The Guardian: Destitute Afghan women arrested for begging under draconian new Taliban laws have spoken of “brutal” rapes and beatings in detention. Over the past few months, many women said they had been targeted by Taliban officials and detained under anti-begging laws passed this year. While in prison, they claim they were subjected to sexual abuse, torture and forced labour, and witnessed children being beaten and abused. All the women said they had no other option to begging on the streets for money and food for their children after being unable to find paid work.      Full news...

Global Security Review: Afghanistan, under Taliban control, is a powder keg ready to erupt with consequences that will ripple throughout the region and the world. The driving forces of this impending disaster are deeply rooted in the Taliban’s ideological, strategic, and operational maneuvers, which intensified after the American exit. The brainwashing of youths, monopoly over illicit drug production, sheltering and supporting global terrorist groups, weaponization of poverty, and recruitment of refugees has brought Afghanistan to the verge of an imminent explosion, with consequences that may prove more consequential than those of September 11, 2001. Understanding what the Taliban is doing deserves further explanation.      Full news...

ABC News: About 6.5 million children in Afghanistan were forecast to experience crisis levels of hunger in 2024, a nongovernmental organization said. Nearly three out of 10 Afghan children will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year as the country feels the immediate impacts of floods, the long-term effects of drought, and the return of Afghans from neighboring Pakistan and Iran, according to a report released late Tuesday by Save The Children.      Full news...

RAWA NEWS:The people of Farah have endured a myriad of social, economic, and cultural challenges for over four decades, and similar to the residents of other provinces, never enjoyed freedom, prosperity, and welfare. However, in the past couple of years, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban, these difficulties have escalated. The impoverished population, mostly daily wage laborers and farmers, are tackling a triple threat of hardships - psychological, economic, and drought - like three deadly misfortunes.      Full news...

The Diplomat:When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, it publicly promised a future where women would be active participants in society, free to study and work within a framework outlined by the group. In a world eager for positive change, the international community hoped that this time, perhaps, the regime would be different from its previous iteration. Fast forward two and a half years and the reality facing Afghan women and girls is grim. As the Taliban have tightened their grip on Afghanistan, they have introduced over 50 decrees that directly curtail the rights of women and girls, weaving a tapestry of restrictions that binds women and girls in Afghanistan in a web of oppression.      Full news...

U.S. Department of State:The United States has not decided whether to recognize the Taliban or any other entity as the government of Afghanistan or as part of such a government. All references to “the pre-August 2021 government” refer to the Republic-era government of Afghanistan. References to the Taliban in this report do not denote or imply that the United States recognizes the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.There was significant deterioration in women’s rights during the year due to edicts that further restricted access to education and employment, with a net result that women were increasingly confined to domestic roles. No decree or directive pertaining to women and girls’ education, or work, was reversed or softened. The Taliban did not purport to formally change existing laws as legislated by the Republic-era government; however, they promulgated edicts that contradicted those laws and were inconsistent with Afghanistan’s obligations under international conventions.      Full news...

RAWA News: With the return of the oppressive Taliban regime, the dark and bloody history of our land has reverted, reopening the unhealed wounds of our people, particularly from the initial period of the current medieval group's rule. In both eras of their barbaric governance, the people of this stricken land have borne witness to the most heinous crimes. Bamyan stands as a living testament to the atrocities committed by these malevolent individuals, a legacy that our people will never forget. Despite their silence born from a sense of helplessness, the scars of destruction remain apparent even after two decades.      Full news...

Feminist Majority: In times of conflict, political instability, and social unrest, women and children have always been the ones who face the most dire consequences compared to the rest of the population. It is nearly three years since the Taliban returned to power and their extremist views and restricting edicts against Afghan women has been one of the major human rights crises. Afghan women’s rights are under constant attack by the Taliban. However, the silent struggle that Afghan women are facing on top of the restrictions on their rights and existence is food insecurity and malnutrition.      Full news...

Stars and Stripes: My sister Malala called me from Afghanistan: “Mom is in the final days of her life and wishes to see you and the rest of the family.” The call abruptly ended. I couldn’t shake the feeling that both the U.S. and the Taliban were monitoring incoming and outgoing calls. “Are you going to throw yourself to the wolves?” my daughter Shabnam said, referring to the Taliban. We have lived safely in the United States for many years now. Sandwiched between my children and my dying mom, I made the decision.      Full news...

UN News: Kanni Wignaraja, Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, who recently visited the country, told correspondents in New York that 69 per cent of Afghans are “subsistence insecure” – meaning they do not have enough basic resources. “Something that really hit me … was the harsh impact of continuous natural disasters,” she said, adding that many parts of Afghanistan are facing “dramatic” scarcity of water further setting back development efforts.      Full news...

UN Women News: Since August 2021, Afghan women and girls have been grappling with increasingly restrictive decrees limiting their participation in all aspects of social, economic, and political life. These have confined millions of women to their home, restricting their important contributions to society. Their already dire situation has been compounded in recent months by humanitarian crises. First, devastating earthquakes rocked western Afghanistan in October 2023. Then, since November 2023, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forced to return after a Pakistani decree on undocumented migrants went into effect. According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) data, an estimated 80 per cent of those affected are women and children.      Full news...

Daily Excelsior News: The death toll from freezing weather and snowfall in the chilly winter has reached 39 in Afghanistan as spell cold continues in parts of the country, spokesman for national disaster authority Mullah Janan Saeq said Sunday. “About 39 persons of our countrymen have been martyred and 30 others injured due to rain, snowfall and cold weather. Also, 637 houses have been destroyed and 13,889 cattle have died due to the freezing climate,” Saeq told Xinhua.      Full news...

Khaama Press: According to the report published on Tuesday, January 30th, al-Qaeda has managed to maintain a “holding” position under the rule of the Taliban, leading to tensions between the Taliban and some al-Qaeda leaders due to the Taliban’s efforts to restrict the group’s activities in Afghanistan.The United Nations Security Council had previously expressed concerns about the presence of terrorist groups and their activities in Afghanistan. The latest report from the council indicates that al-Qaeda lacks the operational capacity to organize large-scale attacks with its remaining members.      Full news...

Khaama Press News:The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported on Friday, January 19th, citing the United Nations Office (UNAMA) that this cash is held in a dedicated account at a private bank and is not transferred to the Central Bank under the Taliban control. However, critics argue that the Taliban still influence how this money is spent. In June 2023, a reliable source at the Central Bank of Afghanistan under Taliban control confirmed that $40 million packages of humanitarian aid are being sent to Kabul, but the Taliban no longer publicizes this news through the media.      Full news...

The Washington Post: Their names are Khoshbakht, Saliha, Fawzia, Benazir, Farzana and Nazia — Afghan girls ages 6 to 10 who have been sold into marriage. Desperation forced their parents to thrust them into brutal adulthood. In Shahrak-e-Sabz, a settlement of makeshift mud-brick homes and tents for the displaced in Herat province that we visited last month, our researchers counted 118 girls who had been sold as child brides, and 116 families with girls waiting for buyers. This amounts to 40 percent of families surveyed, even though the Taliban decreed in late 2021...      Full news...

The Hill: Abandoned by the world, Afghanistan’s youth are trapped in a nightmare. They grew up under two decades of American influence, dreaming of a future where they could pursue their education. But the Taliban have snatched away their dreams, turning education into a joke.Education is like a window to the world, as my grandfather used to say. A window that lets you breathe in the wisdom of others and exhale yours to them. It sets you free.      Full news...

Save the children: Almost 8 million children in Afghanistan – or one in three - will enter the new year facing crisis levels of hunger as increasingly freezing conditions threaten communities already reeling from drought, earthquakes, and economic hardship, said Save the Children. New figures[i] released today by the IPC, the global hunger monitoring system, predict an increase in the number of people experiencing crisis or emergency levels of hunger in Afghanistan during the winter months, although the situation has improved compared with the same period last year.      Full news...

Hasht-E Subh: Local sources in Baghlan province report that the Taliban targeted an unarmed civilian in Andarab, unleashing a barrage of gunfire. The incident occurred on Monday, November 20, in the Qasan Dara area of Andarab.The young man subjected to the gunfire was named Mir Aqa. Following his arrest, the Taliban reportedly executed him by firing squad. Sources indicate that Mir Aqa had no affiliations with any military factions. As of now, the Taliban in Baghlan have not issued any statements regarding this incident.      Full news...

Investing News: The World Bank has expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating state of Afghanistan’s economy, with monetary poverty affecting half of the country’s citizens. The findings were relayed by TOLO News Today, based on insights from a critical discussion held at the US Institute of Peace. Senior economist at the World Bank, Silvia Redaelli, unveiled that monetary poverty has ensnared half of Afghanistan’s population, while Naheed Sarabi from the Institute for Development and Economic Affairs underscored the deepening economic plight of Afghan women. Sarabi traced this rising feminization of poverty back to numerous factors, including restrictive policies imposed by the Taliban.      Full news...

The Express Tribune: Amidst the deportation drive initiated by the Government of Pakistan against illegal immigrants, including Afghan nationals, Amnesty International on Friday urged Islamabad to “halt the continued detentions, deportations, and [alleged] widespread harassment of Afghan refugees”. In a statement, Livia Saccardi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns for South Asia, accused Pakistan of using Afghan refugees as “political pawns”, emphasising the risk they face upon return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan amidst a crackdown on human rights.      Full news...

Bayan News: The body of Sang Ali, a 60-year-old Afghan migrant who lived in the city of Mashhad, Iran, was found in a ruined four-walled structure after 20 days of being missing.Approximately 17 days ago, Sang Ali’s family informed the police and spread the word through social networks that he had left home and had not returned. According to the Iranian newspaper, the police have arrested a suspect in the murder of this Afghan migrant based on their investigations.      Full news...

Hasht-E Subh: In a tragic incident that underscores the harsh realities faced by many in Afghanistan, a 25-year-old man named Javad took his own life by jumping off a building in Nimruz province. Local sources revealed that Javad, who hailed from the Lal-o-Sarjangal district in Ghor province, ended his life on Wednesday, October 18, due to his dire circumstances of poverty and unemployment.The story of Javad serves as a somber reminder of the urgent need for support systems, employment opportunities, and mental health resources in Afghanistan.      Full news...

Hasht-E Subh: Local sources in Herat have tragically confirmed the death of a woman due to the cold weather in the Herat province. According to witnesses speaking to Hasht-e Subh, the woman passed away on Wednesday, October 17th, in Taraqi Park, Herat. Originally from the Karukh district, she lived in the open space of Taraqi Park with her family, driven by fear of potential earthquakess speaking to Hasht-e Subh, the woman passed away on Wednesday, October 17th, in Taraqi Park, Herat. Originally from the Karukh district, she lived in the open space of Taraqi Park with her family, driven by fear of potential earthquakes.      Full news...

America Magazine: International aid groups are rushing to respond to this latest disaster, but relief supplies are stretched thin, Mr. Gonsalves says, and there is no capacity at this time for rebuilding and rehabilitation. He was already concerned that the world was not attending to the vast humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Now the earthquakes and aftershocks have just piled on the suffering. According to U.N. sources, the humanitarian aid system in Afghanistan is already desperately overstretched and underfunded, with over 29 million Afghans in need of assistance.      Full news...

Associated Press: Afghan women and children were disproportionately killed by the earthquake across Herat province this last weekend because they were more likely to be at home when buildings fell. Many are now concerned about who will raise the children left without mothers. The Afghanistan representative for the U.N. Population Fund, Jaime Nadal, said there would have been no “gender dimension” to the death toll if the quake had happened at night.      Full news...

Hasht-E Subh: The Earthquake in Herat province has claimed the lives of more than two thousand people and injured thousands more. As a result of this earthquake, approximately 13 villages have been destroyed, and hundreds are still trapped under the rubble.On the other hand, sources report that on the first day of the earthquake, the Taliban prevented women who had left their homes for safety from venturing outside. These sources alleged that the Taliban told women they had no right to leave their homes without a male escort. Additionally, the Taliban’s office in Herat had arranged transportation for male journalists to go to the disaster site on the previous day but did not provide the same facilities for female journalists.      Full news...

Reuters: The U.N.’s humanitarian office has announced $5 million worth of assistance for the quake response, but immediate material support has come from a limited few countries. Afghanistan's healthcare system, largely reliant on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over and much international assistance, forming the backbone of the economy, was halted.      Full news...

ABC News: The death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has risen to over 2,000, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It’s one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades. A powerful magnitude-6.3 earthquake followed by strong aftershocks killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan on Saturday, the country's national disaster authority said.      Full news...

AFP: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released on Tuesday a stark new assessment of 2022 data estimating 34 million Afghans were living below the poverty line. The figure is a staggering increase of 15 million on 2020, the last full year of rule by the Western-backed government that crumbled in a matter of weeks the following summer.      Full news...

Nimrokh: The sound of her calloused palms rubbing together was audible as she vigorously rubbed her hands. Seated beside a bountiful collection of freshly picked vegetables, the woman deftly tied them into neat bundles, utilizing pre-threaded strands she had set aside. Mint, onions, chives, and a variety of other vegetables were artfully stacked atop one another, each bundle a testament to her skillful craftsmanship. The small plot of land, situated within the walls of her house yard, provided a humble but plentiful harvest.      Full news...