RFE/RL's Radio Azadi is one of the most popular and trusted media outlets in Afghanistan. Nearly half of the country's adult audience accesses Azadi's reporting on a weekly basis.
Freshta Mowahid ran three companies in Kabul with around 50 female workers. When the Taliban returned to power and barred women from most jobs, she was forced to dismiss all of her employees, many of whom were the sole breadwinners for their families.
Groups of Afghan women took to the streets this fall to protest the Taliban takeover and the regime's restrictions on their roles in public life. But after Taliban security forces met those demonstrations with violence, activists started holding smaller protests in private.
Mohadese Mirzaee, 23, became the first female airline pilot in Afghanistan less than a year before the Taliban seized power. Her career came to a sudden halt as she fled the country, fearing reprisals from the new regime. Now in Bulgaria, Mirzaee hopes to return home and resume flying.
“Women and girl survivors of gender-based violence have essentially been abandoned in Afghanistan. Their network of support has been dismantled, and their places of refuge have all but disappeared,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Afghan women's rights activists held a protest in Kabul on December 5, insisting that they will continue to fight for their right to education, employment, and participation in politics after the Taliban-led government issued a decree on women's rights that they say is inadequate.
A former Radio Azadi journalist recounts a tense, late-night drive through Taliban checkpoints as he flees from Kabul to Pakistan for an uncertain future.
The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, has welcomed a Taliban decree calling for the enforcement of certain women's rights, but said much more is needed to protect their rights "in every aspect of Afghan society."
Since the Taliban took power in August, women and girls have been shut out of most parts of public life as the regime formulates policies under its strict interpretation of Islamic law. For two sisters in Kandahar, that has meant the end of the art classes they loved.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said several European countries are working on opening up a common site for diplomatic representation in Kabul that would enable their ambassadors to return to Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August.
The family of an Afghan man has accused the Taliban of torturing and killing him after he criticized the militant group in a recent Facebook post. Since seizing power in August, the Taliban has been accused of carrying out hundreds of extrajudicial killings.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have issued a decree calling for the enforcement of certain women’s rights that are already enshrined in Shari’a law, but failed to mention key areas of concern for rights groups and Western governments such as education and work.
The Taliban's repressive rule and the worsening economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is driving thousands of people to flee the country every week. Many Afghans are making the perilous journey westward through Iran, from where some hope to reach Europe.
The Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan’s Independent Bar Association and declared that only Taliban-approved lawyers can work in its Islamic courts. The move has raised deep concerns about the impartiality and fairness of criminal trials under the Taliban regime.
A U.S. delegation has met with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, to discuss the international community’s response to a humanitarian crisis and other issues facing Afghanistan, the U.S. State Department said on November 30.
Afghans say Taliban fighters are stopping people in public and searching their smartphones. Residents who spoke to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi said they were beaten or harassed after the militants discovered music or videos on their devices.
The European Union says the Taliban has asked for help in keeping Afghanistan's airports running in weekend talks in Qatar with EU officials, as the bloc said it could unlock extra financing for the cash-strapped country if the group met conditions.
Afghanistan’s Taliban prime minister delivered his first public speech since the Islamist group took power more than three months ago, saying the government wants good relations with other countries and would solve economic problems.
Afghan experts say urgent action is needed to protect the famed Minaret of Jam after guards disappeared and critical damage became visible on the cultural treasure.
Tens of thousands of Afghan teachers have not been paid their salaries since the Taliban seized power in August. As they struggle to survive by other means, many Afghan schools now lack enough teachers to instruct boys or girls.
A power crisis in the central Afghan province of Ghor is making life there even more difficult. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August, the state electricity company Breshna has been unable to keep diesel power generators going in the provincial capital of Feroz Koh.
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