Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahid Jalalzadeh arrived in Kabul on Monday to attend the fifth meeting of the Iran-Afghanistan Joint Consular Commission. He is also expected to hold talks with Taliban officials during the visit.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said the visit was aimed at discussing consular cooperation, migration issues and expanding people-to-people ties between the two countries.
Although Iran maintains close political and trade relations with the Taliban, it has not formally recognised the group's administration.
Baghaei also said Iran had not linked its cooperation with Afghanistan to recognising the Taliban government. He described recognition as a political and legal process and said Tehran would make a decision once it reached its own conclusion, but cooperation between the two countries would continue regardless.
The Iran-Afghanistan Joint Consular Commission is a bilateral mechanism for addressing consular issues between the two countries. Its agenda includes migration, consular services, visas, identity documents, prisoner transfers and other matters affecting citizens of both countries.
Sources in Badakhshan told Afghanistan International that Taliban army chief Fasihuddin Fitrat is trying to persuade dissident commander Juma Khan Fateh to travel to Kabul for further talks with the group’s leadership.
According to the sources, Fitrat and his delegation have been holding talks with Fateh in Faizabad since Sunday in an effort to convince him to travel to Kabul.
Fateh returned to the Darwaz region on Friday after meeting Taliban officials in Faizabad. Sources said that after spending one night at his base in Nusay district, he travelled with Fitrat to Wurduj district before returning to Faizabad.
Fateh had earlier agreed to travel to Faizabad after receiving security guarantees from Fitrat. Following the talks, Taliban-affiliated media claimed he had returned to Darwaz after reaffirming his loyalty to the group.
It remains unclear why the Taliban delegation wants to bring Fateh to Kabul. However, the Taliban leadership had previously offered him a post as deputy head of the intelligence directorate in the capital, an offer he declined.
The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation says journalists and media outlets face a multilayered, organised and widespread crisis under Taliban rule, with arrests, physical violence and interference in media affairs increasing over the past month.
The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation (AMSO) published an analytical report titled Under the Shadow of Fear and Censorship on Sunday, saying its findings were based on information gathered from across Afghanistan between 10 June and 10 July 2026.
The report assesses the situation facing Afghan media in four areas: security and physical safety, administrative and professional challenges, technology, and ideological restrictions.
According to the report, journalists faced arbitrary arrests, mistreatment, beatings and security threats during the reporting period.
AMSO said some journalists were detained by Taliban intelligence after covering official events. Others, it said, were arrested and beaten over routine disputes, including disagreements about transport costs.
The organisation said journalists who were released from detention were pressured to remain silent about their treatment and discouraged from filing complaints or speaking publicly about their experiences. It said such practices had deepened fear and self-censorship among media workers.
In another section, AMSO criticised Taliban spokespersons for the way they disseminate information, saying many publish announcements late at night or through their personal social media accounts instead of using official channels during working hours.
According to the organisation, this practice has made access to information more difficult for journalists and, in some cases, has led to administrative disputes and salary deductions.
AMSO also reported increased interference by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in media activities. According to the report, some radio stations received warnings about broadcasting female voices, while ministry inspectors continued conducting visits to media offices.
The organisation also said journalists continued to face pressure to grow beards and alter their appearance in line with Taliban directives.
The report further said the Taliban had warned journalists against publishing reports on Afghanistan’s economic difficulties, rising fuel prices, disputes among Taliban officials and details of security incidents in either the media or on social media.
According to AMSO, some journalists have been threatened with detention or suspension for publishing such material.
The organisation also described restrictions on the use of smartphones in several government offices as a serious obstacle to media work, saying the measure had significantly disrupted journalists’ access to information, communication with spokespersons and the production of video interviews.
In its conclusion, AMSO said Afghanistan’s media sector was facing a deep, widespread and multidimensional crisis.
The organisation warned that shrinking freedom of expression, the systematic restriction of access to information, growing security, economic and psychological pressure on journalists, and intensifying censorship posed a serious threat to the future of Afghanistan’s media and increased the risk of the gradual loss of professional journalists and media workers.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) displayed Afghanistan’s national flag, instead of Taliban’s flag, alongside those of its member states at its ninth conference on women’s empowerment in Islamabad.
The two-day meeting opened on Sunday without a Taliban representative.
None of the OIC’s member states has recognised the Taliban administration. However, sources said the organisation had invited the Taliban to send a female representative to the Islamabad meeting. The Taliban administration has no women in official positions who could have attended.
This is not the first time an organisation of which Afghanistan is a member has displayed the country's national flag alongside those of other member states at an official meeting.
A review of the participating delegations showed that women hold senior leadership positions in many Islamic countries. Female participants at the conference included officials serving as vice-presidents and ministers responsible for key government portfolios.
After returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban barred women from education and most employment. At present, only a limited number of women are allowed to work in sectors deemed essential, including education and healthcare. Afghanistan under Taliban rule remains the only country in the world where women are banned from both education and most forms of employment.
The Taliban maintain that their policies towards women are consistent with Islamic law. However, none of the OIC member states considers the Taliban’s policies on women to be in line with Islamic teachings. Over the past five years, the OIC and other international organisations have repeatedly called on the Taliban to respect the fundamental rights of Afghan women.
Badakhshan’s Taliban governor downplayed the role of dissident commander Juma Khan Fateh, describing recent internal tensions in the province as “a very ordinary issue” that had now been fully resolved.
Speaking to Hurriyat Radio on Saturday, Badakhshan Taliban governor Mohammad Ismail Ghaznavi dismissed the significance of local commander Juma Khan Fateh, saying: “Juma Khan Fateh’s status is not such that he could pose a threat to the system.”
Ghaznavi described Fateh as an “ordinary individual” and a “former district governor”, adding that the Taliban had more than 28 district governors like him in Badakhshan. He said: “We had no ill intent towards Fateh, nor was he a threat to the system. He was simply one of the district governors in Badakhshan.”
Senior Taliban Delegation Travelled to Badakhshan
Although local Taliban officials have portrayed the dispute as a routine administrative misunderstanding, local sources say the disagreement became serious enough to require the intervention of the Taliban’s most senior military leaders from Kabul.
Among those who travelled to Badakhshan were Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Taliban army chief Fasihuddin Fitrat and Helmand governor Qari Amanuddin Mansour to help resolve the dispute and prevent an armed confrontation.
Their presence highlighted concerns within the Taliban leadership about the risk of growing divisions between local commanders and officials sent from Kabul.
Fateh's Transfer to Faizabad
The Badakhshan governor described Fateh’s transfer to Faizabad as a routine administrative matter, saying: “He is part of this system. We instructed him to come, he came, and there is no issue now.”
However, informed sources say Fateh was transferred to the provincial capital only after a delegation from Kabul intervened and provided him with security guarantees. He later returned to the Darwaz region under those assurances.
With its 28 districts, Badakhshan is one of the Taliban’s most complex provinces in terms of geography and demographics. The recent dispute has once again highlighted the group’s internal challenges in northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban have allowed Pakistani students stranded in Afghanistan to return home through the Torkham border crossing. A representative of the students said the Taliban permitted 68 students to cross into Pakistan on Friday night.
Mohammad Nauman, the representative of Pakistani students in Nangarhar, told Afghanistan International on Saturday that more than 1,000 Pakistani students, most of them from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and border areas, are studying at educational institutions in Jalalabad.
He said the students had been stranded in Afghanistan because the Torkham crossing had remained closed, but a group had recently been allowed to return to Pakistan through the border crossing.
According to the information, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar helped facilitate the students’ return from Afghanistan. The move came after Pakistan’s consulate in Jalalabad forwarded the students’ request to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.
On Friday evening, the consulate submitted a list of 68 students to the Taliban, and they were allowed to return to Pakistan through Torkham.
The students’ representative said many Pakistani students remain in Afghanistan after completing their examinations in Kabul and Nangarhar. He added that they wished to return home for the holiday period.
The development comes as border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan have remained largely closed to regular travel since October last year amid rising tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan. In recent months, Pakistan has opened the Torkham and Spin Boldak crossings mainly for the deportation of Afghan migrants.