Azadi Briefing

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Frud Bezhan, regional desk editor for Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

The United Nation’s World Food Program (WFP) has warned that it is just “days away” from cutting assistance to 9 million people in Afghanistan if it does not immediately receive funding. The WFP delivers food, cash, and other assistance in emergencies.

“We urgently need $93 million to assist 13 million people in April and $800 million for the next six months,” the WFP said in a tweet on March 29.

Hsiao-Wei Lee, country director for WFP Afghanistan, said that “catastrophic hunger knocks on Afghanistan’s doors and unless humanitarian support is sustained, hundreds of thousands more Afghans will need assistance to survive.”

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 worsened an already major humanitarian crisis and triggered an economic meltdown. Foreign governments immediately cut development funding and imposed sanctions on the new government.

For the past 20 months, multibillion-dollar aid packages have prevented a widespread famine. In 2022, the WFP received around $1.7 billion from international donors, including the United States and European nations. But donors have reduced funding this year, rekindling fears of a famine.

Why It's Important: Aid groups have repeatedly warned that emergencies in Ukraine, Turkey, and Syria, challenging global economic conditions, and the Taliban’s ban on women working for NGOs could lead to a drop in donor funding for Afghanistan.

The WFP’s stark comments are one of the first tangible signs of foreign governments and institutions pulling back from Afghanistan.

Aid groups now face the worst-case scenario in Afghanistan: reducing or ending food assistance to the estimated 20 million Afghans -- or around half of the population -- who are "acutely food insecure."

What's Next: It is unclear if the WFP, which is funded entirely by donations, will be able to raise the funds it needs to continue its life-saving assistance in Afghanistan.

If it does not, there could be catastrophic consequences for Afghans, 6 million of whom are already on the verge of starvation.

The Week's Best Stories

Matiullah Wesa, a widely known and respected campaigner for education in Afghanistan, was beaten and arrested by the Taliban in Kabul on March 27. His arrest on unknown charges has sparked an international outcry and highlighted the Taliban's intensifying crackdown on educators and dissent.

U.S. forces left a trove of weapons behind when they withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Some of those arms have turned up in neighboring Pakistan, where they have been used by armed groups. Experts say the Pakistani Taliban and ethnic Baluch separatist groups have obtained M16 machine guns and M4 assault rifles, night-vision goggles, and military communication gear.

Former Afghan university student Farzana Haidari operates a sewing machine in Ghor Province. She had nearly completed her degree in Persian language and literature when the Taliban banned education for women. Since seizing power, the regime has broken its pledges to allow education access and professional careers for females.

What To Keep An Eye On

At least 10 people have been killed and nearly 100 injured by heavy rain and flash floods that have struck Afghanistan, the Taliban-run National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on March 30. Spokesman Shafiullah Rahimi said around 1,000 homes have been destroyed.

The areas most affected have been the northern provinces of Parwan and Balkh, as well as the southern province of Uruzgan.

"The floods are a calamity. It’s a disaster,” Sufi Faqir, a farmer in Parwan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, adding that his fields were destroyed.

Gholam Dastagir, a shopkeeper in the provincial capital, Charikar, told Radio Azadi that his shop was flooded and his goods ruined. “Now, we don’t have any money to buy food,” he said.

The NDMA has warned of snowfall and more heavy rain in the coming days.

Why It's Important: Scores of Afghans die every year from floods and torrential downpours, particularly in impoverished rural areas where poorly built homes are often at risk of collapse.

Decades of conflict, coupled with environmental degradation and insufficient investment in disaster risk reduction, have contributed to the increasing vulnerability of Afghans to natural disasters, according to the UN.

Recent floods and earthquakes are likely to aggravate the country’s humanitarian and economic crises.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan said that “aid agencies are assessing the impact and providing aid where needed” following the latest floods. But it added that “limited funding is constraining their ability to scale up” aid to those affected by the floods.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org.

Note: There will be no Azadi Briefing on April 7.

Until next time,

Frud Bezhan

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.

Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

A new school year began in Afghanistan this week, but with girls above the sixth grade still banned from attending class.

Last year, the Taliban made a last-minute U-turn after promising for months to allow teenage girls to attend school. But this year, there were few signs before the academic year began that the militants would reverse their ban. In December, the Taliban also banned university education for women.

Human rights groups and female Afghan activists this week condemned the Taliban's ban. In a statement on March 21, UNICEF said the militant group's "unjustified and shortsighted decision has crushed the hopes and dreams of more than 1 million girls."

Former Afghan lawmaker Shukria Barakzai told Radio Azadi that the ban epitomized the Taliban's worldview, which she said fears educated women.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are prohibited from going to high school.

Why It's Important: The Taliban's restrictions on girls' education as well as its severe constraints on women's right to work and freedom of movement have signaled to Afghans and the international community that the militant group is bent on reestablishing its brutal regime of the 1990s.

The Taliban's draconian policies on girls and women appear to have backfired. The restrictions are considered one of the reasons the hard-line Islamist group has yet to gain international recognition and domestic legitimacy.

The education ban has even undermined the Taliban's religious credentials. The group has come under strong criticism from Muslim countries and Islamic clerics, who have called for the Taliban to rescind its ban.

What's Next: In the long term, the Taliban's education ban is likely to have a devastating social and economic impact.

In August, UNICEF estimated that the Taliban's education ban translated to a loss of at least $500 million for the Afghan economy in the last 12 months.

With the Taliban refusing to reverse its ban, some Afghans have called for the international community to impose further sanctions against the Taliban government.

"Sanctions against the Taliban leaders responsible for these bans would force them to rescind such policies," Shinkai Karokhail, a female former Afghan lawmaker, told Radio Azadi.

The Week's Best Stories

The preservation of Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage has been impeded by decades of war, destruction, and desecration. But while the Taliban's return to power has raised fears of a return to its ruinous old ways when it comes to the country's pre-Islamic history, preservationists continue to pick up the pieces with a surprising level of cooperation.

Norouz festivities are making a limited comeback among Pashtun communities in northwestern Pakistan. The traditional spring celebrations marking the arrival of the New Year died down a century ago due to calendar changes and imperial borders that limited their contacts with fellow Pashtuns in Afghanistan and other communities.

What To Keep An Eye On

The Taliban's influential finance minister, Mullah Hidayatullah Badri, was demoted and appointed as the new head of Afghanistan's central bank on March 22.

The demotion came after speculation that Badri had threatened to resign from his post because of differences with Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

One account suggests that Badri opposed Akhundzada's 2021 decision to impose a blanket ban on opium cultivation without providing alternative livelihoods to the tens of thousands of farmers in southern Afghanistan, where Badri is from, who were dependent on the illicit drug trade.

During its 19-year insurgency, the Taliban is believed to have earned billions from the drug trade. Experts say the Taliban taxed poppy farmers and was involved in the trafficking of narcotics to neighboring countries.

In recent months, senior Taliban officials have publicly criticized Akhundzada, who has been accused of monopolizing power and empowering a cohort of radical clerics.

Why It's Important: Badri, also known by his alias Gul Agha, was among the founding members of the Taliban in the mid-1990s. He controlled the Taliban's finances for more than two decades.

Badri is a prominent Taliban figure from the southern province of Helmand. The so-called Helmand Shura, or council that Badri was a member of, led the Taliban insurgency for several years. In May 2016, a U.S. drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur inside Pakistan, which weakened the faction.

Badri was the only minister appointed from this faction when the Taliban announced its government in September 2021. His departure from the top echelons of the Taliban government deprives this powerful Taliban faction of a share in power.

Badri also figures prominently on the UN sanctions list against the Taliban leaders. His appointment to Afghanistan's central bank could further complicate the group's international dealings.

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.