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Since seizing power, the Taliban has attempted to root out all forms of secular education in Afghanistan.
Since seizing power, the Taliban has attempted to root out all forms of secular education in Afghanistan.

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

I'm Mustafa Sarwar, a senior news editor 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

The Taliban ordered the closure of all teacher-training centers in Afghanistan on July 4, according to a letter circulated by its Education Ministry and obtained by Radio Azadi.

The order affects 49 teacher-training centers and 198 support facilities across the country, according to a source at the ministry who spoke to Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Around 5,600 instructors and other staff were employed by the training centers. Created under the previous Western-backed Afghan government, the centers were aimed at improving the quality of education in the war-torn country.

In its letter, the Taliban did not reveal the reasons for its decision. But the militant group said employees of the centers could be given jobs in Taliban-run education facilities, although it is unclear how many would take up the offer.

The Taliban's Deputy Education Minister Sibghatullah Wasil, in an interview with BBC Pashto, suggested that the centers were inefficient and "had no plans, no work, and were not busy."

Why It's Important: The Taliban's decision to close the training centers appears part of its wider efforts to root out all forms of the modern secular education that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban's first regime.

Since regaining power, the militants have converted scores of secular schools, public universities, and vocational training centers into Islamic seminaries, leading to a surge in the number of madrasahs in the country.

The hard-line Islamist group has also vowed to overhaul the national curriculum and build a vast network of madrasahs across the country's 34 provinces.

Last month, a Taliban education official, Abdul Wahid Tariq, said the group had so far built madrasahs in five provinces.

The Taliban's closure of the teacher-training centers will likely see thousands of instructors and educators lose their jobs.

"Cutting off the income of these people and making them unemployed will cause society and the families of the teachers serious problems," a Kabul-based teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Radio Azadi.

What's Next: The Taliban appears likely to continue what some activists have called its war on education.

The group has banned women from attending university and girls above the sixth grade from going to school.

The Taliban's efforts to eradicate secular education and replace it with radical religious instruction are likely to contribute to the spread of extremist ideologies in Afghanistan.

The Week's Best Stories

An Afghan refugee seeking asylum in the United States is now captivating audiences on-screen, portraying a character she has a lot in common with. In her first-ever acting role, Anaita Wali Zada plays a haunted young immigrant named Donya who finds herself beached in the northern California city of Fremont. Her new life: working in a factory, writing fortunes for Chinese cookies.

A court in Pakistan recently ordered the government to grant citizenship to the Afghan husbands of four Pakistani women. While it sets a precedent for a few hundred similar cases, the huge majority of Afghan refugees cannot get Pakistani nationality -- even those who were born and have lived in the country for decades.

What To Keep An Eye On

When the United States pulled out its forces from Afghanistan in 2021, it left behind billions of dollars' worth of military equipment and weapons.

The Taliban seized the arms after the fall of the internationally recognized Afghan government during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

Some of those arms are being sold in weapons markets in border areas with Pakistan with the consent of local Taliban officials, according to a new report by the Small Arms Survey.

The Switzerland-based research group says the Taliban has tried to tighten its control over the group's massive weapons stocks. But it said arms smuggling exists.

Why It's Important: The Small Arms Survey says the presence of weapons markets in Afghanistan increases the risk of arms proliferation in the region.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are home to dozens of militant groups, and observers have raised fears that U.S. weapons have fallen into the hands of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, which is waging an increasingly bloody insurgency against Islamabad.

The Taliban has rejected the findings of the survey as propaganda, saying all weapons under the group's control are accounted for.

Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recently accused the Taliban of selling U.S. weapons left behind in Afghanistan to Washington's "enemies," including Iran.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Mustafa Sarwar

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.

A 19-year old Afghan woman cries on the bench she was sitting on during a suicide bomb attack that killed dozens of her fellow students in a Hazara education center in Kabul on October 1, 2022.
A 19-year old Afghan woman cries on the bench she was sitting on during a suicide bomb attack that killed dozens of her fellow students in a Hazara education center in Kabul on October 1, 2022.

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 Institute for Economics and Peace has named Afghanistan as the least peaceful country in the world for the sixth consecutive year.

In its 2023 Global Peace Index released on June 28, the international think tank said “violence is still widespread throughout the country,” although it noted that the “level of conflict has dropped considerably” since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

“Afghanistan recorded the largest reduction in deaths from armed conflict in 2022 with conflict-related deaths falling 90.6 per cent, from almost 43,000 to just over 4,000,” the index said.

But the think tank noted that the security situation in Afghanistan remains uncertain and terrorism continues to be a “serious security concern.”

The index warned that there was a “strong possibility” that the conflict between the Taliban and the rival Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group could escalate. IS-K remains the biggest threat to the Taliban, carrying out deadly attacks against Taliban officials and the country’s religious minorities.

The index also noted that a growing number of local militias have joined the Afghan National Liberation Front and the Afghan National Resistance Front, armed groups that have been waging a low-level resistance to Taliban rule.

The Global Peace Index, which ranks 163 countries, measures the state of peace according to three values: the degree of militarization, the level of security, and the extent of ongoing conflicts.

Why It's Important: Since regaining power, the Taliban has repeatedly claimed that it has eliminated IS-K in Afghanistan and boasted about restoring law and order in the war-wracked country.

But the continuing violence in Afghanistan, as documented by the Global Peace Index as well as the United Nations, has busted the Taliban’s narrative that it has established complete security.

The UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a June 27 report that it had documented significant civilian casualties in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, despite a sharp reduction compared to previous years.

UNAMA said there were 3,774 civilian casualties, including 1,095 people killed in violence in the country, between mid-August 2021 and the end of May 2023.

Mohammad Naeem Ghayor, an Afghan security expert, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that although the security situation in Afghanistan has improved, there is not “real peace and stability” in the country.

What's Next: The Taliban is likely to face growing internal resistance to its rule. The militants have rolled back many rights, carried out widespread human rights abuses, and sidelined many of the country’s ethnic and religious groups.

The militant Islamist group has also been undermined by widening internal rifts and international isolation.

The Week's Best Story

Muslims across the world celebrated Eid al-Adha this week. But the festivities were muted in Afghanistan, where many people are struggling to survive amid a devastating humanitarian and economic crisis. The Taliban’s severe restrictions on women’s freedom of movement, including a ban on them going to public parks, also hampered celebrations.

What To Keep An Eye On

Amnesty International called on the Taliban to release Matiullah Wesa, a widely known and respected education rights activist who was beaten and arrested by the Taliban in Kabul on March 27.

“Today marks three months since education rights activist Matiullah Wesa was arbitrarily arrested by the Taliban de-facto authorities,” Amnesty said in a tweet on June 27.

“His continued detention is a clear violation of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly under international human rights law. The Taliban de- facto authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Matiullah Wesa.”

His arrest on charges of “anti-regime activities” sparked an international outcry.

In a written message to Radio Azadi, Attaullah Wesa said his brother’s arrest was unjustified and demanded that the Taliban release him.

Why It's Important: Wesa’s continued detention has served to highlight the Taliban's intensifying crackdown on dissent.

In recent months, the militant group has specifically targeted educators, including Rasul Parsi, a former university professor in the western city of Herat, who had written Facebook posts critical of the Taliban.

In February, the Taliban arrested former university professor Ismail Mashal after he distributed books to women and girls in Kabul to protest the Taliban’s ban on women attending university and girls above the sixth grade going to school. Mashal was later released.

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.

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. Please note that the newsletter will not be issued next week due to public holidays. It will return on July 14.

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Radio Azadi is RFE/RL's Dari- and Pashto-language public service news outlet for Afghanistan. Every Friday in our newsletter, the Azadi Briefing, correspondent Abubakar Siddique shares his analysis of the week’s most important issues and explain why they matter.

To subscribe, click here.

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