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 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.

PIC
Leila Forough and her sister Asma Forough
Jinha - Womens News Agency - February 25, 2025
<<Afghan women defy bans by riding horse - By BAHARIN LEHIB
Despite the Taliban’s bans and restrictions on women and girls, Afghan women keep riding horses. “The restrictions will surely end one day and we will be free,” said Leila Forough, an Afghan horse rider.
Kabul- Afghan women face restrictions in all facets of life due to traditional and patriarchal society in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, women have been erased from public life, education and working life. The first woman, who took up horse riding in Afghanistan was “Rabojan”. She had to dress up like a man to achieve her dream, horse riding.
They ride horses despite bans and restrictions
For two decades, Afghan women have made great efforts to prove their presence in society. A group of women and girls in Afghanistan’s Bamyan and Parwan provinces show an interest in horse riding and they want to continue their training despite opposition from their families and society.
Two sisters in Parwan province
Leila Forough and her sister Asma Forough are two women, who have horses in Parwan province. “I was just thirteen years old when I first rode a horse,” Leila Forough told NuJINHA. “When I was on the horse, I felt like I was flying. My sister Asma and I ride horses every day. We wanted to join a horseback riding competition in Bamyan; however, convincing our family was very difficult. Our family accepted but on one condition; we would not reveal our identities. We accepted this condition to achieve our dream.” Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the women’s equestrian team in Bamyan disintegrated. “We cannot train freely due to the Taliban’s restrictions,” said Leila. “But our family stands with us, allowing us to train near our house. The restrictions and bans will surely end one day and we will be free.”>>
Source: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/afghan-women-defy-bans-by-riding-horse-36921

Jinha - Womens News Agency - February 24, 2025
<<Taliban’s practice in Damascus: Women banned from sitting at front of buses
The authorities in Damascus have banned women and men from sitting next to each other on public transport buses and women from sitting at the front of buses.
Damascus- An unofficial decision has sparked anger in Syria’s capital Damascus. People taking public transport buses see notices saying that women and men cannot sit next to each other and front seats are reserved for men. The notices have sparked discussion on social media platforms while Syria’s interim government led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has not issued a statement about the notices. Some social media users criticize the notices, saying, “This practice reinforces gender inequality and gender bias.”
‘A step backwards’
“This decision is a step backwards and does not reflect any progress,” said Reem Al-Ahmad, one woman in Damascus. “Problems faced by women such as harassment, theft and immoral behavior can not be stopped through gender discrimination but through deterrent laws and education.”
‘This practice will deepen gender discrimination’
The search for balance between protecting women and defending individual freedoms further complicates the debate over gender discrimination in public transport vehicles. Social media users criticize the practice stressing that this practice “will deepen gender discrimination” in the city.>>
Video: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/taliban-s-practice-in-damascus-women-banned-from-sitting-at-front-of-buses-36902?page=1

Zan Times - April 24, 2025 - Opinion By: Younus Negah
<<Madrasas and universities are neither rivals nor equals
Before the emergence of the modern education system and the rise of universities, madrasas were the main centres for learning, literacy, and nurturing elites. They were where people acquired the knowledge necessary for politics, administration, and culture. Sometimes, activities resembling those of universities also took place in madrasas when individuals, after completing their religious education, would turn their focus to research, experimentation, and theory-building. Relying on their madrasa-acquired knowledge, great scholars would occasionally emerge from the margins of these religious schools. The landscape of knowledge has been entirely transformed in the past few centuries. The education and research system developed in the West, with its empirical and practical methods, has plowed and revolutionized the field of knowledge so thoroughly — introducing effective tools and methodologies — that the traditional methods of madrasa-style learning became obsolete, much like tilling soil with oxen and wooden plows. In some places, people still till their small plots of land with shovels, use oxen-drawn plows, and wooden tools, and feel a sense of abundance after harvesting a few sacks of wheat. But this kind of farming is no longer the standard. Those who farm using modern, university-developed methods do not see the shovel-wielding farmers as their peers or competitors. The same is true for the relationship between madrasas and universities. In various corners of the world, people continue to teach the traditions, customs, and cultures of their ancestors — some practice lifestyles from pre-industrial eras while living just a few kilometres away from America’s advanced universities and industrial factories. In China, India, Japan, and the Middle East, religious and traditional schools still operate. In some places, they even attempt to present alternative ways of life, both social and personal. Sometimes, like in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the madrasa-educated, born out of the vacuum and devastation caused by war and underdevelopment, rise to the forefront of politics, economics, and education. They form emirates, manipulate educational curricula, stir debates over the duties and traditions of learning, and speak of equating universities with madrasas. Recently, Khalid Hanafi, a hardline cleric and the Taliban’s minister for the promotion of virtue, urged university-educated individuals not to look down on madrasa graduates with “contempt.” There is a truth embedded in his words. A significant portion of madrasa graduates do not enjoy respected positions in society, and they struggle greatly to find footholds in the job market, public administration, or the economy. Even when they come to power through the force of foreign money and guns, and in the wake of crises, they lack the confidence and expertise necessary to govern a village, let alone a city or country. To retain their positions, they often resort to coercion and violence.
Why madrasa graduates have ‘inferiority complexes’
University-educated and madrasa-educated individuals view each other differently. University graduates do not consider madrasa graduates as competitors. They are confident that madrasa graduates would not be able to compete with them if a level playing field existed — neither in politics and culture, nor in economics, or the marketplace. Most university graduates pay little attention to them except when madrasa graduates issue fatwas of apostasy against them or attack them with whips demanding obedience. They see madrasa graduates as simply irrelevant. This is because madrasas produce neither discoveries, inventions, nor fresh ideas. They do not offer social or cultural movements that bring welfare or peace, especially those madrasas that reject the university method. Yet, among madrasa circles, some have attempted to adapt to modern conditions. A few madrasas in Egypt and elsewhere have made efforts to approach university standards by gradually phasing out traditional methods. On one hand, they have revised their curriculum by adding university-level subjects; on the other, they have sought to introduce modern teaching and research methods. Upon realizing the outdatedness of their education, some successful madrasa graduates shift to universities and pursue academic study within the university system. However, others, such as the Taliban, feel deeply inferior in the face of the university-educated. This sense of inadequacy fosters both fear and hatred toward academic institutions. On one side, they seek to capture universities and seize the benefits and tools produced through academic knowledge. On the other, they act out on their overt and hidden insecurities with destruction, violence, and misconduct toward the academic community. The Taliban’s emirate has become a showcase of this madrasa-based inferiority complex. This inferiority originates in the madrasas themselves. Turning universities into madrasas, suppressing scholars, or even trying to force universities to respect madrasa graduates will not solve the deep-seated feelings of inadequacy among armed clerics fueled by guns, dollars, and ignorance. The Taliban and madrasa-educated individuals will not be redeemed until they accept the university method. Converting schools and universities into madrasas will only deepen their sense of inferiority, and that inferiority will spread into the very schools and universities that have been madrasa-fied. What has made the university valuable and productive is not its buildings or its titles, the things the Taliban believe they can capture to gain legitimacy, but the non-Taliban curriculum and the non-madrasa methods it employs. If madrasas are to become equals or competitors of universities, they must first break free from the past and engage with the realities of today and the needs of tomorrow. In other words, they must become universities. Academic communities believe that returning to the past is impossible, and that searching for a utopia in bygone eras is an expensive fantasy. That is why parroting the beliefs of the past is not encouraged in universities but is instead considered a major weakness. The Taliban and others from madrasa backgrounds who think that the academics who look down on them are suffering from a delusion of equality and competition. Their sense of inferiority stems not from the behavior of university graduates, but from the clash between this delusion and the current realities.
Younus Negah is a researcher and writer from Afghanistan who is currently in exile in Turkey.>>
Source: https://zantimes.com/2025/04/24/madrasas-and-universities-are-neither-rivals-nor-equals/


Afghan workers in Iran recount injury, abuse and torture
Zan Times - April 21, 2025 -
<<Dying for a day’s pay: Afghan workers in Iran recount injury, abuse and torture
By: Farshid Aram
I might never have grasped the full depth of the suffering of Afghan migrant workers had I not spoken directly to them and experienced two days in a detention camp in Iran. As a journalist, my deportation from Iran — and my forced return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the very regime I had opposed — at least gave me one thing: the chance to meet many Afghan workers in those camps. If unemployment was their only concern when they left Afghanistan for Iran, these people now have nothing: no fair wages, no dignity, no safety, no job security, and not even the hope of survival. Among the deported were women separated from their families, men arrested while working at brick kilns, construction sites, tailoring and shoemaking firms; children rounded up from street corners, where they sold flowers or collected trash. They all ended up at the camp where they spoke of hardships that many might find hard to believe yet for them was daily life, a life coloured by fear and death in Iran.
Death in the depths of a well: The story of Dawood
Shahin Shahr, Isfahan – Fall 2023
Dawood died at a depth of 65 metres inside a water well, suffocating after the air transfer bag ruptured. He was a 40-year-old man originally from Kandahar who migrated to Isfahan after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. He had spent years digging wells in Iran to support his wife and two children — an 18-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son. His daughter, Marzieh, tells Zan Times through tearful eyes, “My father knew the job was dangerous, but he had no other choice. Iranian employers refused to provide safety equipment for Afghan workers. When his body was brought out, they even refused to pay the 1.2 billion toman (about US$20,000) compensation. They said that because he didn’t have a residency permit, the law doesn’t protect him.” Dawood’s death is an example of the systemic exploitation of Afghan labourers. Iranian employers often prefer to hire Afghans because they face no penalties and aren’t obligated to pay compensation if an accident occurs. In the end, Dawood’s family received only 100 million tomans, which is barely enough to cover his burial expenses.
Beaten to death: The tragic fate of Sayed Agha
Karaj – Summer 2021
Sayed Agha had moved from Kabul to Iran to support his family. In the summer of 2021, the 50-year-old labourer started working at an orchard in Karaj. Six months later, he was dead after a dispute over two months of unpaid wages. “Father used to say the orchard owner not only refused to pay him but insulted and mistreated him every day,” says Faizullah, Sayed Agha’s son. “One day he called me and said the employer and his son had beaten him, and he was now in a clinic.” Due to severe head injuries and heavy bleeding, Sayed Agha suffered a stroke and died a week later at home. His family believes his death was caused by the beating. “They told my father, ‘You’re Afghan, you have no documents or proof of your wages,’” Faizullah says angrily. “They didn’t even help us cover the cost of transporting his body back to Afghanistan.”
Workplace injuries and denial of insurance
Mashhad – Winter 2022
Khalil was 36 when a cutting machine severed a tendon in his right hand. The labourer from Badghis had been working at a stone-cutting factory in Mashhad. “I was bleeding heavily, but my employer wouldn’t even take me to the hospital,” he says. “I paid seven million tomans for treatment. If I were Iranian, I would’ve paid only a third of that.” The injury ended Khalil’s ability to do his skilled job forcing him to turn to selling items on the street and working as an assistant in tailor shops. His income dropped drastically as he struggles to provide even the bare minimum for his family. Khalil says hard and dangerous labour has ruined the lives of many Afghan workers in Iran. “No Afghan labourer has insurance,” he says. “If something happens, you’re on your own.” According to the latest figures from Iran’s Ministry of Interior, six million Afghans live in the country. For the majority of this large population, their main source of income is hard, low-paid labour without any legal or union protection.
Falling from heights and the silence of the law
Shiraz and Tehran – Summer 2023
Morteza welds atop 20-metre-high steel building frames in Shiraz. “We don’t have safety belts or harnesses,” says the 17-year-old from Herat. “Last year, I fell from six metres and broke my leg, but my employer didn’t even give me a painkiller.”
Another Afghan labourer, 28-year-old Mohibullah, injured a spinal disc when he fell from scaffolding on the second floor of a building in Tehran in August 2023. The accident left the migrant worker from Logar unemployed for six months while his employer refused to pay the final nine million tomans of his wages. “They told me, ‘You’re Afghan, go file a complaint!’” he says. “But I knew if I did, the police would demand my documents before listening to my complaint — and that would only create more trouble for me.”
Unpaid wages and bounced cheques
Mashhad and Tehran – Winter 2023
Mohammad Rahman, a building painter in Mashhad, received only 40 million of the 160 million tomans owed to him after working for two months on a four-story construction project. “At first, the employer said the house was built for sale and that he’d pay me once it was sold,” Rahman explains. “When I threatened to file a complaint, he said, ‘You’re an undocumented Afghan worker — go ahead, complain wherever you want, it won’t get you anywhere.’” Like Mohibullah, Rahman did not report his employer to the authorities, convinced that his complaint would be ignored. Sometimes, instead of directly refusing payment, Iranian employers issue postdated cheques to Afghan workers. These cheques, which are typically dated one to six months ahead, are often not honoured. Murad Ali experienced this firsthand last summer. The clothing producer in Tehran received 170 million toman in cheques from a clothing seller. “When the cheques was due, I went to the bank to collect the money,” he tells Zan Times. “The bank clerk said the account was empty. I called the person who gave me the cheques, but he casually replied, ‘I don’t have any money to give you right now.’ I said, ‘Then return the coats I gave you.’ He replied that he had already sold them.”
State pressure, deportation, and exclusion
Since the beginning of 2024, pressure on Afghan migrants in Iran has intensified. Restrictions on their movement, bans on legal employment, denial of education, and even the inability to buy bread have turned Iran into a prison for undocumented Afghans. “If the police catch us, we’re immediately deported to Afghanistan,” explains Mohammad Rahman. “We’re forced to work under extremely harsh conditions for meagre wages, and even when our employers refuse to pay us, we have no choice but to grit our teeth and endure it.”
Iran’s labour and social security laws are aimed at attacking not helping its Afghan population, which are exploited by an economic system that profits from their vulnerability and precarious legal status.
Until Iranian laws and the country’s economic system recognize Afghan workers as equal human beings — or until conditions in Afghanistan allow for their safe return — many more Dawoods, Sayed Aghas, and Khalils will continue to be beaten, exploited, and killed with impunity.
The names in this article have been changed for security reasons.
Source: https://zantimes.com/2025/04/21/dying-for-a-days-pay-afghan-workers-in-iran-recount-injury-abuse-and-torture/

Women's Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2025