2026: Jan wk4 -- Jan wk3 -- Jan wk2 -- Jan wk1
2025/'24: Dec wk4 -- Dec wk3 -2 -- Dec wk1 --
Click here for earlier Straight of the Trenches stories

 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

Amu - Jan 23, 2026
{Amu TV 8pm News 22 January 2026
Rawadari, a human rights organization, said on Wednesday that a penal code issued for Taliban-run courts legitimises violence against women and children, institutionalises discrimination and strips defendants of basic legal protections. In a statement, Rawadari said it had obtained a copy of the “Penal Principles of Taliban Courts”, which it said was signed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and circulated to judicial institutions across the country for implementation. The document consists of three sections, 10 chapters and 119 articles, the organization said.} Video - Source: https://amu.tv/222729/

Zan Times - Jan 20, 2026 - by Sarah Little and Zahra Nader
{The vanishing coverage of women’s lives is a policy risk
This op-ed is published in partnership with More to Her Story and Middle East Uncovered.
In 2023, I remember sitting with a teenage girl in a motel room in Jordan who was on the run from her father after he tried to force her into marriage. The law offered her no protection; the police sided with her father, a common reality in Jordan and many other countries. Without journalism willing to document her experience, her story — and the system that failed her — would have gone unheard. For much of the world, women and girls offer the clearest measure of whether human rights exist in practice. Journalism’s task is to document how power is exercised beyond official declarations, in the spaces where rights are most often challenged. Reporting on women’s lives shows whether laws are upheld, violence is punished, and access to education, work, and safety is real. As global crises deepen, women and girls sit at the centre of conflict, repression, migration, and authoritarianism. Yet the journalism that documents their lives is disappearing. This truth is unfolding today in Iran, where women are leading one of the bravest movements of our time, risking prison and death for bodily autonomy and basic freedom. Their protests are journalism in themselves: public testimony against a system built on fear and silence. Yet the reporting needed to preserve this moment remains scarce, underfunded, and treated as optional. According to the 2025 Global Media Monitoring Project—the world’s most comprehensive study of women in news—women appear in just 26 percent of news coverage. After three decades of monitoring, progress has inched forward by only nine points. Gender-based violence, a daily reality for millions, appears in fewer than two out of every hundred news stories. Coverage that challenges restrictive gender norms has fallen to a thirty-year low. “Women remain only one in four people seen, heard or read about in the news,” said Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief of the Ending Gender-Based Violence Section at UN Women, during the launch of the report last September. “Stories of gender-based violence appear in fewer than two out of every 100 news articles. Think about it. This is not just a gap in reporting; it is a gap in democracy.” Independent, women-focused newsrooms like ours exist to close that gap. We are working to ensure women’s voices are heard, especially in places where they are systematically stripped of their rights. At Zan Times, our women-led newsroom documents life under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, where a system of gender apartheid has been institutionalized since 2021. My colleagues in Afghanistan, most of them women, are reporting on the news while living through it. They detail how their daughters, sisters and girls in their communities are banned from education beyond primary school. Women are barred from universities and pushed out of the workforce. In a country where nearly half the population lives on the brink of starvation, women are denied the right to earn a living. Women journalists are themselves a Taliban target. In just four months after the Taliban took over, Reporters Without Borders said of every five women journalists working in Afghanistan, four have lost their job. And yet, against all odds, Afghan women journalists are still working, secretly, underground, documenting the Taliban’s crimes. In December 2025, we interviewed a woman in one of Afghanistan’s most conservative provinces. She had been imprisoned by the Taliban and brutally raped. As she recounted her story, she wept. “I might not make it, but I want my story to be told. I want people to know what has happened to me.” The stories we report from Afghanistan may be the only record of a life lived and a life violated. At More to Her Story, I founded the newsroom after years of traveling and meeting women and girls whose lives would never make headlines. Today, we report from Afghanistan to Egypt, Syria to Sudan, Ukraine to the United States, reaching millions of readers with journalism that places women’s lives at the centre rather than the margins. Newsrooms like ours now exist in a fragile ecosystem, where the work has never felt more urgent and yet never more vulnerable. But this work matters today, perhaps more than ever. From Iran to Sudan, from Gaza to Afghanistan, women live under the weight of cultural, religious, and social systems that define their freedom and their lives. Their stories are our evidence. When their voices disappear, so does the record of truth. And without that record, those forces go unchallenged. The world must understand the stakes. Women’s journalism is not supplemental to democracy; it is central to it. And history shows us this much: when women disappear, democracy and human rights are never far behind.
By: Sarah Little, founder and editor in chief of More to Her Story and Zahra Nader, founder and editor in chief of Zan Times} Source: https://zantimes.com/2026/01/20/the-vanishing-coverage-of-womens-lives-is-a-policy-risk/

Zan Times - Jan 20, 2026 - by Dr. Amna Mehmood
{Knowledge is resistance: Afghan women and STEM
Prolonged crises always pose a threat to education but the current situation in Afghanistan is perhaps the most extreme case in decades. Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where secondary and higher education are formally forbidden to girls and women, with around 2.2 million girls barred from learning beyond primary school, states UNESCO. The Taliban’s restrictions on girls’ secondary schooling and the December 2022 ban on women’s access to universities have pushed Afghan women out of the education pipeline that sustains science, medicine, engineering, and public health. The damage does not stop at classroom doors. A ban on education is also a ban on belonging to the future. It erodes scientific identity, which is the sense that one has the right to learn, question, and contribute. It dismantles procedural knowledge: how to apply, qualify, publish, and collaborate within global systems of science. Over time, mentorship networks collapse, research trajectories are cut short, and laboratories are emptied of talent. This damage is occurring while Afghanistan faces overlapping health, economic, and humanitarian crises that demand scientific capacity rather than its destruction. International responses have focused largely on humanitarian relief and individual opportunities such as scholarships. These efforts matter but are not enough. Scholarships help individuals leave Afghanistan but do not preserve a knowledge system when an entire generation is excluded at scale. The World Bank has warned that bans on women’s education and employment will produce long-term economic losses, including reduced lifetime earnings and national income growth. UNESCO has similarly highlighted the educational, economic, and psychosocial costs of suspending women’s access to higher education and work. Still, knowledge does not simply disappear when institutions collapse. Recently, UNICEF marked more than 1,000 days since the secondary school ban began, representing billions of learning hours lost. Alongside this staggering loss exists another reality: women refusing to let scientific thinking die, even when formal pathways are blocked. Across Afghanistan and within the diaspora, women in life sciences and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are sustaining learning under repression through quiet acts of continuity: sharing notes and problem sets, organizing peer study circles, mentoring younger students, and maintaining study routines under severe constraints. Afghan scientists and engineers in the diaspora are supporting alternative ways for learning as temporary schooling bridges until education can be restored. These efforts often focus on helping students understand international education systems, sustain foundational scientific knowledge through online learning, and preserve the confidence required to continue identifying as scientists in environments that deny their legitimacy. Such learning takes place under constant constraint in Afghanistan. Internet access is limited, personal safety is a concern, and credentials are often out of reach. What matters, then, is not accumulation of certificates, but continuity: staying mentally engaged with science, remaining prepared for future opportunities, and maintaining peer connections that counter isolation. Afghan women’s exclusion from STEM is often described as “lost potential.” That phrase understates what is happening. This is not passive loss; it is the deliberate dismantling of a national knowledge base. When women are barred from science, society loses its capacity to diagnose disease, train health professionals, innovate, and respond to crises. Education bans do not only restrict women’s lives, they weaken a country’s ability to recover. Afghan women in STEM are not waiting to be rescued. Many are already sustaining knowledge through discipline, persistence, and mutual support. The question is whether the international community will recognize these efforts as more than survival strategies, and invest in keeping scientific identity and learning alive so that, when political conditions change, there is still a generation ready to rebuild Afghanistan.
Dr. Amna Mehmood is a senior scientist and science educator whose work focuses on sustaining STEM education and scientific identity among Afghan women under conditions of educational exclusion. Dr. Amna Mehmood is a molecular biologist and senior scientist at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.} Source: https://zantimes.com/2026/01/20/knowledge-is-resistance-afghan-women-and-stem/


Jinhagency - Womens News Agency - Jan 22, 2026 An article by Moroccan journalist Hanan Hart
{When We Choose to Spotlight Women in Conflict Zones… We Are Not “Feminizing” Suffering
As a Moroccan journalist, I follow what is happening today in Syria, as well as in Gaza, Sudan, Iraq, and Yemen, with an awareness that goes beyond breaking news and fleeting images. What is unfolding in these geographies burdened by conflict cannot be reduced to casualty numbers or maps of territorial control. At its core, it is a daily test of the meaning of humanity—and of our responsibility as journalists, men and women alike, in an era of open-ended violations. In the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, recent developments have once again brought familiar scenes to the forefront: security escalation, forced displacement, and the absence of safety, with women and girls finding themselves once more confronting fear and the erosion of protection mechanisms. This reality is not limited to Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Gaza, or Sudan alone. It extends to other parts of the Middle East such as Libya and Lebanon, Afghanistan, and even some border regions in Turkey and Iran. At the heart of these scenes, women and girls repeatedly find themselves facing fear, insecurity, and the collapse of protection networks. The effects of conflict permeate the details of daily life, and suffering becomes particularly concentrated on women—as seen in besieged Gaza, war-torn Sudan, Iraq still struggling to emerge from accumulated violence, and Yemen, where war continues to dismantle society and deepen women’s suffering. Across all these contexts, women bear a double burden: protecting their families, surviving day to day, and confronting violations in the absence of genuine accountability. From our position as journalists, we cannot settle for the role of cold, detached conveyors of events. Journalism is not merely a profession for transmitting facts; it is also an ethical stance. When we choose to shed light on the suffering of women in conflict zones, we are not seeking sensationalism, nor are we “feminizing” suffering. Rather, we are restoring the human being to the center of the story. And when we document violations against women, we are fulfilling one of journalism’s core roles: breaking silence and resisting the normalization of violence. Experience has taught us that women and girls are the most affected by conflicts and the rise of extremism, yet their voices are often excluded from dominant narratives. It is precisely here that feminist and rights-based journalism plays a crucial role—restoring visibility to marginalized voices and linking the local to the universal, without selectivity or crude politicization. As a journalist from Morocco—a country that itself experienced periods of grave human rights violations in the past, and later entered a difficult path of acknowledgment and public debate around memory and justice—I believe that solidarity is not an emotional slogan, but a conscious and responsible practice. This process, with all its limitations and shortcomings, taught us that ignoring pain does not make it disappear, and that protecting rights begins with recognition and with giving voice to victims—especially women in contexts of violence and conflict. Solidarity means seeing the suffering of Syrian women as an extension of the suffering of women in Gaza, Sudan, Iraq, and Yemen, and understanding that impunity in one place opens the door to new violations elsewhere. Journalism, in this context, is not neutral between victim and perpetrator. Its true neutrality lies in siding with universal values: the right to life, dignity, and safety. When we hesitate to defend these values, or settle for silent observation, we contribute to prolonging violence. Cross-border solidarity among journalists—especially in conflict zones—is no longer a professional luxury; it is an ethical necessity. When a journalist from a war zone communicates with another outside it, this is not merely an exchange of information, but an act of resistance against isolation and against attempts to silence the truth. Our message today is clear: protecting women’s rights in conflict zones is not a local issue, but a collective responsibility. Telling the truth, whatever its cost, is one form of defending human existence itself. From North and East Syria to Gaza, and from Sudan to Iraq, truth remains the first line of defense, and journalism—when it stays true to its values—remains an act of solidarity that does not expire with time.} Source: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/when-we-choose-to-spotlight-women-in-conflict-zones-we-are-not-feminizing-suffering-38418

Amu - Jan 21, 2026 by Bais Hayat
{UN experts urge states to recognise ‘gender apartheid’ in Afghanistan
United Nations human rights experts have urged governments to recognize what they describe as “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan and to ensure women play a central role in upcoming international discussions on accountability for crimes against humanity. In a statement, the experts said states should guarantee the meaningful participation of Afghan women leaders and gender justice advocates in talks linked to a proposed international treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. They also called on governments to actively resist the normalisation of Taliban rule. “States must stand in solidarity with Afghan women and girls by ensuring their meaningful participation and by taking seriously the lived realities in Afghanistan,” the experts said. Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, women and girls have been subject to sweeping restrictions, including bans on secondary and higher education, limits on employment and curbs on public life. The United Nations and rights groups have described these measures as systematic discrimination. The experts said the Taliban had carried out an “institutionalised and systematic campaign” to erase women and girls from public life, effectively criminalising their presence in society. The statement said upcoming UN-facilitated discussions on a new crimes-against-humanity treaty present an opportunity for states to formally recognise gender apartheid as an international crime and to advance accountability. Human rights organisations have increasingly argued that Taliban policies meet the legal threshold for crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the Taliban’s chief justice, over alleged crimes against humanity related to the persecution of women and girls. Taliban have rejected such accusations, saying their policies are based on their interpretation of Islamic law.} Source: https://amu.tv/222413/

Amu - Jan 21, 2026 by Siyar Sirat
{Rights group says Taliban court code legitimises violence
Rawadari, a human rights organization, said on Wednesday that a penal code issued for Taliban-run courts legitimises violence against women and children, institutionalises discrimination and strips defendants of basic legal protections. In a statement, Rawadari said it had obtained a copy of the “Penal Principles of Taliban Courts”, which it said was signed by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and circulated to judicial institutions across the country for implementation. The document consists of three sections, 10 chapters and 119 articles, the organization said. The organization said the code is in clear conflict with international human rights standards and fundamental principles of fair trial, warning that it formally legalises discrimination, suppresses basic freedoms and enables arbitrary arrest and punishment. Rawadari said the code fails to recognise key legal safeguards, including the right to legal counsel, the presumption of innocence, the right to remain silent, protection against arbitrary detention and the right to an effective defence. It said the document does not provide for independent investigations and instead relies primarily on confessions and witness testimony to establish criminal responsibility — a practice the group warned could increase the risk of torture, coercion and abuse. The organization said the code does not explicitly prohibit violence against children and, in some cases, permits corporal punishment. It cited Article 48, which it said allows a father to punish a 10-year-old son for reasons described as being in the child’s “interest”, including for failing to perform prayers. Rawadari said such provisions undermine child protection and human dignity and risk entrenching abusive practices.
Rawadari also raised serious concerns about provisions affecting women, saying the code criminalises domestic violence only in narrow circumstances. Under Article 32, it said, a husband’s use of force against his wife is considered a crime only if beatings with a stick result in severe injuries and can be proven before a judge, in which case the husband faces up to 15 days in prison. Other forms of abuse, including less severe physical violence, psychological abuse and sexual violence, are not explicitly prohibited, the organization said. It added that Article 4 allows disciplinary punishment by a “husband” or “master”, a provision Rawadari said risks legitimising domestic violence. Another article cited by the group states that a woman who repeatedly leaves her home without her husband’s permission and fails to return upon request — as well as anyone who prevents her return — can be sentenced to up to three months in prison. Rawadari warned that the provision could place women who flee abuse and seek refuge with relatives at greater risk. Beyond gender-based violations, Rawadari said the code institutionalises discrimination against religious minorities. It cited provisions that define followers of the Hanafi school of Islam as Muslims while labelling adherents of other sects and beliefs as “deviants”, a classification it said violates the principle of non-discrimination and exposes Shi’ites, Ismailis, Salafis, Sikhs and Hindus to arbitrary prosecution. The organization said one article permits the killing of individuals deemed to be acting against Islam or promoting “false beliefs” if authorised by Taliban leadership, while other provisions criminalise undefined acts such as “mocking” Islamic rulings, carrying penalties of up to two years in prison. Rawadari also warned that the code grants sweeping powers to courts and individuals, including allowing private citizens, religious figures and Taliban morality enforcers to punish people caught committing what are described as sinful acts. Another provision, it said, allows opponents and critics of the Taliban to be labelled as “corruptors”, whose harm is deemed public and irreparable without death. The group said the code introduces social stratification into sentencing by dividing society into categories such as religious scholars, elites, middle classes and lower classes, with punishments varying according to social status rather than the nature of the offence — a practice Rawadari said violates equality before the law. It also said the document repeatedly uses the term “slave” and allows punishments to be applied regardless of whether a person is “free or enslaved”, which Rawadari said amounts to recognition of slavery — prohibited under international law. The organization warned that the code significantly expands the use of corporal punishment, including public flogging, which it said constitutes degrading treatment and risks entrenching systemic violence within the Taliban’s judicial system. Rawadari said the document further criminalises criticism of Taliban policies and leaders, including opposition to decisions described as “permissible acts” later banned by the leadership — a provision it said could be used to punish dissent, including criticism of restrictions on women’s education. The group urged the Taliban to immediately suspend implementation of the code and called on the United Nations and international community to use all available legal mechanisms to prevent its enforcement. It said it would continue monitoring the Taliban’s conduct and publish regular findings. The Taliban have not publicly commented on the report. They have previously said their laws and policies are based on their interpretation of Islamic law.} Source: https://amu.tv/222549/

Amu - Jan 18, 2026 - by Siyar Sirat
{UN’s Bennett urges release of two detained women in Afghanistan
The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called on the Taliban to immediately release two women detained in northern and western Afghanistan and ensure their safety. Bennett said he was concerned about the continued detention of Nazira Rashidi in Kunduz province and Khadija Ahmadzada in Herat province, describing the arrests as part of a wider pattern of human rights violations. He said the detention of women, particularly activists, journalists and civilians, constituted a clear violation of fundamental human rights. Rashidi, a journalist working for a local television station in Kunduz, has been held for more than a week, according to local media groups. The Taliban police command said Rashidi had been detained over a “crime-related case” with four other women. Media watchdog NAI Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan, operating in exile, has said the Taliban have detained an average of about six journalists per month since returning to power in August 2021. While some have later been released, the fate of others remains unknown. Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on media freedom and women’s rights since taking control of Afghanistan, drawing repeated criticism from the United Nations and international rights groups.} Source: https://amu.tv/221859/

Malala Yousafzai and father Ziauddin Yousafzai
Zan Times - Nov 10, 2025 - by Ziauddin Yousafzai
{Letter from Ziauddin Yousafzai, co-founder of Malala Fund, for Afghan men
To Afghan fathers and brothers,
I have been where you are now. I was once a father watching helplessly as the Taliban tried to erase my daughter’s future. In 2008, they took over our town in Swat Valley and forbade our girls from going to school. My daughter, Malala, risked her life to speak out against this injustice. Over the last four years, your daughters and sisters have been fighting for their dreams and ambitions — learning in secret, expressing themselves through poetry and art, resisting in every way they can. And I have seen your courage too: male students walking out of their classrooms in protest as their female classmates were barred from learning, fathers risking everything to make sure their daughters can continue their education, families and communities opening their homes to support underground schools. You know that every girl deserves an education, and your bravery and love are keeping hope alive.
As Muslim men — whether in safety or in struggle — we are called by our faith to stand with girls and women in defending their right to learn, to work and to move freely. Education is not a Western idea; it is a sacred duty. The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us that seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim — man and woman alike. Our own history affirms this: Khadija, a successful businesswoman, and Aisha, one of the greatest scholars of Islam, each embodied the power of learning guided by faith. I know these are difficult and dangerous times. To stay silent in the face of injustice can feel safer, but it is to turn away from our faith’s legacy. Speaking against the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime is frightening, but remaining silent is far more terrifying because nothing will change on its own. To speak out is both a father’s duty and a believer’s duty to protect the dignity and future of our daughters. To every brave Afghan father and brother helping girls learn: I salute your courage. Never give up hope, and remember you are not alone. Malala Fund will continue standing with and supporting you. Until Afghanistan is free from gender apartheid, every home must become a secret school, every kitchen a classroom, every living room a place of resistance. You can shift cultural expectations and behaviours in your homes and show that valuing girls’ education is a mark of integrity and strength. You can create an environment where learning is protected, even when the world outside is hostile:
●      Teach reading, math or other skills at home. Even basic lessons, practiced consistently, help girls continue their education.
●      Share resources: Use phones and the internet (where possible) to download books, podcasts or educational videos. Organisations like Begum Organization, Education Bridge for Afghanistan and LEARN Afghan provide courses through radio, satellite television and online.
●      Encourage study circles: Brothers can quietly gather cousins, sisters or neighbours to read and study together, providing companionship and safety.
●      Model respect: Men should praise and encourage girls’ learning, showing boys that supporting their sisters’ education is honourable.
●      Create time and space: Brothers and fathers can take on household chores so girls have time to study.
●      Keep hope alive: Words of encouragement strengthen girls’ resilience in the face of oppression.
Remember that the Taliban can take away girls’ schools, jobs and public spaces, but they cannot take what lives in your heart and mind, nor the knowledge you choose to pass on. Your courage at home today strengthens the fight for girls and women’s freedom everywhere.
In solidarity,
Ziauddin Yousafzai, co-founder of Malala Fund} Source: https://zantimes.com/2025/11/10/letter-from-ziauddin-yousafzai-co-founder-of-malala-fund-for-zan-times/

Women's Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2026