The Taliban government in Afghanistan announced an official policy on women’s education rights. The move follows recent street protests across parts of the country where women gathered and held signs in defense of rights that were stripped away the last time the Taliban took power. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. 
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Children in Bangladesh flooded back into classrooms on Sunday as schools reopened after 18 months, one of the world’s longest coronavirus shutdowns.The resumption came after UNICEF warned that prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 crisis were worsening inequities for millions of children across South Asia.In the capital Dhaka, students at one school were welcomed with flowers and sweets, and told to wear masks and sanitize their hands. Some hugged each other in excitement.”We are really excited to be back at school,” 15-year-old Muntasir Ahmed told AFP as he entered the campus.”I am hoping to physically see all of my friends and teachers, not through a laptop window today.”At the gate, school officials checked the body temperatures of students before allowing them to enter.The school’s vice principal, Dewan Tamziduzzaman, said he “didn’t expect such a big number to be turning up on the first day.”Only 41% of Bangladesh’s 169 million population have smartphones, according to the country’s telecom operators’ association, which means millions of children cannot access online classes.Even with smartphones, students in many of Bangladesh’s rural districts do not have the high-speed internet access usually required for e-learning.’Enormous setbacks’UNICEF warned in a report released Thursday that the pandemic has accentuated “alarming inequities” for more than 430 million children in the region.”School closures in South Asia have forced hundreds of millions of children and their teachers to transition to remote learning in a region with low connectivity and device affordability,” UNICEF’s regional director, George Laryea-Adjei, said in a statement.”As a result, children have suffered enormous setbacks in their learning journey.”In India, 80% of children aged 14-18 years said they learnt less than when they were in a physical classroom, according to UNICEF.Among children aged between six and 13 years, 42% said they had no access to remote learning.”Their future is at stake,” Deepu Singh, a farmer in India’s Jharkhand state, said last week of his children ages 9 and 10.The pair have not been to school in a year and have no internet access at home, Singh told AFP, adding: “I do not know English. I cannot help him (my son), even if I want to.”Students in the rest of the region were similarly impacted, UNICEF reported.In Pakistan, 23% of young children had no access to any device for remote learning.Some towns in Nepal have been broadcasting radio lessons due to the lack of internet access.”We are (in) a dangerous situation,” Nepalese schoolteacher Rajani K.C. told AFP last week.”If the pandemic continues and the academic sector loses more years, what kind of human resource will the country have in the future?” 
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Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, the higher education minister in the new Taliban government said Sunday.The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, laid out the new policies at a news conference, several days after Afghanistan’s new rulers formed an all-male government.The world has been watching closely to see to what extent the Taliban might act differently from their first time in power, in the late 1990s. During that era, girls and women were denied an education, and were excluded from public life.The Taliban have suggested they have changed, including in their attitudes toward women. However, they have used violence in recent days against women protesters demanding equal rights.Haqqani said the Taliban did not want to turn the clock back 20 years. “We will start building on what exists today,” he said.However, female university students will face restrictions under the Taliban, including a compulsory dress code. Haqqani said hijabs will be mandatory but did not specify if this meant compulsory headscarves or also compulsory face coverings.Gender segregation will also be enforced, he said. “We will not allow boys and girls to study together,” he said. “We will not allow co-education.”Haqqani said the subjects being taught in universities would also be reviewed but did not elaborate. The Taliban, who subscribe to a harsh interpretation of Islam, have banned music and art during their previous time in power. 
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Sitting in a bus that serves as a classroom, about 50 children from a poor New Delhi area learn how rain is formed as a teacher gives a science lesson.A blackboard has been mounted in front, books are stacked on the side and the teacher goes down the narrow aisle to explain evaporation and condensation.Started by nonprofit TejasAsia, this is one of four “Hope” buses that make their way into the city’s slums to teach children who do not attend regular school.“I have learned multiplication tables, ABCs, and Hindi language vowel signs,” said 9-year-old Salima Khatun, sitting in the bus parked under the shade of a tree on a hot summer day.The mobile schools are among several initiatives started by Indian nonprofits to educate children who do not attend school, even though education in government-run schools is free.“If they cannot go to school, the school must come to them,” Ebna Edwin, project coordinator, told VOA.Children of migrant laborers often drop out of school in the city because they do not have relevant identity cards. Some could not continue their schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic because they could not attend online classes — only 1 in 4 children have access to the internet and digital devices in India, according to UNICEF.Some youngsters do not attend school because they have to do housework and take care of siblings while their mothers work as housemaids to supplement meager household incomes.So, the team running the mobile schools engages younger children in learning activities outside the bus. A simple meal of rice and lentils after classes provides more incentive to both children and parents — persuading them to send children for the classes is not always easy.Mothers coming to take children home from a mobile school in New Delhi, India. (Anjana Pasricha/VOA)“When we go to a community it is a big challenge to create awareness, to make parents understand the value of education, because they don’t really understand what this all about,” said TejasAsia founder Marlo Philip.“Then there is the trust factor, what will we do with their children? So, it takes about six months for us to build relationships in every community with every family,” he said.The two-hour classes held five days a week inside the bus serve as a bridge to regular school. As the age groups are mixed, the learning spans from language skills to math and basic science lessons.“We spend six months to two years to prepare every child and make them equal to the standards of other children of the school, so that when they get to proper schools, they are ready to continue,” according to Philip.Launched seven years ago, the initiative has expanded to reach eight locations in the city.The mobile schools accustom children who have never attended school to a classroom environment and discipline, and show them that education can open different opportunities.Edwin said that after a few months she notices a visible change in the children.“They can dream big, they can have a better future, they also feel that their present life is not the ultimate end,” she said.Those dreams vary. Twelve-year-old Ricki Pal now hopes to work in the city’s gleaming glass-and-chrome buildings across the road that separates his poor neighborhood from richer areas. “When I grow up, I want to do a proper job,” he said.Nine-year-old Salima wants to be a teacher, while Mosami Khatun’s favorite class is art. She spends her spare time sketching and told VOA she wants to be an artist.
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The Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace Saturday, a spokesperson said, as the U.S. and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.The white banner, emblazoned with a Quranic verse, was hoisted by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of the Taliban interim government, in a low-key ceremony, said Ahmadullah Muttaqi, multimedia branch chief of the Taliban’s cultural commission.The flag-raising marked the official start of the work of the new government, he said.The composition of the all-male, all-Taliban government was announced earlier this week and was met with disappointment by the international community which had hoped the Taliban would make good on an earlier promise of an inclusive lineup.In a tweet, Afghanistan’s first president to follow the 2001 collapse of the Taliban, Hamid Karzai, called for “peace and stability” and expressed the hope that the new caretaker Cabinet that included no women and no non-Taliban would become an “inclusive government that can be the real face of the whole Afghanistan.”He marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America with a meeting of tribal elders on his high-walled compound in the Afghan capital where he has remained with his family since the August return of the Taliban to Kabul.Two decades ago, the Taliban ruled Afghanistan with a heavy hand. Television was banned, and on Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the horrific attacks on America, the news spread from crackling radios across the darkened streets of the Afghan capital of Kabul.The city rarely had electricity and barely a million people lived in Kabul at the time. It took the U.S.-led coalition just two months to drive the Taliban from the capital and by Dec. 7, 2001, they were defeated, driven from their last holdout in southern Kandahar, their spiritual heartland.Twenty years later, the Taliban are back in Kabul. America has departed, ending its ‘forever war’ two weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and two weeks after the Taliban returned to the Afghan capital on Aug. 15.’Most men in Afghanistan agree’Some things have changed since the first period of Taliban rule in the 1990s.This time, the gun-toting fighters don’t race through the city streets in their pickups. Instead, they inch through chaotic, clogged traffic in the city of more than 5 million. In Taliban-controlled Kabul in the 1990s, barber shops were banned. Now Taliban fighters get the latest haircuts, even if their beards remain untouched in line with their religious beliefs.But the Taliban have begun issuing harsh edits that have hit women hardest, such as banning women’s sports. They have also used violence to stop women demanding equal rights from protesting.Inside a high-end women’s store in the city’s Karte Se neighborhood Saturday, Marzia Hamidi, a Taekwondo competitor with ambitions of being a national champion, said the return of the Taliban has crushed her dreams.She was among the women attacked by the Taliban and called “agents of the West” during one of the recent protests. She said she’s not surprised about America’s withdrawal.“This year or next year, they had to leave eventually,” she said. “They came for their own interest and they left for their interest.”Hamidi is hoping the Taliban will relent and ease their restrictions, but with a glance toward the store owner, Faisal Naziri, she said “most men in Afghanistan agree with what the Taliban say about women and their rules against them.”Naziri nodded, saying preserving the rights of women is not a cause that will bring Afghan men on the streets.On Saturday, the Taliban even orchestrated a women’s march of their own. This one involved dozens of women obscured from head to toe, hidden behind layers of black veils. They filled an auditorium at Kabul University’s education center in a well-choreographed snub to the past 20 years of Western efforts to empower women.Speakers read from scripted speeches celebrating the Taliban victory over a West they charged was anti-Islam. The women marched briefly outside the center grounds, waving placards saying “the women who left don’t represent us,” referring to the many thousands who fled in fear of a Taliban crackdown on women’s rights. “We don’t want co-education,” read another banner.Outside the hall, the Taliban director of higher education, Maulvi Mohammad Daoud Haqqani, said 9/11 was the day “the world started their propaganda against us calling us terrorists and blaming us” for the attacks in the United States.At a dusty bookstore in Kabul’s Karte Sangi neighborhood, Atta Zakiri, a self-declared civil society activist said America was wrong to attack Afghanistan after 9/11.He blamed the invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks for creating another generation of hardline Taliban fighters.“The Taliban should have been allowed to stay. Why didn’t we work with them? Instead they went to fight,” he said.” And now we are back to where we were 20 years ago.” 
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Twenty years after the United States and NATO ousted them from power, the Taliban are back. But as VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports, the country they are trying to rule now is filled with a youthful population that is significantly more educated and aware.
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Twenty-four-year-old Tamana Zaryab Paryani is too young to remember the last Taliban rule, from 1996-2001, but she recalls the horror stories her mother told her.
 
“My mother said Taliban were a terrorist group … it was a brutal time. They used to stone people to death,” Paryani told VOA in a WhatsApp call from Kabul, where she and nearly 20 other women are regularly protesting in the streets against the very group her mother warned her about.
 
“Our agenda is to get our rights, the right to education and work, freedom of expression, the right of women to be part of the Cabinet, to have equal rights for women and men,” the political science student said.
 
Unlike the tens of thousands who left the country since the Taliban takeover on August 15, Paryani wants to stay and fight. She said she also refuses to believe the Taliban of 2021 are different from the Taliban of 2001.
 
“They don’t have a single woman in their Cabinet. They will never change. They are still beating up women and harassing them. And when we protest, they beat us up too,” she said.
 
Some of her sentiments are shared by the international community.
 
“Those who hoped for, and urged for, inclusivity will be disappointed. There are no women in the names [of Cabinet members] listed. There are no non-Taliban members, no figures from the past government, nor leaders of minority groups. Instead, it contains many of the same figures who were part of the Taliban leadership from 1996 to 2001,” Deborah Lyons, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, told the Security Council on Thursday.
 
Still, Lyons and other diplomats dealing with the Taliban think the new reality is still taking shape and there is space for the international community to make a difference.Taliban fighters patrol on vehicles along a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2021.The Taliban have said they need and want international assistance in running the country and, according to Lyons, have asked for “patience and even advice as they attempt to transition from a military insurgency to a government.”
 
They have also promised they would respect human rights and the rights of women under Islam. And while the Taliban Cabinet looks much like it did in the 1990s, the country it intends to run looks much different.
 
When Wadir Safi, a law professor, arrived in Kabul in 2002 after living in Australia during the Taliban regime, the city did not have any of the high-rise buildings, bright lights, or the plethora of wedding halls and restaurants that mark its landscape today.
 
“Slowly by 2010, the face of Kabul changed,” he said.   
 
The country’s population nearly doubled over the last 20 years, from 21.61 million in 2001 to more than 38 million, according to World Bank estimates.
 
The gross domestic product that was $2.46 billion in 2001 has now grown to nearly $20 billion, according to a website called Trading Economics that gathers official data for 196 countries.
 
The per capita income has grown from $330 to $549; official exports increased from $166 million in 2000 to $776.73 million in 2020, and official imports increased from $2.45 billion in 2003 to $6.5 billion in 2020. These figures to not include unofficial trade through smuggling.
 
Under the Taliban, almost no girls and few boys went to school. The universities and institutions that existed before the Taliban takeover in 1996 were left devastated by years of war starting with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.Schoolgirls attend class in Herat, Afghanistan. Aug. 17, 2021, following the Taliban stunning takeover of the country. Now, the future of their education is uncertain.UNESCO estimated that over the next two decades, Afghanistan lost an estimated 20,000 experts and academics. After the fall of Taliban in 2001, with help of international community, things started to change.
 
By 2017, 46% of Afghan girls and 66% of Afghan boys were attending primary schools, according to Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey conducted by the country’s Central Statistics Organization. Half of those girls and most of those boys went on to receive a secondary education. The national youth literacy rate in people ages 15-24 climbed to 53%.
 
Last year, according to an Afghan Ministry of Education report, enrollment in regular schools reached 9,710,824, of which 38% were girls.
 
Of the 4,385 Afghans who enrolled in vocational training centers, half were female.   
 
When Safi started teaching in Kabul university in 2002, the students were terrified. The girls, many of whom returned to college after the fall of the Taliban, would wear a burqa and were afraid to show their faces.
 
By the time he retired in 2017, he said things had drastically changed.
 
“It seemed like you were in a university in Europe. The girls and boys sat together in classes,” he said.Male and female students, separated by a curtain, attend class under new classroom rules at Avicenna University in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 6, 2021, in this picture obtained by Reuters from social media.Those changes in attitudes were reflected in the explosive growth of mainstream and social media in Afghanistan.  
 
From no local free press under the Taliban, the country developed more than 100 newspapers, 170 radio stations, and multiple news and entertainment television channels, according to Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. One sixth of Afghanistan’s population is active on social media.
 
The Afghan constitution, adopted in 2004, promises equal rights to men and women. The Taliban have called that constitution un-Islamic and are expected to change it.
 
In the last 20 years, Afghanistan developed a thriving community of artists, including females. An artists’ collective called the ArtLords, formed in 2014, took it upon itself to convert Kabul, a city full of blast walls, into the “street art capital of the world.”
 
Over the next six years, the group turned Kabul’s gray concrete walls into canvasses for their murals, depicting everything from schoolchildren to a Japanese aid worker who dedicated his life to Afghanistan to the historic Doha deal between the Taliban and the U.S. that led to the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country. According to its website, the collective has painted more than 2,100 murals.A mural promoting gender equality is seen in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 4, 2021, as a woman passes by it. It will likely be replaced with black and white messages celebrating the Taliban and their ideology. (WANA News Agency via Reuters)Apart from “transforming the aggressive face of Kabul,” the collective also aimed to create “social transformation and behavioral change through employing the soft power of art.”
 
That soft power is being wiped from Kabul’s walls and replaced with black and white messages celebrating the Taliban and their ideology.
 
But women like Paryani have vowed that they would not be wiped away like murals.
 
“We don’t have an option. Our rights are being taken from us. We have to protest,” she said. 
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The World Food Program warns acute hunger is deepening in Afghanistan and families are resorting to extreme measures to find something to eat and keep their children from starving.  Randomized phone surveys carried out between August 21 and September 5 in all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces found that 93% of households do not have enough to eat.  World Food Program deputy regional director, Anthea Webb, says many families are teetering on the verge of absolute destitution and are employing negative coping measures to survive.  “Those are things like skipping meals or preferring to give food to children instead of adults, or limiting portion sizes to make food last longer have almost doubled.  So, now there are three out of four Afghan families employing at least one if not more of those approaches,” Webb said.    Food insecurity was widespread prior to the takeover of the country by Taliban militants on August 15.  Before that date, the WFP phone surveys that got underway June 17, found 81% of households were short of food. The survey found a marked deterioration in food security after August 15, following the collapse of the Afghan government and Taliban seizure of the capital Kabul.The WFP reports 14 million people are going hungry, including 2 million malnourished children in need of special nutritional feeding to survive.  The country’s economy is in shambles.  People are out of work and do not have money to buy food.   Webb said a major concern is to pre-position food for millions of people before winter sets in.  She said it is now a race against time to deliver lifesaving assistance to the Afghan people who need it the most before roads are cut off by snow. “We need to be reaching 9 million people per month by November, if we are to meet our planned target of 14 million by the end of the year.  We have appealed for $200 million, and a number of countries have come forward with offers of help.  But we are quite literally begging and borrowing to avoid food stocks running out in October,” Webb said.   The WFP has managed to assist 6.4 million Afghans this year.  Webb says it has provided nutrient-dense foods to nearly 600,000 people across the country since mid-August, including meals for tens of thousands of children and mothers.   With support of the international community, Webb said the WFP will be able to purchase and transport food to strategic locations before it is too late. 
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Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said Saturday it was “keen and all geared up to restart” commercial flights from Islamabad to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, but no final decision has been made.  
 
A spokesman for the national carrier, Abdullah Khan, told VOA there is some way to go before resuming the flight operation, as it depends on “a lot of factors on the ground that are still to be managed.”  
 
Khan said that media reports suggesting the flights would resume beginning Monday have been taken out of context. He explained that some international institutions and missions in the Afghan capital are regularly in contact with PIA and have requested to run charter flights, prompting the airline to seek permission do that.  
 
“We had actually applied for a charter flight permission to Kabul that was taken up by media and they actually said PIA is now resuming its regular flight operation from Sept 13, which is not the case,” Khan clarified.  
 
He said “certain arrangements” have to be in place before the flight operation could actually resume and those arrangements are not in place yet.” The PIA spokesman did not elaborate further.  
 
Kabul’s international airport was severely damaged during a chaotic emergency evacuation of more than 120,000 people, including American and Western nationals, that ended with the withdrawal of US forces just before midnight local time on August 30.  
 
The Taliban, who regained power in Kabul on August 15, have been scrambling to get the airport operating again with technical assistance from Qatar and the UAE. An Afghan airline resumed domestic flights last week.  
 
Qatar Airways has operated charter flights out of Kabul this week, carrying more than 250 foreign nationals. The passengers, including dozens of Americans, were unable to catch the chaotic emergency airlifts to leave the country.  
 Humanitarian crisis  
 
Meanwhile, officials said Saturday that a third flight carrying relief assistance from the Pakistani government landed in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s relief assistance in food and medicines delivered to provincial authorities of Khost for the people of Khost ⁦@SMQureshiPTI⁩ ⁦@fawadchaudhry⁩ ⁦@ForeignOfficePk⁩ ⁦@FMPublicDiploPK⁩ ⁦@PakinAfg⁩ pic.twitter.com/3doY2V3DZl— Mansoor Ahmad Khan (@ambmansoorkhan) September 11, 2021Pakistan has dispatched the humanitarian assistance, including food and medicines, and plans to send more in coming days to help the Taliban government in meeting critical humanitarian needs of the Afghan people.
 
The United Nations says Afghanistan’s children, women and men have faced decades of conflict and deprivation, urgently needing food, medicine, health services and other essential commodities.
 
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Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flights from Islamabad to Kabul next week, a spokesperson told AFP Saturday, becoming the first foreign commercial service since the Taliban seized power last month.Kabul airport was severely damaged during a chaotic evacuation of more than 120,000 people that ended with the withdrawal of US forces on Aug. 30. The Taliban have been scrambling to get it operating again with Qatari technical assistance.”We have got all technical clearances for flight operations,” PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan told AFP.”Our first commercial plane… is scheduled to fly from Islamabad to Kabul on September 13.”Khan said the service would depend on demand.”We have received 73 requests which is very encouraging… from humanitarian relief agencies and journalists,” he said.In the last two days Qatar Airways has operated two charter flights out of Kabul, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed being taken out during the evacuation.An Afghan airline resumed domestic flights last week.
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Twenty years after the al-Qaida terror group based in Afghanistan launched the Sept. 11 terror attacks against the United States, there are indications a new generation of terrorists is looking to call the country home.Seemingly encouraged by the Taliban takeover following the departure of U.S. and NATO forces, terrorists in other parts of the world are talking about making the journey, counterterrorism officials and analysts say.”There’s no doubt that the chatter is about this,” Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the United Nations team that monitors the Islamic State group, al-Qaida and the Taliban, told an online forum Friday.”There is definitely a very strong sort of sense of enthusiasm out there for Afghanistan,” he said. “The inspiration is there, people saying this is where it’s happened, this is where the U.S. has been defeated, where the West has been defeated.”Analysts, too, say talk of a new flow of terrorists to Afghanistan is picking up.”I’ve heard from a couple Southeast Asian government officials in the last 10 days or so,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow and director of the Syria and Countering Terror and Extremism programs at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.”One of them told me 100% of the chatter they were intercepting from known jihadist networks in their immediate region, 100% was focused on, ‘How do we get to Afghanistan?'” Lister said.”Almost all of that was focused and oriented around ISIS (the Islamic State group), not around AQ (al-Qaida) or the Taliban,” he added.U.S. officials who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence declined to comment on any specific “chatter,” but they did not minimize the potential threat.”There’s a concern,” a U.S. military official said.More broadly, U.S. officials have said they are bracing for both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group’s Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, to take advantage of the situation.”I think the nature of al-Qaida and ISIS-K is they will always attempt to find space to grow and regenerate,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a small group of reporters Thursday during a visit to Kuwait.”I think the whole (U.S. national security) community is kind of watching to see what happens and whether or not al-Qaida has the ability to regenerate in Afghanistan,” Austin added.Central Asian nations have also expressed concerns, especially about IS-Khorasan, telling Pentagon officials the group was “creating the potential for destabilization.”Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence officials have been paying close attention, noting IS-Khorasan has a history of being able to recruit from multiple countries in the region. Al-Qaida, IS Set to Reconstitute in Afghanistan, BeyondFear of terror revival grows as US troop withdrawThere are also doubts about the extent to which the Taliban, already aligned with al-Qaida, would be willing or capable of preventing an influx of foreign fighters, even those seeking to join with the rival Islamic State group.‘Possible’ But Unlikely: US Skeptical of Taliban Help with Counterterrorism‘Where it suits them, they’ll be aggressive,’ a US official told VOA, adding, ‘They’re not going to do it for our benefit’Complicating matters further, Afghanistan has a long history as a destination for foreign fighters.According to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, at King’s College in London, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 drew up to 20,000 foreign fighters.Even now, recent intelligence estimates from U.N. member states put the number of foreign fighters in Afghanistan at 8,000 to 10,000.@UN monitoring teams estimates 8,000-10,000 #foreignfighters still reside in #AfghanistanMost from #CentralAsia, North #Caucasus, #Pakistan & #Xiniang#ChinaMost are affiliated w/#Taliban but many support #alQaida & others #ISIS— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 3, 2021Some intelligence agencies warned that Afghanistan was already seeing a “trickle” of incoming foreign fighters earlier this year, prior to the completion of the U.S. military withdrawal.#ForeignFighters from #alQaida#ISIS in #Syria could be on the move, per @UN reportIntel suggests only “limited relocation” so far But states “concerned abt the possibility of such movement, in particular to #Afghanistan, should the environment there become more hospitable”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) July 23, 2021Whether that trickle ever develops into more of a flow, though, remains to be seen.”I think, now, Afghanistan is a pole of attraction. … How fast that happens is another matter,” said the U.N.’s Fitton-Brown, pointing to what happened with the thousands of foreign fighters who never really left Syria and Iraq after traveling from all over the world to fight with IS until the collapse of its self-declared caliphate.”At least up until the last time we looked at this, there was still more Afghan veterans in Syria than there were Syria or Iraq veterans in Afghanistan,” he said. “In other words, the relocation effect, although it’s real, it’s probably slower than people thought it would be.”
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A Qatar Airways passenger flight arrived in Doha from Afghanistan Friday, the second to depart from the Kabul airport with the Taliban’s permission since the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal that ended Aug. 31. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the latest on evacuations from Afghanistan.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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A video analysis shows the United States may have mistakenly targeted an aid worker rather than Islamic State fighters in its final strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 civilians, The New York Times said Friday. The Pentagon has said it disrupted a new attack planned by the Islamic State extremist group through a Reaper drone strike on August 29 – the day before U.S. troops ended their 20-year mission and following a devastating attack outside the airport where vast crowds rushed to leave the victorious Taliban. But Kabul resident Aimal Ahmadi earlier told AFP that the strike killed 10 civilians including his young daughter, nephews, nieces and his brother Ezmarai Ahmadi, who was driving the car that was struck after he parked. The Times, analyzing security camera footage, said the U.S. military may have been seeing Ezmarai Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water, which was in short supply after the collapse of the Western-backed government, and picking up a laptop for his boss.  Ezmarai Ahmadi was an electrical engineer for the California-based aid and lobbying group Nutrition and Education International and was among thousands of Afghans who had applied for resettlement in the United States, relatives said. U.S. officials say that a larger blast took place after the drone strike, showing that there were explosives in the vehicle. Probe finds no evidenceBut the Times investigation said there was no evidence of a second explosion, with only one dent on a nearby gate and no clear signs of an additional blast such as blown-out walls. Aimal Ahmadi earlier told AFP that 10 civilians were killed. U.S. officials have acknowledged three civilian deaths but argued that the hit prevented another deadly attack. Commenting on the report, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that U.S. Central Command “continues to assess” the strike but that “no other military works harder than we do to prevent civilian casualties.” “As Chairman [Mark] Milley said, the strike was based on good intelligence, and we still believe that it prevented an imminent threat to the airport and to our men and women that were still serving at the airport,” Kirby said, referring to the top U.S. general. The Times noted that a rocket attack the following morning, claimed by the Islamic State group, was carried out from a Toyota Corolla similar to Ezmarai Ahmadi’s. More than 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians have died directly from the war launched by the United States after the September 11, 2001, attacks, with casualties rising dramatically after then-President Donald Trump relaxed rules of engagement in 2017, according to a Brown University study in April.  
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Afghan forces opposed to the Taliban are insisting the fight is not over despite claims by Taliban officials that the last stronghold of the resistance is under their control.Speaking in Washington, the foreign relations chief for Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front (NRF) acknowledged that the situation “isn’t as optimistic as we want it to be” after Taliban incursions into the northern Panjshir Valley, but that “there’s still hope.”“Their entrance doesn’t mean defeat,” the NRF’s Ali Nazary said Friday during a brief appearance at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research group in Washington.”It was a tactical retreat,” he said, claiming that the NRF still controls 60% to 65% of Panjshir province.”Our fighters have retreated to the sub valleys. Our families have retreated to the sub valleys,” Nazary said. “There’s thousands of fighters right now inside Panjshir, in the neighboring districts that have the motivation and the morale to resist the Taliban and to liberate Afghanistan.”The NRF claims appeared to contradict Taliban assertions from earlier in the week that all of the Panjshir Valley was under their control and that the war for Afghanistan was over.FILE – A burned Humvee is seen along a road in Dashtak, Panjshir province, after the Taliban claimed total control over Afghanistan, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, Sept. 6, 2021.The NRF is led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of former Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, nicknamed the “Lion of Panjshir” for his efforts to resist Taliban rule in the 1990s.Its fighters come from the remnants of the U.S.-trained Afghan security forces and from local militias, and they suffered key losses after Taliban forces stormed the valley last week, including the deaths of spokesperson Fahim Dashti and Ahmad Massoud’s cousin, General Abdul Wadood.Still, the NRF’s Nazary on Friday remained defiant.”The short-term goal is to sustain our resistance in Afghanistan and expand,” he said. “The people have the resilience and the will to continue.”In the meantime, there also appeared to be some frustration with the Taliban in Panjshir.Massoud Vows to Fight on Despite RetreatIn an audio message on his Facebook page, resistance leader Ahmad Massoud said his forces are still present in Panjshir and will continue to fight the TalibanDespite Taliban promises to reopen roads and restore mobile phone and internet service, a number of residents said they were seeing little progress. Residents complained that telecom services were still down and that roads into the province remained blocked even as the valley faced food shortages. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem contributed to this report.
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The United States says it has temporarily suspended all U.S.-bound flights of Afghan evacuees because of diagnosed cases of measles among Afghans who recently arrived in the United States.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the pause “out an abundance of caution.”She said four Afghans who had been diagnosed with measles in the United States were being quarantined in accordance with public health guidelines.The Associated Press reported the suspension affected flights from U.S. bases in Germany and Qatar.Earlier Friday, the White House said another 32 U.S. citizens or permanent residents had left Afghanistan with help from the United States.Second flightNational Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said 19 had left on a Qatar Airways flight and 13 others by land. The flight was the second evacuation flight allowed by the Taliban since U.S. troops left Afghanistan.”Today’s departures demonstrate how we are giving Americans clear and safe options to leave Afghanistan from different locations,” Horne said in a statement Friday.A State Department spokesperson, Jalina Porter, said the United States offered seats on Friday’s flight to 44 U.S. citizens, but not all of them chose to travel. She estimated that 100 American citizens remained in Afghanistan.Taliban authorities in Afghanistan allowed the first Qatari charter flight to leave the Kabul airport Thursday, the first evacuee flight to take off since the United States ended its military operation in Afghanistan on August 31.”The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from [the Kabul airport]. They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step,” Horne said in a statement Thursday.An Afghan passenger takes a selfie before boarding a flight at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 10, 2021.Horne added that the United States would “continue these efforts to facilitate the safe and orderly travel of American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and Afghans who worked for us and wish to leave Afghanistan.”Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, seeking support for the evacuation of Americans and at-risk Afghans left behind in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.In a call Thursday with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Blinken “commended the government of Qatar for its work to safely evacuate people” and “conveyed U.S. appreciation for Qatar’s help facilitating the travel of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and others from Kabul,” according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.FILE – Hundreds gather outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021. Hundreds of Western nationals and Afghan workers have been flown to safety since the Taliban takeover, but untold numbers of others remain stranded and unprotected.Thousands left behindThere are many at-risk Afghans as well as some Americans still stranded in Afghanistan, however, said Hazami Barmada, an independent humanitarian assisting in evacuation efforts. Estimates vary with respect to how many Afghans qualify for special visas because of their work with the United States or their status as a member of a vulnerable group, but they are believed to number in the thousands.As of Thursday evening local time in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, at least 705 people, including nine Americans, nine U.S. legal permanent residents and 170 holders of Special Immigrant Visas, were still waiting for the green light to depart, Barmada told VOA. SIVs are visas for Afghans who worked as interpreters or in other positions supporting the 20-year U.S. operation there.”We understand that there’s a lot of negotiations happening currently between the State Department and the Taliban, from what we understand through the negotiator. And we’re really hoping that our flights are not left behind, especially since they’ve already had the promise of departure,” Barmada said.It was unclear how many charter flights were awaiting departure in Mazar-e-Sharif. A State Department official said the U.S. was aware of only two charter planes in Afghanistan trying to leave.On Wednesday, Blinken laid the blame for the delayed departures on the Taliban.Concerns regarding foreign nationals unable to leave Afghanistan are “misplaced,” Bilal Karimi, a member of the Taliban Cultural Commission, told VOA on Thursday.FILE – Families walk toward their flight during evacuations at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 24, 2021, in this photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps. (Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)”Routine commercial flights remain suspended, but as soon as they are resumed, anyone intending to leave or come into the country and has with them valid documents, passports and visas will be free to do so,” he said.Charter flight confusionWhile the U.S. insists it has no role in preventing flights from departing, the administration also maintains that the lack of American personnel on the ground and inability to verify passengers’ documentation and flight manifests are among the main reasons these flights have not been able to take off.”So, a number of these planes, they may have a handful of American citizens, but they may have several hundred individuals where we don’t have manifests for them, we don’t know what the security protocols are for them, we don’t know what their documentation is,” the White House press secretary told reporters Wednesday.”Are we going to allow a plane with hundreds of people, where we don’t know who they are, we don’t know what security protocols have been put in place, to land on a U.S. military base?” Psaki asked.FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a meeting with his German counterpart at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Sept. 8, 2021.Blinken acknowledged “a fair amount of confusion” around charter flights and said the U.S. government was “working to do everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground.”The Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, marking the end of a stunning military campaign that overran most of Afghanistan.The return to power of the fundamentalist movement has thousands of Afghans — mostly the educated and those who worked with international forces — worried that they may face Taliban reprisals. These people want to leave the country, but Taliban leaders are urging them to remain and help them in the reconstruction of Afghanistan to prevent an economic meltdown.The Taliban announced their “caretaker” government Tuesday, but some of their controversial actions, including an alleged crackdown on journalists and anti-Taliban protests, already have raised doubts about whether the Islamist movement will live up to its commitments to protect human rights and not retaliate against former Afghan government officials.  VOA’s Nike Ching and Cindy Saine contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press.
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Russia has been treading carefully in its dealings with the Taliban, engaging with them but so far withholding formal recognition of Afghanistan’s new rulers.Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides have been quick to cheer the U.S.-led NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, presenting it as a strategic setback for Washington. But they fear Afghanistan falling apart and being plunged into a protracted civil war, which could allow the country to become a sanctuary once again for jihadists to hatch plots against Russia and its Central Asian allies, according to Western diplomats and analysts.Commenting last week, Putin said NATO’s 20-year intervention had accomplished nothing. “The result is zero, if not to say that it is negative,” he said. Like his Western counterparts, though, the Russian leader appears also to have been surprised by the speed of the collapse of the government of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban’s sweep of the country. When the Taliban seized Kandahar on August 13, Putin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said he doubted the Taliban would take control of Kabul any time soon. They seized it within two days.FILE – Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, left, speaks with Taliban representatives prior to their talks in Moscow, May 28, 2019.With Afghanistan right on its doorstep, there are more downsides and risks for Russia from NATO’s departure arguably than there are for the Western powers, and the Kremlin is casting a wary glance south, according to Paul Stronski, who was director for Russia and Central Asia at the U.S. National Security Council from 2012 to 2014. “Russia has been eying the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan with schadenfreude. But the Kremlin does not relish the prospect of an unstable Afghanistan,” Stronski wrote in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment, a think tank in Washington.“Even though Moscow has publicly cheered the removal of U.S. and NATO troops from the region, Russian officials are sober-minded enough to appreciate the downsides of their departure,” he says. “The key question now is whether Moscow is equipped to deal with a combustible situation along its southern flank that is unfolding far more quickly than anyone might have expected,” he added.Midweek, top Russian and Indian security officials met in Delhi to discuss the implications of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. In the subsequent readouts of their talks for the press, Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin adviser, and Indian counterpart Ajit Doval highlighted the security dangers, with their officials saying global militant groups operating from Afghanistan pose a threat to Central Asia and to India. They agreed to deepen counterterrorism cooperation.FILE – Taliban fighters atop Humvee vehicles parade along a road to celebrate the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, Sept. 1, 2021, following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country.“U.S. withdrawal and Taliban triumph generate an acute security challenge for Russia,” according to Pavel Baev of the Brookings Institution. A former researcher in the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Defense, he says the problem for the Kremlin is the NATO withdrawal “yields no rewards” and presents Moscow with a security “black hole” on its southern flank. Like their Western counterparts, Russian security chiefs are trying to judge whether the Taliban will abide by the promises its leaders made in political talks in Doha, Qatar, to stop Afghanistan once again from turning into a sanctuary for al-Qaida and other global jihadist groups.The Kremlin also is alarmed by the prospects of an increase in opiate drug trafficking, which alone may earn the Taliban $416 million a year, according to a U.N. assessment.Taliban leaders have said they won’t permit any opium poppy cultivation. But with a financial crunch looming for the country — and for the militant group — there are widespread doubts that they will — or can — keep to that promise. Afghanistan is estimated to be responsible for about 80 percent of global opium and heroin supplies.In July, following a string of bilateral talks with the Taliban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Taliban leadership was “rational.” He added: “They are sane people. They clearly stated that they have no plans to create problems for Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors.”FILE – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, speaks as he attends a conference on Afghanistan with representatives of the Taliban, in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2018.Baev believes that statement was “an exercise in wishful thinking.” “The best Russian diplomats can hope for is to dissuade the shrewd leadership of the Taliban from launching cross-border attacks northwards,” he says. The Taliban remains proscribed in Russia as a terrorist organization. Its ties with Central Asian jihadists, including Chechen separatists who the Taliban allowed to train in Afghanistan, prompted President Putin in September 2001 to acquiesce regarding the U.S. building military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to facilitate the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan. Putin also allowed the U.S.-led coalition to use Russian airspace for the invasion.The Kremlin appears to be readying for the worst, and it has been for some time. In 2012, it signed an agreement with Tajikistan to extend its lease on a military base in Dushanbe until 2042, and in 2016 it started modernizing the base and rearming it, including with armed Orlan-10 drones.Last month, the Russian, Tajik and Uzbek militaries held joint exercises on the Afghan border. Recently, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu pledged to strengthen military cooperation with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
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The U.N. human rights office has condemned the Taliban’s violent crackdown on peaceful protests in Afghanistan, where women in particular are trying to uphold their rights in the face of the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s place in society.  
 
Despite the risks, Afghan women and men have taken to the streets in defense of their human rights. U.N. monitors say women have been pressing for their right to work, to freedom of movement, to education and to exercise their right to participate in public affairs.
 
U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani says the protests which are protected under international human rights law, have been met with a severe response by the Taliban.
 
“We have seen the use of live ammunition, albeit there are reports that they are firing into the air in an apparent attempt to disperse the protesters. Protesters have still been killed. There have been reports of severe beatings as well, and we have also received reports of house-to-house search operations to try to identify those who attended certain protests,” Shamdasani said.
 
This week, the Taliban reportedly banned so-called unauthorized assemblies and ordered telecommunications companies to switch off internet service on mobile phones in specific areas of the capital, Kabul.
 
Shamdasani said her office has received credible reports of women’s rights activists and journalists covering protests in the country being arbitrarily arrested and savagely beaten. She said four deaths have been confirmed, although that number is likely to be higher.
 
“The Taliban are currently in control of Afghanistan, and we are calling on them to abide by the obligations under international human rights law that Afghanistan is bound by. It is very crucial that they do not resort to the use of force. It is in no one’s interest really to see this kind of bloodshed on the streets. It is not going to help to consolidate or stabilize society,” Shamdasani said.
 
What would help, she said, is an inclusive approach in which the Taliban rulers listen to the grievances of the people. She urged the Taliban to allow the Afghan people to exercise their right of freedom of assembly and to demonstrate peacefully out on the streets.
 
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Russia has been treading carefully in its dealings with the Taliban, engaging with them but so far withholding formal recognition of Afghanistan’s new rulers.Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides have been quick to cheer the U.S.-led NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, presenting it as a strategic setback for Washington. But they fear Afghanistan falling apart and being plunged into a protracted civil war, which could allow the country to become a sanctuary once again for jihadists to hatch plots against Russia and its Central Asian allies, according to Western diplomats and analysts.Commenting last week, Putin said NATO’s 20-year intervention had accomplished nothing. “The result is zero, if not to say that it is negative,” he said. Like his Western counterparts, though, the Russian leader appears also to have been surprised by the speed of the collapse of the government of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban’s sweep of the country. When the Taliban seized Kandahar on August 13, Putin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said he doubted the Taliban would take control of Kabul any time soon. They seized it within two days.FILE – Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, left, speaks with Taliban representatives prior to their talks in Moscow, May 28, 2019.With Afghanistan right on its doorstep, there are more downsides and risks for Russia from NATO’s departure arguably than there are for the Western powers, and the Kremlin is casting a wary glance south, according to Paul Stronski, who was director for Russia and Central Asia at the U.S. National Security Council from 2012 to 2014. “Russia has been eying the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan with schadenfreude. But the Kremlin does not relish the prospect of an unstable Afghanistan,” Stronski wrote in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment, a think tank in Washington.“Even though Moscow has publicly cheered the removal of U.S. and NATO troops from the region, Russian officials are sober-minded enough to appreciate the downsides of their departure,” he says. “The key question now is whether Moscow is equipped to deal with a combustible situation along its southern flank that is unfolding far more quickly than anyone might have expected,” he added.Midweek, top Russian and Indian security officials met in Delhi to discuss the implications of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. In the subsequent readouts of their talks for the press, Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin adviser, and Indian counterpart Ajit Doval highlighted the security dangers, with their officials saying global militant groups operating from Afghanistan pose a threat to Central Asia and to India. They agreed to deepen counterterrorism cooperation.FILE – Taliban fighters atop Humvee vehicles parade along a road to celebrate the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, Sept. 1, 2021, following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country.“U.S. withdrawal and Taliban triumph generate an acute security challenge for Russia,” according to Pavel Baev of the Brookings Institution. A former researcher in the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Defense, he says the problem for the Kremlin is the NATO withdrawal “yields no rewards” and presents Moscow with a security “black hole” on its southern flank. Like their Western counterparts, Russian security chiefs are trying to judge whether the Taliban will abide by the promises its leaders made in political talks in Doha, Qatar, to stop Afghanistan once again from turning into a sanctuary for al-Qaida and other global jihadist groups.The Kremlin also is alarmed by the prospects of an increase in opiate drug trafficking, which alone may earn the Taliban $416 million a year, according to a U.N. assessment.Taliban leaders have said they won’t permit any opium poppy cultivation. But with a financial crunch looming for the country — and for the militant group — there are widespread doubts that they will — or can — keep to that promise. Afghanistan is estimated to be responsible for about 80 percent of global opium and heroin supplies.In July, following a string of bilateral talks with the Taliban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Taliban leadership was “rational.” He added: “They are sane people. They clearly stated that they have no plans to create problems for Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors.”FILE – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, speaks as he attends a conference on Afghanistan with representatives of the Taliban, in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2018.Baev believes that statement was “an exercise in wishful thinking.” “The best Russian diplomats can hope for is to dissuade the shrewd leadership of the Taliban from launching cross-border attacks northwards,” he says. The Taliban remains proscribed in Russia as a terrorist organization. Its ties with Central Asian jihadists, including Chechen separatists who the Taliban allowed to train in Afghanistan, prompted President Putin in September 2001 to acquiesce regarding the U.S. building military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to facilitate the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan. Putin also allowed the U.S.-led coalition to use Russian airspace for the invasion.The Kremlin appears to be readying for the worst, and it has been for some time. In 2012, it signed an agreement with Tajikistan to extend its lease on a military base in Dushanbe until 2042, and in 2016 it started modernizing the base and rearming it, including with armed Orlan-10 drones.Last month, the Russian, Tajik and Uzbek militaries held joint exercises on the Afghan border. Recently, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu pledged to strengthen military cooperation with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
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The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan said Thursday that billions of dollars in assets and donor funds frozen by members of the international community present a “looming crisis” for the country, which is in a dire humanitarian and economic situation.”The understandable purpose is to deny these funds to the de facto Taliban administration,” Deborah Lyons, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told a meeting of the Security Council.”The inevitable effect, however, will be a severe economic downturn that could throw many more millions into poverty and hunger, may generate a massive wave of refugees from Afghanistan, and indeed set Afghanistan back for generations,” she said.Lyons said a way must quickly be found to allow money to flow into the country to prevent the total breakdown of the economy and social order.The U.N. warned Thursday, in an economic report, that Afghanistan is on the brink of universal poverty, with as much as 97% of the population at risk of falling below the poverty line.”Safeguards must be created to ensure that this money is spent where it needs to be spent and not misused by the de facto authorities,” Lyons cautioned. “The economy must be allowed to breathe for a few more months, giving the Taliban a chance to demonstrate flexibility and a genuine will to do things differently this time, notably from a human rights, gender and counterterrorism perspective.”Earlier this week, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths met with a delegation of Taliban leaders, led by co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Afghanistan. Griffiths said the Taliban had assured him that aid workers could continue their work helping half the country’s people.Baradar “did add that the rights of people in Afghanistan were subject to the culture of Afghanistan,” Griffiths said.On Tuesday, the Taliban announced their interim government made up of 33 men, several of whom are on a U.N. sanctions list, including the Taliban prime minister and foreign minister. No women have been designated to serve in their government, and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was missing from the announced list.Taliban soldiers stand guard over surrendered Afghan Militiamen in the Kapisa province northeast of Afghanistan, Sept. 8, 2021.Afghanistan’s U.N. ambassador, Ghulam Isaczai, was appointed to his position by the government of former President Ashraf Ghani. He still holds the seat at the United Nations and continues to speak out against the Taliban, urging states to withhold recognition of any government that is not inclusive and based on the will of the people.”The council must use all its diplomatic tools, including the full implementation of existing multilateral sanctions, to make the Taliban engage in sincere and genuine talks for a comprehensive settlement,” Isaczai said.The U.S. envoy addressed some of his remarks directly to the Taliban.”If a new Afghan government upholds its commitments and obligations, brings greater stability to the country and region, demonstrates real inclusion, and protects the gains of the past two decades, we will work with it,” Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis said.But he warned that Washington would not engage purely on trust.”The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our message is simple: Any legitimacy and support will have to be earned,” he said.Engagement may largely depend on how the Taliban treat women and girls. During their rule from 1996 to 2001, they imposed severe restrictions on females, including preventing their getting an education or working.Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban when she was 15 for advocating for the right of girls to go to school, told the council via a video link that they must protect Afghan girls and women.”Statements are not sufficient,” she said. “The Taliban government must guarantee and protect the rights of women and girls.”The Taliban have stated recently that they would uphold women’s rights in accordance with Islamic law, but what that would look like is not clear.The mandate of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will expire Sept. 17. Norway and Estonia hold the file on the council and have presented a draft resolution to members for discussion.”We believe that UNAMA’s work to facilitate humanitarian access, monitor and report on human rights, strengthen the protection of civilians, including children, and support women’s participation is more important than ever,” Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson told reporters.Diplomats say a technical extension of the current mandate of up to six months is likely until there is a better sense of what engagement with a Taliban government might look like.  
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U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Willam Burns flew to India and Pakistan this week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the region as well as the way forward.In Islamabad Wednesday, Burns met with the head of the Pakistani army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, along with Pakistan’s intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed.“It was reiterated that Pakistan remains committed to cooperate with its international partners for peace in the region and ensuring a stable and prosperous future for Afghan people,” said a press release issued by the military’s public relations wing.  The messy and often chaotic process of evacuating foreigners and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign forces also came under discussion, with Burns expressing appreciation for “Pakistan’s role in [the] Afghan situation including successful evacuation operations,” said the release.  Pakistan has worked with multiple countries, including several in Europe, to help hundreds of people, many of them Afghans considered to be at-risk under a Taliban government, to leave Afghanistan through its land borders, accommodating them with either visas on arrival or other transit documents.Taliban Allow Flight With Americans, Other Westerners to Depart KabulBut some Americans and hundreds of Afghan allies remain stranded in Mazar-e-SharifThe Pakistani embassy in Kabul has also issued hundreds of visas to Afghans upon requests from embassies, media organizations and other non-government organizations.Burns’ visit to New Delhi Tuesday followed a trip last month to Kabul. U.S. officials say he met with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top political leader. Reports said the talks came amid negotiations on evacuating people from Afghanistan.  Burns’ India trip also coincided with the visit of Russian intelligence chief Nikolai Patrushev. Last week, British intelligence chief Richard Moore traveled to India.   All three spy chiefs met with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, among others, to discuss security concerns linked to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, according to Indian media reports.   In his meetings with the Indians, Burns discussed the possibility of developing a joint strategy on Afghanistan, a senior source in the Indian government told VOA on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media.Their discussion, according to the official, included regional response to the Taliban takeover, focusing on China.  China has welcomed the announcement of an interim cabinet by the Taliban, calling it a “necessary step to restore order” according to the French news agency.US Assessing Announcement of Taliban’s Caretaker GovernmentLineup includes Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Haqqani network, designated by the US as a global terrorist organizationThe country also wants the Taliban to “unite with all ethnic groups and factions, build a broad and inclusive political structure, pursue moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies,” according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in his weekly press conference Thursday. He said the sentiment was shared by the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbors in a virtual conference Wednesday led by Pakistan.He also said everyone in the meeting believed that “the United States and its allies are the culprits of the Afghan issue” and are “obligated more than any other country to provide economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.”China has pledged to provide around $30 million of aid to Afghanistan to deal with its humanitarian crisis including its first batch of three million doses of coronavirus vaccine.State Councilor& FM Wang Yi at the 1st Meeting of Foreign Ministers of #Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries: #China decides to provide ¥200 million worth of food, winter weather supplies, vaccines and medicines for emergency use to the Afghan people. pic.twitter.com/82yztiEy26— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) September 8, 2021
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Taliban authorities allowed a Qatari charter flight to leave for Doha from the Kabul airport Thursday, the first flight for evacuees to take off since the United States ended its military operation in Afghanistan on August 31.    
 
“Today, the United States government facilitated the departure of U.S citizens and lawful permanent residents on a chartered Qatar Airways flight from Hamid Karzai International Airport. We can confirm that flight has safely landed in Qatar,” said National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne in a statement. “The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA. They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step.”
 
Horne added that the U.S. will “continue these efforts to facilitate the safe and orderly travel of American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and Afghans who worked for us and wish to leave Afghanistan.”
 
Multiple media reports say roughly 200 people were on board the flight Thursday, but VOA has not been able to independently verify the number.   
   
Qatar’s special envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani spoke to reporters at the Hamid Karzai International Airport Thursday, stressing that it was not an evacuation flight but stating that Americans and other Westerners were on board.   
 
The Qatari envoy said there may be another flight Friday and people should “feel that this is normal.”
Speaking alongside al-Qahtani, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that experts from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have been working to get airport systems back up and running for commercial flights.  
 
Mujahid said he expected the entire airport operation to be in place soon, enabling both domestic as well as international flights to resume.  
 
In a statement to VOA, a State Department spokesperson declined to provide additional details regarding the Thursday flight out of Kabul.   
   
“As we have said, our efforts to assist U.S. citizens and others to whom we have a special commitment are ongoing, but we aren’t in a position to share additional details at this time,” the spokesperson said.   
   
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha, earlier this week seeking support for the evacuation of Americans and at-risk Afghans left behind in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.    
   
The administration said it also has been working with the Qataris to get flights operational from Kabul.    
   
“We’re working through all of these components, and it’s the reason why the secretary of State is on the ground, in the region, discussing and negotiating as we speak,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told VOA Wednesday. Taliban personnel stand beside a plane at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 9, 2021.Thousands left behind   
   
However, there are many at-risk Afghans as well as some Americans still stranded in Afghanistan, said Hazami Barmada, an independent humanitarian assisting in evacuation efforts. Estimates vary of how many Afghans qualify for special visas for their work with the United States or because of their status as vulnerable groups but they are believed to number in the thousands.
   
As of Thursday evening local time in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, at least one flight of 705 people, including nine Americans, nine U.S. legal permanent residents and 170 holders of the Special Immigrant Visa are still waiting for the green light to depart, Barmada told VOA. SIVs, as they’re commonly referred to, are visas for Afghans working as interpreters and other positions supporting the 20-year U.S. operation there.   
   
“We understand that there’s a lot of negotiations happening currently between the State Department and the Taliban from what we understand, through the negotiator. And we’re really hoping that our flights are not left behind, especially since they’ve already had the promise of departure,” Barmada said.   
   
It is unclear how many charter flights are awaiting departure in Mazar-e-Sharif. A State Department official said they are aware of only two charter planes in Afghanistan trying to leave.    
   
On Wednesday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid the blame for the delayed departures on the Taliban.   
   
“As of now, the Taliban are not permitting the charter flights to depart,” Blinken told reporters at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “We’ve made clear to all parties, we made clear to the Taliban, that these charters need to be able to depart, and we continue every day, virtually every hour, to work on that.”   
   
Concerns regarding foreign nationals unable to leave Afghanistan are “misplaced,” VOA was told Thursday by Bilal Karimi, a member of Taliban Cultural Commission.   
   
“Routine commercial flights remain suspended but as soon as they are resumed anyone intending to leave or come into the country and has with valid documents, passports and visas will be free to do so,” he said. FILE – Several commercial airplanes are seen near the main terminal of the Mazar-i-Sharif airport, in northern Afghanistan, Sept. 3 2021. (Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters).Charter flights confusion   
   
While the U.S. insists it has no role in preventing flights from departing, the administration also maintains that the lack of American personnel on the ground and inability to verify passengers’ documentation and flight manifests tare among the main reasons these flights have not been able to take off.   
   
“So, a number of these planes, they may have a handful of American citizens, but they may have several hundred individuals where we don’t have manifests for them, we don’t know what the security protocols are for them, we don’t know what their documentation is,” the White House press secretary told reporters Wednesday.    
   
“Are we going to allow a plane with hundreds of people, where we don’t know who they are, we don’t know what security protocols have been put in place, to land on a U.S. military base?” Psaki asked.    
   
Blinken acknowledged “a fair amount of confusion” around charter flights and said the United States government is “working to do everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground.”   
 
The Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, marking the end of a stunning military campaign that overran most of Afghanistan.   
 
The return to power of the fundamentalist movement has worried thousands of Afghans, mostly educated and those who worked with international forces, that they may face Taliban reprisals. These locals want to leave the country, but Taliban leaders are urging them to remain and help them in the reconstruction of Afghanistan to prevent an economic meltdown.   
 
The Taliban announced their “caretaker” government Tuesday, but some of their controversial actions, including an alleged crackdown on journalists and anti-Taliban protests, already have raised doubts about whether the Islamist movement will live up to its commitments to protect human rights and not retaliate against former Afghan government officials.   VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report.
 
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The last member of Afghanistan’s Jewish community has left the country.Zebulon Simentov, who lived in a dilapidated synagogue in Kabul, kept kosher and prayed in Hebrew, endured decades of war as the country’s centuries-old Jewish community rapidly dwindled. But the Taliban takeover last month seems to have been the last straw.Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who runs a private security group that organized the evacuation, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the 62-year-old Simentov and 29 of his neighbors, nearly all of them women and children, have been taken to a “neighboring country.”Kahana said Simentov, who had lived under Taliban rule before, was not worried about them. But Kahana warned him that he was at risk of being kidnapped or killed by the far more radical Islamic State group. He said Simentov’s neighbors also pressed him to leave, so that their children could join him on the bus out.Israel’s Kan public broadcaster aired footage of the evacuation, showing a bus full of people traveling across what appeared to be Afghanistan, with all the faces blurred except for Simentov’s.They joined an exodus of tens of thousands of Afghans who have fled since the Taliban swept across the country last month. The U.S. and its allies organized a massive airlift in the closing days of the 20-year war, but officials acknowledged that up to 200 American citizens, as well as thousands of Afghans who had aided the war effort, were left behind.Kahana said his group is reaching out to U.S. and Israeli authorities to find a permanent home for Simentov, whose estranged wife and children live in Israel. For years, Simentov refused to grant his wife a divorce under Jewish law, which could open him up to legal repercussions in Israel. Kahana said he persuaded him to grant the divorce and has drawn up the paperwork.”That was two weeks of being a shrink, a psychiatrist, talking to him like 10 times a day, and his neighbor at the same time to translate,” Kahana said.Hebrew manuscripts found in caves in northern Afghanistan indicate a thriving Jewish community existed there at least 1,000 years ago. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan was home to some 40,000 Jews, many of them Persian Jews who had fled forced conversion in neighboring Iran. The community’s decline began with an exodus to Israel after its creation in 1948.In an interview with The Associated Press in 2009, Simentov said the last Jewish families left after the 1979 Soviet invasion.FILE – In this Aug. 29, 2009, photo, Zebulon Simentov, the last known Jew living in Afghanistan, lights the candles at the start of Shabbat in the synagogue he cares for in Kabul.For several years he shared the synagogue building with the country’s only other Jew, Isaak Levi, but they despised each other and feuded during the Taliban’s previous rule from 1996-2001.At one point, Levi accused Simentov of theft and spying. and Simentov countered by accusing Levi of renting rooms to prostitutes, an allegation he denied, The New York Times reported in 2002. The Taliban arrested both men and beat them, and they confiscated the synagogue’s ancient Torah scroll, which went missing after the Taliban were driven from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.When his 80-year-old housemate died in 2005, Simentov said he was happy to be rid of him.Reporters who visited Simentov over the years — and paid the exorbitant fees he charged for interviews — found a portly man fond of whiskey, who kept a pet partridge and watched Afghan TV. He observed Jewish dietary restrictions and ran a kebab shop.Born in the western city of Herat in 1959, he always insisted Afghanistan was home.Samir Khan, a neighbor who runs a small grocery store and had known Simentov for the last 10 years, said he disappeared about a week and a half ago. Khan said he only learned of Simentov’s departure when he saw it on social media.The Taliban, like other Islamic militant groups, are hostile to Israel but tolerated the country’s miniscule Jewish community during their previous reign. Aside from the feud, the only other time they came knocking was when they noticed that Muslim women in all-encompassing burqas could often be seen visiting Levi.When they briefly arrested Levi, he explained that he had a business selling amulets to women who wanted to become pregnant with sons or who were opposed to their husbands taking other wives, as allowed under Islamic law.The Taliban released him.
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More than 120,000 Afghans are being resettled in the United States. A similar number of Vietnamese were resettled here after the U.S. war in Vietnam. Although many experts are criticizing the chaotic start of the resettlement effort, they see it as an opportunity to make the U.S. more diverse. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has our story.
Camera: Mike Burke
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seeking to boost international diplomatic efforts regarding Afghanistan by co-hosting a ministerial meeting in Germany following the chaotic end of America’s 20-year presence in the country. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. 
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