Afghanistan

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Thousands of Afghans have been brought to Britain in secrecy after a data leak

Thousands of Afghans, including many who worked with British forces, have been secretly resettled in the U.K. after a leak of data on their identities raised fears that the Taliban could target them, the British government revealed Tuesday. Read More.

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🌐 Afghanistan's Taliban released American academic Dennis Coyle today after holding him for over a year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention earlier this month. Gift link.

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Girls Without Schools

Approximately 2.4 million Afghan girls remain barred from secondary education five years into Taliban rule, according to a United Nations report published yesterday. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with formal bans on women's education. The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, as US and NATO troops withdrew following two decades of war (Taliban 101). By March 2022, the Islamic fundamentalist group had shuttered girls' secondary schools, and women were barred from universities in December 2022. The decision erased recent gains in female education, with girls' secondary school enrollment rising from a few thousand in 2001 to roughly 1 million in 2021. The UN believes the bans could reduce the female workforce by 600,000 over the next 40 years and increase the risk of early marriage. What are Afghan female academics doing now? Women are also prohibited from teaching boys, contributing to a teacher shortage. Afghanistan’s literacy rate is among the world’s lowest at roughly 37%. Compare literacy rates here.

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This city is on track to run out of water by 2030

Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, is on track to be the first modern city to run out of water and could do so as soon as 2030, according to a report from the nonprofit Prosper Global. It’s part of a broader problem, as cities from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Iran’s capital Tehran, face water shortages so severe that residents are bracing for “day zero” — when taps run dry for large parts of a city. Growing populations, strained infrastructure and a warming climate are often to blame. But Kabul faces an especially dire mix, compounded by decades of conflict and a steep decline in foreign aid since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

+ Read more: Kabul is on track to be the first modern city to run out of water. For many residents, that day is already here

+ Video: Residents of Corpus Christi, Texas, are staring down a water crisis

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Taliban firmly in control in Afghanistan 25 years after US-led invasion to oust them

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Dr. Nigar Nangrahari was on a night shift in a Kabul hospital when the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan began 25 years ago — an event that would shape her and her country’s future for decades to come.

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-us-invasion-anniversary-war-ee2cf4ec49abcb514d53b4ced748898b?