Putin, Pezeshkian Discuss Situation In Afghanistan

The Russian Cultural Centre (originally Soviet House of Science and Culture) in Kabul has told these students that the Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education has prevented them from travelling to study.

One of the students told Afghanistan International that officials of the Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education are opposed to students traveling to "non-Islamic" countries.

According to him, the Taliban believe that students lose their "religious beliefs" by travelling to these countries to study.

A number of students told Afghanistan International on Friday, January 17, that they had applied for scholarships for the year 2023 from the Russian government, and in mid-2024, the Russian Cultural Centre has recognised 500 of them as eligible for the scholarship.

Last year, the Taliban confiscated the passports of 500 male students and prevented them from travelling to Russia.

The students who received these scholarships told Afghanistan International that the Russian Cultural Centre, after several talks with officials of the Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education, announced to the students' representatives on Thursday, January 16, that the Taliban were opposed to their study trip.

One student said that each student spent between $100 and $200 to translate the required medical documents and examinations. Candidates have completed all the administrative procedures and documents required for these scholarships, he added.

The students say that the Russian Cultural Centre has met with 15 of their representatives several times during this period. According to these students, the centre made all its efforts to obtain the approval of the Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education.

The Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education has not officially commented on the matter.

According to the students, a number of candidates for the 2022 Russian scholarships have travelled to Iran in the middle of 2023 with the help of the centre. However, these students admit that the centre is not willing to provide visa facilities and study travel through Iran for this round of students.

One of the students said that the centre does not want to disrupt its relations with the Taliban because of the students.

Speaking at a meeting in Minsk on Friday, January 17, he said that dozens of countries want to have economic cooperation with Belarus, but it is hard to say that Belarus can meet their demands, Belarusian news agencies reported.

At the same time, Lukashenko added that Belarus's interests and priorities should be at the core of cooperation with other countries.

These statements come as Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Lukashevich visited Kabul last week and met with Taliban officials.

The Taliban's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, January 12, that Sergei Lukashevich and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, met and discussed political and economic cooperation.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai described the visit of the Belarusian official to Kabul as an important development in Belarusian-Afghan relations and the beginning of long-term cooperation.

The Taliban's deputy foreign ministry spokesman also announced that Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai and Sergei Lukashevich agreed that the technical teams of both sides would hold their talks in Kabul and Minsk.

In a statement, the organisation emphasised that the Afghanistan national cricket team should remain sanctioned until women are allowed to access education and participate in sports. The organisation noted that the Afghanistan Cricket Board is under the control of the Taliban.

According to the BBC, Heather Barr, the head of the women's section of Human Rights Watch, said that according to the International Cricket Council's anti-discrimination policy, all people should be able to play cricket without discrimination and regardless of their gender, but the Taliban government has deprived Afghan women of this right.

In a statement issued by Human Rights Watch, it referred to various decrees of the Taliban government that include various women's rights, including "work, education, and sports," which the Taliban has deprived of women.

Countries that are members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), of which Afghanistan is one of them, are also required to have a women's cricket team, but even though Afghan women do not have the right to play sports and cricket, Afghanistan retains its membership in the ICC and participates in international competitions.

Pakistani police have detained hundreds of Afghan refugees in the cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad in recent days and deported a number of them.

Amnesty International on Friday, January 17, called on the Pakistani government to repeal its new policy of requiring additional documents, such as a No Objection Certificate (NOC), to stay in Islamabad.

The organisation said that Pakistan's new order is putting vulnerable and at-risk Afghan groups in a bad situation. "The New Year has been marked by fear and anxiety for Afghan refugees in Islamabad, as police launched night-time raids, harassing and arbitrarily detaining hundreds of Afghan refugees," the organisation said in a statement.

For the past two weeks, Pakistani police have been going from street to street and house to house in the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi in search of Afghan migrants, arresting undocumented migrants and, in a number of cases, even migrants with visas.

Among the detainees are women and children.

According to statistics from the Taliban embassy in Islamabad, Islamabad police arrested about 800 Afghan refugees in the first week alone.

During its two-day visit, the delegation is scheduled to meet and discuss with the Iranian Minister of Justice, the head of the Extradition Committee for Convicts, and other high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court said that the purpose of this trip is to strengthen judicial cooperation, ensure the rights of Afghan prisoners in Iran, seek an alternative way for Afghans sentenced to death in Iran, and pursue the issue of the extradition of prisoners.

According to the Human Rights Organisation Hengaw, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed at least 74 Afghan prisoners in 2024.

Earlier, a delegation from the Iranian Ministry of Justice had traveled to Kabul. Following these talks, it was agreed that Afghan prisoners would be transferred from Iran to Afghanistan to serve their sentences.