- Recently, China announced its new ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Xing, who presented himself at a lavish ceremony in Kabul last week. He is the first foreign envoy to occupy an ambassador position since the Taliban took power in August 2021. The Taliban has not been officially recognized by any government, but they celebrated this moment […]
- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan released a report recently calling attention to several instances of human rights violations by the Taliban against former government officials across 34 different provinces in the country, with the greatest occurring in Kabul. To date, there have been at least 800 instances of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, torture […]
- The United Nations Rights Chief accused the Taliban of a “shocking level of oppression” of women and girls, and said that more broadly, human rights in the country were in “collapse.” The observation and fulfillment of human rights in Afghanistan has been in steady decline since the takeover of the government by the Taliban in […]
- The Taliban has remained firm and doubled down on its vision for the future of Afghanistan. Since its takeover of the Afghan government 2 years ago, it established a de facto government, composed of different ministries to impose their interpretation of an “Islamic” rule and rollback the achievements of the former government. The Taliban has […]
- The Taliban’s rise to power in 2021 raised concerns about their treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in the country, who had been persecuted during the first Taliban regime. Shi’ite Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, and other religious minorities suffer systemic discrimination under Taliban rule. In the 1980s, there were around 100,000 Hindus and Sikhs across the […]
- Afghanistan faces a bleak future as the Taliban’s oppressive regime takes hold, exacerbating the country’s brain drain crisis, with educated Afghans seeking safety elsewhere, leaving behind a fractured society struggling to retain its intellectual capital. Many Afghans have sooner or later come to realize that the Taliban’s empty promises of a reformed leadership were crafted […]
- A Lack of Strategy for US Foreign Policy in Afghanistan Means an Uncertain Future for Both CountriesSince its withdrawal from the country in August 2021 and the return of the Taliban, the US has lacked a comprehensive foreign policy strategy for Afghanistan. This sentiment has been made especially clear in the meeting that State Department representatives attended in Doha to negotiate with Taliban representatives. This was the first known meeting between […]
- Girls over the age of 10 have been banned from attending primary school in Afghanistan in the latest edict issued by the Taliban-led Ministry of Education. Taliban leaders met with school principals in certain provinces and told them strictly that “any girl over 10 years of age is not allowed to study in primary schools.” […]
- In its latest decree, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stated that women must observe the full “hijab” in order to ride in taxi vehicles. The decree not only targets Afghan women, but penalizes male guardians of women who defy the Taliban’s policing of women’s lives and face punishment […]
- In response to a recent claim by Taliban officials that there are no threats against prosecutors or judges in Afghanistan, the International Organization for Transitional Justice and Peace (ITJP) has released a statement outlining the very real threat that members of the justice system face. In the statement, ITJP disputes the claim made by the […]
