I encourage anyone who cares about this to travel to Afghanistan themselves and see it with their own eyes before relying on what publications like the Guardian have to say about it. One thing about the article that is probably not true is the claim that the girls were labeled "infidels" by the state. Why this claim is suspicious is that there is no word for "infidel" in the languages spoken in Afghanistan. The closest equivalent would be کافر (kafir), which can refer to someone who isn't Muslim, but not wearing hijab is not considered to be any kind of proof that someone is not a Muslim. It's highly doubtful that they were excommunicated for this.
The guardian claims that the government in Afghanistan mandates that women must be covered "from head to toe, revealing only their eyes", which is clearly not true. When I was in Kabul I saw many women without their faces covered. This is one clear case where the Guardian gets facts on the ground wrong. A lot of women there are wearing surgical masks as a form of face covering that also doubles as protection from pollution and disease. As the girl quoted in the article said, they are doing this as a "precaution", in other words, the government doesn't in fact require face covering, but they are doing it anyway because they think they have to.
The article implies that girls were specifically targeted for going to English class, as if they have an issue with learning English. Government officials themselves also go to English classes, so that in and of itself was not a relevant matter to the story.
As for them getting beaten for "confronting the men", of course you are going to get beaten if you resist arrest or argue. That's true in most countries, but particularly in Afghanistan the authorities tend to hit people if they are not compliant.
The other issue is that the rule in Afghanistan is not well developed or consolidated, which means that these men who committed these acts like the beatings and arrests were acting outside the law, and the central government doesn't necessarily support this action. Because of the rudimentary form of government different local elements of the Taliban can act differently or independently, so what the spokesperson quoted in the article said about this being unusual was probably telling the truth. This was only one incident, and hopefully it won't be repeated elsewhere.
Says Apple lol
Can you explain what you mean by "black" propaganda?
Not sure why they chose the name Atesh, but it is apparently the Persian word آتش meaning "fire". It's interesting how much Persian has shown up in and around this conflict, likely due to historical Ottoman influence in the region. Persian makes anything 1000x cooler
Sir if you don't support defending Ukraine from fascist right-wing states like Russia then are you even left?
You can make it NSFW?
it looks like they removed it in 10.15
Things have really gone downhill
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup and later led a reluctant Pakistan into aiding the U.S. war in Afghanistan, has died.
The women and youth-led movement has proven hard to put down.
"The power equation between Russia and Iran appears to be kind of out of whack," Colin Kahl, US undersecretary of defense, for policy said this month.
Emigration, war and a plunging birth rate form a ‘perfect storm’
A report in a Russian business newspaper claims 40% of Chinese semiconductor products imported into Russia now fail
Condemn Putin’s terror. You may not change how much oil your government buys from Russia, but it will save India – and its people – from appearing hopelessly provincial, instrumental and inhumane
Today was a sad day for Google gamers but I promise you, it's not the end of the world. As a matter of fact, I'm here to share some very exciting news I discovered while on my way into the office this morning. It's no secret that Google has long been working on bringing more...
