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...

The Diplomat: More than three years since the Taliban took over Afghanistan for the second time, the situation is more dire for Afghan ordinary citizens than ever. Amid the barren landscape of rural Afghanistan, families struggle to survive on the edge of famine. Afghans, with no employment and no business opportunities, have no prospect of economic stability. The humanitarian aid intended to reach these vulnerable communities is intercepted, redirected to the black market, or siphoned into the coffers of powerful individuals.      Full news...

The Independent: At least 10 people were killed in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province when a gunman opened fire on Sufis participating in a weekly ritual at a local shrine, the country’s interior ministry said on Friday. The details are still unclear but the ministry said it is conducting investigations to understand the nature of the attack and identify those responsible.The incident took place in Afghanistan’s remote Nahrin district.      Full news...

Yahoo News: The Taliban Supreme Court on Wednesday announced the public execution of a convicted murderer in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktia. Taliban officials and local residents observed the execution, which took place in a sports stadium in the regional capital Gardez. In a statement, the Supreme Court identified the convicted murderer as Ayaz Asad, a local resident of the province who had intentionally killed another Afghan using a Kalashnikov rifle.      Full news...

The Independent: The Taliban in Afghanistan have implemented a bizarre new edict that will further curb the voices of women who are already prohibited from speaking in public.Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban minister for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, declared that women must refrain from reciting the Quran aloud in the presence of other women, reported Amu TV, an Afghan news channel based in Virginia, US.      Full news...

AFP: Afghanistan’s Taliban morality ministry pledged Monday to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced. It comes after the Taliban government recently announced legislation formalising their strict interpretations of Islamic law that have been imposed since they swept to power in 2021.      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...

Medium: The Taliban executed an unarmed civilian, Najibullah, in Balkh province, despite video evidence showing he posed no threat. OSINT analysis disproves Taliban claims, revealing the incident as an extrajudicial killing. A video widely shared on social media, shows a confrontation between Najibullah, the alleged driver of a burning Toyota Corolla (1990s model), and a Taliban fighter armed with an AK-variant rifle.      Full news...

Human Rights Watch: The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), affiliated with ISIS, has claimed responsibly for killing 14 men in Daikundi province this week, the latest attack on the Hazara community in Afghanistan. The killings took place in a remote border district between Daikundi, which has a predominantly Hazara population, and Ghor provinces, in central Afghanistan. The men were returning from a pilgrimage to Shia holy sites in Karbala, Iraq when gunmen opened fire on the group.      Full news...

The Economist: Last month the Taliban published a new consolidated code of religious laws. It has left Afghan women reeling, with many now searching for ways to leave. It also has implications for the Taliban’s quest for legitimacy and relations with the world. Three years after America’s withdrawal from the country, the situation in Afghanistan looks worse than ever. Even before the announcement in late August, women were banned from attending secondary schools, universities, parks and female-only spaces such as beauty salons. They were not allowed to work in most professions.      Full news...

The Times of India: The world is now, slowly but surely, realising that all the talk of Taliban 2.0 was just a ploy by the militant group to smoothen its take over of Afghanistan. The Taliban 2.0 is no different than Taliban 1.0. All the restrictions on girls and women are back. Terror groups are again being allowed to set up based and training camps. Pakistan, the main advocate of Taliban 2.0, has seen a resurgence in terror attacksTehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), popularly known as Pakistan Taliban, is having a free run in Afghanistan.      Full news...

The Guardian: Afghanistan is at risk of a polio outbreak, health officials have warned, after the Taliban suspended the vaccination campaign over security fears and restrictions on women. The Taliban had “temporarily suspended” polio vaccinations in Afghanistan, a health official involved with the campaign confirmed to the Guardian, because of security concerns and women’s involvement in administering vaccines. A highly infectious viral disease, polio can cause paralysis and death, particularly in infants and young children.      Full news...

AFP: Gunmen killed a group of civilians in central Afghanistan on Thursday, the interior ministry said, in an attack that was claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group. “Fifteen Shiite (Muslims) were killed and six others wounded in an attack carried out by the soldiers of the caliphate in central Afghanistan,” the group’s Amaq media wing said in a statement.      Full news...

The Guardian: “So pervasive is the Taliban’s institutionalised gender oppression, and so slender are the spaces in which women and girls may live freely, that in Afghanistan today almost any act can be characterised as an act of resistance.” That conclusion from Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, encapsulates how unbearably suffocating it is to be female in Afghanistan today      Full news...

The Telegraph: The Taliban is using female workers to spy on other women to enforce harsh new laws. Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan regime has banned women from working outside the home or attending school and university. But some women are still employed at the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), the body that polices the restrictions, and more recruits are wanted. “They are needed to handle other women,” said an official from the ministry.      Full news...

France24: The oppression of Afghan women continues unabated before the eyes of the world. The Taliban imposed severe new restrictions earlier this month, with women not only obliged to cover their faces but now forbidden from raising their voices, singing or reading aloud in public. Western countries – led by the US and EU – have condemned the new laws but also seem resigned to the Taliban regime, which offers some stability in the region.      Full news...

ABC News: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public under new laws approved by the supreme leader in efforts to combat vice and promote virtue. The laws were issued Wednesday after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a government spokesman said. The Taliban had set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021. The ministry published its vice and virtue laws on Wednesday that cover aspects of everyday life like public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.      Full news...

VOA: Taliban morality police in Afghanistan said Tuesday that they had “seized and destroyed” more than 21,000 musical instruments over the past year as part of a crackdown on what they called anti-Islam practices. Officials of the so-called Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice discussed their “annual performance” at a news conference in Kabul a day after Taliban authorities publicly staged a mass burning of hundreds of musical instruments in the nearby northern Parwan province.      Full news...

The Defense Post: A UN counter-terrorism official warned Thursday that the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan branch poses the greatest external terrorist threat to Europe as it boosts its organizational strength. “ISIL-K has improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months, including by tapping into Afghan and Central Asian diasporas for support,” Vladimir Voronkov, undersecretary-general for counter-terrorism, said.      Full news...

local12.com: SIGAR noted in its report that the risk of Taliban-created nonprofits receiving U.S. funds highlights the importance of the Department of State following its vetting requirements. As of September, many of the more than 1,000 organizations that have registered with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy have ties to the Taliban, according to the watchdog.      Full news...

RAWANews: The most recent case that received widespread media attention is the abduction of a 19-year-old girl named Tahira in the Panjab district of Bamiyan province. This girl, who owned a tailor shop in the center of Panjab district, was forcibly taken by the Taliban while returning home and was thrown into a military vehicle. It is said that she was held by the Taliban for three days, during which she was sexually assaulted. She was released in the city of Bamiyan after protests and efforts by the local people. Tahira filed an official complaint against the Taliban, but no one came to her aid. (An image of her complaint form was circulated in the media.)      Full news...

RAWANews: Zarmina Paryani, a woman who protested against the Taliban, was imprisoned and tortured by the regime. She managed to escape Afghanistan with several of her sisters and sought asylum in Germany. In a Facebook post, she revealed that the Taliban had forcibly stripped her naked in prison and took photos of her. Zarmina and her three sisters were arrested in Kabul in early 2022 and, after enduring three weeks of imprisonment and torture, were released. Her revelations had a widespread coverage on social media and sparked collective outrage against the Taliban.      Full news...

The Associated Press: The Taliban’s morality police are contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans, according to a U.N. report published Tuesday. Edicts and some of the methods used to enforce them constituted a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the report said. The Taliban set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021. Since then, the ministry has enforced decrees issued by the Taliban leadership that have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, like dress codes, segregated education and employment, and having a male guardian when they travel.      Full news...

The Guardian: The Guardian has seen video evidence of a female Afghan human rights activist being gang-raped and tortured in a Taliban jail by armed men. There have been mounting reports that sexual violence is being inflicted on women and girls being held in detention in Afghanistan, but this video is believed to be the first direct evidence of these crimes occurring. According to the activist, the mobile phone footage was later sent to her as a threat that it would be shared more widely if she continued to speak out against the Taliban regime.      Full news...

The Guardian: Teenage girls and young women arrested by the Taliban for wearing “bad hijab” say they have been subjected to sexual violence and assault in detention. In more than one case the arrests and sexual abuse that young women faced while in custody earlier this year led to suicide and attempted suicide, reporters from the Afghan news service Zan Times were told. In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death.      Full news...

Deccan Herald: It is the ultimate act of bad faith. The United Nations (UN) has decided to exclude women from its upcoming global conference on Afghanistan. Why? The Taliban, it seems, insisted on it. The Islamic fundamentalist group wasn’t invited to the first meeting in May 2023, and refused to attend the next one in February because the UN wouldn’t accept the list of preconditions for its participation. “These conditions first of all denied us the right to talk to other representatives of the Afghan society and demanded a treatment that would, I would say, to a large extent be similar to recognition” of the Taliban as the governing authority, Secretary-General António Guterres said at the time.      Full news...

The Diplomat: In the first week of June 2024, locals in the remote Tangi Shadan village of Allahyar district of Afghanistan’s Ghor province discovered the bodies of a 45-year-old widow and her 7-year-old granddaughter. Both had disappeared about two months earlier and are believed to have been killed for their property by men close to Mawlawi Jaber, the Taliban district governor. As her relatives approached the local Taliban office, the governor reportedly asked for the reason for a widow living without remarrying.      Full news...

Forbes: In June 2024, in the build-up to the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, published his report on “The phenomenon of an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls.” The report follows a litany of reports on how, since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan have been perishing one by one.      Full news...

Human Rights Watch: On June 18, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, will present to the UN Human Rights Council his latest report, which powerfully calls for the Taliban to be held accountable for their crimes against women and girls. The report, issued today, examines the Taliban’s “institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls.”      Full news...

Long War Journal: In the latest issue of pamphlets released by al Qaeda’s central as-Sahab media entitled “This is Gaza: A War of Existence, Not a War of Borders,” Sayf al-Adl, believed to be al Qaeda’s current overall emir, calls on supporters around the world to migrate to Afghanistan. In doing so, this offers the most clear and open call for foreigners to join al Qaeda’s ranks in Afghanistan since the Taliban captured the country in 2021. Adl’s message thus acts to officially pronounce Afghanistan as a safe-haven for al Qaeda and its future plans.      Full news...