Taliban - The African Mirror

Dec

2023

Malala Yousafzai likens Taliban’s treatment of women to apartheid in Mandela lecture

NOBEL Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai likened restrictions the Taliban has placed on women in Afghanistan to the treatment of Black people under apartheid in a lecture in South Africa organised by Nelson Mandela's foundation. Yousafzai survived being shot in the head when she was 15 in her native Pakistan by a gunman after campaigning against the Pakistani Taliban's moves to deny girls education. Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, Yousafzai, now 26, has become a global symbol of the resilience of women in the face of repression. "If you are a girl in Afghanistan, the Taliban has…

Oct

2023

By MOHAMMAD YUNUS YAWAR

Afghan earthquakes kill 2,445, Taliban say, as deaths mount

WORLD

MORE than 2,400 people were killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan, the Taliban administration said, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years. The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one of 6.3 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. They were among the world's deadliest quakes this year after tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February. Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, said in a message to Reuters that the toll had risen to 2,445 dead, but he…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Taliban criticises Prince Harry over Afghan killings comment

WORLD

THE Taliban administration has criticised Prince Harry after the British royal said in his memoir that he had killed 25 people in Afghanistan when serving as a military helicopter pilot, describing them as "chess pieces removed from the board". Harry's highly personal book "Spare" went on sale in Spain days before its global launch on January 10. It discloses the depth of the rift between the prince and his brother William, the heir to the throne, and other revelations such as drug-taking and how he lost his virginity. In one section, the 38-year-old recounts his two tours of Afghanistan, first…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Taliban publicly execute man accused of murder, senior officials attend

WORLD

THE Taliban administration put to death a man accused of murder in western Afghanistan, its spokesperson said, in the first officially confirmed public execution since the group took over the country last year. The execution in western Farah province was of a man accused of stabbing another man to death in 2017, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said and was attended by senior officials of the group. The execution was carried out by the father of the victim, who shot the man three times, Mujahid added in a later statement. The case was investigated by three courts and authorised by the…

Jan

2022

By The African Mirror

As Taliban threats grow, LGBT+ Afghans struggle for work and food

LGBT+

ANNIE BANERJI LGBT+ Afghans face increasing threats and violence five months since the Taliban seized power, with many forced into hiding and unable to earn a living amid a worsening economic crisis, researchers said. Sixty LGBT+ Afghans who were interviewed by rights groups said the community was being targeted by members of the hardline Islamist movement and their supporters, making it too risky for them to work or even leave the house. Two gay men said they had been raped by Taliban fighters, while many others said they had been threatened or attacked, found the report by Human Rights Watch…

Nov

2021

By The African Mirror

Escape from Kabul: a gay man dodges death at the hands of the Taliban

LGBT+

HUGO GREENHALGH THE Taliban seized power in Afghanistan more than 100 days ago, following the fall of the capital Kabul on August 15. The militant Islamist group have promised a softer brand of rule than the radical form of sharia law they enforced from 1996 until 2001 when they were ousted by U.S.-led forces. But concern is growing for LGBT+ Afghans, some of whom are on the run fearing death. Even before the Taliban takeover, LGBT+ people said it was too dangerous to live openly in Afghanistan. But under the Taliban's extreme interpretation of Islam, LGBT+ Afghans say they could be…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE: Afghan central bank drained dollar stockpile before Kabul fell

WORLD

JOHN O’DONNEL and RUPAM JAIN The Afghan central bank ran down most of its U.S. dollar cash reserves in the weeks before the Taliban took control of the country, according to an assessment prepared for Afghanistan's international donors, exacerbating the current economic crisis. The confidential, two-page brief, written early this month by senior international economic officials for institutions including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said the country's severe cash shortage began before the Taliban took control of Kabul. It criticised how the central bank's former leadership handled the crisis in the months before the Taliban's conquest, including decisions…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Taliban say women can study at university but classes must be segregated

WORLD

WOMEN in Afghanistan will be allowed to study in universities as the country seeks to rebuild after decades of war but gender segregation and Islamic dress code will be mandatory, the Taliban's new Higher Education minister said on Sunday. The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said the new Taliban government, named last week, would "start building the country on what exists today" and did not want to turn the clock back 20 years to when the movement was last in power. He said female students would be taught by women wherever possible and classrooms would remain separated, in accordance with the…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Brother of Afghan opposition figure executed by Taliban, family says

WORLD

Amrullah Saleh THE Taliban have executed the brother of Amrullah Saleh, the former Afghan vice president who became one of the leaders of anti-Taliban opposition forces in the Panjshir valley, according to his nephew. The news that Saleh's brother Rohullah Azizi was killed came days after Taliban forces took control of the provincial centre of Panjshir, the last province holding out against them. "They executed my uncle," Ebadullah Saleh told Reuters in a text message. "They killed him yesterday and would not let us bury him. They kept saying his body should rot." The Urdu language account of the Taliban…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Young Afghan women defiant as Taliban bring back moral police

WORLD

ANNIE BANERJI AS the Taliban reintroduce a moral policing ministry in Afghanistan that once controlled women's lives, female activists and students say a young generation of educated and working women will not accept oppression by the Islamist militant group. Three weeks after storming to power, the Taliban announced an all-male interim government on Tuesday that included the Ministry of Guidance and Call, formerly known as the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Punishment of Vice or the moral police. During the Taliban's prior 1996-2001 rule, girls could not attend school and women were banned from working or studying. Women had…