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IEA to open high schools for girls next week
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) will allow girls around Afghanistan to return to class when high schools open next week, an education official said on Thursday, after months of uncertainty over whether the IEA would allow full access to education for girls and women, Reuters reported.
“All schools are going to open to all boys and girls,” Aziz Ahmad Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, told Reuters.
“But there are some conditions for girls,” he said, adding that female students would be taught separately from males and only by female teachers.
In some rural areas where there was a shortage of female teachers, he said that older male teachers would be allowed to teach girls, Reuters reported.
“There is no school that will close for this year. If there is any school that closes, it is the responsibility of the education ministry to open it,” Rayan added.
Allowing girls and women into schools and colleges has been one of the key demands the international community has made of the IEA since it toppled the Western-backed government last August.
Most countries have so far refused to formally recognise the IEA, amid concerns over their treatment of girls and women and allegations of human rights abuses against former soldiers and officials from the ousted administration.
The IEA have vowed to investigate alleged abuses, and say they are not seeking revenge on their former enemies.
The last time the IEA ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they banned female education and most employment. Since regaining power, boys and men have returned to education in far greater number than girls and women, Reuters reported.
The Islamic Emirate (IE) is seeking to run the country according to its interpretation of Islamic law while at the same time accessing billions of dollars in development aid that it desperately needs to stave off widespread poverty and hunger.
Sanctions against some leading members of the group have complicated the situation.
The IEA say they respect women’s rights in accordance with Islamic law and local custom. But many women have reported restrictions on access to public life, including jobs, forcing some to drop out of the workforce.
Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, urged the international community against complacency after the announcement.
“There has been a huge focus by donors on girls’ secondary schools — multiple donors have told me they see this issue as ‘totemic’,” she said.
Barr added that reopening schools would not necessarily mean that the broader rights of women and girls in society would be protected.
Seventeen-year-old Farzana said she was already washing and ironing her uniform as she anticipated joining her friends in her Kabul classroom. After six months at home, she said she and others had struggled mentally being away from studies.
“I feel very powerful. We can show not only (the Taliban) but also the world (that) we never stop, and Afghanistan won’t return to previous decades,” she said.
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US understands importance of Chabahar Port for Afghanistan: India
The United States understands the importance of Chabahar Port for continued humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan and to provide the country economic alternatives, India’s foreign ministry said on Friday.
India recently signed a 10-year agreement to develop and operate Iran’s strategic Chabahar Port as New Delhi aims to boost trade ties with landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries, bypassing ports in its western neighbour and arch foe Pakistan.
But the deal has prompted a thinly veiled threat of sanctions from the United States, with whom India has developed close economic and military ties in recent decades.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal, noted that since 2018, India has supplied 85,000 metric tons of wheat, 200 metric tons of pulses and 40,000 litres of pesticide Malathion to Afghanistan through Chabahar Port.
“The United States also has an understanding…understands the importance of Chabahar Port for continued humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan and to provide Afghanistan economic alternatives,” he said in a press conference.
“Our External Affairs Minister also spoke on this matter in several forums recently, where he said that we should not take a narrow view of this particular project, it has an important role to play as far as the region is concerned, connectivity is concerned, particularly for the landlocked countries in the area,” he added.
He also said that Russia‘s special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, met with an Indian delegation led by Joint Secretary, J.P. Singh, who looks after Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, in the Ministry of External Affairs, essentially exchange of views on the ground and the situation and how the two countries look at the situation.
He said that they emphasized on the need to provide development assistance and humanitarian support to the people of Afghanistan.
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Nicaragua president sends letter of condolence to IEA leader after floods
The Afghan Embassy in China announced Saturday that the President of Nicaragua has sent a letter of condolence to the leader of the Islamic Emirate, Mawlawi Hebatullah Akhundzada, following the recent deadly floods in Afghanistan.
Based on the embassy’s statement, the letter was handed over by Michael Campbell, the Nicaraguan ambassador to China, to Bilal Karimi, the Afghan ambassador to China.
In the letter, Nicaragua president, Daniel Ortega, while expressing his sympathy over the floods, expressed his interest in establishing good relations with the Islamic Emirate and cooperation in various fields.
The Nicaraguan ambassador stated that the Nicaraguan people, like the Afghans, achieved independence after a hard struggle against the colonialists, which is a common point between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Bilal Karimi, Afghanistan’s ambassador to China, has said that he will convey the condolence letter of the President of Nicaragua to the leader of the Islamic Emirate. He also assured of maintaining good relations with the country.
Karimi emphasized that all Latin American countries are important, but Nicaragua’s taking the initiative is a positive and admirable move.
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UN Doha meeting should reflect realities of Afghanistan: Iranian envoy
Iran’s special representative for Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said in a meeting with his Italian counterpart that the next UN-convened meeting on Afghanistan should reflect the realities of the country.
Qomi said that Tehran is ready to work with Europe on the development of a comprehensive cooperation plan for Afghanistan based on the consultations it has conducted.
He added that the topics of the third meeting of special envoys on Afghanistan in Doha should be based on the realities of the region and Afghanistan.
“The actions of countries outside the region have not been useful in solving the crisis and challenges of Afghanistan so far, and if this situation continues, Europe will also be plagued by the problems,” he said.
The last meeting of the United Nations on Afghanistan was held in Doha in February this year, but it failed to achieve its primary objectives.
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