Joint Counter-Terrorism Efforts in Afghanistan Focus of Tajik & Chinese Officials’ Meet

[12:43 PM] Waliullah Rahmani

Taliban Prevents Afghan Girls From Traveling To UAE On Scholarships

Sources told Afghanistan International that the Taliban has prevented dozens of female students from traveling to Dubai on Wednesday at the Kabul Airport.

According to two sources, a philanthropist has provided scholarships for these Afghan girls.

Sources said that more than 35 girls, who, according to the Taliban's policies were accompanied by male guardians, were not allowed to leave Afghanistan for the educational trip.

According to the sources, these students started the process of applying for the scholarship in 2022 and after they were sure that the Taliban would not allow travel without a male guardian, the United Arab Emirates also provided visas for the male guardians of these students.

According to sources, these girls were supposed to fly from Kabul Airport to Dubai at 8am on Wednesday, but they had to return to their homes after being prevented by the Taliban.

Taliban officials have not commented on the issue so far.

Khalaf Ahmad al Habtoor is a UAE philanthropist who has provided scholarships for these Afghan girls. In January 2022, following the Taliban's order to ban girls' education, he announced that he would help 100 Afghan female students complete their higher education in Dubai.

Last year, the Taliban closed universities and higher education institutions to Afghan girls and women. The group has also imposed a ban on the right to secondary education of Afghan girls.

Ahmad Sarmast, director of ANIM, said that this concert will be held from September 9-16.

On Tuesday, Sarmast posted the news on Facebook and said, "I am happy to still run the Afghanistan National Institute of Music despite all the challenges and maintain the position of this institution as the voice of the Afghan people on international stages."

After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the students of ANIM took refuge in Portugal.

Deutsche Welle (DW) English wrote in a report that about 270 students and faculty members of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music are in Portugal.

Shabana, one of the institute's musicians, told DW that when the Taliban returned to Afghanistan, her life changed, and "it was a nightmare”.

In the past two years, the Taliban have banned music, calling it forbidden, and the group has continuously cracked down on musicians and people who listen to music.

Sarmast also said that the students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music consider themselves as cultural ambassadors of the country. According to him, following the ban on music by the Taliban, Afghanistan has fallen into silence.

The director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music said that he hoped to create lasting changes in Afghanistan by launching projects like "Zohra Orchestra" where all the musicians are Afghan girls. "I still have this hope," Sarmast said, adding, "Since the Taliban will not last forever and should not last forever.”

The ministry also said that Afghanistan has imported an estimated 506 million dollars in goods from Iran.

The Taliban officials stressed that trade between Iran and Afghanistan has reached two billion dollars per year.

The ministry added that they will put more effort to increase the trade relations to ten billion dollars annually.

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s Chamber of Commerce and Investment has urged Iran to give preferential tariffs to Afghan businessmen in order to simplify trade between the two countries.

Iran's main export to Afghanistan includes food, petroleum products, and various construction materials.

The Taliban’s Chamber of Commerce and Investment said that the Iranian market is suitable for the export of Afghan cotton and mining products.

Muttaqi added, "We will not allow Afghanistan to once again become the center of destructive competition between the countries of the world."

After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, at least two resistance fronts, consisting of the former government's military and uprising forces, have been engaged in armed resistance against the group.

The Taliban have called the "Afghanistan Freedom Front" and "National Resistance Front" as "insurgents" and have waged brutal attacks against these fronts’ forces.

On the other hand, the anti-Taliban fronts have often attacked the positions of the Taliban in various regions of Afghanistan and killed Taliban members.

Previously, American and European Union officials had said that they do not support the armed resistance in Afghanistan.

Muttaqi considered the international community's approach of not supporting the armed resistance in Afghanistan to be the result of the Taliban government's "balanced foreign policy".

On Tuesday, the Taliban's foreign minister also accused the international community of using the issue of recognition of the Taliban government as a pressure tool, and stressed that no specific conditions have been communicated for the recognition of the Taliban.

Muttaqi added that the formation of an inclusive government, human rights, and security issues are "the excuses of the international community" not to recognise the Taliban.

The Taliban’s foreign minister said that the group’s government is "inclusive in every sense" and representatives of various regions and ethnic groups are present in the Taliban’s cabinet.

This senior Taliban official emphasised once again that the group’s government seeks political and economic relations with all the countries of the world.

On the other hand, the foreign minister of the Taliban claimed that the embassies of this group are active in some countries and the fact that the embassies of some countries are open in Kabul "means recognition" of the Taliban.

However, Muttaqi said that the international community would normalise its relations with the Taliban "in the near future".

Muttaqi also said that "Pakistan's existing problems are an internal matter and we have always given guarantees on our behalf” to Islamabad.

Despite several border clashes, Qomi said that the two sides have not had an acute border conflict in the past two years.

This is even though after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, the group’s border forces have clashed with Iranian border guards several times.

At the same time, Qomi said that Iranian experts had visited the Helmand River, and Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan, to address the water rights issues.

Fars news agency quoted the Iranian ambassador as saying, “This is the first time that Iranian experts visited the Deh Rawood water measurement station."

Kazemi Qomi added that according to the 1973 treaty, the Iranian side can question and verify the claim of the other party regarding the lack of water in Helmand River.