Taliban Kills Men After Misunderstanding, Prevents Protest by Families in Mazar-e-Sharif

While the Afghan educational system has been on the verge of collapse and the Taliban have banned girls from secondary and high school, the group has continued to expand on establishing jihadist schools across the country.

The Taliban have announced that they will establish three to 10 jihadist schools in each district of Afghanistan.

These jihadist schools are religious seminaries that teach students Taliban’s version of religion and their teachings on jihad and other extremist religious issues.

It stated that if the Taliban’s policies are not reversed, the harmful effects of these reprehensible measures will be devastating and irreparable for Afghanistan’s economy and society.

The statement urged the Taliban to respect all people of Afghanistan, deliver on their commitments to the Afghan people and the international community, and reverse all decisions and practices restricting women’s and girls’ exercise of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Afghan women and girls have been denied access to secondary education, to higher education, to public and political spaces, and to employment opportunities.

While calling attention to the situation in that country, it added that services for supporting victims of gender-based violence have been largely dismantled.

It emphasised that the signatory countries support the calls by the people of Afghanistan for women and girls’ full access to quality education at schools and universities and women’s unrestricted ability to work in all sectors, including humanitarian assistance and basic services delivery, equitable and comprehensive delivery of which is impossible without full participation of women.

The joint statement on the occasion of International Women’s Day had been issued on behalf of the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the High Representative of the European Union.

The statement added that the world fears that the Taliban will implement further measures restricting women and girls’ exercise of civil, political, economic, cultural, and social rights, with a dire impact on the future of Afghanistan and its people.

According to the Afghan Embassy in Italy, bodies of 48 people have been identified and death certificates have been issued for 46 people.

The Afghan embassy in Rome had earlier announced that 32 victims of the shipwreck off the southern coast of Italy were Afghan immigrants.

The embassy had estimated that 180 people were on board at the time of the incident.

The Taliban had previously issued a statement asking aid organisations to transfer the bodies of these victims to Afghanistan.

After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, thousands of Afghan citizens have immigrated to different countries in the region and around the world.

Al-Sahlani said that an alternative to the Taliban can’t be established without fighting corruption and it requires an honest approach to the challenges.

She emphasised that the previous Afghan government was highly corrupt and the anti-Taliban opposition should bring on board individuals with a clear track record.

The Swedish EU member of parliament talked about more sanctions on the Taliban by the European Union if the current sanctions do not work.

She said, "We should put more members of this regime on the sanctions list. We know that they have financial resources that flow in and out of the country. We must target their financial channels. We need to enact laws that allow EU countries to freeze the financial assets of the Taliban."

Al-Sahlani added that the European Union has been trying to be the voice of the Afghan people and help them.

Sources said that the explosion happened when the Taliban governor was attending the provincial weekly meeting.

Mujahid stressed that an investigation into the killing of the governor of the group and the explosion is underway.

Muzammil was appointed as the governor of Balkh by the Taliban in September 2022.

The dead governor of Balkh had been considered as close to the Taliban leadership circle in Kandahar, the drug trafficking network, and Iran.