Photo: OCHAAfg/X The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that in natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, women and girls suffer the most, and therefore the presence of female aid workers must be at the center of relief operations. On Sunday (September 134), OCHA, in a message on the social network X along with images of female aid workers in the earthquake-affected areas, emphasized that providing assistance to women and children without the presence of female aid workers is not possible. The organization said that together with the United Nations and non-governmental partners, it is working to ensure the role of female aid workers in the relief process is maintained. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s strict restrictions have created serious challenges for aid delivery to women and children in the earthquake-affected areas of Kunar and Nangarhar. Recently, UNAMA announced that the Taliban, by deploying their forces at the entrances of UN offices in Kabul and several provinces, have prevented female employees from entering. According to the organization, this restriction has even applied to the travel of female staff for providing aid to earthquake victims in eastern Afghanistan and to returnees from Iran and Pakistan. This action by the Taliban has resulted in the closure of eight service centers of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNAMA has warned that the continuation of such obstacles poses a serious risk to the delivery of life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children. It is worth mentioning that the 6-magnitude earthquake on August 31 in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces left more than 2,200 dead, 3,600 injured, and thousands homeless. Statistics show that women and children account for more than half of the victims of this disaster.

Photo: Reuters / Stringer via ABC News UNICEF on Sunday (September 14), through a message from the organization’s representative in Afghanistan, warned about the extensive child casualties following the recent earthquakes in the east of the country and called for urgent action to support the affected people. Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan, said in the message that the August 31 earthquake in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces was “extremely, extremely devastating” and that children have borne the greatest burden of this disaster. According to UNICEF, among more than 2,200 deaths, at least 1,172 children have lost their lives, a figure that makes up more than half of the victims. In addition, more than three thousand people have been injured and about 6,700 houses have been completely or partially destroyed. Many survivors, especially children, have lost their caretakers and are now struggling with psychological trauma and homelessness. The UNICEF representative warned that with the approach of winter, time is running out and if urgent action is not taken, thousands of children and women will be at risk of being left without shelter, food, and health services. He emphasized that this disaster is not just a natural incident but another blow to the lives of children whose childhoods had already been lost to war, poverty, and recurring crises. Meanwhile, Taliban restrictions on the work of women in humanitarian activities have made the relief process more difficult, leaving those in need, especially women and children, at risk of being deprived of essential services. In many cases, affected women have been unable to receive aid in the absence of female aid workers. UNICEF has called on the international community to stand by the children who survived the earthquake and to undertake immediate and sustained support for them.

PHOTO: REUTERS via express tribune Police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan have announced that a 21-year-old Afghan refugee woman was gang raped in the Haripur district of the province, and five men have been arrested in connection with the incident. The incident took place on Thursday (11 September) when the victim, whose husband lives abroad and who was living alone in a rented house, was attacked on her way to visit relatives. According to the police, a man named “Bacha” forcibly took the woman to a maize field, after which four of his accomplices assaulted her one after another. In her statement, the victim said: “I was ready to leave when four others arrived and one after another assaulted me. When I resisted, one of them punched me in the face.” She sustained injuries to her face and lips. Pakistan police identified the suspects as Nadi, Rozi, Khan Sher, Javid, and Nasir, and said that all of them are Afghan refugees living in the same area. An initial report from the trauma center in Haripur confirmed the occurrence of sexual assault, and the case has been registered under Article 375A of Pakistan’s Penal Code, which stipulates the death penalty or life imprisonment for gang rape. The incident has sparked widespread outrage among local residents, and the victim’s family has demanded exemplary punishment for the perpetrators. Human rights activists warn that Afghan refugee women in Pakistan, in an increasingly hostile environment marked by social pressures and forced deportations, are facing greater risks of violence, abuse, and exploitation.

Social Media Taliban local officials in Faryab province say that six people have died and six others have been injured in a traffic incident in Maimana city. The incident occurred on Sunday morning (September 14), and according to the Taliban, women and children are also among the victims. It is worth mentioning that in recent days the number of traffic incidents in northern Afghanistan has increased. Just two days ago, four people died in Samangan, and three days ago, nine people lost their lives in Baghlan in similar incidents. The causes of most of these incidents are said to be drivers’ recklessness, poor road conditions, and lack of traffic signs.

Image: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Aljazeera The Afghanistan Media Support Organization (AMSO) has expressed deep concern in a statement over the Taliban’s new restrictions against media and journalists in the past week. In its statement, the organization said that in recent days the Taliban, by imposing restrictions such as banning the publication of images of living beings in Balkh, halting the activities of visual media in Panjshir, and banning YouTubers in Kandahar, are attempting to gradually silence visual media across Afghanistan. AMSO also referred to the confession of Mohammad Omar Mokhles, former Taliban commander in Paktia, about the Taliban’s intention to kill journalists, stressing that such threats reveal the Taliban’s clear policy of eliminating the voice of truth. According to the organization, these measures severely threaten the free flow of information and inflict irreparable damage on the country’s media community. AMSO has called on freedom of expression defenders and the international community to take a firm stance against these restrictions and to undertake immediate and practical support for Afghan journalists. The statement said: “Media and journalists are the voice of the people of Afghanistan; silencing the media means silencing the voice of truth and depriving the people of awareness.” These restrictions come as the Taliban, since their return to power in 2021, have gradually suppressed media freedom and freedom of expression, while journalists have faced arbitrary arrests, torture, and continuous threats.

Shahla’s Story for Zan News In the dry and cold mountains of Ghor province, where life from childhood has taught girls that “silent breathing” is an art, lived a girl who once thought she could change the world; with books, with pens, with knowledge. Her name is Shahla Quraishi; she is 18 years old, but the life of her dreams was much shorter than she thought. She says: “Every morning at seven thirty I carried my books under my arm and happily went to school. I never believed the day would come when school would be a crime, and being a girl a sin.” With the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the remote village of Joqalak in Lal wa Sarjangal district of Ghor, where a ray of hope had entered the heart of Shahla Quraishi, became one of the thousands of places where education for girls was suddenly banned. In those days, not only were the doors of the school closed, but the windows of hope in Shahla’s heart also began to fade. “When I heard that I could no longer go to school, it was as if a dagger had been struck into my heart. I cried from night until morning. I could not believe that my life was going to be imprisoned at home, without books, without a future.” To save her dreams, Shahla decided to leave the country. She went to Iran, hoping that perhaps beyond the borders there would be a place for girls like her; but her hope soon turned into despair. “Even when I went to Iran, they said you are a foreigner, you cannot go to school. My heart broke. It was as if everywhere I go, the world tells me: you must only remain silent.” After returning to Afghanistan in disappointment, Shahla’s mind could no longer endure and she developed severe psychological and mental problems. She was hospitalized for months in one of Nimroz’s hospitals, and now she lives on psychiatric medications, while for her there is no school, no dream, and no bright future. “I decided to kill myself several times. Once I even went to the last step... but I don’t know what happened that I was saved. Maybe because my mother is still waiting for my smile, or maybe because I wanted someone to hear my voice.” Now Shahla, in a dark room in one of the modest houses of Nimroz, spends her days with sedatives and her nights with tears. She tells Zan News: “I no longer believe in anything. Not in justice, not in life. I am only waiting to see how long I will stay alive…” And this pain is not only Shahla’s, but her story reflects the life narrative of thousands of girls whose voices have been silenced, yet who still keep in their hearts a faint flame of hope in the darkness of this land, a flame that if extinguished will plunge not only a generation but the future of a nation into darkness.

Image: Wakil KOHSAR / AFP Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, warns that the international community should not only be limited to issuing statements regarding human rights violations in Afghanistan and that practical and more serious measures must be taken in hand to support Afghan women and girls. He says that during more than four years of Taliban rule the human rights situation has not improved, and new restrictions have also been imposed on the people, especially women and girls. According to him, the Taliban have not repealed any of their discriminatory laws and decrees, despite repeated warnings that these regulations have become tools of discrimination and gender-based persecution. Bennett also referred to the Taliban’s new restrictions against UN employees, adding that preventing female staff from entering the organization’s offices poses a serious risk to the delivery of aid in Afghanistan’s critical situation. He stressed that “women must be able to work in the United Nations without obstruction, and this is their fundamental right.” In addition, the UN Special Rapporteur emphasized the necessity of close monitoring of aid distribution in the earthquake-affected areas of eastern Afghanistan. He warned that without transparency, women and children, who are among the most vulnerable groups, may be deprived of receiving this assistance. In his remarks to the Human Rights Council, Bennett noted that some countries have allocated budgets and financial resources to help the victims of the Kunar earthquake, adding: “It is in everyone’s interest to ensure that aid reaches those most in need, especially women and children.” These warnings come as the Taliban, through issuing new restrictions, have further tightened the space for social, economic, and humanitarian life for Afghan women and girls.

Image: IOMAfghanistan/X The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that following the Taliban’s ban on female employees, eight service centers for returnees in Afghanistan have been closed. Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, said these centers have been closed since 9 September. The centers provided daily support services to around seven thousand returnees. He added that interviews and biometric registration of women can only be conducted with the presence of female staff, and now these activities have stopped. Earlier, UNAMA had reported that since 7 September the Taliban have prevented female UN employees from entering offices in Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif. Taliban fighters stationed outside the offices warned female staff that they are not allowed to work in any UN or international institutions. The United Nations says that the continuation of such restrictions poses serious challenges to the delivery of aid to those in need, especially women and children. At the same time, UNHCR has said its funding is rapidly running out and that it urgently requires 258 million dollars to continue providing life-saving assistance to Afghan returnees. According to the organization’s statistics, since April more than 554 thousand Afghan migrants have been deported from Pakistan. In August alone, 143 thousand were forcibly returned, and in the first week of September more than 100 thousand others returned to Afghanistan. Arafat Jamal, speaking at a press conference in Geneva, said that since the beginning of this year 2.6 million people have returned to Afghanistan. He warned that these returns, taking place under difficult conditions while efforts are underway to rebuild earthquake-affected areas, are creating a new crisis in the country. According to him, in earthquake-hit areas there have even been families who recently returned from Pakistan only to lose their homes again. The organization has called on Pakistan and other countries in the region to ensure that returns must be “voluntary, safe, and dignified” and that no one should be sent back to a place where their rights and freedoms are at risk. Nevertheless, Taliban-affiliated media have reported that only yesterday (12 September) 1,102 Afghan families entered the country through various border crossings.

Image: UN Photo/Homayon Khoram The Taliban government has announced a ban on the activities of visual media in Panjshir province, an action that Nai in Exile has described as another sign of the “weakening of freedom of expression” in Afghanistan. In a statement it published, the organization said that according to local reports, Taliban officials have sent letters to visual media outlets in Panjshir demanding the immediate suspension of their broadcasts. Nai in Exile has warned that during more than four years of Taliban rule, the legal infrastructure supporting free media has been dismantled and the media space in the country has been severely restricted. Data from the organization shows that more than half of the media outlets from the republic era have shut down, hundreds of journalists have been forced to leave Afghanistan or stop working, and 90 percent of women employed in the media have lost their jobs. Of the two thousand former female journalists, only 200 continue to work under difficult conditions. The organization has also reported that during this period more than 800 cases of violence against media workers have been recorded, 350 of which resulted in the arrest of journalists. Dozens of journalists still remain in Taliban custody. The Taliban have not yet officially responded to this report. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Kandahar has asked artists and YouTubers to refrain from publishing images of “living beings” on their social media platforms. Officials of this department have described such actions as “against the law.” Following this order, a number of artists and YouTubers announced the end of their digital activities in video messages. Two Kandahari artists with the stage names “Zar” and “Chenar,” who used to produce awareness-raising shows, said in their final video that based on Taliban law they are abandoning media activities. This decision has sparked widespread reactions on social media; some have called it the end of an important process of public awareness, while others have described it as a new example of restrictions on artistic and civic activities. After the ban on broadcasting serials and entertainment programs on television, social media had remained the only source of income and awareness-raising tool for many artists. Local sources in Balkh province have also confirmed that the Taliban have banned the publication of images of “living beings” in the province. According to the sources, this decision was implemented by order of the Taliban governor in coordination with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Since then, Balkh National Television has refrained from broadcasting any images of living beings, and this change has been evident in its recent programs. Sources say that local staff of this media outlet have not produced any visual reports in recent days.

Social Media An American woman who was detained by the Taliban for a period has described the condition of “Peter,” 80, and “Barbie Reynolds,” 76, the British couple imprisoned by the Taliban, as “horrific.” Faye Hall, an American-Chinese woman who was held in Taliban prison alongside the couple, told the BBC (September 13) that their health is rapidly deteriorating. According to her, Barbie has lost a significant amount of weight and at one point was unable to stand or walk. The British couple were arrested by the Taliban in Bamiyan province in February of this year. They had lived in Afghanistan since 2007, had also obtained Afghan citizenship, and ran the “Rebuild” educational company for teaching children and mothers. The Taliban have confirmed the arrest of the couple but have not yet provided a clear reason for their detention. Their family has repeatedly warned that their parents are “dying.” Faye Hall, who was released two months after her detention, said: “The health condition of this couple is rapidly worsening and time is running out.” Despite these warnings, the Taliban deny any mistreatment and claim that the couple’s rights are being respected. However, UN human rights experts have warned that they are at risk of “irreparable harm or death.” Human rights activists say the detention of Peter and Barbie Reynolds is part of the Taliban’s policy of using foreign nationals as leverage. The couple’s family and the UK Foreign Office have repeatedly called for their immediate release. However, it remains unclear how many foreign nationals are being held by the Taliban, though the group has so far also detained several foreigners, including Americans.