Afghan athletes face formidable hurdles under Taliban rule, particularly women, who are denied the chance to compete or even enter a gym. But when the Olympics open in Paris next month, Afghanistan will be represented by a team that epitomizes equality and global resistance to the Taliban's disregard for women's rights.

Afghanistan will field a six-member Olympic team that will consist of three women and three men, all chosen by the exiled Afghan National Olympic Committee (NOC). The team has the full support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which believes a gender-balanced team will serve as a positive example to the world.

The Taliban, which remains internationally isolated and whose unrecognized rule of Afghanistan has been marked by human rights abuses, has no stake in the team or the selection process.

Representatives of the Taliban and its authoritative bodies were denied accreditation for the Olympics and will not be represented in any way during the games that open on July 26.

The hard-line Islamist group's ban on women's sports is part of its raft of infamous restrictions that deprive Afghan women and girls of the opportunity to pursue education, employment, mobility, and deny them any prominent role in government or society.

In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, women must be accompanied by a male chaperone even to travel outside their homes, and are barred from competitions or even working out in public gyms.

But in Paris, the athletes representing Afghanistan will be breaking taboos and restrictions. The team was selected with the goal of showcasing gender equality, and features the same number of women and men.

Kimia Yousefi, Afghanistan's fastest woman and soon to be a three-time Olympian, will be looking to best the Afghan national record of 13.29 seconds she set in the 100 meters in Tokyo. She served as the flag-bearer for Afghanistan nearly three years ago in those COVID-delayed games, which wrapped up just days before the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021.

Yousefi will be joined by the Hashemi sisters, Fariba and her older sibling Yulduz, road cyclists who are on track to be the first-ever -- male or female -- to represent Afghanistan in cycling at the Olympics.

Swimmer Fahim Anwari is among those who will be competing for Afghanistan under the anthem as well as the black, red, and green flag of the former Afghan republic ousted by the Taliban.

The tumultuous political changes in the Olympian's homeland since he represented Afghanistan in Tokyo have upturned his life and those of his compatriots.

Limited Resources

After the Taliban’s seizure of power, Anwari fled to Germany, where he has trained with limited resources and continues to represent Afghanistan in international swimming competitions.

“Problems and challenges in exile severely disrupted my practice,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “But I am doing my best to pursue my goals.”

Afghanistan's fastest man, sprinter Shah Mahmud Noorzai, will be competing in the 100 meters.

“I have trained well for the Paris games,” Noorzai, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Noorzai fled to neighboring Iran after the Taliban rolled into Kabul. With the help of the IOC, he trained with Iranian athletes.

Noorzai said he is looking forward to beating the national record he set in Tokyo in the 100 meters, which he ran in 10.23 seconds.

“I am proud to be the fastest man in Afghanistan,” he said. “To be the fastest man in Afghanistan’s history.”

Yunas Popalzai, the exiled secretary-general of the Afghan NOC, told Radio Azadi that in addition to Noorzai and Anwari, the judoka Mohmmad Samim will represent Afghanistan.

Akhtari said five of the Team Afghanistan athletes were based outside their home country.

“As all women’s sports are suspended in Afghanistan, [the female athletes] who were put forward were not introduced from inside the country,” he told the AFP news agency this month.

Only Samim is believed to be based in Afghanistan itself.

The objective from the beginning was to choose a balanced team of men and women to represent Afghanistan.

“We made it clear we wanted a gender-equal team,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said earlier this month. “That was the demand, and that is what we achieved.”

“The clear idea is we want to get Afghan athletes and a gender-based team in Paris,” he said. “Because of the demonstration that it gives to the world, at home in Afghanistan, and also to the rest of the world.”

The IOC provides material and financial support for the Afghan athletes competing in the biggest global sports competition.

Adams stressed that the IOC is not allowing Taliban officials to participate in the Olympics and only recognizes the NOC's right to represent Afghan athletes.

"There will be no place for Afghan authorities, the Taliban," Adams said. "No representative of the de facto authorities, the Taliban government, will be accredited."

At least three Afghan men and two women will also compete for the IOC's Refugee Olympic Team, which represents 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.

Manizha Talash, a breakdancer who was born in Kabul, discovered the sport on social media, and now lives in Spain, is among those who will compete with the 36-member team.

The Refugee Olympic Team will be led in Paris by Masomah Ali Zada, an Afghan road cyclist who competed for the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo in 2021.

Nigara Shaheen, a judoka in the 70-kilogram category, grew up as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan and practiced martial arts as a family tradition. She has lived and trained in Canada since 2022 and was also named on the Refugee Olympic Team.

Three male Afghans will be on the Refugee Olympic Team-- Amir Ansari in road cycling, Arab Sibghatullah in judo, and Farzad Mansouri in taekwondo.

Afghanistan first participated in the Olympics in 1936, but has only won two medals.

Rohullah Nikpah won men’s taekwondo medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and in the 2012 games in London.

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Radio Azadi correspondent Faiza Ibrahimi.

Shahabuddin had a brush with death when floods ripped through his community and washed away his home in northern Afghanistan.

Having survived one near-death experience, Shahabuddin soon encountered another foe: disease.

“Within 24 hours, I was so weak that I could barely walk,” the father of four, who lives in the province of Baghlan, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Shahabuddin is among the nearly 47,000 Afghans who have contracted cholera so far this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A highly infectious bacterial disease, cholera spreads through contaminated food and water and results in acute diarrhea, fever, and dehydration. If untreated, it can lead to death.

At least 25 people have died of the disease so far in 2024 in Afghanistan, which has the highest number of cases in the world, according to a WHO report released on June 19.

Experts said a series of natural disasters, including floods that devastated swaths of northern and central Afghanistan in the spring and the country’s crumbling health-care system, are behind the sharp rise in cases.

'No Access To Clean Water'

Sharafat Zaman Amar, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Health, said Afghanistan “does not have any confirmed” cases of cholera.

But Faridullah Omari, a physician at the National Infectious Disease Hospital in Kabul, said each day the hospital receives up to 80 patients who are suffering from water-borne diseases like cholera.

He suggested the cholera outbreak has been fueled by lack of hygiene and more people drinking unsafe water.

Communities affected by the recent floods, which killed hundreds and impacted tens of thousands of people, said the deluges destroyed much of the water supply and infrastructure in the region. They also said there was a severe shortage of medicines available to treat infectious diseases like cholera.

"People don't have access to clean water,” said Sharifullah, a resident of the northern province of Sar-e Pol, which was hit by floods.

“All the water is muddy from the floods,” he told Radio Azadi. “But people use this [dirty] water, and they don't have the means to clean it. So people, especially children, are suffering from diarrhea.”

Khodayaqal, a resident of Baghlan, said they have little access to health-care facilities after the mobile clinics deployed by aid agencies and the Taliban government in the aftermath of the floods left.

“Our children are battling with diseases,” he told Radio Azadi. “We have one clinic here, but it doesn’t have any medicine.”

In its report, the WHO said diminishing stocks of cholera vaccines, as well as population growth, natural disasters, and climate change, have led to cholera outbreaks.

The public health-care system in Afghanistan, which was largely funded by foreign aid for nearly two decades, has been in free-fall since the Taliban takeover in 2021. The militants’ seizure of power led international donors to immediately cut financial funding.

Hundreds of health facilities have been closed in the past three years, with no funds to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses. Hospitals that are still open suffer from severe shortages of medicine.

While some foreign aid organizations continue to operate in Afghanistan, many of them have been forced to curb their work as international funding diminishes.

Pakistan's military said at least five soldiers in a troop convoy were killed by a roadside bomb in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province near the Afghan border in an attack claimed by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a longtime ally of the Afghan Taliban. The attack comes after the group announced a unilateral cease-fire on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr holiday from June 17-19. The region has seen an increase in the number of deadly attacks in the past year attributed to the TTP. Relations between Afghanistan's Islamist rulers and Pakistan have been tense since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, with Islamabad blaming the Taliban for sheltering the TTP. Residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have protested against the lack of security provided by Islamabad and against the actions of extremists. To read the original story by Radio Mashaal, click here.

Restrictions on women's rights continue to prevent Afghanistan's "reintegration" into the international community, a senior UN official said on June 21, adding that the Taliban's participation in talks in Doha on June 30-July 1 is not legitimization of the isolated hard-liners' government. Since their 2021 return to power, Taliban authorities have not been formally recognized by any nation and apply a rigorous interpretation of Islam, leading to suppression of women's freedoms that the UN has described as gender apartheid. Restrictions on women and girls, particularly in education, "deprive the country of vital human capital" and lead to a brain drain that undermines the impoverished country's future, Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN mission in the country, UNAMA, told the Security Council.

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

I'm Abubakar Siddique, 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

Human rights groups have documented a sharp rise in the number of Afghans executed in neighboring Iran.

At least 13 Afghans have received the death penalty in the Islamic republic so far this year, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).

Another NGO -- the Norway-based group Hengaw, which closely tracks human rights violations in Iran -- put the number at 14.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of IHR, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that the number is double compared to the same period in 2023.

Amiry-Moghaddam said seven of the Afghans executed this year were convicted of murder. The rest, he said, received the death penalty over drug-related offenses.

Amiry-Moghaddam said many Afghans do not get fair trials. Thousands of Afghans are believed to be on death row in Iran.

Why It's Important: The spike in the executions comes amid a mass deportation drive targeting members of Iran's large community of Afghans.

An estimated 4.3 million Afghans currently live in Iran, according to the UN. More than 1 million have been deported in the past year.

Afghans suffer widespread abuse and discrimination in Iran, where they have often been blamed for insecurity and unemployment.

Activists have said the sharp rise in the executions of Afghans could be aimed at instilling fear in the community and discouraging other Afghans from fleeing to the Islamic republic.

An estimated 70 percent of the estimated 3.6 million Afghans who have fled their homeland after the Taliban seized power in 2021 moved to Iran.

Already one of the world's biggest executioners, Iran has intensified its use of the death penalty by carrying out at least 853 executions in 2023, a 48 percent rise from the previous year, Amnesty International said in a report released last month.

What's Next: Iranian authorities appear unlikely to significantly decrease their use of the death penalty, which rights groups say is aimed at creating fear in the population and tightening their grip on power.

As one of Iran's most marginalized and impoverished communities, Afghans are likely to continue to be the target of executions.

What To Keep An Eye On

A new World Health Organization (WHO) report says at least 25 people have died from cholera in Afghanistan so far this year.

The WHO says in 2024 there have been nearly 47,000 cases of the bacterial disease, which spreads through contaminated food and water.

Afghanistan is among the top five countries globally with the most cholera cases, alongside neighboring Pakistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Congo.

The WHO says diminishing stocks of cholera vaccines as well as population growth, natural disasters, and climate change have led to cholera outbreaks.

Why It's Important: Afghanistan's heath-care system, which was propped up by foreign aid for nearly two decades, has been in crisis since the Taliban takeover. The militants' seizure of power led international donors to immediately cut financial funding.

Hundreds of health facilities have been closed in the past three years, with no funds to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses. Hospitals that are still open suffer from severe shortages of medicine.

While some foreign aid organizations continue to operate in Afghanistan, many of them have been forced to curb their work as international funding diminishes.

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,

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.

A push for Germany to consider the viability of using third countries to deport Afghan and Syrian refugees and process asylum seekers is meeting stiff resistance from rights groups and advocates.

The issue was a major topic of discussion in talks between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of Germany's 16 states in Berlin on June 20.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said during a meeting of regional interior ministers the same day that "concrete negotiations" are under way and that she was "confident" a way would be found to deport Afghan or Syrian immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

Faeser said the measures would only affect a small number of people, and that in the case of Afghan nationals deportations could be conducted via third countries such as Uzbekistan.

Ahead of the meetings, which came on World Refugee Day, more than 300 organizations issued an open letter to Scholz in which they sharply criticized the initiative.

"Please issue a clear rejection of plans to outsource asylum procedures," said the letter, whose signatories included Amnesty International Germany, Doctors Without Borders, and the German migrant advocacy group Pro Asyl.

"Plans to deport refugees to non-European third countries or to carry out asylum procedures outside the EU...do not work in practice, are extremely expensive, and pose a threat to the rule of law."

The signatories argued such measures would result in serious human rights abuses and integrating asylum seekers into society can succeed with greater cooperation.

The backlash against refugees has risen among conservative and hard-right politicians after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of stabbing a German police officer to death late last month.

Germany halted deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021, and Berlin has no diplomatic ties with the de-facto government formed by the hard-line Islamist leaders.

Germany is also a major destination for Syrians seeking to escape that country's civil war and rule under leader Bashar al-Assad. Syrians are the largest refugee group in Germany, with hundreds of thousands allowed into the country since 2015.

The security and human rights situations in both Afghanistan and Syria are considered dire by watchdogs.

Scholz has previously backed dropping Germany's ban on deportations, however. On June 19 his vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, voiced his support for deportations at least in situations where individuals were suspected of terrorism or convicted of serious crimes like murder.

Proponents of the idea are reportedly considering whether it might be possible to conduct such deportations through third countries such as Uzbekistan while still staying in compliance with international law.

Faeser told the Neue Osnabrucker newspaper that negotiations have taken place with "various countries" and "we want to consistently expel and deport Islamist threats."

The Interior Ministry is also reportedly seeking ways of conducting asylum proceedings in third countries outside the European Union, similar to plans by Italy with Albania. The United Kingdom's deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has also been cited by advocates as an example.

Michael Stuebgen, the interior minister of the eastern state of Brandenburg, has argued Germany could engage in talks with the Taliban and that parts of Syria are secure enough to allow the returns of refugees.

Opponents have argued that deportations of Afghans and Syrian refugees would go against the German constitution and commitments under international law and that the outsourcing of asylum procedures would violate asylum-seekers' human rights.

During their three days of talks that end on June 21, the state interior ministers are also reportedly considering cutting welfare benefits paid to Ukrainian refugees.

With reporting by dpa and AP

Leading Afghan women’s rights activists have sounded the alarm ahead of a major international conference on Afghanistan hosted by the United Nations.

Rights campaigners have slammed the world body for inviting the Taliban to the June 30-July 1 event in Qatar, a move that they say provides tacit international legitimacy to the Taliban’s unrecognized and internationally sanctioned government.

Activists are also enraged that the UN has made major concessions to the extremist group, which has severely curtailed women’s rights since seizing power in 2021. That includes preventing the participation of Afghan women and removing the issue of women’s rights from the agenda of the meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha.

Sima Samar, an award-winning rights campaigner and the former head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, is among those who have voiced their concerns ahead of the meeting.

“When we talk about the critical issues in Afghanistan, it will be meaningless without a discussion on human rights and the right of women to education and work,” Samar told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

The Doha conference will bring together members of the Taliban, the special envoys to Afghanistan of over a dozen countries, and UN officials. Afghan women are barred from the main meeting, but have been invited to an informal dinner before the two-day event kicks off.

Intended to increase international engagement with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, the meeting is expected to discuss issues that include economic development, climate change, and drug eradication.

The Taliban boycotted two previous UN-sponsored meetings held in Doha since last year. The hard-line Islamist group said it would only participate if it would be the sole representative of Afghanistan at the meetings.

The Taliban has also opposed the appointment of a UN special envoy to Afghanistan, one of the key issues discussed at previous Doha meetings. One of the envoy’s main tasks would be to promote intra-Afghan dialogue.

The militants have also refused to discuss their alleged human rights violations. The Taliban has been accused of gross abuses, including extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, and denying Afghans -- women and girls in particular -- their fundamental human rights.

“I’m very concerned,” said Samar. “Human rights must top the agenda while everything else should be discussed within its framework.”

Samar said she is not against international engagement with the Taliban, which has been accused of imposing gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

“But these talks must not mean ignoring all the human rights violations,” she added. “Engagement with the Taliban should not translate to ignoring or closing your eyes to all the human rights violations.”

Shaharzad Akbar is another prominent Afghan women’s rights activist who has voiced alarm ahead of the meeting.

“This conference has been organized according to the wishes of the Taliban,” Akbar, who runs the independent advocacy organization, Rawadari, told Radio Azadi.

“I’m deeply concerned because removing issues like the rights of girls and women from the agenda is a big betrayal,” she added.

'Women's Rights Crisis'

International women’s rights activists have also blasted the UN and accused the world body of bowing down to the Taliban.

Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, said on X on June 17 that it was “shocking” that the UN had made “very serious concessions” to the Taliban by shutting out Afghan women from the Doha meeting and taking women rights off its agenda.

“The situation of women in Afghanistan is the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world,” Barr said in a statement on June 11. “That crisis is getting serious every day.”

Meanwhile, Richard Bennett, the UN special human rights rapporteur in Afghanistan, said the Taliban “must not be allowed to dictate the terms of the UN-hosted meetings.”

“Sustained improvements in human rights must form an essential part of any way forward,” he told the UN Human Rights Council on June 18.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, said Bennet’s comments and his scathing recent report about human rights in Afghanistan was part of an effort to “mislead public opinion ahead of the Doha meeting.”

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, said on June 16 that “if there are any changes to the agenda and participation, it would naturally affect our decision” to participate in the Doha meeting.

Graeme Smith, a senior Afghanistan analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said a host of Western countries complained in writing to the UN about the lack of non-Taliban Afghan voices invited to the Doha meeting.

“One of the factors that resulted in the Taliban’s failure to attend previous meetings was the Taliban’s insistence on serving as the only Afghans speaking on behalf of the country,” said Smith. “Some international officials object to this idea, demanding the inclusion of so-called civil society actors.”

Rehabilitation, compensation, and, perhaps more importantly, the satisfaction that justice has been served. For survivors of wartime sexualized violence worldwide those are the essential aims of any reparations program.

However, aims don't always match outcomes. Survivors rarely receive comprehensive reparations. Instead, they often spend years in courtrooms, seeking at least some form of justice, while their attackers -- and the states they were representing -- often evade accountability.

On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, RFE/RL tells the stories of survivors from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Kosovo, Chechnya, and Afghanistan and their personal struggles to seek justice.

Ukraine: 'I Want To See Them Punished'

Human rights activist Lyudmyla Huseynova, a survivor of wartime sexualized violence, is now one of the leading voices advocating for the rights of survivors in Ukraine.

Since 2014, when Russia seized control of Crimea and began backing separatists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, she has also been helping orphans living near the front lines.

It was in the Donetsk region in 2019 that she was abducted by separatists. Falsely accused of espionage and extremism, Huseynova was brought to the infamous Izolyatsia prison in the city of Donetsk.

The Russian military and separatists in charge of the prison routinely subjected those under their control to physical and psychological abuse and torture, including of Huseynova, who said she suffered torture and sexualized violence.

"For example, everyone, just everyone, went through forced stripping at Izolyatsia, that's for sure," she recalled. "And then -- it's impossible to say who was or wasn't lucky, because it will sound cynical -- then there were many women who survived [sexualized violence]. The militants blackmailed some women, so to speak, with the chance of seeing or speaking to their children. It's so cynical and so disgusting."

In 2022, she was released as part of an all-female prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, along with 107 other women. Now, Huseynova is fighting for reparations and punishment for the rapists, not only in her own case but in those of other survivors.

After her release, she filed a case against Russia both with Ukrainian prosecutors and at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

"One of my personal hopes is to see them punished. I was so happy when I received confirmation that my complaint had been accepted for consideration by the [ECHR] court. And there it says [on the document]: Huseynova Vs. Russia," Huseynova said.

"In it, I documented everything that happened to me: the illegal detention, the inhumane conditions, and the instances of sexualized violence, as well as the total lack of any medical care."

In April 2024, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, announced the launch of an interim program to compensate the wartime survivors of sexualized violence at the hands of the Russian Army. According to a statement, up to 500 survivors will receive onetime compensation of 3,000 euros ($3,200) and additional psychological assistance from the Global Survivors Fund, a survivors-focused NGO administering the program.

"Reparations to survivors of gross human rights violations, especially victims of conflict-related sexual violence, are not limited to economic support. It is an important step toward establishing justice," Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska said in early March while discussing the program.

Alongside this, Ukrainian authorities are seeking full reparations from Russia, according to Iryna Didenko, who heads the department of the Prosecutor-General's Office handling cases of war-related sexual violence.

"We are collecting evidence for the international courts mostly. Our survivors are ready to go and testify in another country. This is what we are trying to achieve in all possible ways," Didenko told RFE/RL.

Didenko's office has documented nearly 300 cases of sexualized violence committed by invading Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, although the true number is feared to be much higher and growing.

Survivors of sexualized violence are also seeking other forms of compensation from Russia as well, says Khrystyna Kit, director of Ukrainian female lawyers association JurFem.

"We are also talking about other forms of reparations, in line with international law," Kit said.

Igor Cvetkovski, a specialist from the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) who is currently working in Ukraine, says reparations can include "psychosocial support" and "vocational training," along with "helping children born from rape."

Given the fact that many survivors of sexualized violence may not come forward, it is important that they have the option to seek help and justice even decades later, Cvetkovski says.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Not Paying Up

Ms. A, as she was referred to in court documents, was sexually assaulted near Sarajevo in 1993 in an area controlled by ethnic Serb forces. She was 32 at the time of the attack and has been waiting nearly as many years for compensation.

She came closer to finding justice in 2015, when her attacker was found guilty in a Bosnian court of wartime rape and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was also ordered to pay his victim the equivalent of some $16,000 but has not yet paid, claiming he did not have the money.

Four years later, Ms. A also appealed to the UN Committee Against Torture, which issued a recommendation in 2019 that Bosnia-Herzegovina compensate her instead. But that too has not happened.

Nearly 30 years after the end of the war in Bosnia, survivors of wartime sexual violence are still struggling to access the assistance and protection they need.

"The working group [in Bosnia] appointed to implement the decision and create a strategic plan of measures for implementation was truly dysfunctional," said Ms. A's lawyer, Ajna Mahmic, who works with Trial International, a Geneva-based NGO that helps victims and seeks justice for international crimes.

During the Bosnian War, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, it is estimated that between 20,000 and 50,000 women, girls, and men were raped. Many of them never received proper medical and psychological care or financial support. Bosnia does not have a countrywide law to support victims of war, including those who have suffered sexual violence.

Thirty-two individuals were convicted for crimes of sexual violence by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which ceased functioning in December 2017. Since then, more than 90 convictions on sexual-violence charges have been handed down by local courts. In some cases, perpetrators were obliged to pay compensation ranging from $8,200 to $33,000.

While across the former Yugoslavia efforts have been made to bring perpetrators of wartime sexual violence to justice, their victims have largely been forgotten, Cvetkovski says.

"There has been no regional reparations program, nor an adequate national reparations program -- except for laws in Croatia and Kosovo, and some efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina," Cvetkovski told RFE/RL.

"However, there has been no comprehensive approach to reparations for victims of sexual violence or any other type of victims."

In its findings, the UN Committee Against Torture also recommended that Bosnia create a fund to compensate all wartime victims of sexual crimes, a system of psychological support, as well as issue a public apology.

However, since the UN recommendations were made five years ago, a working group has been created but made little progress.

Jasna Zecevic, the president of Vive Zene, a Bosnian NGO that provides comprehensive support for rape victims, says that survivors are still struggling to receive compensation for their suffering.

Those efforts are hampered by Bosnia's complicated administrative system, with separate applicable laws for each of the country's three entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, and the Brcko District.

Those differences in legislation have led to uneven access to rights, according to Trial International, as well as varying compensation awards. Depending on where they live, survivors of sexual violence in Bosnia can receive monthly compensation as low as the equivalent of $75 or as much as the equivalent of $373.

Progress on the issue is slow, according to Cvetkovski, not because of a lack of funds but more a lack of political will.

Kosovo: Delayed Justice Is Denied Justice

Since 2023, April 14 has been observed in Kosovo as the Day of Sexual Violence Victims who suffered during the 1998-99 Kosovo War, where Serbian forces terrorized the ethnic Albanian population.

While the number of sexual-violence survivors from the conflict remains unknown, a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the figure as high as 20,000 people.

This day, Kosovar officials say, serves to "recognize the pain" of all survivors of sexual violence during the war and to contribute to collective memory.

Kosovo has taken some steps to help survivors. In 2018, Kosovo instituted a reparations system, paying victims of wartime sexual violence the equivalent of $245 a month. But advocates say this falls short of what those affected need.

"While survivors of sexual violence are eligible to receive this monthly payment as...recognition of their suffering during wartime as rape victims, it ruled out them receiving old-age pensions," said Feride Rushiti, executive director of the Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Torture Survivors (KRCT), a Kosovar NGO providing aid and support to survivors of sexual violence.

However, just recently, the Basic Court of Pristina, Kosovo's top judicial body, ruled in favor of three survivors of sexual violence, awarding them not only compensation but a pension as well, Rusiti says.

Fitorja (not her real name) had her status confirmed as a victim of a war crime, entitling her to a monthly payment of the equivalent of 230 euros.

She was already receiving a lower standard pension, but she gave that up after the government informed her that she was entitled to just one pension.

Since 2021, with the help of KRCT, she has been fighting to keep her pension and the monthly payment. "The stress and waiting destroy you. [The termination of one pension] should not have happened," the 71-year-old Fitorja said.

The court's ruling in her favor, along with two other survivors, was a partial victory. Another seven similar cases are now going through the judicial system.

Chechnya: Living In The Shadows

In 2000, Russian Army Colonel Yury Budanov, together with two of his subordinates, kidnapped and later strangled 18-year-old Elza Kungayeva, a resident of the Tangi-Chu village in Chechnya.

During his trial in 2003, the colonel, who was part of the Russian force fighting separatists in the republic, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of murder, kidnapping, and abuse of power. He was stripped of his rank and ordered to pay the family 330,000 rubles (about $11,000 at the 2003 exchange rate).

Budanov was released from prison on parole in 2009, yet Kungayeva's family got nothing from the ex-army colonel, who was assassinated in 2011, and they have also not received anything from the state.

In Chechnya, that is a familiar story. Following the conflicts of the 1990s and 2000s, thousands of people who suffered war crimes or who lost their homes and families are still waiting for compensation from the authorities.

The exact number of sexualized-violence survivors during both wars is unknown, largely due to a reluctance to report such crimes in Chechnya due to social stigma and the overall distrust of the authorities.

The Kungayeva's family lawyers insisted on including two reports from independent forensic experts that confirmed that Kungayeva was raped. The rape charges, however, were eventually excluded from the indictment.

Afghanistan: Silence And Stigma

Survivors of wartime sexual violence in Afghanistan, where women's rights have been dramatically curtailed by the ruling Taliban, are almost invisible.

To date, no aid or support has been provided to survivors. And since the Taliban seized power again in 2021, no institution exists to address the rights of war victims, says Shaharzad Akbar, the last chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. The commission was dissolved when the fundamentalist militia returned to power.

Now in exile, Akbar, who heads the human rights watchdog Rawadari, says that, even before the Taliban's rise to power, there was no effective system to deal with victims of wartime sexual violence. Some officials, she says, appeared to blame survivors for failing to come forward to demand justice.

"There was no official mechanism to address their issues. The only thing that the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission could do was document all cases of war crimes, which included sexual violence and rape during the war," Akbar said. "There was no political will or inclination to address the rights of war victims."

Over the last 30 years, Afghanistan has endured a series of devastating conflicts, with the civil war of the early 1990s, two periods of Taliban rule, and the prolonged conflict following the U.S. invasion in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It was Afghan women that suffered the most, says Shinkai Karokhail, a former member of Afghanistan's now dissolved parliament and a former Afghan ambassador to Canada.

"Unfortunately, there was no mechanism in place to identify those women who were sexually assaulted during the war, to listen to their demands, and to give them the courage to come forward and speak about the sexual assault they experienced," Karokhail said.

"In Afghanistan, victims of sexual assault often hide their identities, while the perpetrators often boast about their actions," she said, adding that in the deeply conservative country, survivors fear the stigma of coming forward.

According to Karokhail, Afghanistan's democratic government, which was in power before the Taliban takeover in 2021, did little to help female survivors.

It was commonly known that women were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and some even sold at markets in Pakistan, Karokhail says. But one of the reasons why the issue of sexualized violence was ignored was that the people committing these assaults were in power themselves, Karokhail says.

And while women are now reluctant to come forward, Karokhail is convinced a few brave voices could trigger more.

"If a woman comes forward and says she has been sexually assaulted, I am sure that survivors of previous wars will also come forward and share their stories," Karokhail said.

Shugufta, an elementary school teacher, earned around $300 per month under the previous Western-backed Afghan government.

But after the Taliban seized power in 2021, the extremist group cut the salaries of female government employees by half.

Despite her lower income, Shugufta was relieved to work as the country grappled with an economic meltdown after the Taliban takeover.

The hard-line Islamist group has barred thousands of women employed by the previous government from returning to their jobs. Only women whose jobs cannot be done by men according to the militants' strict interpretation of Shari'a law -- including doctors, nurses, and teachers -- have been permitted to work.

But in a major blow, the Taliban-led government last week issued a decree that set the monthly salaries of all female government employees at 5,000 afghanis, or around $70, regardless of their job, qualifications, or experience.

For many women, that means a drop of up to 75 percent in their wages at a time when Afghanistan is grappling with mass unemployment and rising poverty.

"It is impossible to live on this income," Shugufta's mother, Saliha, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Our financial problems have skyrocketed."

The decision has been condemned by Afghan and international rights activists, who said the move illustrated the Taliban's discrimination against women.

Female state employees, some of whom are sole breadwinners, said they will struggle to feed their families.

The Taliban's decision came ahead of Eid al-Adha on June 17, one of the biggest holidays of the Islamic calendar.

"The Taliban didn't listen to our pleas to pay us our full salaries this month," said Muzhda, a female government employee from the western city of Herat.

Muzhda told Radio Azadi that she did not know how she would be able to afford rent, food, and medicine for her family, who depend on her income.

Afghanistan has been gripped by the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Millions of Afghans are on the verge of starvation, according to the United Nations.

Nazifa Haqpal, a British-based Afghan researcher, said the Taliban's decision to halve the salaries of female public workers "constitutes systematic discrimination."

"Women who work in government institutions and important fields like medicine are earning less while their male colleagues are receiving a higher salary," she told Radio Azadi.

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said the "discriminatory and profoundly arbitrary decision further deepens the erosion of human rights in Afghanistan."

In a June 13 statement, he called on the Taliban to "rescind all laws, instructions, edicts, and other measures that discriminate against women and girls."

During its nearly three years in power, the militant group has severely curtailed women and girls' appearances, freedom of movement, and right to work and study.

Saji Behgam, an Afghan women's rights activist, said the Taliban's decision will cripple women-led households, including widows.

"Where should these women go?" she told Radio Azadi. "Should they just commit suicide?"

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi

Taliban authorities will attend the third round of United Nations-hosted talks on Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar, a government spokesman said on June 16. The Taliban-led government's participation in the conference of foreign special envoys to Afghanistan had been in doubt after it was not included in the first round and then refused an invitation to the second round. Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP a delegation from Afghanistan will participate in the Doha conference scheduled for June 30 and July 1. Mujahid told Afghan media that a delegation would attend because the talks' agenda appeared "beneficial to Afghanistan." The agenda includes "topics such as aid for Afghanistan and creating opportunities for investors in Afghanistan."

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

I'm Abubakar Siddique, 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

Pakistan and Iran are continuing to deport thousands of Afghan refugees and migrants each week, despite warnings from rights groups and aid organizations.

The Taliban government said over 400,000 Afghans have been expelled from the two neighboring countries since the start of the year.

Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, a Taliban official, said around 75 percent of the returnees were expelled from Pakistan.

Over 1 million Afghans have been deported from Pakistan and Iran during the past year.

Why It's Important: Rights groups and aid organizations have warned that the mass deportation drives will worsen the already devastating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the world’s largest.

The Taliban government, which remains unrecognized and sanctioned by the international community, appears unable to absorb the returning refugees or address the humanitarian needs of Afghans.

Aid agencies operating in Afghanistan have called for more international funding to address the needs of the returnees, who lack shelter, warm clothes, and food. Many of the returnees are homeless.

"There is no work and food is expensive," Kamran, an Afghan who was recently deported from Pakistan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. He said he is living in a tent because he cannot afford to rent a house.

"After returning from Iran, I have been living in Kabul for about two to three months,” said Fazaluddin, an Afghan who was recently expelled from Iran. “Life is very difficult here. There were many problems in Iran, but at least I could get a bite to eat."

What's Next: Pakistan and Iran, both of which are not signatories to UN conventions on refugees, appear likely to continue their deportation drives.

In March, Pakistan announced efforts to expand and expedite its plans to deport Afghans from April 15.

Iran, meanwhile, has repeatedly vowed to expel all undocumented Afghans from the country.

What To Keep An Eye On

Child labor is rising under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, where a humanitarian and economic crisis as well as the Taliban restrictions on female employment have led to more children working.

Around 19 percent of children in Afghanistan are working, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on June 12.

Among them is 11-year-old Ahmad, whose mother lost her job as a state employee after the Taliban takeover.

"I’m the only breadwinner after my father died," Ahmad, who works for up to eight hours each day after attending school, told Radio Azadi.

"If parents have jobs, they will never push their children into child labor," said Najibullah Zadran Babrakzai, an Afghan child rights activist.

Why It's Important: The Taliban’s severe restrictions on women, as well as mass unemployment and rising poverty, have forced children as well as the elderly to work to feed their families.

The need to work is likely to deprive thousands of Afghan children from education as many families try to stave off starvation.

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,

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.

Amina was in the seventh grade when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Shortly after their takeover, the militants banned teenage girls from attending school, dashing the 14-year-old’s dreams of completing her education.

Months later, Amina’s family in the central province of Maidan Wardak forced her to marry a local 37-year-old man.

Amina, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said she was “traumatized and sick” when she was told of her family’s plans.

“My family faced economic ruin after the Taliban takeover,” Amina, now 16, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Amina’s husband paid a "walwar" -- a premarital fee given to the bride-to-be's parents -- that amounted to around $12,000. Walwar payments are common in Afghanistan and provide an incentive for parents to marry off their daughters at a young age.

Amina is among the thousands of underage girls who have been forced into marriage since the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government in August 2021.

Activists say the Taliban’s education ban has contributed to the surge in early and child marriages. A devastating humanitarian crisis and the lack of educational and professional prospects for women have fueled the sharp uptick, they say.

'I Had No Choice'

Mursal was 15 years old when her family forced her into an engagement with an older man.

"I had no choice because my family told me that in the absence of education, my only option was to get married," said Mursal, now 17.

Mursal, whose name has also been changed to protect her identity, said her dream was to become a doctor.

For some families, marrying their girls off provides some sense of security: fewer mouths to feed at a time when the country is dealing with a humanitarian crisis and economic ruin.

Some parents have also married off their adolescent daughters to avoid forced marriages to Taliban fighters.

But activists say the Taliban’s September 2021 decision to ban millions of girls above the sixth grade from attending school has also helped fuel the spike in child marriages.

June 13 marks 1,000 days since the Taliban announced its ban, a move that triggered international condemnation and protests inside Afghanistan.

During its nearly three years in power, the militant group has severely curtailed women and girls’ appearances, freedom of movement, and right to work and study.

'Very Dangerous'

Child marriages have increased by around 25 percent since the Taliban takeover, according to UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

“This is terrible and very dangerous for the future of Afghanistan,” Shaharzad Akbar, an Afghan rights campaigner who headed the former Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, told Radio Azadi.

Akbar, who now runs the independent advocacy organization Rawadari, said their research has established the potentially devastating impacts of the Taliban’s education ban on teenage girls.

“In the future, we won’t have female university students," she said. "And there will be no female health-care workers or other [educated female] workers.”

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Firuza Azizi of RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi

The Taliban government has cracked down on rival Islamist parties in Afghanistan in what is seen as an effort to prevent any future opposition to its hard-line rule.

Since banning all political parties last year, the Taliban has targeted two of its major former rivals. It shut down two Kabul-based TV stations owned by the Hezb-e Islami and Jamiat-e Islami parties, respectively.

Now, the extremist group has cracked down on Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan, closing a TV station as well as a university and seminary accused of having links with the Shi’ite political party.

The Taliban’s clampdown on political parties is part of a wider assault on dissent. After seizing power in 2021, the militants have jailed dozens of journalists, activists, and academics.

'Relentless Crackdown'

The Taliban’s Justice Ministry on June 8 ordered the closure of Tamadon TV due to its alleged affiliation with Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan. The ministry also alleged that the station was operating on “seized land.”

Tamadon TV, which covered news and current affairs as well as Shi’ite religious programming, has denied the claims.

The station was founded in 2006 by Ayatollah Asif Mohseni, a prominent Shi’ite cleric and leader of Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan who died in 2019.

Mohammad Jawad Mohseni, the director of Tamadon TV, rejected the Taliban’s claims about the broadcaster’s political affiliations. He said Mohseni had resigned as the leader of Harakat-e Islami in 2005, a year before establishing the station.

Global and Afghan media watchdogs have condemned the closure of Tamadon TV.

“The Taliban is expanding its relentless crackdown on Afghan media and suppressing any independent voices,” said a statement by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which called on the group to “immediately and unconditionally reverse its decision.”

In April, the Taliban shut down Noor TV and Barya TV for "violating Afghan and Islamic values and journalistic principles.”

Jamiat-e Islami owned Noor TV, while Hezb-e Islami ran Barya. The stations ran Islamic programs.

Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan, Jamiat-e Islami, and Hezb-e Islami were all factions of the mujahedin, the Islamist groups that battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan in the 1990s. Prominent mujahedin figures received prominent roles in the new political order that emerged after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban’s first regime.

'Narrow-Minded Policies'

On the same day that it ordered the closure of Tamadon TV, the Taliban also announced that it was shutting down Khatam-al Nabyeen University and its madrasah, or Islamic seminary. The same allegations were made against the educational institutions.

“Political parties are abolished in the country,” Barakat Rasuli, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Justice Ministry, wrote on X. “Their media outlets do not have the right to operate.”

“The buildings [of all three] are built on usurped land,” Rasuli added. “This why we have stopped their activities and shut down their offices.”

The TV station, university, and seminary are all part of a sprawling complex in west Kabul, where members of the Shi’ite minority reside. Like Tamadon TV, the university and madrasah were established by Mohseni in 2006.

Mohseni was believed to have ties with neighboring Iran, where he lived for years during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Tehran allegedly helped fund the Khatam-al Nabyeen University and seminary as part of its efforts to build influence in the country.

Afghanistan’s Shi'ite community have been increasingly marginalized under the rule of the Taliban, a Sunni militant group.

The Taliban has prevented members of the Shi'ite community, which makes up around 15 percent of the population, from publicly marking important religious festivals and restricted the teaching of Shi'ite jurisprudence in universities in Afghanistan.

Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, said the militant group’s closure of Tamadon TV as well as Khatam-al Nabyeen University and seminary "shows the Taliban's religious bias and its narrow-minded policies."

"They are against anyone who doesn’t follow their ideology, [including] followers of Islamist groups such as Hezb-e Islami, Jamiat-e Islami, or Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan," Yousafzai added.

One of the Taliban's first acts after seizing power in 2021 was to rename the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Since then, the militant Islamist group has changed the names of scores of prominent streets, squares, universities, and even a city.

The Taliban has replaced some local Dari and Pashto names with Arabic ones that most Afghans do not speak. Landmarks honoring Afghan political figures, meanwhile, have been renamed to pay tribute to historical Islamic figures with no links to the country.

The Taliban's name-changing campaign has triggered online criticism, with some Afghans accusing the hard-line Islamist group of trying to eliminate indigenous cultural identities.

During the last four decades of war, ruling political groups have often renamed landmarks and other prominent sites, including the communist regime in the 1980s, the mujahedin in the 1990s, and the Western-backed government that came to power after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the first Taliban regime in 2001.

Changing the names of public sites has long proved highly contentious, a byproduct of conflict among rival and even warring ethnic, religious, and political groups.

Hameed Hakimi, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank, said the Taliban was "renaming places and institutions to project their victory narrative to their loyalists, and to simultaneously remove remnants of their foes."

"Renaming a geography and institutions may be perceived as an ultimate act of victory by the Taliban, he added.

Removing Tributes To Former Foes

When the Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021, it swiftly renamed streets, squares, and universities in the Afghan capital that honored its former enemies -- the toppled Afghan government and the former mujahedin, the Islamist groups that battled the Taliban in the 1990s. Many mujahedin figures received prominent roles in the new political order that emerged after 2001.

One of the Taliban's first targets was Kabul's main airport road -- the "Great Masud Road" -- which honored Ahmad Shah Masud, a prominent mujahedin commander and Taliban foe who was killed in 2001.

Kabul's airport -- Hamid Karzai International Airport -- which honored former President Hamid Karzai, was also quickly renamed as Kabul International Airport.

The militants also changed the name of a Kabul square -- "Martyr Mazari Square" -- honoring Abdul Ali Mazari, a mujahedin commander who was killed by the Taliban in 1995.

The Taliban also renamed a public university in Kabul honoring former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a mujahedin leader who was assassinated by the Taliban in 2011.

Kabul's so-called Bush Bazaar, once a thriving market for U.S. military gear and foodstuffs, was renamed "Mujahedin Bazaar." Taliban militants often refer to themselves as mujahedin, which means freedom fighters.

In the past two years, the Taliban has extended its name-changing campaign to cities across Afghanistan.

The extremist group changed the names of the airports in the central provinces of Bamiyan, Daikundi, and Ghor -- which honored two former mujahedin leaders and an Afghan army general, respectively.

Meanwhile, two main roads in the western city of Herat that honored Masud and the son of Ismail Khan, a former mujahedin leader, respectively, were also renamed.

'Highly Political'

In many cases, the Taliban has restored the original names of streets, squares, and other public sites. In other cases, the militants have renamed places to honor Islamic scholars and jurists from the Arab world as well as the Koran, Islam's holy book. In some instances, streets and squares have been renamed after slain Taliban leaders and fighters.

In one of its most controversial moves, the Taliban renamed the city of Charikar, the provincial capital of the northern province of Parwan, to Imam Azam.

The new Arabic name refers to Imam Abu Hanifa, an eighth-century jurist who founded the Hanafi school of Islam, a denomination followed by many Sunni Muslims in Afghanistan.

Changing the name of Charikar, an ancient city with Buddhist roots, triggered widespread outrage.

The Taliban also changed the names of units in the Afghan military, replacing Persian and Pashto names with Arabic ones.

Meanwhile, a square in the western city of Herat long known as Education Square was recently renamed "Iqra," which means read in Arabic and appears in the Koran.

Locals have criticized the move.

Sayed Ashraf Sadat, an exiled activist from Herat, said the Taliban's name changes were "worrying" and "highly political."

Naqib Arwin, a former official in Herat, said the Taliban's decisions "have been done by force and without the consent and consultation of the people."

Haroun Rahimi, an Afghan academic who researches Islamic law, said the Taliban’s decision to replace Dari and Pashto words with Arabic ones was not surprising.

"They often name things after figures or events that have prominence in Islamic history," he said. "It is interesting that they are not naming things after their figures and leaders as much as the [previous government] did. Instead, they reach back to Islamic history."

Rahimi says that decision speaks to the Taliban’s complicated relationship with Afghan nationalism.

While the Taliban has its roots in a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, its ideology and practices are also grounded in Pashtun tribal codes. The group is predominately made up of Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in the country. Pashtuns have ruled Afghanistan for much of the country's more-than-270-year existence.

Hakimi said the Taliban’s name-changing spree will "certainly result in the weakening of any collective sense of nationalism that Afghans have, especially over the past century."

"The Taliban crackdown in this regard extends deeply into Pashtun areas of the country too, effectively challenging Pashtuns' sense of nationalism," he added.

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

I'm Abubakar Siddique, 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

Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, a U.S.-designated terrorist who has a $10 million bounty on his head, visited the United Arab Emirates on June 4.

Haqqani, accompanied by the Taliban's intelligence chief, met the U.A.E. president in Abu Dhabi.

The foreign visit, Haqqani's first since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, sparked widespread outrage among Afghans.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that "hosting UN-sanctioned Taliban members must seek permission for travel through an exemption process as outlined by the UN 1988 sanctions committee, and it's important that member states follow these procedures."

"We understand the complex relationship countries have with the Taliban, particularly those in the region," said a State Department statement later sent to the Associated Press.

It is unclear whether Haqqani or the U.A.E. government had obtained such permission. But on June 5, the UN Security Council allowed Haqqani and several other Taliban officials to travel to Saudi Arabia later this month to perform the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage.

Why It's Important: Haqqani's trip is a public relations win for the Taliban, whose government is not recognized by any country.

Despite its lack of international recognition and limited engagement with the West, the Taliban has established diplomatic ties with around a dozen countries in the region.

Ishaq Atmar, an Afghan political analyst, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that Haqqani's trip can "open a new door" for greater international engagement with the Taliban.

Ghous Janbaz, an Afghan political analyst, told Radio Azadi that Haqqani's trip came weeks before a key UN meeting on Afghanistan in Qatar during which the group will look to allay international fears over the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan.

But Haqqani's trip has triggered online condemnation, with some Afghans asking how one of the FBI's most-wanted men was able to visit the U.A.E., a U.S. ally.

What's Next: International engagement with the Taliban has not moderated its extremist policies.

The militant group has refused to budge on key issues, including establishing an inclusive government, ensuring women's rights, and breaking ties with extremist groups.

The Taliban is likely to use its engagement with the international community to win concessions and present itself as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan.

What To Keep An Eye On

A new survey by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has identified "widespread shocks" in Afghanistan, where many live in severe food poverty.

"Much higher food prices and drought are affecting 60 and 58 percent of Afghan households, respectively," the organization said in a briefing on June 3.

The survey found that despite the decrease in the prices of some food items, poor "households remained vulnerable to intrahousehold and economic shocks," which reflected "broader macroeconomic vulnerabilities in Afghanistan."

More than two-thirds of households reported a decrease in their primary source of income, the survey said, while another 10 percent lived on savings and debt.

Why It's Important: The survey highlights the effects of the devastating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the world's largest.

Shortfalls in international funding, the Taliban's inability to address the crisis, and a series of deadly natural disasters have exacerbated the humanitarian situation.

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,

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.

The Taliban has publicly flogged dozens of people in a sports stadium in northern Afghanistan after their convictions for crimes involving "immoral relations."

In a statement, the Taliban’s Supreme Court said 63 people, including 15 women, were flogged in Sar-e Pol Province in the presence of local officials on June 4.

The court said those flogged were accused of theft and so-called moral crimes, including adultery, homosexuality, and eloping.

Public punishments are on the rise in Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered the return of Islamic sentences in November 2022.

That included "qisas" and "hudood" punishments, which allow "eye-for-an-eye" retribution and corporal punishments for offenses considered to be in violation of the boundaries set by God.

Since then, hundreds across Afghanistan have been publicly flogged or had body parts amputated for crimes such as theft and adultery. The extremist group has also publicly executed at least five people convicted of murder.

The executions and punishments have underscored the Taliban’s commitment to imposing its extremist interpretation of Shari'a law.

The punishments have provoked strong criticism from human rights watchdogs and Afghans.

"Because of the bad deed of one person, the reputation of an entire family or community is destroyed," a resident of the southwestern province of Nimroz told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Punishments shouldn’t be carried out in public."

Shaharzad Akbar, an Afghan rights campaigner who headed the former Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said the aim of the Taliban’s "theatrical acts" is to incite fear.

"The Taliban's form of governance is contrary to human rights," she told Radio Azadi. "The human rights and human dignity of men and women are not important to them."

Meanwhile, Islamic scholars have said the Taliban has failed to meet the stringent conditions required by Islamic law in implementing such harsh punishments.

Salahuddin Saeedi, an Afghan religious scholar, told Radio Azadi that the Taliban also lacks the legitimacy to carry out Islamic punishments.

The Taliban’s hard-line government is not recognized by any country in the world, while its extremist policies are opposed by many Afghans.

Under the Taliban’s first regime in the 1990s, public executions and punishments were common. The group gained international notoriety for using sports stadiums to carry them out.

Atel hauls a wooden cart every day around the Afghan capital, Kabul, selling vegetables.

The 70-year-old pensioner retired around five years ago. But since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban has stopped paying pensions.

That has forced thousands of pensioners like Atel back to work, often as street vendors, to feed their families amid a devastating economic and humanitarian crisis in the country.

"It's been nearly three years since we last received our pensions," Atel told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "I don't have the strength to do manual labor. But I buy onions and potatoes at the market each day and resell them."

The work is grueling, and he only earns around $1 per day. But Atel, who has a family of eight, said he has no choice but to work.

Mohammad Nasim is another pensioner who has been forced to find a job. He sells notebooks and pens on the street, earning around $1 per day.

"I don't have the means to do other work," Nasim, who has a disability, told Radio Azadi. "On the other hand, I'm in pain and I don't even have money to pay for my prescriptions."

'Un-Islamic'

An estimated 150,000 pensioners received a monthly payment of around $100 from the state before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, where the retirement age is 65.

But retirees have not been paid their pensions since then, pushing some families toward starvation. Many of the pensioners served governments that had fought against the Taliban.

In April, the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered his government to stop deducting retirement contributions from the salaries of civil servants, effectively dismantling the pension system. Akhundzada suggested the system was "un-Islamic."

The move triggered protests by retirees who said they cannot survive without state assistance.

Scores of retired civil servants and retired members of the armed forces staged a rally in Kabul on April 20. The protest was dispersed by the Taliban.

'Poorest People'

Mass unemployment and rising poverty as well as the lack of government assistance have forced the elderly and even children to find what work they can. The Taliban's severe restrictions on female employment has also deprived families of breadwinners.

Not all pensioners are able to work due to illness or their advanced age. And those who can find it difficult to secure even menial jobs.

"We have gray beards, our hands and feet tremble, and no one gives us work," a pensioner, who attended the April protest and spoke on condition of anonymity, told Radio Azadi.

Aafandi Sangar, head of the Afghan Pensioners Association, said the "poorest people in Afghanistan are pensioners who can no longer work."

"Some of them are doing hard work but some are sick [and unable to work]," he told Radio Azadi.

Sangar said pensioners will continue to protest and demand their rights from the Taliban government.

"This money is the personal money of the pensioners," he said. "It's not government money. Pensions are the inalienable right of every retiree."

Written by Frud Bezhan based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

A centrist Iranian newspaper has accused a Taliban representative in Iran of “torturing” a photographer, ultimately leading to his expulsion from the country.

The Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper claimed on June 1 that a Taliban representative in the Afghan Consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad had “dragged” the unnamed Iranian photographer into the consulate and “tortured” him.

The paper said the photographer later filed a complaint against the “diplomat,” identified as “Dr. Salim,” which ultimately resulted in him being expelled from Iran and replaced by another Taliban representative.

The newspaper has been a staunch critic of the Taliban since the group seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and has questioned Tehran’s willingness to maintain relations with the group.

In its report, Jomhuri-ye Eslami alleged that “Dr. Salim” was one of three “diplomats” who had moved into the consulate prior to receiving Iran’s approval. It described the move as a “sign of disrespect toward Iran.”

In the same piece, the newspaper claimed that the same trio had “kidnapped” Qari Eisa Mohammadi, a prominent Afghan opposition figure based in Germany who had traveled to Mashhad several months ago.

According to Mohammadi, he was held “prisoner” in the consulate for several days until Iranian authorities secured his release.

The authorities in Iran have been criticized for maintaining relations with the Taliban after it took control in Afghanistan. The Islamic republic has kept its embassy in Kabul open and handed over the Afghan Embassy in Tehran to the Taliban.

Nevertheless, Iran has not formally recognized the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan and has called for the formation of an inclusive government.

Since the extremist group seized power in Kabul, Iran and the Taliban have had disputes over water rights and engaged in sporadic border clashes.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said on June 3 that his country has taken the Taliban off of its terrorist list. Addressing a session of the parliament speakers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Almaty, Toqaev stressed the move was made to develop trade and economic ties with Taliban-led Afghanistan. Toqaev also called on the parliament speakers of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to support Kazakhstan’s proposal to establish a UN regional center for the stable development of Central Asia and Afghanistan. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

A 29-year-old police officer died on June 2 after being repeatedly stabbed during an attack at an anti-Islam rally in Germany. A knife-wielding man attacked and wounded several people on May 31 on the market square in the city of Mannheim in southwest Germany. Five people taking part in a rally organized by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were wounded in the attack. The motive of the 25-year-old perpetrator, who was born in Afghanistan, remains unclear. He underwent surgery after sustaining gunshot wounds during his capture, police said. The movement's treasurer, Stefanie Kizina, said the attack was aimed at Pax Europa board member Michael Stuerzenberger, who sustained serious injuries.

A German court on June 1 ordered a 25-year-old man born in Afghanistan held on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with a knife attack at an event organized by a group opposing "political Islam" that left six people injured. The victims included a police officer who remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. Officials offered no information regarding the motive for the attack on May 31 in the city of Mannheim. Officials said that the suspect, who was shot and wounded by police, was hospitalized and not in a condition to be questioned. They said he had lived in Germany since 2014 and had no police record.

A boat carrying 25 people sank while crossing a river in eastern Afghanistan on June 1, officials of the country's Taliban-led government said.

Quraishi Badlon, director of the Information and Culture Department in Nangarhar Province, said the boat sank on a river in the Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people, including women and children.

He later revised the number of dead downward to eight.

Moulvi Mohammad Ajmal Shagwal, the district governor of the Taliban-led government in Mohmand Dara, told RFE/RL that nine bodies had been removed from the river with help from local residents.

He said that there were 25 people on board the boat, which sank at 7:30 a.m. local time. Ten people survived, all of them with injuries, he said.

Badlon also said the boat was carrying 25 people, and initially said only five survived.

When he revised the number of deaths downward to eight, he said two people were missing. He added in a post on X that 16 people had been rescued by civilians and authorities. At least 10 were injured and several were taken to a hospital, he said.

Shagwal said there were women and children on the boat, but he did not give details. According to the province's Public Health Department, the bodies recovered thus far include those of a man, a woman, two boys, and a girl.

Sherzad Ahmad Khel, one of the survivors, said that the boat sank because too many people were on board.

The government's Bakhtar news agency published a video message in which an official said many people got into the boat, and when it reached the middle of the river, its motor overheated and burst into flames. The boat then flooded and sank, leaving its passengers to fend for themselves.

District resident Abdul Majeed told RFE/RL that people had used the same boat to cross the river almost every day to get to work and shop in the district market. He stressed that a bridge should be built.

"It is very important to build a bridge here. We asked the previous government, but it was not built. We are still demanding that the government build a bridge for us. If the bridge is not built, similar incidents will happen."

People of Mohmand Dara and other districts of Nangarhar use small boats to cross the river due to the lack of bridges.
A few years ago, a number of people died in a similar boat sinking incident in district.

With reporting by AP and AFP