Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said that the Islamic world has been against the Taliban’s ban on women’s education and condemned it. Blinken added that scholars of the Islamic world have called the ban on women’s education by the Taliban "inhumane”.
The US Secretary of State said that the leaders of the Islamic countries have argued that the Taliban's behaviour is not based on Sharia and Islamic scholars have said that Quran emphasises on education of men and women.
It has been around 600 days since the Taliban banned the education of girls in secondary, and higher schools in Afghanistan. The group has also banned Afghan girls and women from higher education in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has not reversed its decisions about the ban on the education and work of Afghan women despite widespread international condemnation and criticisms.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced that extrajudicial killings of individuals affiliated with the former government are ongoing. UNAMA said that the Taliban arrests people allegedly affiliated with resistance forces in Kabul and Panjshir.
The Taliban has not responded to the new report of UNAMA yet.
According to the UNAMA report, the Taliban continues to physically punish these people and repress the voices of opposition against the group.
In the new report of the UN agency which has covered the period from February to April 2023, the arrest of critics of the Taliban including Parisa Mubarez and her brother on February 11 in Taloqan city; four women who participated in a protest on March 26 in Kabul; education activist Matiullah Wesa on March 2; university professor Ismail Mashal on March 4; civil activist Narges Sadat on February 11, and Zakaria Osuli on January 31 have been mentioned as instances of the Taliban’s crackdown on voices that criticise the group’s policies and practices in Afghanistan.
Some of these arrested individuals have been released from Taliban detention over the past few weeks.
According to the UNAMA report, the Taliban used excessive force and violence during their search operations in Kabul between February and April 2023. The report also confirmed severe restrictions by the Taliban on Afghan media operations.
The UNAMA report has too recorded new orders by the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and said that on February 14, the Taliban banned the celebration of Valentine’s Day in Kabul and arrested owners of a café in the capital city on the same day.
UNAMA also stressed that the Taliban imposed a ban on the celebration of Nowruz, the Shamsi new year, and said that the Taliban agents established temporary checkpoints across the city to identify those who celebrated Nowruz.
On March 20, a decree attributed to Hibatullah Akhundzadeh, the leader of the Taliban, was published, which changed the name and mission of the Prosecutor General's Office to "General Directorate for Monitoring and Prosecuting Judgments and Orders". UNAMA said in its report that the order strongly confirms that prosecutors are no longer part of the criminal investigation process.
However, UNAMA has announced in its new report that during the past three months, the office has provided training on human rights and international humanitarian laws to 483 members of the Taliban in Wardak, Kapisa, Balkh, Bamiyan, Kandahar, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-i-pol, Laghman, Jawzjan, Farah, Kunar and Khost provinces. According to UNAMA, these training sessions have been provided to the Taliban members after the group has imposed a ban on the right to education and work of Afghan women.
Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban has detained editors of Gharghast TV, Nan FM, Chinar and Wolas Ghag Radio in Khost province. These editors have been detained after they had been called for a meeting at the provincial directorate of Virtue and Vice.
It is not clear why these editors have been detained by the Taliban since Monday.
Shabir Ahmad Osmani, the director of information and culture of the Taliban in Khost province, did not confirm or deny the arrest of these journalists to Afghanistan International.
In more than 20 months since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, the group has repeatedly arrested journalists and senior media workers across the country.
China, Pakistan and Taliban foreign ministers announced their resolve to jointly extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan. The three foreign ministers expressed their commitment to further the trilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
In a joint statement after the 5th China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue in Islamabad, on Monday, the three sides stressed on the need to not allow any individual, group or party, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to use their territories to harm and threaten regional security and interests, or conduct terrorist actions and activities.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met in Islamabad May 6.
The joint statement of the three sides has not elaborated on how the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be extended to Afghanistan.
The 65-billion-dollar CPEC project includes the construction of a network of waterways, roads, and railways, which aims to create a safe corridor for the transport of energy resources from the Middle East to China through Pakistan.
The joint statement of the foreign ministers of the three countries stressed that the importance of existing projects including CASA-1000, TAPI, and Trans-Afghan Railways would enhance regional connectivity as well as ensure economic uplift and prosperity for the people of this region.
The joint statement called the Taliban as interim Afghan government and said that the Taliban has given repeated assurances to respect and protect women’s rights and interests.
The foreign ministers of Pakistan, China, and the Taliban asked the international community to "engage" with the Taliban administration to develop governance capacities in Afghanistan.
Over the past 18 months, even Pakistan, which has been accused of supporting the Taliban has not recognised the Taliban in Afghanistan.
International rights groups have reported that the Taliban has widely violated the rights of Afghan women and girls and removed them from social life.
The National Resistance Front (NRF) confirmed that at least four of its fighters have been killed after a ten-hour long battle with the Taliban in Khost district of Baghlan Province. According to the NRF, the body of the commander of the group has not been found yet.
NRF in a statement said on Monday, "The skirmish started when the Taliban forces conducted house-to-house search operations in Jangalak village and harassed people."
The National Resistance Front claimed that during the gun fight that "lasted until midnight, eight Taliban members had been killed and 15 others had been wounded”.
NRF claimed that "the son of Mullah Sayed Mohammad, the deputy intelligence officer of the Taliban in Khost district was killed in this battle and Arif, the intelligence officer of this group in Khost, was wounded”.
However, the Taliban has not reacted to the reports of the skirmish in Baghlan.
Meanwhile, local sources from Khost district of Baghlan province confirmed to Afghanistan International that after commander Ruhollah Nazari refused to surrender to the Taliban, the Taliban drilled a hole into the roof of his house and threw a barrel bomb inside his house.
In a video clip received by Afghanistan International, one can see that a house in Khost district is on fire and a column of smoke can be seen rising from the top of the house.
The National Resistance Front also confirmed that the Taliban used heavy weapons and barrel bombs in the battle.
According to the NRF statement, seven residential houses of the people have been gutted in this attack.
A source close to Commander Ruhollah's family confirmed that the commander has been killed in the battle with the Taliban and Commander Ruhollah's mother was also injured in this explosion.
A local source from Khost district said that two civilians also died in the skirmish.
Ruhollah Nazari was one of the former commanders of the Afghan national army and had served in different provinces such as Kunduz and Ghazni.
The Taliban’s Public Health Minister Qalandar Ebad said that 50 percent of Afghanistan's population in remote areas lack access to health services. At the meeting of five regional countries in Tehran, Ebad asked for support to address the health needs in Afghanistan.
According to Fars News Agency, Ebad stressed that the Taliban needs technical assistance and support of G5 member states including Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iraq and the United Nations for the healthcare system of Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s Public Health Minister said that the group tries to provide health services to Afghans and said that the challenges Afghanistan faces is broad.
The lack of healthcare facilities and services is one of the main challenges of the Afghan people, especially women and children.
Currently, Afghanistan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. In addition to that, the Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on women which has banned Afghan women from receiving health services and access to female health workers.
The Taliban’s ministry of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice has ordered women not to show up for work without a male guardian.
Based on the orders attributed to the Taliban leader from Kandahar, women are prohibited from working in domestic and international organisations.
However, according to Fars New Agency, the Taliban's health minister has denied any ban on work of female health workers in Afghanistan.