Media Coverage

The US is moving $3.5 billion to the new "Afghan Fund," but officials said they won't release the money imminently to an institution in Afghanistan because there is no trusted institution to guarantee the funds will benefit the Afghan people, the officials said. Instead, it will be administered by...

An affiliate of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in Afghanistan has targeted Hazaras—a predominantly Shia Muslim ethnic group—and other minorities, in a wave of attacks at mosques, schools, and workplaces, undermining the Taliban’s promise of greater security, the Human Rights Watch said in a report on...

A huge explosion has ripped through a crowded mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people, police say. Another 33 people were injured, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran added. Wednesday's blast occurred during evening prayers. The mosque's imam Amir Muhammad Kabuli is reported to be...

The Taliban imposed several limitations on women’s freedoms since returning to power. While the new regime has not directly fired female government employees such as Samar, it has restricted women from entering the workplaces, paying them a significantly reduced salary to stay at home, many working...

After returning to power last August, the Taliban imposed sweeping restrictions on women, including the types of jobs they could do. According to the International Labour Organization, the share of women in employment is expected to fall by 21 percent by mid-2022, Zahra – who is not using her real...

Commandos in the United Kingdom’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) corps killed at least 54 Afghans in suspicious circumstances during a six-month tour of Helmand province from November 2010 to May 2011, but the military chain of command concealed concerns, according to a BBC media network...

More than 1,000 people have been killed and 2,000 injured in what has been recorded as Afghanistan’s worst earthquake in 20 years. According to the country’s Ministry of Public Health, 35 entire villages have been destroyed or damaged. In Gayan alone, at least 250 people have died. Families affected...

An Afghan prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay for about 15 years without trial has been released from US custody, the Taliban government in Afghanistan and an international human rights group said. Asadullah Haroon Gul’s release was announced on Friday by Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy...

The Taliban have ordered female Afghan TV presenters and other women on screen to cover their faces while on air. Media outlets were told of the decree on Wednesday, a religious police spokesman told BBC Pashto. The ruling comes two weeks after all women were ordered to wear a face veil in public...

Many women in the Afghan capital are delaying a return to fully covering their faces in public in defiance of orders from Islamist Taliban rulers, others are staying at home, and some have been wearing COVID-19 face masks anyway. The Taliban, who swept back to power as the government collapsed, on...