ASIA
Afghan educator “beaten and detained”
The Taliban arrested and beat a university professor who voiced outrage on live television against closure of education doors to women.
In December, veteran lecturer Ismail Mashal in an unprecedented move teardown his degree certificates during a live tv debate, protesting the ban of university for women and higher education for girls.
Footage of Mashal destroying his certificates on private channel TOLOnews went viral on social media and many people supported Mashal’s move in support of education.
He did not stop here. Two days ago he appeared in Kabul roads where he was offering passers-by with books. On top of his carting books he wrote, “Iqra”, which means read. However, he has been detained now. Abdul Haq Hammad, Taliban director at the Ministry of Information and Culture confirmed Mashal’s arrest and accused him of echoing “conspiracies against the state.”
Mashal is under investigation, the official said, and many Afghan social media users, including journalists and civil society workers called on the Taliban to immediately release Mashal. Many journalists said that Mashal was simply protesting against the Taliban ban on female schools and universities.
His crime was that he took to the streets in a symbolic gesture and started giving away his personal library to education lovers across the city.
Mashal is arrested without any crime
Mashal is a university teacher and in the past one decided he served his people through education, but today he is behind bars, said a close family member of Mashal to Harici.
Speaking in condition of anonymity, he said that the Taliban dragged him and detained him on Thursday evening despite having committed no crime. He was just giving away books to the students and protesting the education ban, he added.
“Mashal was giving free books to girls and boys,” he said, adding that they are not aware where Mashal is being held. “The Taliban are not giving us information where Mashal has been taken and what his health condition is,” he added.
Reactions over Mashal’s arrest
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett said that they are concerned about Thursday’s arrest of peaceful education activist and university lecturer Ismail Mashal by the Taliban. “Targeting and suppressing peaceful civil activities is unacceptable and contrary to Afghanistan’s intention obligations. I call for his immediate and unconditional release,” Bennett added.
Reminding the authorities that education for all without discrimination is not a privilege but a right, he said, adding that “They have an obligation to protect and promote this right, including lifting the ban on girl’s education and opening up space for peaceful civil activities.”
It has been for 501 days that the Taliban banned girls from going to school and over two months that they were prevented from university. The Taliban in their first days of returning to power in August 2021 banned girl’s education above 6th grade.
The international community has repeatedly called on the Taliban to reverse the decision and let the girls and women go to schools and universities.
US State Department Spokesman Ned Price on Friday said that the Taliban cannot expect the respect and support of the international community until they respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Afghans, including women and girls.
Deeply conservative society
Indeed, Afghanistan has been suffering from a deeply conservative and patriarchal society where men rarely protest in support of women. Of course there were a number of men who stood beside their female classmates when they were barred from entering into classes. The male students also avoided writing exams, but this was not enough. Many other Afghan men working in different organizations inside the Taliban administrative or in NGOs did not raise their voice. They still remain silent, but Mashal, who ran a co-educational institute, said he would stand up for women’s rights.
Pashtun women at a school in Kandahar.
Once Mashal said that as a man and a teacher he can’t do anything but was able to tore his certificates as “I felt they were become useless now.” He said he will not slow down his efforts and will stand with his sisters until their rights to education prevail.
The Taliban had promised to let the girls go to schools and women to workplaces, but after returning to power, they failed to honor their promises. In December, Taliban also banned women from working in NGOs including aid organizations. The women had already been barred from going to parks, gyms and public baths as well as traveling long distances without male partner.
Afghan woman and Nobel Peace Prize 2023
On February 1, 2023, the Oslo Peace Research Institute announced that Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights advocate has been shortlisted as a candidate for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.
Henrik Urdal, the director of the Institute said that people who work to defend women’s and human rights are at the top of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize list.
Urdal termed Ms. Seraj a “champion of children’s health, education, fighting corruption and empowering survivors of domestic abuse.”
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel most prestigious awards established in 1985 by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology, Medicine and Literature.
Pakistani envoy mending anti-education remarks
After being bombarded from the Pashtun community in Afghanistan and Pakistan for relating restrictions by the Taliban on women with the Pashtun culture, Pakistan’s envoy to the United Nations Munir Akram tried to mend his statement and issue a clarification in this regard.
On Wednesday at the UN Headquarters in New York Akram said that “the restrictions that have been put by the Afghan interim government flow not so much from a religious perspective as from a peculiar cultural perspective of the Pashtun culture, which requires women to be kept at home.”
“And this is a peculiar, distinctive cultural reality of Afghanistan which has not changed for hundreds of years, Akram said.
However, now he is reversing his comment and explained that his comments were referring to a “peculiar perspective” of a small minority that has resulted in restrictions on women and not the Pashtun culture.
Akram said that he regrets if his remarks were misunderstood or hurt anyone’s feelings. “There was no disrespect meant to the Pashtun culture which is highly progressive and deserves full respect all across the world,” he explained.
In response to his comment, people in Afghanistan and in Pakistan flowed to social media and told Akram that Afghan women were cabinet members in Afghanistan at a time when Pakistan was not born. Schools for girls were opened in 1921 in Afghanistan when Pakistan did not exist.
Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq, and his delegation, visited Kabul and held a series of talks with the top Taliban leadership, including interior and foreign ministries.
This is Sadiq’s first visit to Kabul after being assigned as Special Representative for Afghanistan and the reason for his visit was to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and advance the fraternal ties between the two neighboring countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sadiq announced the trip on X, saying, “looking forward to meaningful discussions with Afghanistan’s interim ministers (Taliban officials) to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation.”
During the trip, Sadiq first met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting interior minister – who has lots of influence in Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces. According to Pakistan, these provinces are the places of movement of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and basically, Kabul and Islamabad relations deteriorated as Pakistan wants Afghanistan to smash on the movements of the TTP inside Afghan soil. However, the Taliban leadership says there are no TTP fighters in the country, and Taliban will not allow any group, including TTP to pose a threat to Afghanistan and to the regional countries.
During the meeting, Sadiq and Haqqani discussed a range of bilateral issues of common interest. Both sides agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields to further enhance the fraternal relations between the two countries. The Afghan Ministry of Interior in a statement said that both sides discussed important topics for the improvement of relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the solution of existing problems. The Pakistani delegation also expressed their condolences on the assassination of Khalilur Rehman Haqqani, the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani and key member of the Haqqani network.
Sadiq first met with Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqain against diplomatic norms to first meet with Foreign Minister
Khili Haqqani was the first Taliban official who entered Kabul when the Taliban overthrew the former Afghan government following withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of presence. He has served as refugee minister since victory day on August 15 2021. He was killed by a Daesh suicide bomber inside his ministry compound.
Referring to the pessimism of the Taliban leader towards the Haqqani network, the former deputy of the European Union in Afghanistan, Michael Semple does not consider it unlikely that the members of the Taliban supreme leader were involved in the assassination of Khalil Haqqani. Michael Semple said that his assassination dealt a heavy blow to the Haqqani network and that the Taliban would likely pay a price for this.
The Haqqani family has denied the involvement of members of the Taliban supreme leader in the assassination of Khalil Haqqani. Haqqani family members insisted on the unity of the Taliban and the Haqqani family’s obedience to Hebatullah Akhundzadeh, the Taliban’s supreme leader. Their statements were made to deny rumors of differences or the involvement of people close to Hebatullah in Khalil Haqqanis assassination.
But Semple says that Hebatullah was particularly concerned about the Haqqani network’s contacts with Taliban opposition groups and foreign powers.
He added that Khalil Haqqani was more active in this field compared to other Taliban officials, because he had a political and social personality.
Semple said that Khalil Haqqani had connections with the Taliban opposition front and some foreign powers. According to him, although the Haqqani network, especially Sirajuddin Haqqani, have tried to convince the Taliban leader that they are aligned and united, Hebatullah has doubts about them.
He emphasized that Khalil Haqqani had contacts with Sirajuddin, which seemed “illegitimate” from Hebatullah’s point of view.” Sepmel reminded that Khalil Haqqani is not the first Taliban minister who was killed. During the first period of Taliban rule, Mullah Abdul Raqib was killed due to foreign contacts.
Former deputy of the European Union in Afghanistan underlined trust issue between Kandahar Taliban and the Haqqani’s
The former diplomat. Sempel said that it is possible that the suicide bomber was a member of ISIS in the past, but he managed to assassinate Haqqani with the support of the Kandahar faction.
Sample clarified that the loss of Khalil Haqqani has put a serious blow to the Haqqani network, adding that Khalil Haqqani was one of the survivors of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader and founder of Haqqani network, who played a major role in the diplomacy of this network.
Pakistan Special Envoy Sadiq met with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, where they agreed to work together to further strengthen bilateral cooperation as well as for peace and progress in the region.
Meanwhile, Sadiq also met with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Tuesday, where they held wide ranging discussions. “Agreed to work together to further strengthen bilateral cooperation as well as for peace and progress in the region,” Sadiq said.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry in a statement said both sides discussed bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, enhancing diplomatic relations, trade, transit, and people-to-people relations.
Also, Sadiq met with Afghan traders and chamber representatives from across Afghanistan to discuss enhanced trade cooperation and economic ties, fostering a stronger bilateral relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The visit comes at a time where ties between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated in recent months, especially tensions have flared over the activities of the TTP, an armed group that has escalated attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Pakistani top officials, including Prime Minister and the country’s defense minister accused the Taliban of providing safe havens for TTP, an allegation the Taliban denied in strongest possible terms.
Pakistan says that Kabul allowed the TTP fighters to cross the border and carry attacks against the country’s security forces and border guards.
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