Provinces Fell To Taliban Without Any Battle, Says Taliban’s Defence Minister

Pointing to the earlier warning of the Iranian president to the Taliban, Maleki said that the group will be forced to provide the water rights to Iran.

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, on May 18, during a visit to Sistan and Baluchistan province of Iran warned the Taliban to give the water rights of Iran from the Helmand River. He said that the group should take the warning seriously.

In response, the Taliban announced that they are committed to the water rights agreement, but there is not enough water in Afghanistan.

After the tension between the two sides, Iranian and Taliban officials have been engaged in negotiations, however, there are no other details regarding the developments on the water rights issue.

Earlier, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iranian foreign minister, in an interview published on Fars New Agency, spoke about the “good results” of negotiations with the Taliban.

However, despite all restrictions, the report highlighted the resilience and strength of Afghan women in the face of such repressive conditions and to continue to exercise their rights through creative, peaceful initiatives.

The report expressed concern that gender persecution is occurring in Afghanistan under the Taliban which constitutes a war crime.

It added that the Taliban are severely depriving women and girls of their fundamental rights, including their rights to substantive equality, quality education, equal participation in economic, social, and political life, equality before the law, freedom from torture and other inhumane acts, freedom from discrimination and freedom of movement, peaceful assembly, and of association and expression.

It also emphasised that the Taliban is punishing those who transgress its rights-violating edicts, enforcing severe deprivation of fundamental rights through acts or crimes of violence, such as arbitrary detention, torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment.

It stressed that the Taliban had physically and sexually tortured activists protesting discrimination and exclusion of women after their arrest.

The ban on higher education and work in the first months of Taliban rule sparked protests by women in different cities in Afghanistan. By resorting to violence, however, the Taliban was able to stop the spread of women's protests.

Bennett in his report said, "Women protesters were brutally beaten. These victims were subjected to gender-based violence, including sexual violence, and torture."

Female activists were later released but did not continue their protests or leave the country despite the Taliban's increasing discrimination and violence against women.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights said women protesters were released from Taliban prisons on condition that they "give up their protest activities and remain silent about how [the Taliban] treated them as well as the payment of [the group's] money."

The report did not elaborate on the "payment" issue.

Men who protested the Taliban's policies on the streets along with women were also mistreated by the Taliban, the report said.

The report referred to the systematic discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan by citing the relentless issuance of at least 50 edicts, decrees, declarations and directives restricting their rights.

It added that every aspect of a woman’s life is being restricted under the guise of morality and through the instrumentalisation of religion.

The report asked the Taliban to rescind all discriminatory edicts and instructions issued against women and girls since August 2021, including education and work rights and ensure equal representation and meaningful participation of women and girls.

It also urged the group to desist from committing threats of or acts of violence, including arbitrary detention, sexual abuse, or any form of torture, ill-treatment or punishment against women and girls for allegedly violating the edicts or for protesting peacefully and investigate cases of violence against women.

The report urged United Nations to maintain a commitment to the secure employment of female Afghan staff and ensure ethnic diversity; ensure women’s equal and meaningful participation in different forms of dialogue with the Taliban and continue to take concrete steps towards supporting protection from and accountability for the grave and systematic violations of women’s and girls’ human rights.

The report added women have been excluded from the Taliban's "male, mainly Pashtun" rule. “Taliban have established an entirely masculine and predominantly Pashtun government in Afghanistan and has largely driven women out of the state and society structure,” it stated.

This was while in the last government, women held 27 percent of seats in parliament, 22 percent of seats in the Senate, and 30 percent of civil service seats, and in the executive branch, independent commissions and judiciary played key roles.

It also asked other international players to ensure that the situation of human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan is central to all policy decisions and engagement with the Taliban while ensuring that there is equal and meaningful participation of Afghan women in all deliberations. It also added that stated should grant support and protection to all Afghan women and girls who are outside Afghanistan, and take measures to ensure their long-term security, including by granting them refugee, protective or regular status, facilitating their safe resettlement, and expanding the provision of educational scholarships and mental health services.

These organisations described the move as "the [Norwegian] government's support to the Taliban”.

The Norwegian government has been criticised repeatedly for inviting Taliban officials to dialogues in Oslo. However, during the Oslo Freedom Forum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway held the meetings with the Taliban behind closed doors and away from media glare.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesman of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry; Ruhollah Omar, the head of communications of the Taliban's Ministry of Defence; Shamsuddin Akhundzada, an adviser to the Ministry of Interior and Shams ur-Rahman a translator of the Taliban's Ministry of Interior have participated in the Oslo Freedom Forum.

These organisations in a joint statement stressed that inviting the Taliban “encourages other terror groups to use violence to gain recognition and achieve their demands in and outside Norway”.

They asked the Norwegian government to refrain from helping the Taliban, because "it will strengthen the operational power and prolong the life of the Taliban Emirate.”

In response to such criticisms of the invitation of the Taliban officials to the Oslo Forum, the Norwegian Foreign Minister said that the invited Taliban members are not present in the leadership of the group’s government and are rather employees of the Taliban government.

Norway has been one of the few active countries in holding Taliban meetings with Afghan figures and activists outside Afghanistan.

The rights organisation has stressed on the immediate release of all those detained by the Taliban for their “peaceful expression”.

Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, said, “In a country with such a rich literary tradition, where poets are cherished by Afghans of all ages, Ahrari’s arrest is a tragic example of how the Taliban’s rule by repression threatens to undermine Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.”

According to Pen International, Ahrari was born in the Panjshir Province and is known for his poems on social media, which often centre on themes of freedom and patriotism.

The organisation stressed that the poet had returned from Iran and planned to publish a collection of his poems.

Earlier, reliable sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban had arrested Ahrari from his home in the Khair Khana neighbourhood in district 11 of Kabul.

The Taliban has not yet commented on the reports of the detention of this Afghan poet.

Sources close to Ahrari's family said that he has no political affiliation, and they do not know the reason behind the arrest of this young poet.

After taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has widely arrested civil activists, journalists, writers, and human rights activists.

In an interview with Russian media outlets, he stressed that the Russians must only visit Afghanistan for necessary work purposes.

According to him, Russian businessmen have travelled to Afghanistan with security guarantees.

Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, also discussed the activities of ISIS in Afghanistan during a press conference on Thursday and called the security situation of this country worrisome.

Russia is one of the few countries whose embassy continued to operate after the Taliban came to power in August 2021. The country’s embassy was attacked in 2022 and two of its diplomats were killed in the attack. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the Russian embassy.