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THE BELOW
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali
Al Jazeera
8 Jan 2022
Prominent Afghan professor arrested for criticising Taliban rule
The arrest of Faizullah Jalal is stoking fears that the Taliban will
reimpose harsh rules on freedom of speech.
A prominent Afghan university professor and outspoken critic of the
Taliban leadership has been arrested in Kabul. Faizullah Jalal, a
longtime professor of law and political science at Kabul University, has
made several appearances on television talk shows since the US-backed
government was pushed out in August, blaming the Taliban for the
worsening financial crisis and criticising them for ruling by force. In
one television appearance, Jalal called Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem
a <calf>, a grave insult in Afghanistan. Clips of his passionate
criticism went viral on social media, sparking concerns of retribution.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that Jalal had been
detained on Saturday by the Taliban’s intelligence arm over statements
he made on social media in which he was <trying to instigate people
against the system and was playing with the dignity of the people>.
He has been arrested so that others don’t make similar senseless
comments in the name of being a professor or scholar that harm the
dignity of others,> he added. Mujahid shared screenshots of tweets he
claimed had been posted by Jalal, which said the Taliban intelligence
chief was a stooge of Pakistan, and that the new government considers
Afghans as <donkeys>.
Local news agency Aamaj News said the account Mujahid made reference to,
@UstadJalal1, was a fake. The professor had tweeted on Saturday from his
official Twitter handle, @JalalFaizullah, to denounce the fact that the
account had been purporting to be him.
Jalal’s wife Massouda, who ran against former President Hamid Karzai in
2004 as Afghanistan’s first woman candidate for the presidency, posted
on Facebook that her husband had been arrested by Taliban forces and
detained in an unknown location.
<Dr Jalal has fought and spoken out for justice and the national
interest in all his activities pertaining to human rights,> she said.
TOLO TV, Afghanistan’s largest station on which Faizuallah Jalal was a
frequent commentator, tweeted that Jalal was arrested <reportedly for
making allegations against government departments,> a security source
said.
Freedom of speech
Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the arrest of the
lecturer <for exercising his freedom of expression and criticising the
Taliban> and has called for his immediate and unconditional release.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/9/afghan-professor-arrested-for-criticising-taliban-regime
The Guardian
7 Jan 2022
By Stefanie Glinski
Global development is supported by
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
<<Women's rights and gender equality
Taliban stop Afghan women using bathhouses in northern provinces
Decision to close public hammams – most people’s only chance for a warm
wash – sparks anger in light of country’s mounting crises.
The Taliban sparked outrage this week by announcing that women in
northern Afghanistan would no longer be allowed to use communal
bathhouses. The use of bathhouses, or hammams, is an ancient tradition
that remains for many people the only chance for a warm wash during the
country’s bitterly cold winters. Women, who regularly use the bathhouses
for ritual cleaning and purification required under Islamic law, said
this was another example of the Taliban tightening its grip and
infringing their basic rights. They fear the ban will be extended to
other parts of the country. On Monday, Sardar Mohammad Heydari, from the
provincial branch of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of
Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, said women would be banned from
bathhouses in Balkh and Herat provinces.
However, another Taliban commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
told the Guardian that he did not support the decision, adding that
Afghanistan’s new leaders should focus on <bigger struggles>.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/07/taliban-stop-afghan-women-using-bathhouses-in-northern-provinces
The Guardian
Diane Taylor
6 Jan 2022
<<The Afghan judge working to free her sisters left behind
Fawzia escaped from Afghanistan. Now in London, she’s trying to secure a
safe exit for women still stranded.
Just under three weeks before the Taliban reached Kabul and took control
of Afghanistan, 50 of the most powerful women in the country gathered
outdoors in a shady spot to discuss how to deal with the approaching
danger. Wearing colourful headscarves, some took notes while others
listened intently to Fawzia, 48, one of the most senior female judges in
Afghanistan. Holding a microphone, she spoke with urgency about the
advancing threat and the need to protect the rights that female lawyers,
women’s rights activists and journalists had spent decades fighting for.
But they had no idea quite how quickly their precious freedoms were
going to be lost.
Fawzia and her family escaped from Afghanistan via Tbilisi, Georgia,
after the main Operation Pitting airlifts had concluded. They are now
being accommodated in a hotel in London under Arap, the UK government’s
Afghan relocations and assistance policy. A woman stands behind a
curtain to separate female employees from men who work at Radio Begum in
Kabul. Unlike asylum seekers, the Afghan families are treated more like
tourists or business travellers. They are also not constrained by burly
security guards standing with folded arms in front of the hotel
entrance. Fawzia, her lawyer husband and their four children – aged 18,
16, 11 and nine – say they are very grateful for the sanctuary that has
been offered them, and the British government has been very kind. But
they do not know what the future holds. Like other Afghans brought to
safety, they have been granted six months’ leave to remain in the UK.
Details of what will happen after that are not known.
Fawzia is energetically networking with other female Afghan judges and
human rights defenders in exile, along with prominent female lawyers in
the UK such as Helena Kennedy, to try to secure a safe exit for those
who have not yet managed to escape. She is becoming increasingly anxious
about the female judges still stranded in Afghanistan. She believes that
while hundreds have escaped, 93 remain there.
<The situation for these women is getting worse all the time,> she
says.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/the-afghan-judge-working-to-free-her-sisters-left-behind
Al Jazeera
5 Jan 2022
<<In Pictures
Gallery
In Pictures: Hunger, poverty continue to stalk desperate Afghans
A lack of funding batters Afghanistan’s already troubled economy,
leading to increasing poverty.
The bitter cold of Afghanistan’s winter has small children huddled
beneath blankets in makeshift camps, while sick babies in hospitals lie
wrapped in their mothers’ all-enveloping burqas. Meanwhile, long lines
at food distribution centres have become overwhelming as the country
sinks deeper into desperate times. Since the August 15 Taliban takeover
of Kabul, an already war-devastated economy once kept alive by
international donations alone is now on the verge of collapse. There is
not enough money for hospitals.
Saliha, who like many Afghans uses just one name, took her infant son to
the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul. Weak and fragile,
four-month-old Najeeb was badly malnourished.
For many of Afghanistan’s poorest, bread is their only staple. Women and
children line up outside bakeries before dawn to get bread.
The statistics provided by the United Nations are grim: almost 24
million people in Afghanistan, about 60 percent of the population,
suffer from acute hunger. As many as 8.7 million Afghans are coping with
famine. The World Health Organization is warning of millions of children
suffering malnutrition, and the United Nations says 97 percent of
Afghans will soon be living below the poverty line.
The majority scramble to find food and fuel.
For millions living in camps for the displaced or sitting outside
government ministries seeking help, the only source of warmth is to
huddle around open wood-burning fires. Nearly 80 percent of
Afghanistan’s previous government’s budget came from the international
community. That money, now cut off, financed hospitals, schools,
factories and government ministries.
Sanctions have crippled banks while billions of dollars of Afghanistan’s
funds and assets remain frozen abroad. The UN says it is struggling to
figure out how to get humanitarian aid to Afghans while bypassing the
Taliban government.>>
Read and view more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/1/5/in-pictures-afghanistan-desperate-taliban-economic-crisis-poverty-hunger-covid
Al Jazeera
5 Jan 2022
<<Taliban orders shop owners to remove heads of mannequins
A video clip showing men sawing the plastic heads off life-sized dummies
goes viral on social media.
The Taliban has ordered shop owners in western Afghanistan to remove the
heads of mannequins, insisting the life-sized figures violate Islamic
law, according to a report. A video clip showing men sawing the plastic
heads off female dummies went viral on social media, the AFP news agency
reported on Wednesday.
Since returning to power in August, the Taliban has increasingly imposed
their interpretation of Islamic law, severely curtailing freedoms,
particularly those of women and girls.
<We have ordered the shopkeepers to cut the heads off mannequins as this
is against (Islamic) Sharia law,> Aziz Rahman, the head of the Ministry
for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the city of Herat,
was quoted as saying by AFP.
<If they just cover the head or hide the entire mannequin, the angel of
Allah will not enter their shop or house and bless them,> Rahman added
after some vendors initially responded by covering the heads of
mannequins with plastic bags or headscarves. The Taliban has so far
issued no national policy on mannequins or statues. Under the group’s
interpretation of Islamic law, depictions of the human figure are
forbidden. During their first government in the 1990s, the Taliban
triggered global outrage after blowing up two ancient Buddha statues.
Since seizing power, they have banned girls from secondary schools in
several provinces while women have largely been prevented from working
in the public sector and excluded from government positions. Last week,
authorities in Kabul said women seeking to travel long distances should
not be offered road transport unless accompanied by a close male
relative. The group has increased raids on liquor sellers, rounded up
drug addicts and banned music.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/5/taliban-shop-owners-cut-off-heads-mannequins
Al Jazeera
31 Dec 2021
<<In Pictures
Gallery
For struggling Afghanistan families, next meal a matter of faith
The UN estimates nearly 23 million Afghans – about 55 percent of the
population – are facing extreme levels of hunger.
As winter sets in, Afghan widow Kubra needs to find fuel to heat the
single room where eight family members live in the central province of
Bamiyan. The flour they bought months ago is running out, so food is
also becoming scarce.
<We got two sacks of flour last spring which we are still using. After
that, we have to have faith that God will help us,> the 57-year-old said
in a room lined with rice sacks to keep out the cold. Their firewood was
stolen when they left their home amid the chaos that engulfed
Afghanistan, as the Taliban swept towards Kabul on their way to seizing
back control of the country. Stories like Kubra’s are increasingly
common in a country struck by severe drought and where money has run
dry. Before the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in August,
the economy relied heavily on foreign aid. But with the international
community wary of the group and the United States imposing sanctions on
some of its leaders, that support has all but disappeared. The United
Nations estimates nearly 23 million Afghans – about 55 percent of the
population – are facing extreme levels of hunger, with nearly nine
million at risk of famine as winter takes hold. Life for Afghanistan’s
poor has always been hard; Kubra’s family works on farms in the spring,
earning potatoes instead of money. But it is getting worse. Vegetables
such as cauliflower are out of reach, and plastic sheets protect their
home from the freezing weather and snow. There is so little space in the
single room that Kubra sleeps at her sister’s house at night. <My son
used to collect pieces of scrap metal but right now he has no work,> she
said.
Already vulnerable after months of severe drought and decades of war
that forced many to flee homes for relatively stable regions like
Bamiyan, Afghans are entering the unknown.
<We never used to have different kinds of food but in the past it was
all right, we had rice and cooking oil,> said Massouma, a 26-year-old
mother of four from the neighbouring province of Maidan Wardak.
<We used to cook once a day and that was good. Now it’s once a week and
sometimes there isn’t even any bread to eat.> >>
Read more and view the gallery here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/12/31/afghanistan-poverty-drought-food-crisis-struggling-families-winter
Al Jazeera
By Najibah Zartosht
30 Dec 2021
<<The life I built as an Afghan woman went in the blink of an eye
A university lecturer reflects on how the Taliban takeover upended her
life and asks: was the hard work all for nothing?
At 11am on August 15, I was at Rabia Balkhi University in Kabul where I
was teaching economics. That day, only a handful – maybe 10 – of my
class of about 30 had shown up due to the deteriorating security
situation. The Taliban was fast advancing on Kabul having already
captured the cities of Ghazni, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif.
I was in the middle of my lecture when suddenly I heard shouts and
running footsteps in the corridor. I ignored the commotion at first
until it grew louder. I opened the door and saw students, teachers, and
university staff running – everyone was trying to get out of the
building. I asked a staff member in the hallway what was going on and he
told me that the Taliban was entering Kabul and everyone was rushing to
their homes. I could see the terror and hopelessness on everyone’s
faces; the girls, especially, were terrified. I stopped my class and
told my students to go home immediately and then I left the university.
There were no buses or cars, so I had to walk home. At the usually busy
market in Kote Sangi neighbourhood in the city’s west, I saw people
screaming and running in different directions. Shopkeepers were rushing
to close their shops; women were running to their homes. The transport
system had ground to a halt. The city was in absolute chaos. But by
early afternoon, all shops, schools, universities, and banks had closed,
and it seemed as if life had stopped in the city. It took me an hour and
a half to get home. By 4pm, I saw some Taliban gunmen on the streets.
The Taliban had taken Kabul.
Escaping Kabul
I knew immediately that I had to go into hiding as did my colleagues –
university lecturers, human rights activists and journalists – at Jade-Abresham,
a newsweekly where I also worked. We had published numerous articles
about the crimes the Taliban had committed. We also organised
anti-Taliban campaigns on social media such as #Stand4ANDSF to support
and boost the morale of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces
(ANDSF) during the Taliban’s advance but also to denounce the Taliban’s
actions. I had also denounced the Taliban in articles I had written
about women’s rights and ethnic and religious minority rights. We were
so frightened that we did not dare contact each other through WhatsApp
or Facebook Messenger as there were rumours that the Taliban monitored
these channels. But others helped us communicate and we decided to get
out of the country. While planning my escape, I watched the news when I
had time. Seeing the airport flooded with people who were struggling to
leave and those who fell to their deaths from the US military plane made
me feel devastated and frightened. I felt as if I was falling towards
the centre of a storm. On August 17, two days after the Taliban
takeover, eight of us gathered at a colleague’s house. Since we had not
worked directly with the United States and other NATO member countries,
we were not on their lists for emergency evacuation. Therefore, we had
to leave the country on our own. All banks were closed, and with very
little money in our pockets, we decided to escape to Pakistan where we
knew people who could help us arrange smugglers to get us across the
border. I had always worn skirts and jeans and had no attire that the
Taliban would approve of. So I hurriedly went to my neighbour’s house to
find something to wear. They gave me a blue burqa that stretched to the
ground, covering me from head to toe. Under the cover of darkness, we
left Kabul and travelled towards the border town of Spin-Boldak. The
smuggler we hired drove through the night, and the next day, at around
noon, we reached the border. We had not eaten for the past 24 hours, and
all of us were exhausted and had headaches. We stopped briefly for
lunch, all the while frightened we would be stopped. The smugglers that
we hired distributed fake IDs, and took us towards the border
checkpoints. With our hearts pounding, we approached the entrance gate
to Pakistan.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/12/30/in-everything-we-built-went-in-the-blink-of-an-eye
Note from Gino d'Artali first:
The serial <Afghanistan's Women's Resistence' is not about politics but
about it's title. Still, one might find the following and interes- ting
read:
The Guardian
Emma Graham-Harrison
30 Dec 2021
<<Ashraf Ghani blames international allies over Afghanistan’s fall to
Taliban. In first interview since fleeing Kabul in August, former
president says US ‘erased’ Afghans in years of peace talks with
militants.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/30/ashraf-ghani-blames-international-allies-afghanistan-fall-taliban
Al Jazeera
29 Dec 2021
<<US names two women to senior diplomatic posts for Afghanistan
The appointments come as the Taliban government rolls back women’s
rights for travel, education and employment.
The US has named two female diplomats to senior roles representing
Washington in Afghanistan, as women’s rights in the country continue to
deteriorate under the new Taliban government.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed Rina Amiri as a special
envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights on Wednesday. <Rina
brings over two decades of expertise and specialized knowledge that will
advance our vital work toward a more peaceful, stable and secure
Afghanistan for all,> Blinken said on Twitter. Blinken also named
Stephenie Foster, a Department of State veteran, as a new senior adviser
for women and girls to US operations to evacuate and resettle Afghans at
risk of retaliation from the Taliban after it took over the country. The
appointments come more than four months after the Taliban overran the
country as the former Western-backed government collapsed and the last
US troops withdrew after 20 years of war.
Since then, the Taliban has curbed the rights of women and girls,
banning most of the former from working and most of the latter from
attending schools in what US officials decry as back-tracking from
assurances they gave to observe human rights.
On Sunday, Taliban officials issued an edict prohibiting women from
travelling more than 75km by road unless they are accompanied by a close
male relative. The guidance issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which also called on vehicle owners to
refuse rides to women not wearing headscarves, drew condemnation from
rights activists. The move followed the Taliban barring many women in
public-sector roles from returning to work in the wake of their August
15 seizure of power, and as girls remain largely cut off from secondary
schooling.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/29/us-names-two-women-as-special-envoys-for-afghanistan
The Guardian
29 Dec 2021
Aubrey Allegretti
<<Gordon Brown: west is sleepwalking into Afghanistan disaster
Ex-PM warns poverty and starvation mean country is at risk of world’s
biggest humanitarian crisis. The west is <sleepwalking into the biggest
humanitarian crisis of our times> in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown has
warned, as he called for a support package to save the country from
economic and social collapse after the Taliban’s takeover. Four months
after the western-backed government was overthrown following a mass
military withdrawal, the former UK prime minister said the case for
action was not based only on morals but also <in our self-interest>. He
said more than half the Afghan population was facing extreme hunger,
including 1 million children at risk of starving to death, citing
International Monetary Fund predictions that the country’s economy would
contract by 20-30% in the next year. <No country in recent times is
suffering from such ‘universal poverty’ in the way that Afghanistan may
do,> Brown wrote in an article for the Times. <It is ironic that when
the whole international community is pledged to achieve the sustainable
development goals – to free all the world from absolute poverty this
decade – almost every citizen of Afghanistan will be condemned to that
dire fate. Instead of no absolute poverty in any country, we will have
the horror of practically an entire country living in absolute poverty.>
Brown stressed the effects may be felt within Europe, given thousands of
Afghans would be faced with the choice of starving or emigrating.
About $4.5bn (£3.3bn) should be pledged by countries to the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Brown urged, adding that
the <largest humanitarian response ever agreed for a single nation> was
required. He continued: <It cost America trillions to fight the war in
Afghanistan. It is not beyond our capacity to find $4bn to prevent
starvation amid this uneasy peace.
This tragedy foretold cannot be a tragedy unresolved.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/29/gordon-brown-west-sleepwalking-afghanistan-disaster
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