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
Afghan rights campaigners and the United Nations have expressed concern over the treatment of Afghan women activists incarcerated by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.
The Taliban currently holds at least five women's rights activists in detention. Neda Parwani, Zholya Parsi, Munizha Siddiqi, Bahare Karimi, and Parisa Azadeh languish in various Taliban prisons and detention centers around the capital, Kabul.
In an audio message, Siddiqi's mother said that her daughter has fallen ill while incarcerated in the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison.
"Pul-e-Charkhi is a place for murderers, criminals, and other rights abusers. It is not a place for women who protested for their rights," Golchehra Yeftali, a women's rights activist, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
Meanwhile, activists say that Parsi has been returned to a Taliban intelligence detention center after undergoing hospital treatment.
"We were told that her mental and physical condition was not good because of the torture she endured in Taliban detention," said Mina Rafiq, another women's rights activist.
On December 7, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan expressed its concern over the impact of "long-term, arbitrary" detentions of women activists by the Taliban.
It called on the Taliban "to ensure rights to health care, family visits, and legal representation are protected and fulfilled."
Why It's Important: The ongoing persecution of Afghan women rights activists underscores the Taliban's determination to impose an authoritarian political system in which the rights of Afghans can be violated with impunity.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, its government has often violently put down protests by Afghan women. Taliban's security forces and intelligence service have imprisoned hundreds of women after their protests were declared illegal.
The Taliban has also taken the draconian step of banning women and teenage girls from education. It has severely curtailed their employment prospects, mobility, and any public role in society.
What's Next: There is no indication yet that the widespread international and domestic condemnation of the Taliban's abuses are forcing the group to change its behavior and outlook.
There are no signs that the Taliban government is willing to rescind harsh policies that deprive Afghan women of education, work, mobility, and other fundamental rights.
Instead, the group appears to be ready to continue paying a heavy price for its hard-line policies and rights abuses, at the risk of failing to achieve the domestic legitimacy and international recognition it seeks.
What To Keep An Eye On
Iran appears to be gearing up efforts to expel millions of undocumented Afghans. The expulsion coincides with the mass deportation of "undocumented Afghans" from Pakistan.
On December 4, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi reiterated that Tehran would deport all "illegal" migrants in the country, most of whom are Afghan nationals who fled war, persecution, and poverty in their country.
On December 3, an Iranian official confirmed that Tehran had banned undocumented Afghans from residing in, working in, and traveling to 16 of the country's 31 provinces.
Iranian officials seek to expel more than 2.5 million Afghans they say lack documents among the estimated 5 million Afghans currently living in the country.
Why It's Important: A mass expulsion of Afghans from Iran would dramatically worsen the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where the majority of its estimated 40 million population needs humanitarian assistance.
International aid efforts to alleviate a dire situation caused by natural disasters and a crippled economy are already at the brink following the return of more than 450,000 Afghans who have been forced out of Pakistan since October. The returnees lack housing, sanitation, health care, adequate food, and employment, and are only a fraction of the more than 1.7 million undocumented Afghans Islamabad wants to expel.
Now, thousands of Afghans are being forced to leave Iran daily. The promised mass expulsion would inevitably create a crisis on top of a crisis, which Afghanistan's cash-strapped Taliban government and the humanitarian community is currently unprepared to deal with.
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
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