The United Nations urged the Taliban to lift restrictions on girls’ education as the world marked International Literacy Day, highlighting Afghanistan’s literary heritage and the urgent need to restore access to schooling for women and girls.
In a post on X, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said: “Books are not only a source of knowledge, but also a pathway to lasting prosperity..”
The appeal came as UNESCO reported that at least 272 million children and adolescents worldwide remain out of school. Despite progress in recent decades, the agency said some 739 million young people and adults still lack basic literacy skills. Data shows that 4 in 10 children globally cannot read at a foundational level.
International Literacy Day has been observed annually since 1967 to underscore the importance of education in building more literate, just and peaceful societies. This year’s theme, Promoting Literacy in a Digital Era stressed the role of digital tools in expanding learning opportunities for marginalised groups.
In Afghanistan, an estimated 2.2 million girls have been barred from attending school since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. UNESCO has warned that if restrictions remain, the number could exceed 4 million by 2030.
Despite sustained international pressure, the Taliban has refused to reverse its ban. Beyond the restrictions, a shortage of school buildings, clean water, sanitation facilities and qualified female teachers has left about 4 million Afghan children without education, according to UNICEF.
Dozens of helicopters flown out of Afghanistan during the fall of the Western-backed government in 2021 are expected to be returned from Uzbekistan to Kabul in the coming days, sources told Afghanistan International.
According to the sources, 57 helicopters that once belonged to the former Afghan army will be transferred back. After the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in August 2021, Afghan military pilots flew a number of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The US Department of Defense previously confirmed that 46 aircraft were flown to Uzbekistan and another 18 to Tajikistan. The fleet included Mi-17 and UH-60 helicopters, as well as PC-12, C-208, AC-208 and A-29 fixed-wing aircraft.
The Taliban has repeatedly demanded that both countries hand over the aircraft, but officials in Tashkent and Dushanbe have not publicly commented on those requests.
The US ambassador to Uzbekistan earlier said that under a new agreement, 46 of the aircraft that had landed in the country would remain under Uzbek control. The US Embassy for Afghanistan also thanked Tajikistan for refusing to transfer former Afghan military aircraft to the Taliban.
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled to Uzbekistan aboard three military helicopters with several close aides before later travelling on to the United Arab Emirates.
A former Afghan security commander said the United States had equipped the country’s air force with 229 helicopters, both combat and transport, before the Taliban takeover.
The World Health Organization has urged the Taliban to lift restrictions on female aid workers in Afghanistan, warning that women in earthquake-hit areas are struggling to access urgent medical care.
The call came after a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, leaving thousands in need of assistance. WHO officials said female health workers must be allowed to travel without a male guardian and provide care directly to women affected by the disaster.
Mukta Sharma, deputy representative of the WHO in Afghanistan, said the shortage of female staff in the quake zone was “a very big issue.” She estimated that about 90 percent of medical personnel there were men, while the remaining 10 percent were mostly midwives and nurses, not doctors trained to treat severe injuries.
She said that it became a problem because women were afraid to interact with male staff and to travel alone to seek care.
The Taliban ordered most women to stop working outside the home in 2022. Aid agencies say exemptions exist but are inconsistent and insufficient, particularly during emergencies that require travel. Sharma said restrictions remain severe, with no official exemptions issued, and her team raised the issue with Taliban officials last week.
"we felt we had to advocate with (authorities) to say, this is the time you really need to have more female health workers present, let us bring them in, and let us search from other places where they're available," she said.
Local women have also described the impact. A resident of Kunar province said many women in her village were suffering from trauma and high blood pressure after the quake but could not easily reach healthcare.
The UN Population Fund estimates that some 16,600 pregnant women in the affected eastern provinces are in urgent need of assistance. Residents of Kunar previously reported that at least six pregnant women had died because of the shortage of female medical staff.
Three Afghan nationals were among five suicide bombers who attacked a Pakistani security forces base in the border district of Bannu last week, security sources told Afghanistan International.
The attackers were identified as Abdul Aziz, known as Qasid Mohajer; Shabir Ahmad, also called Mawlawi Bilal Mohajer, from Saidabad district in Maidan Wardak; and Najibullah, known as Haziqa, from Khost province. Aziz was reportedly from Mata Khan district in Paktika.
Pakistani authorities have not confirmed the identities of the assailants.
A video obtained by Afghanistan International showed one of the attackers saying he was prepared to “sacrifice himself in the path of God” in Pakistan and calling on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to facilitate his mission. He said he was based in Bahramcha, Helmand province.
Pakistani police said six security personnel and six militants were killed when gunmen stormed the base on Tuesday. Militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the compound wall before entering and engaging forces in a firefight that lasted 12 hours. Sixteen security personnel and three civilians were wounded.
The tactics mirrored those used by the Afghan Taliban during their insurgency against the former Afghan government and US forces, including suicide bombings and car bombs.
On Friday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry dismissed recent remarks by Taliban Defence Minister Yaqoob Mujahid, who criticised the Pakistani army’s capacity to fight insurgents. The ministry said his comments were “taunts and jibes” that could not obscure the presence of TTP safe havens in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has long accused the Afghan Taliban of providing sanctuary to anti-government militants. The Taliban has repeatedly denied that TTP or other foreign groups operate from Afghan soil.
International organisations estimate that about 6,000 TTP fighters are currently in Afghanistan, where they are believed to train at established bases.
Afghan refugees in Islamabad say Pakistani police have carried out violent raids on hotels housing families accepted under German resettlement programmes, arresting men, women and children and transferring some to detention camps.
Refugees told Afghanistan International that police stormed a hotel in the capital’s F-8 district on Sunday, detaining several families. One image shared from the scene showed a child who had fainted in fear.
They said police have raided multiple hotels in the same area over the past five days. Witnesses described armed officers breaking locks on doors and windows, beating residents and humiliating them. Families, including women and children, were taken into custody.
Those detained are typically moved to Haji Camp, a facility refugees described as lacking adequate food, healthcare and accommodation for women, children and the sick. Refugees also said police prevented them from collecting their belongings before arrest and that some families had already been deported to Afghanistan.
The raids targeted Afghans holding official admission letters for German relocation, many of them former employees of the German development agency GIZ, as well as women’s rights defenders, lawyers, judges and officials from the former Afghan government.
One refugee said families now live in constant fear of police raids. “The police treat refugees with extreme cruelty,” he said. Some families reportedly spend the day in parks or outside guesthouses to avoid arrest, though police have also conducted night-time raids.
German Government Criticised
Refugees criticised Berlin for failing to intervene. They said Afghans with German admission letters and former GIZ staff remain in detention, while the German government has not taken action.
Last month, police detained about 450 Afghans accepted for resettlement in Germany. German mediation prevented the deportation of 245, but more than 200 were expelled to Afghanistan.
The German government later said it was negotiating with Islamabad to return 211 deported Afghans to Pakistan.
Until recently, Afghan refugees were able to renew visas monthly or every few months. Pakistan stopped extensions about three months ago and has since intensified arrests.
German officials have not publicly commented on the escalating detentions and alleged mistreatment of Afghan refugees awaiting resettlement.
Former Afghan detainees have described harrowing abuse inside Taliban prisons, saying both male and female jailers were equally brutal in carrying out torture.
A woman and a man who were detained about two years ago in Kabul and Parwan told Afghanistan International they endured severe beatings and other forms of abuse in Taliban intelligence facilities.
Julia Parsi, a women’s and human rights activist, said she was arrested outside her home in Kabul on 27 September 2023 by Taliban members using unmarked vehicles. Speaking during a discussion on the social media platform X, she said she was targeted “for seeking justice for Afghan women.”
Parsi said she was blindfolded and beaten while being pressured to hand over her phone password. At the Taliban intelligence agency's prison, she said, seven female officers insulted and assaulted her before seizing control of her social media accounts. She spent 41 days in solitary confinement and later learned that her teenage son had also been detained solely because of his connection to her.
“The Taliban women were even more cruel than the men,” she said, adding that she was threatened with the arrest of her daughters unless she complied. She described further torture, including being doused with water, hung from the ceiling, suffocated with plastic bags and having her head forced into buckets of water.
Parsi was released after three months and later fled Afghanistan.
Another former prisoner, who gave his name as Sohrab Shomal, said he was jailed for a year after being accused of belonging to the National Resistance Front. He said Taliban interrogators pulled out his toenails and tortured him with electric shocks, beatings, suffocation and sleep deprivation.
“They had no evidence of my membership,” he said. “Anyone who refused to confess was tortured more.”
He said some detainees accused of “sodomy” or of planning to travel to Palestine were spared torture, while political prisoners were systematically abused.
International rights groups have repeatedly raised alarm about conditions in Taliban prisons. The World Organisation Against Torture said in a recent report that torture is systematic, with victims including political opponents, women activists, and ethnic and religious minorities. The group said methods include beatings, electric shocks, burning with hot irons, prolonged solitary confinement and psychological abuse.
An earlier Afghanistan International investigation documented at least 31 types of torture in Taliban-run intelligence prisons, ranging from hanging and confinement in cages to sexual violence and threats against detainees’ families.
Taliban detainees are held for rebellion, links to foreign media, contacts with Islamic State or resistance groups, or ties to the former security forces
