Latest news with #Talibs
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russian court accuses veteran journalist of 'justifying terrorism'
Russian prosecutors on Monday accused a veteran journalist of "justifying terrorism" -- a charge punishable by up to seven years in prison -- as her trial opened amid a widespread crackdown on independent media. Moscow has hugely stepped efforts to quash dissent as it fights in Ukraine and regularly accuses anyone deemed not to toe the official line of "justifying terrorism". Prosecutors accuse Nadezhda Kevorkova, a respected 66-year old journalist who specialises in the Middle East, of "publicly justifying and calling for terrorism... with the aim of shaping public opinion". The accusation is based on two social media posts, one from 2020 on the Taliban and a re-post from another journalist in 2018 about a 2005 Islamist raid on the Russian city of Nalchik. Kevorkova, who was arrested in May, has written for Russia's top media outlets including Novaya Gazeta and has also written for pro-Kremlin media such as Russia Today. At court on Monday, Kevorkova, who had her hair tied back in a bun and wore a black dress with white stripes, waved to a group of around 20 supporters, including fellow journalists, from behind the glass defendant's cage. She told the judge she understood the charges against her, and is expected to testify at a hearing later this week. Her lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov said a verdict could be delivered within days. The Taliban is officially banned by Moscow, though Moscow has forged ties with the Islamist authorities that now govern Afghanistan. Akhilgov said any mention of the group is "very sensitive" for security services, especially after the March 2024 Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. "The Talibs, as you know, come to Russia, meet with high-ranked representatives of our country," Akhilgov told AFP. "But formally the Taliban from 2003 is on a list of banned terrorist organisations... And formally, of course, any mention of the Taliban in a positive context suggests that this is a justification of terrorism." The Kremlin has exerted a tight grip on Russian media under President Vladimir Putin's long rule, but its control of the press since launching the 2022 Ukraine offensive has drawn comparisons with Soviet-era censorship and propaganda. bur/js
New York Times
09-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
He Was Once a Covert Taliban Operative. Now He's the Friendly Taxman.
He is the Taxman of Kabul, a bearded, black-turbaned Talib with a genial manner and the calculating mind of a computer-savvy accountant. As director of the Taliban's Taxpayers Services Directorate, Abdul Qahar Ghorbandi has the unenviable task of raising revenue for the government of a wretchedly poor, isolated nation. From his perch behind an enormous desk next to a black and white Taliban flag, Mr. Ghorbandi rides herd on hundreds of Afghan taxpayers each weekday. He makes sure they arrive with income documentation and leave with a fistful of tax forms to fill out. Teachers, money changers, truckers, wedding planners, grocers and others trudge the worn hallways of the imposing tax building, discussing their taxes with Talibs pecking away at computer terminals. The Taliban have sought to ramp up tax collection after a severe economic contraction that followed their takeover in 2021. The authoritarian regime has been crippled by sanctions, in part over its harsh restrictions on women and girls. U.S. aid, drastically reduced since 2021, could be eliminated entirely under President Trump's budget cuts. That aid has gone to the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations working in Afghanistan, not directly to the Taliban government. With the Taliban now in power, former guerrilla fighters must function as bureaucrats. In the 280-person tax department, they work alongside employees inherited from the U.S.-backed government that the Taliban overthrew. 'At the same table we have people with turbans, with beards, next to people with suits,' said Mohammad Walid Haqmal, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance. The Taxman himself, Mr. Ghorbandi, was an undercover operative for the Taliban in Kabul before becoming a civil servant, he said. Mr. Ghorbandi, who said he had a master's degree in computer science, presides over a tax administration computer system converted from English into Pashto and Dari. He has hired IT experts to modernize the department. He has also tried to instill a culture of transparency, he said as he took a break for a lunch of beef kebabs and rice. His employees are not permitted to handle cash. Taxpayers take their forms to a government-run bank and pay taxes there. When he is not at his desk signing reams of documents delivered by aides hustling in and out, he said, he visits different sections of his department, asking taxpayers how he could make the process faster. International observers say the Taliban have reduced the tax corruption and cronyism that Afghans say were rampant under the U.S.-aligned government, while streamlining the process of collecting taxes. Although many well-connected Afghans once avoided paying taxes, Mr. Ghorbandi stressed that even as the government Taxman, he was not exempt. He said he paid 30,000 afghanis a month, or a little over $400. However open and efficient, it is still a tax office, though, and not every taxpayer leaves satisfied. Shamsurahman Shams, who showed up one day late last year, had a beef with the Taxman. He said the two private schools he helped run had not turned a profit the past three years — and he carried a plastic folder stuffed with documents to prove it. Yet he had been assessed 500,000 afghanis, or about $7,350, in taxes. He engaged in a spirited but civil discussion with a department employee, showing the man his documents. There was no resolution. He was told to return later to resume negotiations. Although it was not the outcome he had hoped for, Mr. Shams conceded that the new process was more transparent than the previous system. 'At least they listened to me,' he said. During the war, the Taliban ran a lucrative tax system that levied customs duties, trucking fees and local taxes in areas they controlled. They also earned millions by imposing 10 percent taxes — 'ushar' in Islam — on poppy farmers, though they have since banned poppy production. In 2023, the Taliban government collected about $3 billion in taxes, customs and fees, or 15.5 percent of gross domestic product. (The comparable rate in the United States was 25.2 percent). The biggest source for the Taliban was so-called nontax revenue — customs duties, mining revenues, telecom licenses, airport charges, and fees for national ID cards, passports and visas, the World Bank reported. That revenue, for the first half of last year, increased 27 percent compared with the same period the previous year. Half of government revenues were spent on security and the military last year, and just 26 percent on social programs — most of that on education for boys, according to international observers. Mr. Ghorbandi said the tax system was not designed to be punitive. Generous exemptions mean that most ordinary Afghans do not pay income taxes. Shopkeepers with annual sales below two million afghanis, or about $29,500, also are exempt. Merchants with earnings over that amount are taxed at just 0.3 percent — a rate that American conservatives would surely appreciate. There are no cash penalties or interest fees for taxpayers who do not pony up on time. But scofflaws can lose their business licenses and access to the banking system. 'We are human,' Mr. Ghorbandi said. 'We don't want to put burdens on our people.' He and Mr. Haqmal, the Finance Ministry spokesman, said the ultimate goal was to eliminate all income taxes. 'It is a direct order from our supreme leader,' Mr. Haqmal said. 'He said: 'I need a tax-free Afghanistan.'' Mr. Haqmal was referring to Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's emir and head of state. Another direct order from Sheikh Haibatullah has been the shredding of women's rights and broader restrictions on civil liberties for all Afghans. Women are prohibited from traveling any significant distance without a male relative and are obligated to cover their entire bodies and faces in public. The sound of a woman's voice outside her home is banned. A striking feature of the tax department's 15 sections in Kabul is the sight of female taxpayers in rooms crammed with men. Lida Ismaeli, who operates a private school, sat next to a bearded Talib as he reviewed her tax status on a computer. She said no one had complained that she spoke with a male employee about her taxes with no male relative present. Under the previous government, Ms. Ismaeli said, she never knew whether her taxes went to the government or into the pockets of the employee she paid. 'The system is better now — it's more fair,' she said. Down a darkened hallway, Mohammad Taqi Irfani, a money changer, huddled over a computer screen with a tax employee. Mr. Irfani seemed resigned to his assessed tax payment of 73,500 afghanis, or about $1,080, on his annual earnings. He said he did not enjoy paying taxes — who does? — but his tax burden was clearly explained to him, and his business accounts were not questioned. Under the American-backed government, he said, tax collectors came to his office and demanded bribes to lower his tax assessment. 'They were in it just to make money for themselves,' he said. 'So far under this government, no one has ever asked me for a bribe.'
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The maternity ward standoff that exposes Taliban hypocrisy towards women
Restrictive laws imposed by the Taliban last year mean women cannot train to become doctors or midwives in Afghanistan. But this does not stop members of the strict Islamist group from bringing their pregnant wives to clinics and hospitals and demanding that only female healthcare professionals treat them, workers in the country have told The Telegraph. Members of the Taliban want to be seen quickly, and tell medics that they expect high standards of care for their spouses. 'Everything is by force here,' said Feroza Tahiri, a midwife working at a public hospital in Nangarhar province. Despite this, 'we tell them you'll be seen like everyone else', she said. Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, the fundamentalist group has banned education for women and girls post-primary school. Women cannot go to parks, and beauty salons and other women-only spaces have closed. The Taliban's laws have isolated the country internationally. This month, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for arrest warrants of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's supreme leader, and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani on the grounds of gender persecution. Meanwhile, Ms Tahiri said women – including those working as senior doctors at the public hospitals – have left the country for Iran or Pakistan to prioritise their daughters' education. After universities shut to women in 2022, Ms Tahiri's friends, with almost completed medical degrees, sought her advice on studying midwifery and nursing as she had done. Ms Tahiri recalls her time as a student fondly: she said she lived in dorms with ambitious women from Takhar, Laghman, Nuristan and Kunar, and split her time between studying and working. Her friends enrolled as a last resort, hoping to work as midwives – one of the few professions open to women under the Taliban regime. But they were too late, the Taliban shut the colleges in 2024. 'Now they're home and frustrated,' said Tahiri. Ms Tahiri and her male guardian (women are not permitted to go out unaccompanied) do not speak much during their thirty minute rickshaw ride to her work. Instead, Tahiri recalls a time when there were women visible in public. 'They looked so good,' she told The Telegraph. The maternity department she works in is staffed by women. Pregnant patients arrive with two or three other women, with one going back and forth, relaying information. Their husbands wait outside, but they 'make decisions' on health procedures, Ms Tahiri explained. At a private clinic in Kabul, the Talibs do not need to announce themselves. 'We know from their guns and everything,' Samar Zia, a nurse in Kabul, said. Despite the Taliban implementing the ban, they want their female family to be treated by women doctors and nurses, asking any male doctor present to step outside. Ms Zia said she thinks that for many of these women and their Talib husbands, it is their first time seeking medical treatment. But the men don't really trust the doctors, she said. One woman needed an operation, but her husband, a Taliban fighter, refused. Despite seeking medical treatment at the clinic, he questioned the diagnosis. 'I won't give my thumb print (permission). You're trying to do something else,' Ms Zia recalls him saying. After the woman died, the man asked police to investigate the clinic, said Ms Zia. She said some Talibs don't trust the staff, whom they know are not supporters of the militants. They claim the staff did not want Taliban families to reproduce. At the Kabul clinic she works in, the Talibs walk in and interact with the women working there. 'You're there trying to do an injection and they come right up telling you your hair is out,' Ms Zia said. 'Or they'll talk about our uniforms.' The women they accompanied can have 'great chats with you if you're alone… but [the husbands] don't leave them alone'. In Laghman, east of Kabul, the Taliban men can 'act like dictators'. But they 'wait outside' like the other husbands, said Nasima Hussaini, a midwife working at a public hospital. 'They're attentive,' Ms Hussaini said, 'toward their first wives… but especially when it's their second wife.' 'It's maternity care. Everyone's demand is that there's a woman doctor,' she adds. The staff persuade patients to see male doctors when they can. 'We want it to be a woman doctor too, but we don't want your health to get worse,' Ms Hussaini tells them. The country's economic collapse, a result of foreign aid cuts, sanctions and Taliban policies, is evident in the hospital. The midwives The Telegraph spoke to described a perfect storm of under-resourced health facilities, desperately poor patients, and men making reproductive care choices for women. The hospital Ms Hussaini works at is so under-resourced that staff sometimes ask patients to buy the blood, sold just outside the facility, that is needed for transfusions. One pregnant woman's family could not afford to do so and she lost her pregnancy, Ms Zia said. For at least two days staff and the patient's mother could not bear to tell the woman – telling her instead that the baby was alive and receiving oxygen, when in reality her baby had been stillborn. This is a hospital for the poor. 'If someone has money they go private,' she said. Shahla Karim, a midwife working at a public hospital in Kandahar said the same thing: 'Nobody with even a little money comes here.' Working at a regional hospital, Ms Karim's patients are women from the districts of several southern provinces, in addition to Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland and where the group's emir lives. Ms Karim described tense interactions between staff and patients. Some families felt they were stigmatised as Taliban supporters and that staff in the province's city, being more likely to disagree with the group, did not provide adequate care. 'The people from the districts have the wrong idea. They think we're against these people, that we don't want to save these women,' Ms Karim said. Ms Hussaini, the midwife working in Laghman, said she goes to work to serve women and patients with no money who 'come and go with only the hope of god'. 'Every Afghan wants to know what's the endgame?' she said of the Taliban's policies. She said nobody had any hope. 'Ask anyone and they'll tell you – Afghanistan's come to nothing.' Ms Hussaini said every family had one son who left to find work in Pakistan or Iran. She wants to leave too. 'I always say if I were a boy I'd have taken the illegal route' out of the country. She said she doesn't hold the Talibs who visit the hospital responsible for their group's governance. 'If you ask them they'll say it's their higher ups.' 'We regret this,' she said, 'that they look for women everywhere, but they've banned women from everything.' The names in this story have been replaced with pseudonyms to protect the identities of the women. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The maternity ward standoff that exposes Taliban hypocrisy towards women
Restrictive laws imposed by the Taliban last year mean women cannot train to become doctors or midwives in Afghanistan. But this does not stop members of the strict Islamist group from bringing their pregnant wives to clinics and hospitals and demanding that only female healthcare professionals treat them, workers in the country have told The Telegraph. Members of the Taliban want to be seen quickly, and tell medics that they expect high standards of care for their spouses. 'Everything is by force here,' said Feroza Tahiri, a midwife working at a public hospital in Nangarhar province. Despite this, 'we tell them you'll be seen like everyone else', she said. Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, the fundamentalist group has banned education for women and girls post-primary school. Women cannot go to parks, and beauty salons and other women-only spaces have closed. The Taliban's laws have isolated the country internationally. This month, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for arrest warrants of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's supreme leader, and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani on the grounds of gender persecution. Meanwhile, Ms Tahiri said women – including those working as senior doctors at the public hospitals – have left the country for Iran or Pakistan to prioritise their daughters' education. After universities shut to women in 2022, Ms Tahiri's friends, with almost completed medical degrees, sought her advice on studying midwifery and nursing as she had done. Ms Tahiri recalls her time as a student fondly: she said she lived in dorms with ambitious women from Takhar, Laghman, Nuristan and Kunar, and split her time between studying and working. Her friends enrolled as a last resort, hoping to work as midwives – one of the few professions open to women under the Taliban regime. But they were too late, the Taliban shut the colleges in 2024. 'Now they're home and frustrated,' said Tahiri. Ms Tahiri and her male guardian (women are not permitted to go out unaccompanied) do not speak much during their thirty minute rickshaw ride to her work. Instead, Tahiri recalls a time when there were women visible in public. 'They looked so good,' she told The Telegraph. The maternity department she works in is staffed by women. Pregnant patients arrive with two or three other women, with one going back and forth, relaying information. Their husbands wait outside, but they 'make decisions' on health procedures, Ms Tahiri explained. At a private clinic in Kabul, the Talibs do not need to announce themselves. 'We know from their guns and everything,' Samar Zia, a nurse in Kabul, said. Despite the Taliban implementing the ban, they want their female family to be treated by women doctors and nurses, asking any male doctor present to step outside. Ms Zia said she thinks that for many of these women and their Talib husbands, it is their first time seeking medical treatment. But the men don't really trust the doctors, she said. One woman needed an operation, but her husband, a Taliban fighter, refused. Despite seeking medical treatment at the clinic, he questioned the diagnosis. 'I won't give my thumb print (permission). You're trying to do something else,' Ms Zia recalls him saying. After the woman died, the man asked police to investigate the clinic, said Ms Zia. She said some Talibs don't trust the staff, whom they know are not supporters of the militants. They claim the staff did not want Taliban families to reproduce. At the Kabul clinic she works in, the Talibs walk in and interact with the women working there. 'You're there trying to do an injection and they come right up telling you your hair is out,' Ms Zia said. 'Or they'll talk about our uniforms.' The women they accompanied can have 'great chats with you if you're alone… but [the husbands] don't leave them alone'. In Laghman, east of Kabul, the Taliban men can 'act like dictators'. But they 'wait outside' like the other husbands, said Nasima Hussaini, a midwife working at a public hospital. 'They're attentive,' Ms Hussaini said, 'toward their first wives… but especially when it's their second wife.' 'It's maternity care. Everyone's demand is that there's a woman doctor,' she adds. The staff persuade patients to see male doctors when they can. 'We want it to be a woman doctor too, but we don't want your health to get worse,' Ms Hussaini tells them. The country's economic collapse, a result of foreign aid cuts, sanctions and Taliban policies, is evident in the hospital. The midwives The Telegraph spoke to described a perfect storm of under-resourced health facilities, desperately poor patients, and men making reproductive care choices for women. The hospital Ms Hussaini works at is so under-resourced that staff sometimes ask patients to buy the blood, sold just outside the facility, that is needed for transfusions. One pregnant woman's family could not afford to do so and she lost her pregnancy, Ms Zia said. For at least two days staff and the patient's mother could not bear to tell the woman – telling her instead that the baby was alive and receiving oxygen, when in reality her baby had been stillborn. This is a hospital for the poor. 'If someone has money they go private,' she said. Shahla Karim, a midwife working at a public hospital in Kandahar said the same thing: 'Nobody with even a little money comes here.' Working at a regional hospital, Ms Karim's patients are women from the districts of several southern provinces, in addition to Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland and where the group's emir lives. Ms Karim described tense interactions between staff and patients. Some families felt they were stigmatised as Taliban supporters and that staff in the province's city, being more likely to disagree with the group, did not provide adequate care. 'The people from the districts have the wrong idea. They think we're against these people, that we don't want to save these women,' Ms Karim said. Ms Hussaini, the midwife working in Laghman, said she goes to work to serve women and patients with no money who 'come and go with only the hope of god'. 'Every Afghan wants to know what's the endgame?' she said of the Taliban's policies. She said nobody had any hope. 'Ask anyone and they'll tell you – Afghanistan's come to nothing.' Ms Hussaini said every family had one son who left to find work in Pakistan or Iran. She wants to leave too. 'I always say if I were a boy I'd have taken the illegal route' out of the country. She said she doesn't hold the Talibs who visit the hospital responsible for their group's governance. 'If you ask them they'll say it's their higher ups.' 'We regret this,' she said, 'that they look for women everywhere, but they've banned women from everything.' The names in this story have been replaced with pseudonyms to protect the identities of the women. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
