UN Security Council to Review Afghanistan Amid Human Rights, Terror Concerns

In a decree issued by the group’s Dar al-Ifta, the Taliban’s religious authority, officials said photos would be mandatory only for Afghan women living abroad or travelling overseas for medical care. For women inside Afghanistan, the body declared that attaching photos to ID cards was “contrary to Sharia.”

The decision overrides earlier plans by the Taliban-run National Statistics and Information Authority, which had sought to make photos compulsory to verify identity, prevent fraud, ease travel and comply with international standards. The agency had set out 11 justifications for photos, but religious scholars dismissed 10 of them as “un-Islamic.”

Dar al-Ifta said for legal matters it was sufficient to include a woman’s name along with the names of her father and grandfather, as well as her address. It argued that international travel already required passports and visas, making ID cards unnecessary for that purpose.

“Placing a photo without a Sharia need is not permitted, whether full-length or just the face,” the decree stated. Women, however, may still choose to include their photo voluntarily.

The ruling triggered strong criticism from rights groups. On social media, users urged the international community not to remain silent. Activists said the Taliban’s decision represents another rollback of women’s rights, four years after the group barred girls from secondary schools and universities.

Protesting women have demanded that identity documents be issued without gender-based restrictions or discrimination.

The Ministry of Justice said Saturday the new legislation, published in the official gazette, sets out 13 articles regulating poetry gatherings. The law prohibits any criticism of Akhundzada’s orders and decisions and bars verses praising “boys and girls” or encouraging friendship between them. It also demands poetry be free of “worldly love, improper desires and inappropriate emotions.”

The Ministry of Information and Culture will enforce the law, with oversight committees to be established in Kabul and provincial centres. Each committee will include representatives from the ministry, the Taliban’s virtue and vice authority and the Ulema Council. They will be tasked with vetting poetry and speeches for compliance.

Violators, including poets, speakers and organisers, will face punishment “in accordance with Sharia,” the ministry said.

The law also declares feminism, communism, democracy and nationalism as “un-Islamic” and bans poets from referring to them. In its preamble, it instructs poets to use their work to defend Islam and interpret Sharia law. All provisions are addressed to “brother poets,” effectively excluding women.

The move follows earlier restrictions on literary gatherings. In June, Akhundzada issued directives on poetry events after the Taliban cancelled festivals in Parwan and Nangarhar provinces and arrested poets accused of writing critical verses.

Human rights groups say the new rules mark a return to the Taliban’s hard-line cultural policies of the 1990s and are part of broader efforts to curb civil liberties, silence critics and impose the group’s interpretation of Islam on Afghan society.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) said its fighters struck Taliban Intelligence Unit 40 in the Shash Darak area on Friday evening. In a statement, the group claimed at least one Taliban member was killed and four others were wounded.

The AFF described the site as a “notorious” office where former Afghan soldiers and innocent civilians, including women, are detained and subjected to “brutal and inhumane torture.”

Local residents reported hearing an explosion in central Kabul on Friday night.

The Taliban have not commented on the incident. The group routinely rejects claims of attacks carried out by opposition groups, including the AFF and the National Resistance Front.

According to the Taliban’s judiciary, the pair were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to one year and 15 lashes each. The punishment was issued by the primary court in Aqcha district and carried out after being approved by the Taliban’s Supreme Court.

The Taliban have punished hundreds of people over the past four years on charges of “illicit relations” and have also resumed enforcing capital punishment. In several provinces, executions have been carried out in public in the presence of senior Taliban officials.

Human rights organisations have condemned public punishments as degrading and in violation of international human rights standards.

Observers say the Taliban are gradually reverting to policies from their 1990s rule, when public executions and floggings became defining images of their regime. Videos of women and men being executed in sports stadiums remain symbolic of that period.

In contrast, the Taliban have now banned filming or broadcasting of such punishments. Taliban forces routinely confiscate phones and cameras from people entering stadiums or public squares before punishments are carried out.

The suspension followed the Taliban’s failure to provide financial details on how the money was spent on relocating families to Ghazni province, the sources said.

Under a pilot scheme, one Gulf Arab country provided $6 million to resettle about 2,000 TTP families. That country has now conditioned further support on accountability and clearer reporting from the Taliban.

According to the sources, the Taliban secretly moved dozens of families from the Gulan camp in Khost and border areas of Paktika to refugee settlements in Ghazni, paying each family member $40 a month.

The Taliban had earlier asked Pakistan to support relocating TTP fighters from eastern and southern Afghanistan to other provinces, but the broader international backing they sought has not materialised.

TTP forces are believed to be concentrated in Nangarhar, Khost, Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. The Taliban promised to move them to Ghazni, Helmand and the north, but many TTP fighters reportedly refused the resettlement.

Pakistan had considered a 30-billion-rupee resettlement plan, but dropped it over distrust of Taliban leadership. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the Taliban had demanded 10 billion rupees to relocate fighters away from border areas, but declined to guarantee they would not return.

Islamabad accuses the Taliban of harbouring TTP militants and Baloch separatists. It claims some Afghan Taliban factions remain allied with the TTP, which Pakistan says fields about 6,000 fighters on Afghan soil.

Pakistan’s military has repeatedly struck TTP positions across the border. On Tuesday, Pakistani jets bombed sites in Khost and Nangarhar provinces. The Taliban condemned the attacks, warned of consequences and summoned Pakistan’s ambassador.