#taliban recognition in afghanistan

[apas-95]

Idk how to feel about China opening diplomatic relations with the Taliban. Yes Afghanistan's assets should be unfrozen and the entire reason the Taliban runs Afghanistan now is the fault of the US, but they are still an extremely brutal reactionary theocracy enforcing the most extreme gender apartheid in the world. It's not China's (or anyone's) place to change that obviously, but I can't bring myself to celebrate China opening diplomacy with them as a win for the third world.

So, in a word: non-interference.

You're right that the Taliban are a reactionary organisation, and you're right that they're in power because of US interference and invasion. Furthermore, you correctly point out that China should not attempt to change the internal political structure of Afghanistan, but the reason for that is much more than an abstract notion of sovereignty or respect - it is moreso a matter of practicality.

The Taliban are in power because they are the Afghan-nationalist group most favourable to US interests. The US would prefer its puppet government be in power, but failing that, there are groups it very much does not want to take power, such as Afghan communist organisations. The US directs more resources to undernining those groups than it does the Taliban. In any case, the Taliban are still better for Afghanistan than the US-comprador government is, but they are still ultimately in power due to continued US intervention. The US refusal to recognise the Taliban is an element in a continuum of intervention, attempting to tip the scale towards US-favourable groups - it is, counter-intuitively, an element of the exact strategy that is keeping the Taliban in power.

China's non-interference policy not only does not influence the internal affairs of other countries - inherently, it actively *weakens* US influence in those countries. If the threat keeping US-favourable groups in power is sanctions, blockade, and international non-recognition, then the credible promise that China, an incredibly useful partner, will engage with *whichever* domestic group takes power, no matter their ideology, allows for organic Afghan interests to express themselves and bring about organic Afghan political goals. Similarly, the provisioning of no-strings-attached investment, infrastructure, etc, makes US support of preferred groups less effective, as Afghanistan is both less desperate for support, and also has less incentive to take aid packages that include 'restructuring' demands.

In essence: refusing relations with the Taliban, like the US is doing, is part of the exact gradient of political-economic pressures that keeps the Taliban (the group least threatening to US interests, other than an unsustainable puppet) in power. Opening non-judgemental relations to *whoever* achieves power weakens that gradient, and strengthens the ability for the genuine interests of the Afghan people to determine who achieves and retains power. China refusing to open relations with the Afghan government because they do not align ideologically would not change that gradient at all, and could only add yet another set of foreign interests overriding those of the people (interests which could not be more commanding than those of the US military empire, in any case). Free and non-judgemental relations with a reliable trading partner is precisely the environment that weakens the political base of reactionary organisations, and strengthens genuinely revolutionary ones.

[mariacallous]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Bahara Rustam, 13, took her last class at Bibi Razia School in Kabul on Dec. 11 knowing it was the end of her education. Under Taliban rule, she is unlikely to step foot in a classroom again.

In September 2021, a month after U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan following two decades of war, the Taliban announced that girls were barred from studying beyond sixth grade.

They extended this education ban to universities in December 2022. The Taliban have defied global condemnation and warnings that the restrictions will make it almost impossible for them to gain recognition as the country’s legitimate rulers.

Last week, U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva expressed concern that a generation of Afghan girls is falling behind with each day that passes.

Last week, an official in the Education Ministry said Afghan girls of all ages are allowed to study in religious schools known as madrassas, which have traditionally been boys-only. But Otunbayeva said it was unclear if there was a standardized curriculum that allowed modern subjects.

Bahara is holding onto her education and pores over textbooks at home. “Graduating (from sixth grade) means we are going to seventh grade,” she said. “But all of our classmates cried and we were very disappointed.”

There was no graduation ceremony for the girls at Bibi Razia School.

In another part of Kabul, 13-year old Setayesh Sahibzada wonders what the future holds for her. She is sad she can’t go to school anymore to achieve her dreams.

“I can’t stand on my own two feet,” she said. “I wanted to be a teacher. But now I can’t study, I can’t go to school.”

Analyst Muhammad Saleem Paigir warned that excluding women and girls from education will be disastrous for Afghanistan. “We understand that illiterate people can never be free and prosperous,” he said.

The Taliban have barred women from many public spaces and most jobs, all but confining women to their homes.

[lost-carcosa]

Senior Taliban official hits out at own group’s policies towards women

Deputy foreign minister says ‘there is no excuse’ for shutting schools for girls and women

A senior Taliban official has called on the militant group to open schools for women and girls, a rare sign of internal divisions around one of the flagship policies of Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s acting deputy foreign minister, said the edict forbidding girls and women from schools was not in line with Sharia law as claimed.

“We request the leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education,” he said, claiming that “there is no excuse for this and never will be”. “In the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women,” the Taliban minister said at a Madrassa graduation ceremony in Khost province.

The 62-year-old UN-sanctioned official said his own leaders were “committing injustice against 20 million people”, referring to the women who make up roughly half of the Afghan population.

“We have deprived them of all their rights; they have no inheritance rights, no share in determining their husband’s rights, they are sacrificed in forced marriages, they are not allowed to study, they cannot go to mosques, the doors of universities and schools are closed to them, and they are not allowed in religious schools either,” the acting deputy foreign minister said.

After taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban pledged to govern the country based on a moderate interpretation of Sharia law, and to maintain many of the rights and freedoms enjoyed by women under the previous Western-backed government. Yet within months they had shut classes for girls beyond grade six, and colleges were closed to female students at the end of 2022. In some cases students were sent home at gun-point.

Mr Stanikzai led a team of negotiators at the Taliban’s political office in Doha before US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, and he has criticised the crackdown on girls’ education before. But his latest comments represent the first call for a change in policy and a direct appeal to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The international community has cited the gender apartheid in Afghanistan as it has denied recognition to the Taliban regime, including in resolutions at the United Nations. Experts and human rights activists monitoring the situation in Afghanistan have said the ban will deeply affect the country’s female population.

The Taliban claims it plans to reopen schools and universities for women but has given no clear details of when or how it plans to do so. Meanwhile, a number of the Taliban’s senior leaders are reported to have sent their children to school overseas.

[embodiedfutures]

[ID: Screenshot of an Instagram post by @/SeekWithSer. The location reads, “Haut-Karabagh.” The title reads, “WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE ETHNIC ARMENIANS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS A RESULT OF THE WEST'S APATHY TOWARD S.W.A.N.A REGIONS.” The users Substack article is mentioned at the bottom, titled “Uncomfortable Truth: Breaking the wall of silence, indifference, and apathy.”

Slide 2 reads: I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT SOMEONE (A WHITE PERSON) SAID WHEN I MENTIONED THE 2020 WAR IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH.

"ISN'T THERE ALWAYS CHAOS IN THOSE AREAS? IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, THOSE PLACES ARE ALWAYS INFESTED WITH WAR AND DESTRUCTION."

This statement stuck with me because it represented the general apathy, indifference, and willful ignorance of the West toward countries we can't point to on the map whose names we can't pronounce.

And yet. AND YET. What we fail to realize (or conveniently ignore) is that our tax dollars are one of the most significant contributors to political and economic instability and PEACE in "those places."

Slide 3 reads: WHILE THE U.S. GOVERNMENT BANKROLLS GENOCIDES AGAINST WEST ASIAN MINORITIES, ETHNIC COMMUNITIES CONTINUE TO BE GASLIT AND TOLD TO BE GRATEFUL FOR U.S. INTERVENTION.

For example, Armenians are expected to be grateful to the U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide despite continuing to aid Azerbaijan in their genocidal efforts and ethnic cleansing of our ancestral lands.

For example, Afghans are expected to credit American soldiers for fighting terrorism in Afghanistan despite the U.S. playing a key role in the Taliban's rise.

IT IS ALL RELATED.

The more we see them as separate issues, the more divided we will become and the more power we hand over to imperialist agendas to continue pillaging ancestral lands and destabilizing SWANA communities.

Slide 4 reads: I'M NOT EXPECTING EVERYONE TO CARE ABOUT GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS. THAT IS YOUR PREROGATIVE.

BUT I WILL SPEAK ON BEHALF OF ALL SWANA COMMUNITIES THAT ARE HURT BY THEIR SO-CALLED ALLIES WHO WERE OUTRAGED OVER THE WAR IN UKRAINE BUT WHO CONTINUE TO TURN AWAY IN APATHY TOWARD THE PLIGHT OF THEIR COMMUNITIES.

Do they not deserve the same ounce of respect?

Have we collectively decided that their lives don't matter? Are they not worthy of the same rage and empathy that we've showed to our Eurocentric counterparts?

I IMPLORE us all to look at our hypocrisy. WE ARE COMPLICIT ABOUT THE SAME VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS THAT WE STAND AGAINST.

Slide 5 reads: ALLIES OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES NEED TO BREAK THEIR WALL OF SILENCE, INDIFFERENCE, AND APATHY.

WE NEED COLLECTIVE ACTION AGAINST THE DIRE CONSEQUENCES OF COLONIZATION AND INSTITUTIONALIZED TERRORISM NOW.

INDIGENOUS ARMENIANS OF ARTSAKH ARE BEING ETHNICALLY CLEANSED FROM THEIR ANCESTRAL LANDS AS YOU READ THIS AND THERE IS NOT ENOUGH ATTENTION AND AWARENESS OF THIS HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE.

IF THE VALUES OF INTERDEPENDENCE, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY MEAN SOMETHING TO YOU, IGNORING THIS WOULD BE OUT OF INTEGRITY.

Slide 6 is a painting of an Armenian woman with tape across her mouth that reads “terrorist.” At the top, it reads: “seekwithser.substack.com.”

/End ID.]

[beardedmrbean]

Invisible, and now silent. Three years after the Taliban's return to power, Afghan women continue to see their few remaining rights dwindle away.

A Taliban ministry promulgated a new set of laws on August 21 that it said “will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice”. The laws aim to control all aspects of the social and private life of Afghans, especially of Afghan women.

Among the rules in the 114-page text published by the ministry is the requirement for women to cover their bodies and faces completely if they leave the house as well as a ban on women making their voices heard in public.

The new laws are “attacking their very existence”, Chekeba Hachemi, president of the organisation Free Afghanistan, told FRANCE 24.

“We no longer have the right to hear the sound of a woman's voice, or to see even a glimpse of a woman's body. It's as if we were telling them: ‘We want to kill you slowly’.”

“The only right we are allowed is to breathe. And even then ...” Hamida Aman, the founder of Begum TV, a Paris-based channel aimed at educating Afghan women and girls, told France Culture.

Just going by my own personal abuse healing…the left don’t know jackshit about what natives and marginalized groups without victims complexes want

The UN, the European Union, human rights groups and Afghan organisations have expressed their deep concerns over the new set of laws, which include some provisions that have already been in effect informally since the Taliban seized power again in August 2021.

But there is only so much the international community can do to help Afghan women.

Short-lived optimism

“After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, in an August 25 statement in which she said the laws evoke “a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future”.

The UN has called for the immediate repeal of the text.

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced a “new attack on the rights of women and girls”. The EU said it was “distressed” by the decree, which was “a new blow” to the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The EU also said the new laws create “another obstacle to the normalisation of relations” with Afghanistan, signalling that European recognition of the Taliban regime can only be achieved if Kabul “fully respects [its] international obligations and [those] towards the people of Afghanistan”.

The Taliban, in return, have denounced the “arrogance” of the West in its condemnations of the restrictions on women – which UN officials including Secretary General Antonio Guterres have described as “gender-based apartheid”.

On the same day the Taliban ministry published the new laws, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said in a statement that the regime had banned him from entering the country.

International condemnations no longer seem to have any effect.

“In the first year after the regime change in Afghanistan, the situation was not as bad as people might have feared,” said Mélissa Cornet, a specialist on gender issues in Afghanistan, pointing out that journalists were still working and women were still attending university.

“The Taliban really wanted to be recognised by the international community. They made lots of reassurances and there was a real hope they had changed,” said Cornet, who lived in Kabul while overseeing research on women's role in Afghan society for local and international organisations beginning in 2018.

This optimism, however, was short-lived. “As soon as the Taliban realised they would not be formally recognised by regaining a seat at the UN and the frozen assets of the central bank, there was a U-turn,” Cornet explained. “They said to themselves, ‘If we play the game and get nothing in return, we'll do what we want at home’.”

'Nobody wants another conflict'

The Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and were overthrown in 2001 by a NATO intervention following the September 11 attacks. But despite 20 years of war and occupation by US-led NATO troops, the Taliban slowly regained control of the entire country and outlasted the United States, despite the latter's military superiority.    

“There's a very proud side to saying, ‘We were in power in the 1990s, the United States came but we beat them in the end, so now you Western states have no right to come and lecture us and tell us what to do’,’’ Cornet said.

Ironically, since the international community made women's rights its focus, it has now become very difficult for the Taliban to compromise on this issue, she said. “If they ever announced that schools were reopening [for women], it would be seen by Taliban ultraconservatives as a kind of defeat, a concession, to the internationals.”

From one law to the next, human rights in Afghanistan – and women's rights in particular – are being eroded without the international community being able to intervene.

“For three years, we've seen the status of women go [from bad to worse], and we've reached a stage where it's unacceptable that the world isn't reacting,” said Chela Noori of the Afghan Women of France organisation.

The world is moving “towards acceptance of this situation, [because] nothing stands in the way of the Taliban”, said Begum TV's Aman.

“Unfortunately, there's not much we can do, which is why it's difficult to continue proposing solutions,” Cornet said.

Without a resistance movement in Afghanistan, the situation cannot change, Cornet said. “After all the decades of war, nobody wants another conflict, another war, or an invasion.”

And the Taliban regime is capitalising on the situation, said Cornet, pointing to the fact that the country is at peace for the first time in 20 years, poppy production has declined by 95 percent (almost all the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan), there are no prominent terrorist groups operating in the country and the borders are under control, preventing any wave of migration to Europe.

“Security issues are more important to Western countries than women's rights in this distant country,” Cornet observed, calling out the “cynicism” of such an assessment.

'The UN has to work with the Taliban'

Heather Barr, deputy director of the Women's Rights Division at HRW, deplores the fact that the crisis in Afghanistan has been relegated to a secondary concern by the Ukraine war. “The lack of an effective international response gives the impression that women's rights are not really a concern for world leaders,” she said in February.

“No one cares about Afghan women or human rights in this country,” Aman told France Culture, recalling the conditions under which the Doha III conference, the third UN meeting on Afghanistan in the Qatari capital, took place in late June.

The Taliban, which had not taken part in the two previous conferences, made their participation in the third conditional on the exclusion of civil society organisations, and particularly women, from the talks.

The UN once again called for the “inclusion of women” in public life during the discussions, a request that did not prevent the Taliban from continuing to harden its policies towards women.

“The United Nations is silent in the face of the Taliban,” Aman lamented.

Cornet noted the UN needs to maintain contacts with the regime to continue providing aid to the country.   

“The UN works in Afghanistan and therefore has to work with the Taliban,” she said. “If it takes a very hard line on women's rights, it will be expelled from the country and no one will be able to talk to the regime and help Afghans.”

Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the latest World Bank report, “poverty affects half of the population, with persistent high unemployment and underemployment”.

The United Nations Development Programme said in an April 2023 report that over 90 percent of the population was unable to meet its basic food requirements.

The International Crisis Group, an NGO focused on monitoring and preventing deadly conflicts, explained in a January report how Afghanistan's neighbours have been seeking to re-establish relations with Kabul in areas such as security and trade.

Regional nations “are convinced that the best way to secure their countries’ interests and moderate the Taliban’s behaviour in the long term is patient deliberation with Kabul, rather than ostracism”, says the report.

“If you don't talk to them, you can't influence them,” Cornet said simply. “The Taliban couldn't care less about being sanctioned by the international community. The fact that they can't travel or can't use their bank accounts doesn't bother them.”

For their part, Afghan women are doing what they can to be seen and raise awareness of their plight. After laws called on them to hide their faces and lower their voices, several women filmed themselves singing, protesting online under the hashtag #LetUsExist.

“You are afraid of this voice, and this voice will be stronger every day,” wrote Taiba Sulaimani, a young Afghan woman, on X in a message accompanying a video of a group of activists singing in chorus.

In another video, the young woman sings while adjusting her veil in front of the mirror.

“A woman's voice is her identity,” she says. “Not something that should be hidden.”

[ai-manre]

I would recommend anyone interested in educating themselves about Pakistan and it's terror network to read this thread by an Afghan (pasted below as well):

---

My "becauses" to your "whys".

Why it matters to support India.

In September 1996, President Mohammad Najibullah was brutally executed in Kabul. The prevailing narrative attributes this act to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with the Taliban as the executors.

From 1992 to 1996, the Islamic Government of Afghanistan, led by President Burhanuddin Rabbani, accused Pakistan of sponsoring Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and later the Taliban to violently overthrow the Afghan government. The ISI was named the orchestrator of this brutal war, driven by Pakistan’s pursuit of “strategic depth.” Reports assert that the ISI supplied 10,000 missiles to target Kabul during this period.

In 1997, a scorched-earth policy devastated the Shamali Plains. The destruction was attributed to a trio coalition of Al-Qaeda, the ISI, and the Taliban. Numerous interviews with national hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, available online, corroborate these assertions.

From 1998 to 2001, Pakistan’s Special Services Group (SSG) deployed units to Kunduz to support the besieged Taliban. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, these units were airlifted out in what became known as the “evil flights,” enabled by a secret agreement between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and U.S. President George W. Bush.

On September 9, 2001, Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated by two Al-Qaeda operatives whose passports recorded twelve trips to Pakistan. General Musharraf warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Scotland Yard that pursuing the investigation would jeopardize Pakistan’s role in the anti-terror coalition. The investigation was halted, and the official narrative holds the ISI, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban responsible for the death of our leader Shaheed Ahmad Shah Massoud.

From 2004 onward, Pakistan’s military provided financial, military, and logistical support to the Taliban, enabling them to regroup and wage a bloody terror campaign against the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The ISI was repeatedly condemned by Afghan leaders, including Presidents Hamid Karzai, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, and Ashraf Ghani, as well as international figures. The U.S. designated the Haqqani network as a “veritable arm” of the ISI.

In 2008, the Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed. In 2023, the bombers’ families publicly revealed their ties to the Taliban and disclosed the terrorists’ identities online while seeking recognition and financial support from the Taliban system.

On September 20, 2011, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the High Peace Council, was assassinated by a Taliban operative using a sophisticated bomb concealed in a turban. The operative had traveled from Pakistan, and the ISI was accused of supplying the device.

On May 31, 2017, the German Embassy in Kabul, located on a crowded street, was bombed by the Haqqani network, killing or injuring over 700 Afghans. The Haqqani network, a close ally of the ISI, was based in Peshawar and Miram Shah.

Pakistan facilitated the Taliban’s diplomatic outreach to legitimize their cause. When Kabul fell in August 2021, ISI chief General Faiz Hameed visited to assist the Taliban in forming a cabinet, famously photographed holding a teacup - celebrating the humiliation of Afghans. Pakistani leaders particularly the relgio-terrorists celebrated the fall of the Afghan Republic as a religious victory, rubbing salt on the wounds of millions of Afghans.

Emboldened by their success in Afghanistan, the ISI and its proxies launched the Pahalgam attack in Kashmir, India, on April 22, 2025, killing 26 cilivilan Indian citizens. in a brutal assault claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar-e-Taiba offshoot - our common enemy. In response, India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, launched Operation Sindoor to dismantle the ISI’s terror networks.

Why should we not thank India for confronting our common enemy? Why act with cowardice? Some assert that this type of statement conflicts with the interests of our bloc, constituency, or ethnic group.

But let’s not forget Pakistan’s official stance: without the Taliban and the complete removal of ethnic diversity, particularly the Tajiks, from power in Kabul, Rawalpindi would continue to support the Taliban. This policy is recent and well-documented.

We, the good Afghans, couldn’t dismantle the ISI’s terror networks ourselves, though I wish we had. India has now taken bold action. The least we can do is offer moral and political support for India’s large-scale counter-terrorism efforts targeting the culprits behind our leaders’ assassinations.

We live in a multipolar world. The outcome of this conflict will shape South Asia’s strategic landscape. Let’s have the courage to call a spade a spade. And remember: chess was invented in India. They know the game.

----

Pakistan committed genocide in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) and murdered 3million people. Oh, and this is not the "genocide" in the sense uneducated people like to throw about when referring to Kashmir's administration by India. It was actual genocide classified such by academics due to its target being exterminating young hindu men and systematically raping hindu women.

Pakistan propped up the Taliban and funded terror in Afghanistan. It rejoiced the Afghan's people misery after their fall to Taliban on religious basis.

Pakistan committed countless terror attacks against India, targeting Hindus.

It is not about religion to us, but it is to them. We are 'infidels' and their sole aim to terrorize other peoples.

If you support Pakistan, you are not pro-muslim. You are pro-terror.

[humanrightsupdates]

Global: Gender apartheid must be recognised as a crime under international law

Gender apartheid must be recognised as a crime under international law to strengthen efforts to combat institutionalised regimes of systematic oppression and domination imposed on the grounds of gender, said Amnesty International today.

The concept of “gender apartheid” was first articulated by Afghan women human rights defenders and feminist allies in response to the subjugation of women and girls and systematic attacks on their rights under the Taliban in the 1990s. It has become more widely used since the Taliban reclaimed control of Afghanistan in 2021.

A number of Iranian feminists and UN experts have also argued that the institutionalised discrimination or oppression of women in Iran could amount to gender apartheid.

An international campaign for the recognition of gender apartheid in international law has drawn wide support from feminist activists and allies globally, including four women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

Amnesty supports the legal recognition of gender apartheid to address what is a major gap in international law.

The closest approximation under the current international framework is persecution on the basis of gender, which international law - such as in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court - recognises as a crime against humanity. However, the intent and scope of that crime differs in significant ways from apartheid. While specific groups may be targeted under both crimes, the concept of persecution alone does not fully capture the scope and reach of systemic domination, or the institutionalised and ideological nature of the abuses that may be committed under a system of apartheid.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.16 (after 1910)

1913 – Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan writes his first letter to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, stating without proof various formulae involving integrals, infinite series, and continued fractions, beginning a long correspondence between the two as well as widespread recognition of Ramanujan's results. 1919 – Nebraska becomes the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the necessary three-quarters of the states approving the amendment, Prohibition is constitutionally mandated in the United States one year later. 1920 – The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France. 1921 – The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa. 1942 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins deporting Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Chełmno extermination camp. 1942 – Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard. 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker. 1959 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean near Astor Piazzolla International Airport in Mar del Plata, Argentina, killing 51. 1969 – Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before. 1969 – Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk. 1979 – Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt. 1983 – Turkish Airlines Flight 158 crashes at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, killing 47 and injuring 20. 1991 – Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War. 1992 – El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives. 1995 – An avalanche hits the Icelandic village Súðavík, destroying 25 homes and burying 26 people, 14 of whom died. 2001 – Second Congo War: Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in Kinshasa. 2001 – US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War. 2002 – War in Afghanistan: The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban. 2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry. 2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. 2011 – Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) is established with the stated goal of re-organizing Syria along the lines of democratic confederalism. 2012 – The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence. 2016 – Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant. 2017 – Turkish Airlines Flight 6491 crashes into a residential area near Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing 39 people. 2018 – Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve. 2020 – The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate. 2020 – The United States Senate ratifies the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement as a replacement for NAFTA.

[werindialive]

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Meets Taliban’s ‘Foreign Minister’ in Dubai 

In a landmark development, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held talks with the Taliban’s ‘Foreign Minister’ Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. This is the highest-ranking meeting between Indian officials and the Taliban leadership since the group took control of Afghanistan in 2021. 

The discussions, held in the UAE, focused on strengthening humanitarian aid, trade, and sports cooperation. India agreed to provide further material support to Afghanistan, particularly in the health sector and for refugee rehabilitation. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated, “In response to the request from the Afghan side, India will provide further material support in the first instance to the health sector and for the rehabilitation of refugees.” 

Another key outcome of the meeting was the agreement to promote the use of Iran’s Chabahar port for trade and humanitarian purposes. This move could facilitate smoother trade between India and Afghanistan while supporting the country’s economic recovery. 

The meeting took place just weeks after India condemned Pakistan’s bombing of Afghan territories in late December. Despite not officially recognizing the Taliban government, India has maintained diplomatic engagement with Afghanistan. This includes allowing the appointment of a new Consul General in Mumbai and operating a technical team at the Indian Embassy in Kabul. 

Over the past few years, India has consistently supported Afghanistan through humanitarian aid. Since 2021, it has sent 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat, 300 tonnes of medicines, 27 tonnes of earthquake relief materials, and COVID-19 vaccines. The MEA noted that discussions in Dubai also evaluated India’s ongoing assistance and explored future development projects in Afghanistan. 

Sports cooperation, particularly in cricket, was also discussed, further highlighting India’s efforts to build people-to-people connections with Afghanistan. 

The meeting marks another step in India’s policy of engaging with Afghanistan’s leadership to support the Afghan people. While formal recognition of the Taliban administration remains off the table, India’s humanitarian and developmental outreach underscores its commitment to stability and progress in the region. 

This engagement with the Taliban highlights India’s pragmatic approach to addressing pressing issues in Afghanistan while safeguarding its strategic and humanitarian interests. For more political news India in Hindi, subscribe to our newsletter! 

[elsolnetworktv]

Putin signs law opening door to Russian recognition of Taliban

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that will allow the Russian government to recognise, if it deems appropriate, the Taliban fundamentalist movement as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. Russia, like the rest of the international community, considers the Taliban to be a group of coup plotters who regained power by force in 2021. However, this consideration has not prevented…

[alaturkanews]

Afghanistan's Taliban to attend their first UN climate conference

The conference, known as COP29, begins on Monday in Azerbaijan and is one of the most important multilateral talks to include the Taliban, who do not have outside recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. The National Environmental Protection Agency posted on social media platform X that a technical delegation had gone to Baku to participate. Matiul Haq Khalis, the agency’s head, said…

[studentofpolssunl]

Week 1, Post 1

Viewing this article, I am reminded of our discussion in class yesterday regarding Mary Wollstonecraft. The call for empowerment for female education is real, and ever-present, especially in places like Afghanistan. Although the Taliban promised to repeal their decision on female education, they have currently not done so. Education has an enduring influence on people, and to not allow females to have access to it is pretty horrible. Wollstonecraft was a revolutionary and would appear to be one for the Taliban. The whole situation is crazy to me. If the Taliban truly wants a gender-segregated society, how can women have dedicated healthcare when they are not educated to be able to provide healthcare services? Afghanistan has one of the world's highest pregnancy death rates, and this unfortunately will not change anytime soon unless there is equal education for both genders.

[mariacallous]

In November 2024, a delegation from the Taliban terrorist movement made its first appearance at a major international UN event, the COP29 Climate Summit. More and more governments are gradually establishing ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, especially neighboring states. Afghanistan is developing closer ties with India, China, and multiple Central Asian countries. Russia is also committed to developing bilateral cooperation, as Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu announced after a Russian delegation visited Kabul on Nov. 25. On Nov. 26, the Russian parliament turned its attention to a bill that would remove the Taliban from Moscow’s blacklist. However, broader international recognition of the Taliban is hampered by divisions within the movement itself.

[entrepreneurshipsecrets]

Born or Made? The Inspiration behind Young Entrepreneurs

It is easy to think that entrepreneurs are born and that if you do not have that entrepreneurial gift, you will have no chance. After all, we can all think of examples of people who seemed to have risen effortlessly to success. However, this is likely to be deceptive as even the youngest entrepreneurs have put in a lot of hard work to get them to where they are. Instead, there are likely to be a lot of factors that contribute to the creation of a young entrepreneur, including the motivation that inspires them to keep trying and never give up.

Controlling their own destiny

Growing up, it can often feel like someone else is always in control, such as parents and teachers. The desire to control their own lives drives many young people. This can result in teenage rebellion and ‘going off the rails’, but for some, it inspires them to create a life where they can take control. In this instance, rather than seeking employment once they are adults, they instead want to own their own business where they call the shots. Beyond that, they want to be the ones who help create the future that awaits them.

Making a difference

It becomes clear that entrepreneurs are made rather than born when you consider their backgrounds and upbringing. Entrepreneurs often aren’t the lucky ones growing up in a privileged lifestyle, instead, they have often had to overcome considerable hardship and are only too aware of the problems in the world. The desire to solve those problems, create ways to make the world and people’s lives better and to generally make a difference inspires many entrepreneurs. This may be in the form of tackling the climate crisis through green enterprises or bringing prosperity and opportunity to a particular area. A good example of the latter category is the story of Afghan-born business leader Ehsan Bayat, who left Afghanistan after the Russian invasion in 1980 but who always hoped to return to make a difference. After the fall of the Taliban, he returned to establish several businesses, as well as the Bayat Foundation, which has improved maternity care and provides support for new mothers, orphan care, education, and an entrepreneurship program for widows, women, and youth to provide opportunities for Afghans today to prosper.

The thrill of the challenge

Many young entrepreneurs are drawn to entrepreneurship because they love a challenge. These young people are driven and motivated, always on the lookout for new ways to test themselves. This could lead them in many directions, such as into sports or academia, both paths that offer their own challenges. However, if coupled with some of the other motivations mentioned above, it can lead many into entrepreneurship. Conceiving, setting up, and managing an enterprise is full of challenges, with many hurdles to success and countless competitors. For young entrepreneurs, these problems to tackle are part of the attraction.

Innovation

Young people look to the future more than any other group in society and are keen to help shape it. Their minds are brimming with ideas regarding what they would like to see in the future, and they are keen to do whatever it takes to bring those ideas to fruition. The desire to innovate can be a particular motivation for those whose entrepreneurial mindset is paired with creativity and imagination. They will also be ready to embrace the innovations of others, keen to explore the latest developments in technology and science and use these developments to enhance their own innovations and ideas. Young entrepreneurs are keen learners, always interested in finding out more about the different ways they can develop their business ideas.

Recognition

Like most people, young entrepreneurs are, in part, driven by the opinions of others. Initially, a young entrepreneur can be buoyed by the support and praise of their families and friends. However, the opportunity for recognition can go beyond the young entrepreneur’s immediate circle. They may be featured in the local or even national press. They may win business awards or be awarded bursaries to help them further grow their enterprise. There are also mentorships available, as experienced entrepreneurs have the necessary experience to teach their younger counterparts about achieving success in a competitive world.

Born or made?

 Some of the characteristics that make an entrepreneur may be innate. Some people are born with an innovative streak or an interest in problem-solving, but this does not mean that you can only be an entrepreneur if you are born one. Instead, the opposite is true. Many aspects of a person’s upbringing can help fuel an entrepreneurial spirit, such as a desire to help others, to control your own destiny or to make a difference in a fast-changing world. Through a combination of personality traits, patience, and hard work, young people can be inspired to take their first steps toward an entrepreneurial career. Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash Read the full article

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

AFGHAN GIRL

AFGHAN GIRL

            Afghan Girl is a photograph featured on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985. The photograph was taken by American photographer Steve MCurry who took the photo near Peshawar, Pakistan in a refugee camp. It became one of the most famous photographs of all-time.

            The girl in the photograph remained a mystery, but she was aged 12-13 at the time of the photograph and was living in Nasir Bagh, Pakistan. MuCurry made several attempts during the 1990s to locate her, but failed.

            The girl in the image wasn’t discovered again until 2002, her name is Sharbat Gula, who was an Afghan refugee in Pakistan during Soviet-Afghan War. The search for the Afghan Girl was featured in the documentary, ‘Search for the Afghan Girl’ (2002). Many women claimed it was them in the photograph and many men believed it was their wives. Her identity was helped with the use of iris recognition.

            When she was discovered she was around 30-years old, married with three daughters, who had returned to Afghanistan in 1992 and was living in a remote region. When she was showed the photograph, she said she had never seen it before and that was the first time she had viewed it.

            When she was aged 6, she, her grandmother, brother and three sisters walked across the mountains to Pakistan and ended up in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp, Pakistan, 1984 after her village was attacked by Soviet helicopters. She got married to Rahmat Gul when she was around 13-years old and had three daughters, her husband died in 2012.

            She is Muslim and she wears a burka and was hesitant in meeting McCurry as he is a male who isn’t a relative. Gula said that she wishes her daughters end up with an education that she never had. In 2016, she was arrested by Pakistani authorities for living in Pakistan with forged documents; she was deported back to Afghanistan in 2017. When asked if she felt safe she said, ‘No, but life under the Taliban was better. At least there was peace and order.’ In 2021, at her request, she was granted asylum in Italy, three months after Taliban took over Afghanistan.

#afghangirl #nationalgeographic #stevemcurry #sharbatgula #sharbatbibi #afghanistan

[warningsine]

KABUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The Taliban will attend China's Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing's growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.

Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focussed on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits it has been invited to attend.

The forum in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping's ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade.

The Taliban's acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will travel to Beijing in the coming days, ministry spokesman Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad said in a text message to Reuters.

"He will attend and will invite large investors" to Afghanistan, he said.

The impoverished country could offer a wealth of coveted mineral resources. A mines minister estimated in 2010 that Afghanistan had untapped deposits, ranging from copper to gold and lithium, worth between $1 trillion and $3 trillion. It is not clear how much they are worth today.

China has been in talks with the Taliban over plans, begun under the previous foreign-backed government, over a possible huge copper mine in eastern Afghanistan.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Azizi will continue discussions in Beijing on plans to build a road through the Wakhan corridor, a thin, mountainous strip in northern Afghanistan, to provide direct access to China, Akhundzada said.

Officials from China, the Taliban and neighbouring Pakistan said in May they would like Belt and Road to include Afghanistan and for the flagship China Pakistan Economic Corridor to be extended across the border to Afghanistan.

The Taliban has not been formally recognised by any government since taking control of Afghanistan two years ago as U.S. and other foreign forces withdrew.

A series of restrictions on women's access to public life and the barring of many female NGO staff from work has increased roadblocks to recognition, especially by Western countries, officials and international relations analysts say.

China has boosted engagement with the Taliban, becoming the first country to appoint an ambassador to Kabul since the Taliban took power, and invested in mining projects.

Beijing's ambassador presented his credentials to the Taliban's acting prime minister last month. Other nations have kept on previous ambassadors or appointed heads of mission in a charge d'affaires capacity that does not involve formally presenting credentials to the government.