Taliban stops issuing driving licence to women in Kabul: Reports

 The ban comes at a time when the country suffers from a devastating humanitarian crisis, with an acute shortage of food and other essential supplies.

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has stopped issuing driving licenses to women in Kabul and other provinces, media reports said. The ban comes at a time when the country suffers from a devastating humanitarian crisis, with an acute shortage of food and other essential supplies. Before the Taliban takeover, women in Afghanistan could be seen driving in some of the major cities of the country including Kabul. However, the Taliban has now stopped distributing driving licenses to women, local media said.

Notably, the situation of human rights in Afghanistan has worsened since the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s return to power in August last year. Although the fighting in the country has ended, serious human rights violations continue unabated, especially against women. In a recent decree, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan banned girls from attending school above grade sixth leading to worldwide condemnation. The leaders of the outfit have since said that the move was taken because of an apparent “shortage of teachers” and that the right of girls to study beyond grade sixth will be restored “shortly”

Ex-Afghan army general Sami Sadat prepares for new war against Taliban

 Speaking for the first time about the plans, Lt Gen Sami Sadat told the BBC that eight months of Taliban rule has convinced many Afghans that military action is the only way forward

A former general in the Afghan army says he and many other soldiers and politicians from the previous administration are preparing to launch a new war against the incumbent Taliban regime in the country. Speaking for the first time about the plans, Lt Gen Sami Sadat told the BBC that eight months of Taliban rule has convinced many Afghans that military action is the only way forward. He said operations could begin next month after Eid, when he plans to return to Afghanistan.

The Taliban took control of the country in a rapid offensive last August. The hard-line Islamists swept across the country in just 10 days, as the last US-led NATO forces left following a 20-year military campaign. Lt Gen Sadat said that he and the others would “do anything and everything in our powers to make sure Afghanistan is freed from the Taliban and a democratic system is re-established”….

Taliban's Afghan takeover has led to 'erosion of human rights': Blinken

 Blinken’s remarks came as the US state department released the 2021 Human Rights Report on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday (local time) said that the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has resulted in a “serious erosion of human rights” in the country. Blinken’s remarks came as the US state department released the 2021 Human Rights Report on Tuesday.

“In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s takeover precipitated a humanitarian crisis, and has resulted in serious erosion of human rights, from arbitrary detentions of women, protesters, and journalists, to reprisals against security forces for the former government, to growing restrictions on where women and girls can study or work,” he said during the press briefing.

Notably, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also claimed that there has been a surge in human rights violations in Afghanistan, reported Tolonews. “Human Rights Watch works on the human rights situation in about 100 countries around the world and at the moment we see Afghanistan as a very urgent priority. The human rights situation in Afghanistan is deeply worrying,” the media outlet quoted Heather Barr, associate director of the Women’s Rights Division at HRW, as saying.