Afghan Women Protesters Urge International Community to Increase Pressure on Taliban

According to figures provided by the ministry, the value of Taliban's trade with the Islamic Republic in the past seven months has reached $1.827 billion.

On Saturday, November 16, the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency quoted the group's Ministry of Industry and Commerce as saying that in the past seven months, $30 million in exports and nearly $1.8 billion in imports have been made between Afghanistan and Iran.

Afghanistan is currently the sixth destination for Iran's exports. Official statistics of Iran's customs have shown that in the past year, Iran has recorded the highest amount of its exports regarding trade with Afghanistan.

The Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce announced in May 2024 that the value of the Islamic Republic's non-oil exports to Afghanistan in 2023 was $1.871 billion.

The group said that they returned to Afghanistan "voluntarily" and that none of them were motivated by security concerns.

The organisation declined to provide further details due to "privacy issues”.

The deportations came despite a suspension order. The temporary suspension of the return of asylum seekers means stopping the forced deportation of asylum seekers to countries in crisis situations such as war or humanitarian catastrophe. This order allows asylum seekers to stay in the host country until conditions improve.

For Afghans, the order has been in place since 1994, and only those who have committed crimes are exempt.

Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, has called on Canada to grant refugee status to all Afghan women seeking asylum in the country. He stressed that the conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan are "very dangerous" and that they are severely repressed under the Taliban's rule.

The deportations have caused concern among some immigration experts who believe that Afghans have not returned voluntarily and have been forced to leave Canada under economic or social pressures.

Lavery had evacuated more than a hundred Afghans from Kabul during the evacuation operation in August 2021.

Canadian media CTV News reported on Saturday, citing its sources, that David Lavery was arrested at the Kabul airport on Monday last week after a flight to Afghanistan.

Lavery has traveled to Afghanistan many times over the years and provides consulting services through his private security company in Kabul.

A source told this Canadian media outlet that the Taliban were aware of Lavery's presence and activities in Afghanistan several years ago.

The Government of Canada's Global Affairs Division, which manages the country's diplomatic and consular relations, confirmed to CTV News that it is "aware of an incident involving a Canadian in Afghanistan and that Canadian officials continue to closely monitor the situation”.

Lavery, known in Afghanistan as the "Canadian Dave", was the only Canadian left at Kabul International Airport when Afghanistan fell in August 2021.

Canadian embassy staff had already left the country on evacuation flights, and after four days, Canadian troops arrived in Kabul to help Lavery.

Lavery was given a list of about a thousand people waiting to be transferred to Canada. His team's mission was to assist in the immediate transfer of people waiting at the airport with valid Canadian documents.

Lavery eventually helped 100 people included in this list to leave Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban.

Mohammad Jalal, a Taliban official, said that this action shows solidarity with Gaza and keeping the struggle of Hamas leaders alive for future generations.

Mohammad Jalal is one of the people close to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban's interior minister. Referring to the naming of this religious school after Yahya Sinwar, he wrote on social media platform X that this action shows solidarity with Gaza and the "heroism" of Hamas leaders.

Jalal wrote that Yahya Sinwar is an inspiration to Palestinian children and naming a religious school in Afghanistan after him will keep the struggles of Hamas leaders alive for generations.

Yahya Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas

Sources in Ghor Province told Afghanistan International that Rahmatullah Hijrat, a Taliban intelligence official in Panjshir, established this religious school in his hometown in the district center of Shahrak in Ghor Province.

This Taliban official has recently changed the name of this school to the "Martyr School of Ummat Yahya Al-Sinwar". On the board of this school, the administration of the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) is included, which shows that it operates under the supervision of the Taliban.

Sources said that more than 500 students are studying in this school.

During the last three years, on the one hand, the Taliban has closed girls' schools above the sixth grade and prohibited women from going to university, on the other hand, it has established thousands of religious and jihadist schools throughout Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Education of the Taliban has announced that the number of religious schools is massive now. According to the statistics of this ministry, more than three million students are educated in these religious centres. Social activists and experts have repeatedly expressed concern about the increase in religious schools due to the strengthening of extremism in the country.

Experts say that the Taliban brainwash children and students in religious schools and train them to be extremist and ideological.

In addition to establishing religious schools, the Taliban has also changed the system of education and higher education. Taliban has increased Islamic themes and removed some specialised themes.

"Common goal of Taliban and Hamas"

Although the nature of the war between Hamas and Israel and the bloody war of the Taliban in Afghanistan was different, these two militant groups have inspired each other. Taliban says it has common goals with the Hamas .

After the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, Ismail Haniyeh, the former leader of Hamas, called the group's consolidation and re-domination of the Taliban a "victory over America”. In a phone call with the Taliban's foreign minister, Haniyeh expressed hope that the Taliban would be able to "play a role in supporting their brothers in Palestine for the liberation of Jerusalem”.

During the past year, Ismail Haniyeh was killed, followed by Yahya Sinwar, his successor. The Taliban condemned their killing and the group's officials repeatedly praised Hamas' war.

In the past months, the Taliban has built the symbol of the "Al Aqsa" mosque in several areas of Kabul and in some provinces of Afghanistan. This group has also launched demonstrations in support of Hamas' war against Israel.

At least three sources confirmed that most of them are from Panjshir, Parwan, Kapisa, Baghlan, Takhar and other northern regions of Afghanistan.

Sources said that most of the prisoners were transferred from Pul-e-Charki prison to Bagram.
The number of these prisoners is not yet known, and the Taliban has not yet commented on the transfer of prisoners to Bagram.

Bagram Prison is a part of Bagram Air Base, which had been in the hands of US-led international coalition forces for the past two decades and served as the main centre of the war against the Taliban and ISIS.

Hundreds of "dangerous" prisoners, including commanders and fighters of the Taliban and ISIS, were kept there.

With the withdrawal of international forces and the fall of the Afghan government, the Taliban captured this base and released the prisoners.

This year, sources informed Afghanistan International that the Taliban had activated this prison and transferred a number of prisoners there. A source said that the Taliban has also taken some of the military prisoners of the previous government .

In the past three years, the Taliban has arrested hundreds of people accused of collaborating with anti-Taliban fronts, being members of ISIS, and even critical activities such as journalists, women, and university professors. Numerous reports from human rights organisations have also been published about severe torture and mistreatment of prisoners by the Taliban.

Before the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, Bagram Airfield was the largest US military base in the country.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has repeatedly criticised the fact that the Bagram base has been "occupied" by China after the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan. During his election campaigns, he spoke about the recapture of Bagram base.