Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

Afghanistan has briefly returned to the headlines as the United States heads toward a crucial November presidential election.

Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for failing to conclude an orderly withdrawal to end the conflict in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history.

In the September 10 presidential debate, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris defended President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. She blamed her opponent, former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump, for concluding the 2020 Doha agreement with the Taliban, which "bypassed the Afghan government."

In response, Trump defended the Doha deal as "a very good agreement." He blamed the Biden administration for losing soldiers during the withdrawal, leaving behind weapons, and not enforcing the terms of the agreement.

On September 8, a new investigative report by House Republicans blamed Biden's administration for the chaotic final withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Representative Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas), who led the probe as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Biden administration "had the information and opportunity" to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. Still, it chose, "optics over security," he said.

However, the State Department accused the committee of issuing partisan statements, cherry-picking facts, and obfuscating "the truth behind conjecture."

Why It's Important: America's war in Afghanistan -- particularly its disastrous end -- is unlikely to vanish from public memory and from political debates on how the U.S.-led war on terrorism was conducted and how it ended.

Another ongoing probe will likely shed even more light on the war, which lasted for over two decades, between 2001 and 2021.

The Afghanistan War Commission, a bipartisan legislative body comprised of former U.S. government officials with experience of the war, is probing the conflict. Its report is slated to be released in 2026.

Like the 9/11 Commission report, on which it is modeled, it is likely to attract a great deal of public interest and scrutiny.

What's Next: Renewed attention on Afghanistan will likely increase amid the partisan rancor ahead of the November 5 presidential election.

However, it is unlikely to prompt a significant change in Washington's policy toward the country in the short term.

What To Keep An Eye On

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov inaugurated the construction of the Afghan section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline.

On September 11, the Taliban held a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-delayed pipeline.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's top spokesman, said Ashgabat will invest in building the pipeline, money that will be returned, the group says, when his government begins collecting transit fees estimated to be more than $500 million per annum.

Mujahid said that the pipeline inside Afghanistan will be built in three phases. The first phase, according to the spokesman, will connect the Turkmen border to the western Afghan city of Herat and will be built within two years from now. It will then begin supplying gas to the energy-starved country. The second phase will extend the pipeline to the southern province of Helmand. In the third phase, TAPI will go through the southern province of Kandahar and on to Pakistan.

The 1,800-kilometer pipeline will carry 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually through southern Afghanistan to Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan Province. From there, it will go through Pakistan's eastern Punjab Province to Fazilka in India's northwestern Punjab state.

Why It's Important: TAPI has long been touted as a significant regional energy project.

But insecurity in Afghanistan and the lack of international investment has prevented it from taking shape.

Given the Taliban's lack of transparency about significant infrastructure projects, it is still possible that TAPI will remain just a pipe dream.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

A regional branch of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in central Afghanistan targeting Shi'ite pilgrims.

The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group on September 12 published images showing the massacred pilgrims, believed to belong to the Hazara minority persecuted by the Sunni IS-K.

Hadi Rahimi Zada, a former council member in Daykundi Province, where the killings took place, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that 14 people were killed by unidentified gunmen in the attack.

Some other local sources told Radio Azadi that the killings were carried out by armed men on motorcycles.

A resident of Daykundi Province who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns said that the group targeted had gathered to welcome pilgrims returning from Karbala in Iraq, a Shi'ite holy site.

"Their relatives had returned to Firouzkoh from Karbala. These people were going to welcome them. Four people attacked them and 14 people were killed," the source said. "They were all young men, and five others were injured."

Abdul Matin Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban's Interior Ministry confirmed the attack in Daykundi Province, saying on September 12 that further details would be announced.

The IS-K has carried out numerous attacks since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, often targeting Taliban officials, foreign nationals, and the Shi'ite Hazara community.

The IS-K was founded in Afghanistan in 2014 as a regional branch of the Islamic State extremist group that aims to expand throughout South and Central Asia. Khorasan refers to a historical region that comprised parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia.

After the Taliban's de facto government cut ties with a number of diplomatic missions operated abroad by diplomats loyal to the ousted Afghan republic, the British and Norwegian authorities have opted to shut down Afghan embassies on their soil.

Both Oslo and London say their decisions in no way represent official recognition of the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, which no country recognizes due to concerns over a woeful human rights record and other failures to live up to promises it made before seizing power in August 2021.

But experts say the embassy closures are likely to pave the way for more engagement with the Taliban, which controls all of Afghanistan's territory and has increased its hold on power.

Diplomats who served the former Afghan government were left in limbo when the Taliban took control, but remained open for business in some Western states and continued to assist Afghan citizens.

The window on their operations began to close when the Taliban announced in July that it was cutting ties with 14 such missions in Western countries and that it would not accept any consular documents they processed, a critical source of funding to keep them running.

Many of the consular services, such as verification of identity documents or police clearance, offered by the embassies do require a degree of cooperation from the country's government because diplomatic missions might not be able to access all government data.

This month, the British Foreign Office announced that it was shutting down the Afghan Embassy in London, explaining to RFE/RL on September 9 that the decision was made after the "dismissal of its staff by the Taliban."

Norway quickly followed suit, announcing that the Afghan Embassy in Oslo would be shut down on September 12.

SEE ALSO:

Afghan Embassy In London To Close After Diplomats Dismissed, Britain Says

Both the British and Norwegian governments have indicated that the move does not amount to a formal recognition of the Taliban's hard-line government. And the embassy buildings, which are Afghanistan's properties, will be eventually handed over to a "recognized" government of Afghanistan.

But Hameed Hakimi, an Afghanistan expert, says the decisions to shut the embassies can be taken as "reality setting in" that the Taliban is "unlikely to be replaced in the immediate future."

And for the Taliban, he says, it creates an opportunity to argue that its rule is being acknowledged, even without formal recognition.

"The Taliban can use this to their advantage in their pursuit of claiming legitimacy with the Afghans and internationally," said Hakimi, an associate fellow at London's Chatham House think tank.

More than a dozen countries, mostly Afghanistan's neighbors, already operate embassies in Kabul, and some have accredited Taliban diplomats. The Taliban government also partially controls diplomatic missions in some countries, and has established working relations with Afghan diplomatic missions in the Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and the Afghan Consulate in Munich.

The missions operating in Western countries staffed by diplomats appointed by the previous government are the outlier.

Hakimi said that if all those missions are shut down, it "truly signifies the closure of the chapter of the Afghan Islamic Republic."

The Afghan Islamic Republic, as it was formally known, emerged soon after a U.S.-led military alliance toppled the Taliban government in November 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Nearly two decades later, the internationally recognized Afghan republic collapsed as the Taliban seized power in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Taliban, meanwhile, recreated its brutal emirate from the 1990s by imposing harsh bans and discriminatory laws that resulted in widespread human rights violations. Afghan women and girls are deprived of education and employment in most sectors and lack fundamental freedoms.

These Taliban policies have so far kept its government from being officially recognized. This absence of recognition has complicated engagement with the Taliban government on important issues, such as humanitarian aid, and made it difficult for the estimated 2 million Afghans living in Western countries to access consular services.

Graeme Smith, a senior Afghanistan analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, says Western governments might be acting on the UN special coordinator's recommendation to facilitate the processing of documentation for Afghans abroad.

In his report endorsed by the UN Security Council in December 2023, Feridun Sinirlioglu, the UN special coordinator for Afghanistan, called for better cooperation between the Taliban regime and the outside world to ensure that Afghans can obtain the paperwork they need to continue with their daily lives.

"Afghans have been suffering in limbo without clarity about where to go when they need identity papers or travel documents," Smith said, describing how Afghans who still do not have travel documents from another country suffer from the lack of consular services.

"The steps we are witnessing now may represent practical efforts by some governments" to remedy the situation, Smith said.

The challenge remains, he said, to ensure that efforts "aimed at pressuring the regime do not sabotage the lives and livelihoods of Afghans."

Many Western capitals are also grappling with the complex issue of what to do with Afghan asylum seekers whose applications were rejected.

Last month, Germany deported 28 Afghan men convicted of crimes in the country to Kabul, with Qatar playing an intermediary role in securing the Taliban's cooperation in accepting the returning Afghans.

Smith said that some countries "are discovering the usefulness" of having a consular presence "connected to the authorities in Kabul" if they need to arrange the return of Afghan migrants.

"But it's unclear if that motivated the recent closures," he said.

Both Britain and Norway have not said anything about whether they will allow the Taliban government to offer consular services in London and Oslo.

The fates of the Afghan Embassy in Berlin and consulate in Bonn are not clear, although the consulate in Munich is likely to remain open because it cooperates with the Taliban government on consular services.

In London, Afghanistan expert Hakimi said the closure could create an "opportunity for the Taliban to lobby with the Western countries" and allow its representatives to at least run counselor services.

These Afghan diplomatic missions can remain closed indefinitely, similar to what happened in the United States, where the Afghan Embassy and two consulates have been closed since March 2002. The Afghan Embassy in Canada offers remote consular services to Afghans living in the United States.

In Norway, Afghans have mixed feelings about their embassy's closure.

Sima Nouri, an Afghan woman living in Oslo, is worried over how her compatriots will now access consular services.

"There is a possibility that the process of forced deportation of Afghan refugees will begin," she told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "This process, however, must be stopped."

Mina Rafiq, another Afghan woman in Norway, prefers shutting the embassy down to cooperating with the Taliban.

"This might work to the advantage of Afghan asylum seekers," she said, "because the Norwegian government will now have to give them necessary documents."

Taliban authorities confirmed on September 12 that civilians had been shot dead that day in an attack in central Afghanistan but provided no further details. "Unknown gunmen have opened fire and have killed the civilians," Abdul Matin Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban's Interior Ministry told the AFP news agency, adding that further details on the attack in Daykundi Province would be announced later. Local sources told RFE/RL that unidentified armed men on motorbikes shot dead at least 12 Hazara civilians at the border of Afghanistan’s Ghor and Daykundi provinces. The sources spoke with RFE/RL on condition of anonymity for security reasons. A source in the province who spoke with AFP said 14 people were killed and at least four wounded. The source said a group had gathered to welcome pilgrims returning from Karbala in Iraq, a Shi’ite holy site. The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

A small group of Afghan women took to the streets of Kabul on September 11 in a rare protest to demand their rights and call on the international community to denounce Taliban rule. More than 10 women participated in the demonstration, advocating for the restoration of basic freedoms that have been severely curtailed under the Taliban-led government since the group seized power three years ago. The protest was organized by the Afghan Women's History Transformation Movement. Ruqiya Sa'i, head of the movement, said the women ended the protest after 30 minutes because of the possibility of a violent attack by the Taliban. The severe restrictions on women ban education beyond the sixth grade and bar them from working in many offices. To read the full story by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, click here.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, Secretary of State Colin Powell gave assurances that America would deal with the tragedy by bringing those responsible to justice while protecting the world's democracies.

"They will never be allowed to kill the spirit of democracy," Powell said. "They cannot destroy our society. They cannot destroy our belief in the democratic way."

President George W. Bush, who won office in 2000 as a candidate who would be cautious about committing U.S. troops to foreign wars, quickly made fighting global terrorism a top policy, and set about establishing an international "coalition of the willing" to carry out the mission.

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan had the primary goal of punishing the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, which had been given refuge in Afghanistan and carried out the deadly 9/11 attacks. And once on Afghan soil, Washington quickly ousted the Taliban regime accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda from power.

Costly Campaign

But the U.S. experience in Afghanistan ultimately ended in failure, and with the hard-line Taliban group back in power. The nearly 20-year war ended with immense costs in terms of lives lost and money spent. And it made the U.S. public and politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington reluctant to get involved in "forever wars" that could not be won.

"More than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan," U.S. President Joe Biden said on August 31, 2021, in announcing the official end of the United States' longest-ever war. "20,744 American servicemen and women injured, and the loss of 2,461 American personnel."

In explaining to the U.S. public that he was "not going to extend this forever war," Biden did not mention the estimated 70,000 deaths among Afghan security forces, more than 46,000 Afghan civilian deaths, and the deaths of more than 4,000 allied troops and U.S. contractors.

The withdrawal under Biden has become a lightning rod for debate ahead of the U.S. presidential election on November 5. Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump has blasted Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump, for the "humiliation in Afghanistan," with much of the criticism centered on the chaotic last days of the withdrawal, when 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghan civilians died in a bombing by the Islamic State-Khorasan extremist group.

Harris's campaign, meanwhile, has highlighted Trump's role as president in signing the 2020 deal with the Taliban that paved the way for the withdrawal and provided a "virtually impossible" deadline.

But experts who spoke to RFE/RL stressed that multiple U.S. administrations, beginning with Democratic President Barack Obama's from 2009 to 2017 -- had come to the realization that what had begun as a fight against terrorism had become an overly costly and potentially "forever" endeavor.

"It was an extremely expensive war in a place that was probably least important to the United States," said Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. "It was a war that the United States started to destroy Al-Qaeda, which it did very quickly, then to dislodge the Taliban from Afghanistan, which it did, and then it became something much bigger, like how to establish a democracy and a functioning government in Afghanistan and sustain it."

The question asked by Obama, who initiated an exit strategy by reducing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and later Trump, was whether there was a compelling reason to stay.

The United States "was becoming committed to a forever war, or a forever presence at the tune of billions of dollars a year and tens of thousands of troops, in a condition that the threat from Afghanistan had declined and the strategic value of the country was declining," Nasr said.

And the economy and civil society established under the protection of the U.S. military, he says, was not something Afghanistan could sustain on its own.

"What the United States created is like a tree that never grew roots," Nasr said. "So, at some point you're going to say, 'I'm going to stop watering it, and I'm going to take my hand off from trying to forcibly keep it upright.'"

No Good Outcome

Rajan Menon, an emeritus professor of international relations at the City College of New York and director of the Grand Strategy Program at Defense Priorities, said that "no matter how long [the United States] had stayed, I don't see what a good ending could have been."

The minimal good outcome, Menon says, would have been "a stable country with a government that may not have been democratic, but which could be counted upon not to serve as a platform for terror and which would have a positive relationship with the United States."

But in attempting to realize that goal, what you are essentially "trying to do is engage in nation-building," Menon said. Even a "very, very powerful military machine" like the United States has difficulties pulling that off, he said, and there "are no pretty exits."

To avoid the chaotic type of withdrawal that took place in Afghanistan, Menon said, "you have to build institutions, political and military and civic in nature." Without that, "once you leave and remove the military protection, the institutions will start crumbling, and that is exactly what happened."

U.S. wars and democracy-building efforts were not isolated to Afghanistan during its nearly 20-year campaign there. There were others -- most notably the costly war in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 -- that former Secretary of State Powell argued was necessitated by an alleged Iraqi program to build weapons of mass destruction that was later determined to be nonexistent.

Prior to his death in 2021 just six weeks after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Powell said that his arguments before the UN Security Council "was a great intelligence failure."

Baghdad and the United States, which sent troops back to Iraq in 2014 to help fight the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, are still trying to repair relations. According to the Soufan Center think tank on September 9, the two sides reportedly have reached an agreement to transition from the United States leading the effort against IS to a bilateral partnership.

'Forever' Ending?

So is the U.S. era of "forever wars" over?

Many of the unique circumstances that accompanied the Afghan invasion -- a direct attack on U.S. soil, counterterrorism becoming a focal point of U.S. policy, and the idea that nation-building is an effective solution -- are unlikely to repeat themselves, Nasr says.

And the mood in the United States amid a hotly contested election campaign could indicate that it will at least think twice.

With both Trump and Harris there is "a little bit of a backlash against the so-called forever wars...and I think the American public probably will be much less supportive" of involvement in them in the future," Menon said.

But Madiha Afzal, a fellow in the foreign policy program at Brookings, said in written comments that while "some of the lessons from the Afghanistan war" had started being discussed, particularly in the last couple of years of the conflict, "the disaster of the withdrawal...really focused the conversation in America on Afghanistan to be just about the withdrawal."

The larger discussion about the war, Afzal said, "has been entirely obscured," with much of the conversation becoming intensely partisan.

"I fear that the larger lessons of the 20-year war have been lost along the way," Afzal concluded.

The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) extremist group has regained a foothold in northwestern Pakistan, imposing its brutal rule on hundreds of thousands of people.

Those who live under the TTP say the hard-line Islamist group has severely curbed freedoms and rights, including those of women. Assassinations, kidnappings, extortion, and harassment dominate daily life in some areas, they say.

The TTP was ousted from its bases by a major Pakistani military offensive in 2014. But in recent years it has reestablished its control in pockets of Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where it is currently active in 10 of the 34 districts.

The TTP often rules during the night. After dark, government forces frequently retreat to their posts and bases, and many civilians refuse to venture outside for fear of the militants, locals say.

The return of the TTP to the region has triggered an exodus that has seen thousands of professionals, businesspeople, and wealthy landowners flee the region.

“No one is safe, and no place is immune from their presence,” said Humayun Mehsud, who recently fled the district of South Waziristan. “They have returned in strength.”

Mehsud said he escaped his village after the TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, kidnapped and killed his brother, a government worker.

Mehsud, who now lives in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said the TTP has established its own government in South Waziristan, which is home to around 900,000 people. The militants, he said, control the local economy and have established makeshift courts to settle disputes among locals.

'Atmosphere Of Fear'

The TTP has imposed its extremist version of Islam in areas they control, locals say.

Listening to or playing music is banned. Barbers are barred from shaving or trimming men’s beards. Some girls’ schools have been shut or destroyed and restrictions have been placed on women leaving their homes in some areas.

"They want to limit our lives here the same way the Afghan Taliban did in their country,” said Saleem, a resident of the district of Lakki Marwat.

The TTP and Afghan Taliban have close ideological and organizational ties. Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in 2021, of sheltering the Pakistani militants.

Saleem, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, said the TTP has replaced the local authorities in Lakki Marwat, which is home to around 1 million people.

The police, he said, have abandoned their posts after coming under constant TTP attacks and locals are fleeing by their thousands.

Mohsin Tabeer Khan, a political activist and former university lecturer, is among those who have stayed in Lakki Marwat. Critical of the TTP, he has received threats from the militant group.

"The atmosphere of fear is pervasive," said Khan. "Everyone locks themselves up after sunset."

Khan said the TTP has targeted local government workers and security personnel in the district.

“If they catch you carrying a government ID card, you have to worry about your life,” he said.

Abubakar Kurmiwal said the TTP has recently made inroads in the district of Kurram.

He said the TTP on August 14 kidnapped his cousin, who was accused of being a government spy. Four days later, his body was found on the side of the road, he said.

“Women cannot leave their houses because of these militants,” he said. ‘The militants often force locals to feed them.”

Last month, the only school in his village was closed after all its teachers fled, he said.

'State Authority Collapses'

Mohsin Dawar, a former lawmaker, has witnessed the TTP’s growing influence in his native district of North Waziristan.

First, it started with TTP fighters forcing locals to feed them, said Dawar. Soon after, the militants extorted businessmen and wealthy landowners. Now, they are destroying schools for girls in the district, he said.

“As the [Pakistani] Taliban gains strength, the state authority collapses,” said Dawar, who heads the secular National Democratic Movement (NDM) party.

“They first want to kill people whose deaths will generate news,” he said. "Everyone is at risk, but those who have some prominence in society are in their crosshairs,” added Dawar, who has survived several assassination attempts.

The TTP’s attacks have surged in Pakistan in recent years. The militant group has often targeted the army and police and largely refrained from hitting civilian targets.

Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based researcher who tracks the TTP, said the group is “primarily targeting” the security forces in an attempt to drive them out of the region.

Pakistan earlier this year said the military would launch a new offensive to root out militants in the region. The planned military operation has been fiercely opposed by locals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the scene of numerous offensives that killed thousands and uprooted millions of civilians in the past.

Protests have similarly been staged against the TTP and its return to the region.

Abdul Wahid, a local leader of the secular Awami National Party, said locals no longer fear the militants or the Pakistani military after enduring years of strife.

“There is a lot of political awareness here now,” said Wahid, who is from the district of Khyber. “We will protest and resist peacefully.”

The Afghan Embassy in London is being shut down after its diplomats were dismissed by the country's Taliban rulers, Britain's Foreign Office said on September 9.

A Foreign Office statement e-mailed to RFE/RL said the embassy "is being closed following the dismissal of its staff by the Taliban." Britain does not recognize the Taliban-led government.

But the Afghan ambassador said the decision was made "based on the requirements of the host country's authorities." Zalmai Rassoul said on X that the embassy would shut its doors on September 27 "at the official request of the host country."

Neither the U.K. government nor the ambassador said what would happen to the embassy's staff, but a source at the Afghan Embassy who spoke with RFE/RL said the British government had given embassy staff 90 days to leave the country or apply for political asylum.

The source said the British Foreign Office also said that the embassy building would not be handed over to the Taliban and that the British government would not allow any Afghan political representation or consulate to operate until a recognized government was established in Afghanistan.

The Taliban-led government had asked the embassy staff to interact with the Foreign Office, but the embassy staff refused, and as a result, the embassy's services were declared invalid by the Taliban.

The news has worried Afghans living in Britain, who fear problems without the diplomatic services.

"After this, we Afghans will face many challenges because Afghans need to renew their passports, identity cards, and other documents," Sayed Shah Kharoti and Malik, two Afghans living in London, told RFE/RL.

Diplomats who served under Afghanistan's former Western-backed government were left in limbo when the Taliban seized Kabul and returned to power in August 2021. Many embassies in Europe and beyond have continued to operate.

In another indication that this could be changing, the Afghan Embassy in Oslo announced on September 9 that it will cease its activities as of September 12 and hand over the embassy building, which is the property of Afghanistan, to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

SEE ALSO:

Taliban Cuts Ties With 14 Afghan Diplomatic Missions Abroad

The Taliban administration announced in July that it no longer recognized diplomatic missions set up by the former Western-backed government and that documents issued by embassies in Britain and 13 other mostly European countries were invalid.

Many Taliban leaders are under sanctions, and no country officially recognizes them as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers, though some countries retain active diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, including Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, and China.

SEE ALSO:

Which Countries Have Relations With The Taliban's Unrecognized Government?

Afghanistan has sent Taliban-approved diplomats to some of those countries, including Pakistan and China.

Britain and other Western countries are grappling with how to provide humanitarian aid Afghans without recognizing the Taliban-led government, which has dramatically curtailed education, employment, and personal freedom for women and girls.

With reporting by AP

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk launched a four-week session of the UN's Human Rights Council with a call for global leadership to avert a "dystopian future," invoking urgent warnings about the treatment of women in Taliban-led Afghanistan and Ukrainians under near-constant Russian attack.

Midway through his four-year mandate as the UN's leading voice on human rights, Turk said the world was "at a fork in the road."

The world faces a choice between continuing into "a treacherous 'new normal'" that fosters "sleepwalk[ing] into a dystopian future" or "wak[ing] up and turn[ing] things around for the better, for humanity and the planet," he said.

Turk cited "endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically 'advanced' methods of warfare, control, and repression."

He also cited indifference to inequalities between and within countries, a disinformation "free-for-all," the twisting of national sovereignty "to shroud -- or excuse -- horrific violations," and the discrediting of multilateral institutions or trying to "rewrite the international rules."

Turk said human rights aren't in crisis, "but political leadership needed to make them a reality is."

"At their most extreme, for example in Afghanistan, despicable laws and policies are effectively erasing women from public life," Turk said in reference to the Taliban-led government that has led that country since a U.S.-led international coalition withdrew in mid-2021.

The Taliban seized power promising more moderate policies than when the hard-line fundamentalist group ruled the country some two decades earlier, but its leaders have since doubled down on the recreation of a totalitarian clerical regime, especially with regard to women, who have effectively been denied any public role in society.

Afghan women have been banned from working in many sectors and are barred from recreation and leisure activities such as visiting public parks and public baths, and also face severe restrictions on where and how they can appear in public.

Turk's concerns on Afghanistan were echoed in a warning ahead of the session by a Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement saying the UN Human Rights Council "should urgently create an independent body to pursue accountability for all those responsible for serious abuses -- past and present -- in Afghanistan."

HRW said the human rights and humanitarian reality there had "gravely spiraled downward" since August 2021.

Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said in his report ahead of the 57th session of the Human Rights Council that women and girls had been victim to ever-greater restrictions under the Taliban.

In his wide-ranging speech, Turk also talked about horrific conditions for millions of Ukrainians and a region of Russia recently occupied by Ukraine as Russia's full-scale invasion grinds through its third year.

"In Ukraine, civilians are trapped in cycles of terror, through ongoing attacks by the Russian Federation striking civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and supermarkets, and repeated waves of targeting of energy infrastructure leading to country-wide blackouts," Turk said. "I fear for Ukrainians this coming winter."

He also cited the "horrific" attacks in Israel by the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas that killed more than 1,200 people and injured many more, and the subsequent deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces.

Fighting erupted again on September 9 between Taliban forces and Pakistani security forces in the Kurram-Khost border areas, with eyewitnesses saying the violence included heavy weaponry and one elder saying a Pakistani soldier had been killed, although that could not be confirmed.

The outbreak follows reports of intense clashes in the same border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan that caused multiple casualties over the weekend.

Locals on the Afghan side of the border told Radio Mashaal that the latest fighting started around 1 p.m. local time on September 9.

Residents were said to be fleeing the villages of Palotsa and Setwan in the Zazai Maidan district of Afghanistan's Khost Province.

SEE ALSO:

The Azadi Briefing: Reclusive Afghan Taliban Chief Appears To Make Rare Trip

A local elder told Radio Mashaal that a Pakistani soldier had been killed but Radio Mashaal could not independently confirm that report.

Intermittent outbreaks of violence have heightened concerns about security in the region, with recent fighting sparked by an attempt to erect a security outpost on the Afghan side that Pakistani troops tried to stop.

Islamabad insists mutual agreements preclude the construction of new security posts by either side.

The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has disputed Pakistani accusations that it is allowing gunmen linked to the outlawed Tehrik-e Taliban to shelter in the area and launch cross-border attacks in Pakistan.

The Taliban has moved reinforcement troops, artillery, and tanks to the area.

Radio Mashaal's Khost correspondent said the Taliban was preventing locals and journalists from sharing information with media or outsiders.

The State Department accused House Republicans of cherry-picking the facts and withholding information in a lengthy report on the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in August 2021.

The State Department's response to the report issued by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on September 9 also highlighted the deeply partisan nature of the report in the midst of the U.S. presidential campaign.

The Republicans on the committee and other Republicans in the House of Representatives, where the party holds the majority, "issued partisan statements, cherry-picked facts, withheld testimonies from the American people, and obfuscated the truth behind conjecture," the State Department said.

The report specifically points to the Biden-Harris administration and their "failure to plan for all contingencies."

The House Republicans blamed the disastrous end of the United States' longest war on the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats' current presidential nominee. The role of former President Donald Trump, who had signed the withdrawal deal with the Taliban, was minimized.

Representative Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the review revealed that the Biden administration "had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government."

But instead of taking steps toward a safe evacuatation "the administration picked optics over security," McCaul said in a statement.

The review lays out the final months of military and civilian failures, following Trump's February 2020 withdrawal deal, that allowed the fundamentalist Taliban to sweep through and conquer all of the country even before the last U.S. officials flew out on August 30, 2021.

The chaotic exit left behind many U.S. citizens, Afghan battlefield allies, women activists, and others at risk from the Taliban.

The State Department said Biden "acted in the best interests of the American people when he decided to bring our troops home and end America's longest war."

The department's response also drew similarities to a 2022 report prepared by Republican lawmakers, which it said "did a deep disservice to the American people by further politicizing U.S. policy towards Afghanistan instead of focusing on bipartisan solutions."

Kyrgyzstan's foreign minister said on September 6 that the country had taken the Taliban off of its terrorist list "to secure regional stability and further develop the ongoing dialogue." A day earlier, the Taliban-led Afghan government's Foreign Ministry expressed thanks to Bishkek for removing the group from its terrorist list. The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office earlier this week issued a list of 20 groups labeled as terrorist organizations. It did not include the Taliban. In early June, Kazakhstan said it removed the Taliban from its terrorist list. The Taliban regained control over Afghanistan in August 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, appears to have made a rare trip outside his stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

The reclusive leader seldom leaves the southern city of Kandahar, which is known as the birthplace of the Taliban and has become the de facto capital under the militant group’s rule.

But this week, the Taliban said Akhundzada travelled to northern Afghanistan in what is believed to be his first trip to the region since the group’s takeover in 2021.

Videos uploaded by the Taliban on social media showed a long convoy of armored cars traveling to cities and towns in the provinces of Badghis, Faryab, Jowzjan, Balkh, and Samangan.

Akhundzada was not seen in any of the videos or photos released by the Taliban. In its press statements, the Taliban said he met local officials and called on them to enforce a new draconian morality law.

Adopted on August 21, the widely condemned law imposes severe restrictions on the appearances and movements of women and men.

Why It's Important: Akhundzada, a hard-line cleric, is believed to only meet a small cadre of Taliban officials and avoids public appearances. He has rarely met foreign diplomats or dignitaries visiting Afghanistan. The Taliban chief also avoids being photographed or filmed.

Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, said Akhundzada’s trip to northern Afghanistan was aimed at projecting power and confidence.

As the Taliban’s “Amir ul-Momineen," or leader of the faithful, Akhundzada has the final say on all important matters.

Akhundzada’s extremist policies, many of them reminiscent of those under the Taliban’s brutal regime in the 1990s, has made the militant group an international pariah.

What's Next: It’s unclear whether Akhundzada will play a more active and visible role, or if his recent trip was a one-off.

But what is clear is that he has consolidated power and empowered extremist clerics within the Taliban, despite growing internal opposition to his policies.

What To Keep An Eye On

Afghan migrants and refugees have complained that they are being detained and harassed in neighboring Pakistan.

Police detained a group of Afghans in a neighborhood in the capital, Islamabad, on September 4.

"We were scared and surprised," Sabira, an Afghan woman, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

She said police questioned several Afghan families visiting a park in Islamabad's B-17 neighborhood.

Why It's Important: The detentions appear to suggest the Pakistani authorities could launch a new crackdown on Afghans.

Last year, Islamabad expelled more than 500,000 Afghans as part of its campaign to deport undocumented migrants from the country.

Earlier this year, Pakistan suspended the planned expulsion of more Afghans amid mounting international pressure.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group claimed responsibility on September 3 for an attack in the Afghan capital a day earlier that killed at least six people and injured 13 more. The attack is believed to have been targeting the Taliban-led government's prosecution offices. VOA's Pashto service and the AFP news agency quoted the IS group's Amaq media wing as claiming IS was behind what it said was a suicide attack once "prosecutor's employees were leaving their shifts." Some witnesses claimed a much higher death toll, and the Amaq report claimed "more than 45" had been killed or wounded. The Sunni-led Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) branch has carried out numerous attacks since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, often targeting Taliban officials, foreign nationals, and the Shi'ite Hazara community.

At least six people were killed and 13 injured in a blast in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on September 2, representatives of the de facto Taliban rulers said. Witnesses said the incident took place near the Attorney General's Office in the capital, with some residents telling RFE/RL's Radio Adazi that at least 15 people had been killed. Police officials declared it a "suicide attack," but details remain scarce. Residents near the emergency hospital in the Shahr-e Naw neighborhood told Radio Azadi they saw bodies and injured being taken by ambulance to the hospital. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Sunni-led Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) branch has carried out numerous attacks since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, often targeting Taliban officials, foreign nationals, and the Shi'ite Hazara community. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, click here.

Richard Bennett, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, says he has arrived in Qatar to meet with "diverse groups" of Afghan men and women, along with government representatives, on the situation in Afghanistan. The country's de facto Taliban rulers barred Bennett from entering Afghanistan late last month, accusing him of "spreading propaganda." Since being appointed to the UN post in May 2022, Bennett has made several trips to Afghanistan and has accused the Taliban of violating human rights, especially in regard to the rights of girls and women. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, click here.

The United Nations said it will continue to engage with all parties in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, even after the hard-line rulers issued a “distressing” new morality law that severely bans women’s activities in public.

“We have been very vocal on the decision to further make women’s presence almost disappear in Afghanistan,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a news conference in New York on August 31.

“In terms of the contacts with the de facto authorities...we will continue to engage with all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban.”

"We have always done so following our mandate. And I would say impartially and in good faith, always upholding the norms of the UN, pushing the messages of human rights and equality. And we will continue our work as mandated by the Security Council,” he added.

Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said on August 25 that the laws presented a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future.

The laws expand the "already intolerable restrictions” on the rights of women and girls -- with “even the sound of a female voice” in public deemed a violation of morality laws.

SEE ALSO:

Afghanistan Slides Into 'Ever More Hellish Conditions' After New Morality Law Enacted

The Taliban has attempted to police the public appearances and behavior of millions of Afghans, especially women, since seizing power in 2021.

Enforcement of the extremist group’s rules governing morality, including its strict Islamic dress code and gender segregation in society, was sporadic and uneven across the country.

But on August 21, the hard-line Islamist group formally codified into law its long set of draconian restrictions, triggering fear among Afghans of stricter enforcement.

The Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice imposes severe restrictions on the appearances, behavior, and movement of women. The law also enforces constraints on men.

Taliban leaders say the laws are based on their interpretation of Shari'a law.

SEE ALSO:

The Azadi Briefing: Afghan Clerics Are Opposing Taliban Bans On Female Education

Several leading Afghan clerics have come out publicly to oppose the latest restrictions.

Mawlawi Abdul Sami Ghaznavi, said it was the Taliban’s "responsibility to create favorable conditions for women's education."

On August 27, the UN Human Commission on Human Rights demanded that the "repressive law be immediately repealed."

"This is utterly intolerable," it said.

"We call on the de facto authorities to immediately repeal this legislation, which is in clear violation of Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law."

With reporting by AP

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban's hard-line higher education minister has defended the extremist group's severe restrictions on female education.

The Islamist group has barred girls from attending school past the sixth grade and banned women from going to university.

In a press conference on August 24, Nida Mohammad Nadim said the Taliban's widely condemned restrictions were "not in conflict with Islam."

He added that questioning the Taliban's policies on education were also banned.

But that has not stopped senior Afghan clerics from criticizing Nadim and the Taliban's controversial education policies.

Mawlana Sibghatullah Mawlawizada, one of the most senior clerics in the western city of Herat, on August 25 challenged Nadim to a public debate.

"I urge him to discuss the [religious] legality of [of the ban on] female education in the presence of national and international media," Mawlawizada said in a video message.

Nadim has not publicly responded to Mawlawizada.

Another leading Afghan cleric, Mawlawi Abdul Sami Ghaznavi, also challenged the Taliban. He said it was the group's "responsibility to create favorable conditions for women's education."

Why It's Important: A growing number of Afghan religious scholars are openly challenging the Taliban's restrictions on female education.

Even some Afghan clerics working for the Taliban-led government have publicly opposed the bans. They have said there is no justification for banning female education under Islam.

Islamic scholars across the world have condemned the Taliban's restrictions. Afghanistan is the only country in the Muslim world where teenage girls and women are banned from receiving an education.

What's Next: Despite domestic and international criticism and pressure, the Taliban is unlikely to reverse its education bans.

Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban's extremist policies have made its unrecognized government an international pariah.

What To Keep An Eye On

Protesters in northwestern Pakistan have blocked Torkham, a key border crossing with Afghanistan. The move has concerned Afghan traders who fear a big financial hit.

Khan Jan Alakozai, a senior official of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, said thousands of trucks transporting fresh Afghan fruits and vegetables have been stranded at the crossing.

"If the border is not opened, some traders will lose their businesses altogether while others will incur mourning custom duties," he told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi on August 29.

Since August 22, members of a Pashtun tribe displaced by a Pakistani military operation have blocked the crossing in protest.

Why It's Important: The frequent closures of Torkham and Chaman, another key crossing, have disrupted trade between the two neighbors.

In recent years, Islamabad has closed the border crossings after clashes between Pakistani and Taliban border guards.

Pakistan has also shuttered the border to pressure the Afghan Taliban to expel the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan extremist group, which is believed to be based in Afghanistan.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Germany has followed through on its announcement that it would deport "criminal" Afghan refugees and asylum seekers back to Afghanistan despite not having formal relations with the Taliban’s de-facto government.

A plane carrying 28 Afghan men convicted of crimes in Germany took off from Leipzig/Halle Airport for Kabul early on August 30, according to German officials. The men had been transported from across the country to Leipzig for the flight, which was arranged by the Interior Ministry.

A senior official from the Taliban's Transportation and Civil Aviation Ministry, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to Radio Azadi that they had given approval for a plane flying from Leipzig to land at Kabul International Airport. The official declined to provide any details regarding the passengers onboard the aircraft, which was expected to arrive in Kabul in the evening.

All of the deportees aboard the chartered Qatar Airways flight were "convicted offenders who had no right to stay in Germany and against whom deportation orders had been issued," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
Hebestreit said Berlin had "asked key regional partners for support in order to facilitate the deportations," without providing further details.

A spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said on August 30 that Germany had no intention of normalizing its relations with the Taliban.

SEE ALSO:

Afghanistan Slides Into 'Ever More Hellish Conditions' After New Morality Law Enacted

"As long as the general conditions are as they are and the Taliban behave the way they do, there will be no effort to normalize relations with the Taliban," the spokesperson said. "There are contacts on a technical level, especially through our representative office in Doha."

Germany's Der Spiegel magazine said the operation followed two months of "secret negotiations" in which Qatar, which has sustainable contacts with the Taliban authorities, served as an intermediary between Germany and the Taliban-led government.

The controversial development comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in June that Germany would restart deportations of dangerous criminals and terror suspects to Afghanistan and Syria.

Scholz's announcement came after an Afghan refugee was charged in a deadly knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May. This week, after a Syrian refugee suspected of killing three people in Solingen was taken into custody, Scholz vowed to speed up deportations.

The issue has also become a major topic of debate ahead of regional elections on September 1 in the Saxony and Thuringia regions, where anti-immigration parties are expected to do well.

SEE ALSO:

3 Years Later, Afghans Still Reeling From Impact Of Devastating Kabul Airport Attack

Germany emerged as a major destination for Afghans fleeing insecurity and poverty at home and, after the Taliban retook power after nearly 20 years of war against a U.S.-led coalition, the prospect of persecution by the hard-line Islamist group.

Following the Taliban takeover in 2021, Germany halted deportations to Afghanistan and, like all countries, has refused to recognize the Taliban-led government and has no formal relations with it.

Germany is also a major destination for Syrians seeking to escape that country's civil war and rule under leader Bashar al-Assad. Syrians are the largest refugee group in Germany, with hundreds of thousands allowed into the country since 2015.

In 2020, Germany allowed a ban on deportations to Syria that had been in place since 2012 to expire.

The backlash against refugees and asylum-seekers rose significantly among conservative and hard-right politicians after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of stabbing a German police officer to death and injuring five others in May.

In June, Scholz met with leaders of Germany’s 16 states in Berlin to discuss restarting deportations of Afghan and Syrian immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

SEE ALSO:

The Azadi Briefing: Thousands Of Afghans Detained By Taliban's Morality Police

Michael Stuebgen, the interior minister of the eastern state of Brandenburg, argued that Germany could engage in talks with the Taliban and that parts of Syria are secure enough to allow the returns of refugees.

In lieu of relations with the Taliban, Interior Ministry officials reportedly considered the possibility of routing Afghan deportees through third countries such as Uzbekistan and also discussed ways of conducting asylum proceedings in third countries.

Opponents argue that deportations of Afghans and Syrian refugees would go against the German Constitution and commitments under international law and that the outsourcing of asylum procedures would violate asylum-seekers' human rights.

Amnesty International Germany on August 30 harshly criticized the resumption of deportations.

"The rule of law also means adhering to international law," the rights watchdog said on X. "Extrajudicial executions, disappearances, and torture are the order of the day in Afghanistan. No one is safe there. If the German government deports people anyway it risks becoming an accomplice of the Taliban."

As the issue heated up in recent months, the Interior Ministry stressed that the deportations would affect only a small number of people.

The German government did not provide details on the crimes for which the 28 Afghans deported on August 30 had been convicted. However, AFP quoted the Justice Ministry of the Baden-Wuerttemberg state reportedly said one was convicted of participating in a gang rape of a 14-year old girl and another had more than 160 criminal convictions.

Following news that the deportation of Afghans had resumed, Green party co-leader Omid Nouripour was quoted as saying he welcomed the effort to expel serious criminals but said it did not signal the start of large-scale deportations.

"Law-abiding people, especially families and children who have fled from radical Islamists," are protected in Germany, he said.

With reporting by AP and AFP

A Pakistani Army colonel and several members of his immediate families have been abducted, authorities said early on August 29. The officer, two of his brothers, and a nephew were kidnapped while attending a family funeral in the Kalach area of Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, security sources told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. The banned Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a message to Radio Mashaal, adding that those kidnapped were safe. The incident comes after the government launched an operation against militants that it says are coming into Pakistan from neighboring Afghanistan.

The Taliban has attempted to police the public appearances and behavior of millions of Afghans, especially women, since seizing power in 2021.

But the enforcement of the extremist group’s rules governing morality, including its strict Islamic dress code and gender segregation in society, was sporadic and uneven across the country.

Now, the hard-line Islamist group has formally codified into law its long set of draconian restrictions, triggering fear among Afghans of stricter enforcement.

The Law On the Propagation Of Virtue And Prevention Of Vice, which was officially enacted and published on August 21, imposes severe restrictions on the appearances, behavior, and movement of women. The law also enforces constraints on men.

Adela, a middle-aged woman, is the sole breadwinner for her family of 10. She is concerned that the new morality law will erode the few rights that women still have.

The Taliban has allowed some women, primarily in the health and education sectors, to work outside their homes.

"I fear that Afghan women will no longer be able to go to their jobs," Adela, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Dilawar, a resident of the capital, Kabul, warned of a public backlash if the Taliban intensified the enforcement of its widely detested restrictions.

"The youth are suffering from extreme unemployment. Oppressing them…will provoke reactions," the 26-year-old, whose name was also changed due to security concerns, told Radio Azadi.

Long List Of Restrictions

The new morality law consists of 35 articles, many of which target women.

Women are required to fully cover their faces and bodies when in public and are banned from wearing "transparent, tight, or short" clothing. The law also bans women from raising their voices or singing in public.

Women must also be accompanied by a male chaperone when they leave their homes and cannot use public transport without a male companion.

The law forbids unrelated adult men and women from looking at each other in public.

Men must also dress modestly, even when playing sports or exercising. They are prohibited from shaving or trimming their beards. Men are also compelled to attend prayers as well as fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

“[Men] should not get haircuts, which violate Islamic Shari’a law,” says one of the articles in the law. "Friendship and helping [non-Muslim] infidels and mimicking their appearance" is prohibited.

Afghans are forbidden from "using or promoting" crossses, neckties, and other symbols deemed to be Western.

Premarital sex and homosexuality are outlawed. Drinking alcohol, the use of illicit drugs, and gambling are considered serious crimes.

Playing or listening to music in public is banned. Meanwhile, the celebration of non-Muslim holidays, including Norouz, the Persian New Year, are also prohibited.

The Taliban’s dreaded morality police are responsible for enforcing the morality law. The force, believed to number several thousand, is overseen by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Under the new law, the powers of the morality police have been expanded.

Members of the force will be deployed across the country to monitor compliance, according to the law. Members of the morality police are instructed to issue warnings to offenders. Repeat offenders can be detained, fined, and even have their property confiscated.

The morality police can detain offenders for up to three days and hand out punishments "deemed appropriate" without a trial.

The Taliban revealed last week that the force detained more than 13,000 Afghans during the past year for violating the extremist group’s morality rules.

'Hellish Conditions'

The Taliban’s morality law has been widely condemned by Afghans, Western countries, and human rights organizations.

The Taliban has defended the law, which it claims is “firmly rooted in Islamic teachings.”

"This new law is deeply harmful," said Heather Barr, associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch. "It represents a hardening and institutionalization of these rules by giving them the status of law."

She said the law is a "serious escalation" and "swift slide to ever more hellish conditions for Afghan women and girls."

Roza Otunbaeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, on August 25 called the law a "distressing vision for Afghanistan's future" because of the broad powers the Taliban’s morality police will have "to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions."

Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer of politics at the American University of Afghanistan, said that parts of the morality law are "extremely vague."

Yet, the morality police are given broad powers, including to "arbitrarily" punish people without due process, he said.

"[This is] making them the judge, jury, and executioner," said Baheer.

Afghanistan is one of the largest recipients of humanitarian aid from the European Union, EU officials said on August 27, one day after saying it was appalled by a new decree issued by the Taliban-led government further restricting the lives of women.

The European Union this year has provided 125 million euros ($139 million) to Afghanistan for humanitarian-aid purposes, Balazs Ujvari, European Commission spokesman for budget, human resources, humanitarian aid, and crisis management, said at a European Commission news briefing in Brussels.

In addition to classic aid distribution, the EU has also organized 35 “air-bridge” flights carrying 1,600 tons of aid since 2021.

“This shows that in a broad variety of areas, we are deploying a variety of humanitarian and civil-protection tools as well to try and alleviate the ongoing difficulties in the country," Ujvari said.

European Commission chief spokesman Eric Mamer added that when the EU distributes humanitarian aid, it works with partner organizations, not the government.

Nabila Massrali, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said the EU reacted very quickly on August 26 to the Taliban’s so-called Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, but at the same time she defended keeping ties with the Taliban.

“When it comes to the engagement with the Taliban, we do maintain contact...to allow the dialogue for political priories of the EU and to ensure that the EU can provide support to the Afghan people, and this is very important,” she said at the briefing. “The EU engagement with the Taliban is not an acknowledgement of legitimacy.”

SEE ALSO:

Taliban Morality Laws Provide 'Distressing Vision' For Afghanistan, Warns UN Envoy

In addition to saying it was appalled by the August 26 decree, the EU statement called it a “serious blow undermining the rights of Afghan women and girls, which we cannot tolerate.”

The decree imposes further restrictive dress codes for women and says that voices of women must not be heard in public, “which effectively deprives Afghan women of their fundamental right to freedom of expression,” the EU statement said.

The European Union said the decree, issued on the third anniversary of a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and scores of Afghans during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, also gives the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice a mandate to enforce it.

“This, together with the restrictions imposed, punishable under Taliban law, violates legal obligations and treaties to which Afghanistan is a state party, including by undermining Afghan people’s right to due process,” the EU statement said.

It also noted that the decree creates another obstacle to normalized relations and recognition by the international community -- goals that the Taliban publicly aspires to.

The harrowing events of August 26, 2021, are seared into Shafiullah Samsor's memory.

Twenty-two years old at the time, Samsor was among the thousands of desperate Afghans who had amassed outside Kabul airport hoping to be airlifted from the country by the U.S. military.

Just days before, the Taliban had seized control of the Afghan capital, triggering panic among the city's 5 million inhabitants.

Amid the chaotic scenes outside the airport, which was still controlled by departing U.S. forces, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest among the crowd, unleashing a scene of horror.

"Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, which threw me to the ground," Samsor recalled. "There was shouting, and people began running everywhere. I remember the blood and dust around me before I fell unconscious."

The university student was rushed to hospital, where he remained in a coma for four days. When he woke up, the doctors informed him that his spine was fractured in four places. A piece of shrapnel had also pierced his throat.

Around 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed in the bombing, one of the deadliest attacks of the entire 19-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Hundreds more like Samsor were wounded.

The bombing claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group became a symbol of the chaotic and deadly U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan that was completed on August 31.

Three years on, survivors are still reeling from the psychological and physical effects of the attack.

Samsor never returned to university to complete his degree in English literature. He cannot work and can barely walk even with the help of crutches.

He and his five sisters and mother depend on remittances sent by his older brother, who works in neighboring Iran.

Samsor's family spent all their savings and sold off a plot of land and their car to fund his treatment.

"I hope that Allah will punish those responsible for devastating my life and the lives of so many others," he said.

Meisam Ahmadi lost his two brothers in the bombing.

Alireza Ahmadi, a journalist, and Mujtaba Ahmadi, a photojournalist, had joined the crowd outside Kabul Airport's Abbey Gate after a friend told them he had been allowed to enter the airport by U.S. forces. The friend, Meisam said, had promised to help the brothers get in.

"Unfortunately, there was an explosion there, and both of them were standing together, and they lost their lives," Meisam said.

'Badly Handled'

Survivors and the families of the victims of the bombing are still seeking answers about what happened.

Two investigations by the Pentagon concluded that all the victims were killed by a lone suicide bomber.

But a CNN investigation based on new video evidence and released in April this year suggested dozens of the victims may have been shot dead by U.S. soldiers.

Three days after the Abbey Gate bombing, the U.S. military carried out a drone strike targeting what it initially said was an IS-K compound in Kabul.

Instead, the U.S. drone strike killed an Afghan aid worker and nine people from his extended family in what the Pentagon called a "tragic mistake."

Michael Semple, an Afghanistan expert at Queen's University Belfast, said the horrific Kabul Airport attack embodied Washington's mishandling of the international military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"It was time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, but the scenes of disorder which we saw, and which were sort of epitomized by the carnage which happened at Abbey Gate, show that it was badly handled," Semple said.

In 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement for the phased withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.

But a lightening Taliban military offensive in the summer of 2021 led to the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government before all international forces had left the country.

U.S.-led forces kept control of Kabul Airport for two weeks after the Taliban takeover, evacuating tens of thousands of foreign nationals as well as at-risk Afghans.

The Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women's voices and bare faces in public provide a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan's future, a top UN official warned on August 25. Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the UN mission to Afghanistan, said the laws extend the "already intolerable restrictions" on the rights of women and girls, with "even the sound of a female voice" outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers recently issued a set of morality laws that include a requirement for women to conceal their faces, bodies, and voices outside the home.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The Taliban has revealed that its notorious religious police detained more than 13,000 Afghans during the past year for violating the extremist group's morality laws.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which oversees the religious police, said those detained had violated the group's strict Islamic dress code and gender segregation in society.

Other violations, the ministry said, included gambling, the use of illicit drugs, and playing or listening to music, which is banned.

Muhibullah Mukhlis, a ministry official, said on August 20 that the Taliban had "confiscated and destroyed" over 20,000 musical instruments and closed 25 bars across the predominately Muslim country in the past year.

He also added that nearly 300 Taliban members were fired from their jobs for trimming their beards, which is also banned.

Why It's Important: The Taliban's religious police have been accused of creating a "climate of fear and intimidation" in Afghanistan.

The force has publicly punished offenders, often violently. Men and women convicted of violating the Taliban's morality laws have been jailed or publicly flogged, often in fields or sports venues.

"We are terrified and cannot celebrate anything," said a resident of the northern province of Parwan, where the Taliban publicly destroyed confiscated musical instruments on August 20.

"If we celebrate, the Taliban's morality police beat and humiliate us," he told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi while requesting anonymity because of concerns over his safety.

What's Next: The Taliban's dreaded religious police are likely to remain a cornerstone of the extremist group's brutal rule.

This week, the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree that expanded the powers of the religious police.

What To Keep An Eye On

The Taliban has banned UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Richard Bennett from entering the country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on August 21 accused Bennett of providing "false" information about the situation in Afghanistan and spreading "propaganda."

Bennett called the ban "a step backward" and said it "sends a concerning signal" about the Taliban's engagement with the UN and the international community on human rights.

Bennett was appointed in 2022 to monitor Afghanistan's human rights situation. He has traveled to Afghanistan several times and pointed to grave human rights violations, especially against Afghan women and girls.

Afghan and international human rights campaigners have condemned the Taliban's decision.

Heather Barr, associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch, said "the Taliban are giving up some of their last pretenses of wanting to look rights-respecting."

Why It's Important: While Bennett will still document rights abuses in Afghanistan, the ban will harm the Taliban's efforts to gain international recognition.

Despite increased international engagement with the Taliban-led government, Western nations will likely find it difficult to overlook the group's extensive rights abuses, including denying women most of their fundamental rights and carrying out extrajudicial killings as well as the torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

That's all from me for now.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.