Taliban Detains 23 People For Violating Controversial Law On Promotion Of Virtue

Iran's domestic news agencies reported that Alireza Bigdeli was welcomed by the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry officials upon his arrival in Kabul.

Alireza Bigdeli has replaced Hassan Kazemi Qomi by decree of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Qomi, who initially introduced himself as the head of Iran's diplomatic mission in Kabul, over time changed this title to chargé d'affaires, a rank lower than the ambassador. However, the Taliban's Foreign Ministry addresses Qomi and Bigdeli as the ambassadors of the Islamic Republic in Kabul.

In his farewell meeting with Qomi, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s Foreign Minister, said that he was "ready to work with the new ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the expansion of bilateral relations”.

Last week, in response to a question about the appointment of a new representative, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmael Baghaei said that Bigdeli "has been appointed as the head of our country's embassy in Kabul”.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, like Pakistan and the United States, has also removed the post of special envoy for Afghanistan, which observers say means that the level of Iran's official relations with the Taliban has been reduced.

On Sunday, November 24, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, issued a decree appointing Alireza Bigdeli as the new charge d'affaires of the Iranian embassy in Kabul.

Alireza Bigdeli was previously the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Cyprus and the chargé d'affaires in Kazakhstan.

In a meeting with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Badruddin Haqqani discussed the transfer of Afghan prisoners.

Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman for the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, announced on Saturday, November 30, that Badruddin Haqqani met Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He wrote on social media platform X that the current developments in Afghanistan and the facilitation of UAE visas for Afghans were other topics of discussion.

According to Takal, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan promised to cooperate with the Taliban during the meeting.

The president of the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday accepted the credentials of a number of new ambassadors, including the Taliban's ambassador.

The United Arab Emirates, like other countries, does not recognise the Taliban government. In the 1990s, the country, along with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, were the only countries in the world to recognise the Taliban rule.

The organisation said in a report that the wave of migration has put a lot of pressure on local resources in Brazil.

The UN refugee agency on Friday (November 29) released a report on the situation and number of migrants in Brazil.

According to the report, Brazil hosts 790,000 migrants from different countries of the world, especially Venezuela, Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, and Ukraine.

The report states that Brazil has witnessed an increase in the number of migrants from various countries, including Afghans, in the city of São Paulo, and since the implementation of the humanitarian visa policy for Afghans in 2021 until August 2024, more than 13,000 humanitarian visas have been issued to Afghans.

According to the report, more than 12,000 Afghan migrants have arrived in Brazil during this period.

The United Nations has stressed on the need for more support for the implementation of local reception and integration systems in light of the gradual increase in the arrival of migrants and their needs in Brazil.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is emphasising on the protection of migrants in Brazil while other reports have been published about the difficult situation of Afghan refugees in the country.

The embassy said that it was committed to supporting Afghan women's access to the right to education and work.

Mario Crifo, Director of Public Affairs for the US Embassy in Afghanistan, announced in a video message that the US mission in Afghanistan supports the fundamental rights of Afghan women. Coinciding with the two-week global campaign against gender-based violence, he stressed that Afghan women want the same rights that other women around the world also want.

The US mission in Afghanistan has plans to increase Afghan women's access to fundamental rights, including education, employment, and civil and political rights, he added. The programmes are designed to empower Afghan women, Crifo noted.

In the video message, he called on audiences to join the campaign to combat gender-based violence and take action to eradicate this type of violence in their communities.

In their more than three years of control over Afghanistan, the Taliban has issued dozens of laws and orders restricting women's rights.

Despite the opposition of international organisations to the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women, the group continues to violate women's rights and freedoms. The Taliban has called the ban on women's education and employment an internal issue and have announced that they will not allow any organisation or country to interfere in these issues.

The women claimed that they have been sexually abused, tortured and forced to work in prison, and witnessed children being beaten and killed.

The Guardian newspaper published a report on Friday, November 29, in which women arrested by the Taliban for begging were interviewed.

All of these women said that due to their inability to find jobs, they had no choice but to beg in the streets to provide for themselves and their children.

Zahra, a 32-year-old mother of three, said that after her husband, who served in the army of the former Afghan government, disappeared, she was forced to move to Kabul and beg in the streets for food. Her husband disappeared after the Taliban came to power in August 2021.

"I went to the government offices in my area and told them that I was a widow and asked for help to feed my three children," Zahra said, adding that they said they couldn't help me and told me to sit next to the bakery and beg.

Zahra said that she was not aware of the Taliban's laws prohibiting begging until she was arrested.

“A Taliban car stopped near the bakery. They took my son by force and told me to get in the vehicle,” she said. Zahra claimed she spent three days and nights in a Taliban prison and that initially she was made to cook, clean and do laundry for the men working there.

She was then told she would be fingerprinted and have her biometric details recorded. When she resisted, she was beaten until she was left unconscious. She said she was then raped.
“[Since being released] I’ve thought about ending my life several times, but my children hold me back,” she said. “I wondered who would feed them if I weren’t here.

Another woman, Parwana, was begging in Kabul with her four-year-old daughter in October 2023. She was held in Badam Bagh Prison for 15 days and was raped and tortured in prison.

Parwana also said that she and two other women were raped while in detention, and that the attacks caused her severe psychological trauma and depression.

According to Parwana, the Taliban had even arrested children who were cleaning people's shoes in the streets. "The Taliban used to tell us women why you don't get married, beat us and forced us to wash dishes and clean up," she continued.

Along with multiple reports of rape and torture of women arrested under the anti-begging laws, former detainees also told the Afghan news outlet Zan Times that they witnessed the abuse of young children in prison, with one woman alleging that two children were beaten to death while she was in detention.

"No one dared to speak," she said. If we chatted, they would beat us and call us immodest. Seeing those children die in front of my eyes is something I will never forget."

The death of detainees rounded up under anti-begging laws is factored into the wording of the Taliban’s new law, in which Article 25 states: “If a beggar dies while in custody and has no relatives or if the family refuses to collect the body, the municipal officials will handle the burial.”
Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, women have been denied the right to work, which has led to an increase in poverty, especially in female-headed households.

On May 20, 2024, the Taliban's Ministry of Justice announced the law on collecting beggars and preventing begging.

The law was signed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that "according to this law, people who are healthy or businessmen and have a day's food are prohibited from begging."

With the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, unemployment and poverty rates have risen sharply, and the number of beggars, especially in the capital Kabul, has increased significantly. According to UN figures, about 24 million people in Afghanistan are in need of humanitarian assistance.