Day: September 12, 2022

From the world’s second-smallest state, Monaco, to the most populous country, India, representatives from more than 20 governments and international organizations on Monday condemned the Taliban’s policies of shutting down secondary schools and denying other fundamental rights to Afghan girls and women.

Even Pakistan, the purported benefactor of the Taliban, voiced concern at a United Nations dialogue on human rights in Afghanistan about the denial of education for Afghan girls. The dialogue was part of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 51st session, which opened Monday in Geneva.

Russia and China notably did not join in the criticism. A Russian diplomat pointed to progress made for women’s rights under the Taliban.

“We note efforts by the new Afghan government to ensure the rights of women and girls in the areas of marriage and property inheritance,” a Russian representative told the U.N. event, adding that more than 130,000 women are employed in the health and education sectors.

No Taliban representative was present at the event because the U.N. does not recognize the Taliban’s so-called Islamic Emirate as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Instead, diplomats of the former Afghan government are still accredited as Afghan representatives at U.N. headquarters in New York and Geneva.

The Russian diplomat further said that some schools were closed because the Taliban could not afford to set up segregated classrooms for girls. He blamed the United States and other Western donors for freezing aid to Afghanistan and imposing sanctions on the Taliban which, according to the Russian diplomat, have adversely affected the Afghan education sector.

“We call on the U.S. and the U.K. and their satellites — instead of issuing new demands to the Taliban, to begin fulfilling their own obligations for the past conflict,” he said, adding that the current crisis in Afghanistan was a result of the past two decades of U.S. intervention there.

While calling for the return of girls to secondary schools in Afghanistan, a Chinese representative also avoided criticizing the Taliban’s policy.

“We call on the countries concerned to respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and to lift unilateral sanctions,” the Chinese representative said.

Monday’s statement was the strongest that any Russian official has made in support of the Taliban.

“The Russian representative’s statements in Geneva aren’t consistent with what Russia has said before in other settings about Afghanistan,” John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA.

“As recently as this June, Russia agreed to a strongly worded statement by the U.N. Security Council about Afghanistan in which the Security Council as a bloc, including Russia, called on the Taliban to let girls go to school.”

Even the Taliban have not said that Western sanctions and the resulting economic problems have forced them to shut secondary schools for girls. Taliban officials have offered religious and cultural justifications for their decision against secondary education for girls.

“We recognize that the economic crisis is impacting the humanitarian situation. We agree about that. But the idea that it’s responsible for the fact that [the] Taliban do not let girls go to secondary schools is absurd. It is preposterous. It is a lie,” said Sifton.

Women ‘erased’

The U.N. and human rights groups accuse the Taliban of implementing policies that are aimed at erasing women from the public spheres.

“There is no country in the world where women and girls have so rapidly been deprived of their fundamental human rights purely because of gender,” Richard Bennett, U.N. special rapporteur on Afghanistan, told the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 51st session.

“Do you know what that feeling is, to be erased?” Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights activist, asked the same session. “I’m erased, and I don’t know what else to do. … How many times am I supposed to yell and scream and say, ‘World, pay attention to us. We are dying’?”

The Taliban have defended their policies toward Afghan women while accusing the U.N. and rights activists of spreading “malicious propaganda” against their de facto government.

“Today, nothing threatens the lives of women in Afghanistan, and no woman or her loved ones die in the war or raids,” said a Taliban statement issued in response to Bennett’s report. “There are 181 public and private universities open for men and women in the country, and thousands of women work in education, higher education, public health, passport and national identification bureaus, airports, police, media, banks and other sectors.”

Such statements, however, are viewed with deep skepticism outside Taliban circles.

The Taliban have become increasingly authoritarian, clamping down on freedom of expression and denying people their civic and political rights, the U.N. has reported.

At the U.N. event, representatives from many countries called for stronger international pressure on the Taliban to respect women’s rights.

“Anyone seeking to participate in the international system must respect [women’s rights]. If we don’t all insist on that, then shame on us,” said Michèle Taylor, U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

In April, the U.N. General Assembly suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council because of the country’s reported atrocities in Ukraine.

 

Source: Voice of America

Washington-based World Forum for Peace and Justice says India’s unilateralism regarding illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir has never been accepted by the United Nations.

In an article, its chairman Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai said India knows it well that it stands in flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions mandating a self-determination plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, conducted by the UN.

He said if the world powers do not respond timely and justly, the Kashmir issue can lead to a nuclear holocaust.

 

Source: Radio Pakistan

Peoples Democratic Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, has called upon the Modi government to hold talks with Pakistan and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to find out the permanent solution of the Kashmir dispute.

Addressing a function in Jammu, she said people are disappointed and feel broken in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370.

She said that Jammu and Kashmir has been turned into an open air prison.

 

Source: Radio Pakistan

Peoples Democratic Party Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday reacted to former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s assertion about Article 370 and said that there are voices who believe 370 will be reinstated in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

On the other hand, Ghulam Nabi Azad, during a rally in Kashmir’s Baramulla said that restoration of Article 370 would need around 350 votes in the Lok Sabha and 175 votes in the Rajya Sabha.

 

Source: Radio Pakistan

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one more Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today (Monday).

According to Kashmir Media Service, the troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Heff Shirmal area of the district. The locals took to the streets against the killing who were retaliated with fire by the troops.  A senior police officer confirmed the firing by the troops.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has decided to set up FM radio stations near the Line of Control and international border to wage propaganda against Pakistan and the ongoing Kashmir freedom movement.

On the other hand, Peoples Democratic Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti in a statement in Srinagar rejected the former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s assertion about Article 370 and said that Jammu and Kashmir’s special status would be reinstated, one day.

Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti addressing a function in Jammu called upon the Modi government to hold talks with Pakistan and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to find out the permanent solution of the Kashmir dispute. She also suggested opening of Jammu and Kashmir borders to make the region an economic hub.

On the other hand, India’s Supreme Court, today, dismissed a petition filed by the father of a fake encounter Kashmiri victim, Amir Magrey. However, the court ordered the authorities to pay 5 lakh to the victim family in compensation.

 

Source: Radio Pakistan