The UN has condemned a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital Kabul which has left more than 20 dead, according to latest news reports, many of them young women who were sitting mock exams at an education centre.
“Patience is running out” for many in the international community when it comes to effectively engaging with Afghanistan’s de facto rulers, the Taliban, senior UN envoy for the country, Markus Potzel, told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Girls in Afghanistan have been forced out of high school, ever since the Taliban returned to power a year ago. A United Nations-backed initiative is training girls to help others in their situation, educating their peers until they are able to return to formal schooling.
Marking one year since Afghanistan’s de facto rulers decreed that girls should be excluded from high school, UN chief António Guterres has urged the Taliban to “let them back in” without delay.
Humanitarians have stayed and delivered in Afghanistan in the year since the Taliban takeover, and it is imperative that the international community continues to do the same while the de facto authorities must also do their part, the Security Council heard on Monday.
On Thursday, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, warned of the danger faced by Afghan refugees who continue to be detained and deported from Tajikistan, reiterating that it’s illegal to force those fleeing persecution back to their homeland.
Najiba*, a mother, counsellor, and former university lecturer, helps women heal from trauma in Afghanistan. Despite threats and restrictions on her freedom to move, she continues to enable women to learn and heal.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned on Thursday, a fatal attack on a Mosque in the capital, Kabul.
Zarina* is a young Afghan woman entrepreneur. Her drive for innovating, and passion for baking made her one of Afghanistan’s youngest entrepreneurs. Her business is still running, but her clients are scarce and her plans for expansion across the country had to be shut down.
Mahbouba Seraj, one of the world’s most prominent women’s rights activists, chose to stay in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, to witness what was happening to her country, and to work for a society that benefits all of its people.
