Afghanistan Declared Largest Buyer Of Russian Flour In 2024
The Agroexport Centre, owned by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, announced Afghanistan as the largest buyer of Russian flour in 2024.
The Agroexport Centre, owned by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, announced Afghanistan as the largest buyer of Russian flour in 2024.
According to the centre's data, flour worth $80 million was delivered to Afghanistan in 2024, which is twice as much as in 2023.
In 2023, the Russian Grain Market Information website announced that the country's flour exports to Afghanistan have increased 20 times since mid-2021.
At the same time, Agroexport said that grain production, including flour, in Afghanistan has been severely affected by war and political instability.
According to the centre, Afghanistan's domestic production is unable to meet the needs of the country's population and is dependent on food imports, including flour.
In an open letter, a group of protesting Afghan women has called on the leaders of Islamic countries to take action against the Taliban's restrictions on women and girls.
They have called for the formation of a committee led by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to oversee the Taliban's policies.
In this open letter, Afghan women protesters have expressed regret over the silence of these countries in the face of the restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan.
The letter reads, "Your silence as leaders of Islamic countries is very painful. It sends the message that the suffering of Afghan women is not a priority and that our cries for help do not deserve your attention. But this is not the Islam we know."
The letter refers to the deprivation of women and girls from education, work, travel, and other restrictions, and emphasises that these restrictions are imposed by the Taliban under the name of "Islamic Sharia".
"We call on the leaders and members of the Islamic Ummah of the world to stand with us and uphold the principles of justice, fairness and compassion that define our common faith," the letter said.
In the letter, the protesting women stressed that leaders of Islamic countries should use their influence to condemn the Taliban's actions against women and encourage the group to respect the rights of women and girls.
"Strengthen the teachings of Islam, which promote justice, science and the protection of all people, regardless of gender, and provide resources, opportunities and facilities for women and their families seeking safety and justice," the letter said.
Afghan women have also stressed that engagement with the Taliban must be guaranteed to lift restrictions on women and girls and ensure their participation in diplomatic negotiations.
The letter comes as a conference titled "Girls' Education in Muslim Societies" is scheduled to be held in Pakistan on Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12, with the participation of more than 40 Islamic countries.
Diplomatic sources, however, told Afghanistan International that the Taliban would not participate in the meeting.
A Pakistani court on Friday ordered a halt to the deportation of 150 Afghan singers and musicians for at least two months.
The court has ordered Pakistani authorities to refrain from deporting the artists until their asylum claims are processed.
The Associated Press on Friday, January 10, quoted Mumtaz Ahmad, a lawyer who has followed up on the cases of 150 Afghan artists, as saying that the court ruling is the first of its kind. According to him, these people had been living in an uncertain situation in Pakistan since 2023.
These artists are among about half a million people who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
According to the court ruling, Pakistan is obliged to decide on the applications of 150 Afghan musicians and singers within the next two months, Mumtaz Ahmad said. Also, these artists have the right to register themselves with the United Nations Refugee Agency and receive refugee status.
Hashmat Ali, an Afghan singer, told The Associated Press, "I am very happy and grateful to the court. I hope that I will not face harassment and forced deportation now," he said, adding that Afghan singers and musicians would not be safe if they were deported to Afghanistan.
Pakistan, like many countries in the world, has not yet recognised the Taliban. According to the Associated Press, the country has deported more than 800,000 undocumented Afghans to Afghanistan in the past 18 months.
The Taliban has declared playing, listening to music, and producing it as "haram". The group has arrested and tortured some musicians during their three-year rule of Afghanistan.
Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan's special representative for Afghanistan, announced that the second phase of the Allama Iqbal Scholarships programme for Afghan students has begun.
On Friday, January 10, he said that 4,500 full scholarships will be awarded to Afghan students in the fields of medicine, engineering, agriculture and other fields.
The programme will offer 4,500 full scholarships at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels over the next three years.
The special representative of Pakistan added that 33% of these scholarships will be allocated to female students.
The Pakistani official wrote in a note on his account on social media platform X that the programme is the largest and most popular foreign scholarship for Afghan students.
Mohammad Sadiq emphasised that the registration and exam process for this scholarship is online and will be completed within 45 days.
This month, he said, more than 22,000 applicants will take an online exam, followed by interviews for final selection. He said that the entire process would be completed within 45 days.
The decision has been announced by Pakistan at a time when girls and women in Afghanistan are facing severe restrictions from the Taliban.
Since coming to power, the Taliban has banned girls' education at secondary and university levels and banned women from working in many institutions, including non-governmental and international organisations.
Abbas Stanekzai, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, said that the group has evidence that ISIS has training centres in Pakistan.
He has claimed that the Pakistani army is training ISIS fighters at these shelters.
Abbas Stanekzai wrote on the social media platform X on Friday, January 10, that the Pakistani army is supplying weapons to ISIS and then sending them to Afghanistan to carry out attacks. He added that the Taliban had warned Pakistan several times in this regard.
The Taliban official stated that ISIS members who are present in Taliban prisons have confessed that they were trained in Pakistan, and this claim has been proven by the obtained videos.
Earlier, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's foreign minister, had made similar accusations against a number of neighbouring countries, especially against Pakistan, but Pakistani officials denied such accusations.
ISIS and the Taliban have been fiercely hostile to each other in the past. This enmity, especially in eastern Afghanistan, has been accompanied by bloody conflicts.
ISIS accuses the Taliban of "making a deal with the West", while the Taliban calls ISIS "Khawarij" and considers them a threat against itself. ISIS has now become one of the Taliban's biggest challenges.
In the latest attack, ISIS killed Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban's minister for refugees, in his office in Kabul.
Julia Parsi, a women's rights activist, has claimed that she lost hearing in one of her ears as a result of the Taliban's torture in the group's prison.
Julia Parsi, who had been in Taliban custody for more than three months, said that she underwent surgery for a deep wound in her right ear.
On Friday, January 10, Julia Parsi posted a picture which showed her in the hospital, and wrote, "The torture in prison has turned into incurable pain." She said that her ears were deeply scarred by the Taliban officials’ slaps in prison.
Julia Parsi added that the pain left by the Taliban's torture in prison has made her more mature and strengthened her will to continue the path of struggle. She stressed that women's abilities should be believed in because they are very strong.
The Taliban arrested women's rights activist Julia Parsi from her home in Kabul on September 27. During her detention, she was hospitalised due to the torture. After spending about three months in a Taliban prison, Julia was released from a Taliban prison on December 18.
"I'm fine, but four months later I have to have my other ear operated on," she wrote.
With the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, Julia lost her job as a teacher, and her daughters were forced to drop out of school due to a ban on the education of women and girls.
In September 2021, Julia founded the spontaneous Afghan Women's Movement, which aims to promote education, employment, and freedom for women and girls. The movement spread rapidly and was able to organise numerous gatherings and protests in Kabul and other provinces.