Afghanistan

Women have been banned from appearing in television dramas in Afghanistan under new rules imposed by the Taliban government.

Female journalists and presenters have also been ordered to wear headscarves on screen, although the guidelines do not say which type of covering to use.

Reporters say some of the rules are vague and subject to interpretation.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August and many fear they are gradually imposing harsh restrictions.

Despite talk of a Taliban ban, in Helmand’s poppy fields farmers and traders say they are not the only ones who depend on the drug to survive

The Taliban’s announcement that it plans to ban the production of opium in Afghanistan does not faze seasoned dealer Ahmed Khan*.

“They could not fund their war if there were no opium,” says Khan, who operates out of Baramcha, close to the border with Pakistan.

He has traded in the drug for a quarter of a century and is confident that the group cannot really afford for trade to stop.

“There would be a backlash from the poppy farmers, drug lords and the public if the Taliban bans the opium production. The Taliban has benefited the most from opium production over 20 years.”

Afghanistan’s former finance minister has claimed that “ghost soldiers” and corrupt government officials were responsible for the Taliban’s ability to quickly seize control of the country, as NATO forces withdrew their personnel.

Speaking on Wednesday, Khalid Payenda, who served as the Afghan finance minister immediately before the Taliban’s takeover, claimed that around 300,000 soldiers and police officers listed on the government’s payroll did not exist.

The so-called “ghost soldiers” were kept on the books by corrupt officials who pocketed their wages, according to Payenda, who said they were “desertions [and] martyrs who were never accounted for” by commanders who “would keep their bank cards.”

Good Lord. Now we know why the State Department keeps playing coy with the number of legal permanent American residents (LPRs) Joe Biden left to the Taliban. While the White House and Foggy Bottom talked about a couple of hundred American citizens, they knew that the total number of Americans ranged as high as fourteen thousand, according to Foreign Policy and testimony in Congress…

The State Department sought to redact “wholesale” public reports by the U.S. inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, the watchdog said Friday.

Special Inspector General John Sopko said the State Department requested on Aug. 19 that his office remove 2,400 items from publicly available reports “based on unspecified privacy concerns.” The list included such information as the name of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and a reference in one report to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Mr. Sopko called the requests baffling but said his office nevertheless undertook a detailed review of the material that the administration wanted to be removed. He said all but four minor requests were found to be “baseless.”

Close to midnight, the phone rang. With the pick-up location confirmed, it was time to leave.

Dressed in a full-length black chador, Judge Sana stepped into the street, her two young children hovering by her side. Each of them was carrying a single bag, stuffed with two sets of clothes, a passport, phone, cash, and as much food as they could carry for the journey ahead.

“When we left we didn’t know where we were going,” Sana recalled. “We were told there would be security risks on the way, but we accepted them all because we knew this was the only way out.”