austrian citizen is being tried on charges of terrorism after he was arrested in the vicinity of Iran International's offices in London. The London police identified the person as Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev. His trial began on Monday in a court in central London.
The London metropolitan police protects the offices of Iran International TV station.
According to the statement published by the London Police, the suspect had been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Counterterrorism Command on Saturday.
Dovtaev has been charged with violating Section 58 of the Terrorism Act of 2000.
The court has charged him with collecting information likely to be useful for committing or preparing an act of terrorism
The Iranian authorities have repeatedly threatened Iran International and its employees. These threats have increased significantly following the coverage of the nationwide uprising of the Iranian people against the Islamic Republic in recent months by the TV station.
Abdul Salam Hanafi, Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister, said that without a strong educational system, the group cannot claim of having an independent country. During a gathering at Kabul University, Hanafi added that the duty of a religious leader is not to say what is forbidden.
Hanafi added that when the Mufti (religious leader) forbids something, he must also introduce an alternative.
Hanafi urged scholars of the Islamic world and Afghanistan to enlighten Afghanistan.
Hanafi’s sharp criticism comes at a time when the Taliban leader has banned the right to education and work of Afghan women.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban who has not been seen in public and the Kandahar circle, is against the education of girls and has so far been able to impose his decisions on the cabinet of the group in Kabul.
Some prominent figures of the Taliban occasionally raise their voices against these decisions, but so far, they have not been able to convince the leader of the group to reverse the decision on Afghan women.
Haqqani’s criticism of monopoly of power
In addition to the criticism about closure of schools and universities for girls and banning them from work, the issue of monopoly of power within the Taliban has also been criticised by members of the group.
On Saturday, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister, criticised the current situation under the Taliban in Afghanistan and within the group.
This powerful figure of the Haqqani network openly criticised the monopoly of power by the Taliban and said that the current situation is not acceptable.
According to Haqqani, the current situation increases the rifts between the Taliban government and the Afghan people.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, many countries in the region have urged the group to form an inclusive government with the participation of all ethnic groups in Afghanistan and considered this as a way out of the current deadlock.
However, the Taliban have not even stuck to the idea of symbolic power-sharing structure and have appointed their members to all government positions across the country.