Begum TV Studio in Paris, A School For Afghan Women Banned From Accessing Education
New Age Islam News Bureau
11 May 2025
• Begum TV Studio in Paris, A School For Afghan Women Banned From Accessing Education
• When 300 Saree-Clad Women Saved The Bhuj Airbase During The 1971 India-Pak War
• Zainab Al Turabi Boosts First Bahraini Women's Presence In Arab Sports Events
• Damascus Women’s Team Wins National Powerlifting Championship
• International Criminal Court Targets Taliban Crimes Against Women
• The Taliban’s Onslaught on Female Literacy in Afghanistan and its Impact
• Iran Executes Man Convicted Of Rape
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/begum-afghan-women-banned-education/d/135497
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Begum TV, a school for Afghan women banned from accessing education
María D. Valderrama
MAY 11, 2025
Ziauddin Bakhtyar, an Afghan journalist refugee in France, works on a Begum TV broadcast on April 17.
MARÍA DÍAZ VALDERRAMA
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Wajiha Wahidi, a 25-year-old Afghan journalist, retouches her makeup before recording her first broadcast from the Begum TV studio in Paris. The premises, located in a northern neighborhood of the French capital, include a small newsroom, a recording studio and a meeting room, currently being fitted out with a green screen so that two programs can be filmed simultaneously. This expansion reflects the growth the Afghan television station-in-exile is experiencing, one year after its creation. Like the rest of her fellow journalists, Wahidi does not wear a veil and appears on-screen in street clothes, her face uncovered. She looks quite different from her audience of Afghan women. They watch her broadcasts via satellite television, which reaches one in two households in Afghanistan, a country ravaged by poverty where more than half of its 42 million inhabitants depend on humanitarian aid for their survival.
Wahidi worked as a journalist on national TV and radio stations before leaving Afghanistan in 2022, nine months after the Taliban regained power. After passing through Pakistan, she arrived as a refugee in Paris at the end of 2023 with support from Reporters Without Borders. Every one of the dozen journalists who work at Begum TV today are refugees. Their mission is crucial so that the 1.4 million girls who, according to UNESCO statistics, have been forced to stop attending school at the order of the fundamentalist regime, can continue to have some kind of access to education. It’s also important to the millions of women who have been expelled from universities and public-facing professions. Begum supplies them with information, psychological support and entertainment.
Since their return to power, the fundamentalists have put out more than a hundred decrees that have progressively eliminated the presence of women in society and the workforce, depriving them of their pastimes and massively restricting their movements. The United Nations has stated that its ban on education for girls over the age of 12 is globally unprecedented, and that the Taliban regime has installed gender apartheid, amounting to a persecution of Afghan women.
Wahidi’s sisters are a clear example of this violation of rights. Her older sister had to quit university just one year shy of graduating with a medical degree. Now she is married and the mother of two children. “She has psychological problems. Becoming a mother hasn’t been easy for her. She wasn’t prepared to be a housewife,” says the presenter, who is fighting to bring two of her three younger sisters, who have all been out of school for two years, to France. The third is already engaged, having decided to follow in the footsteps of their eldest sister.
“In Begum TV, I’ve found family again and I feel that I’m doing something useful for Afghan women,” says the journalist. Her work is bringing her out of the depressive episode of her exile, though it is also putting her loved ones in danger. Her father has been detained by the Taliban on various occasions and interrogated over his daughter’s unveiled appearances on the foreign TV channel.
Begum TV was launched in Paris by Afghan journalist Hamida Aman in March 2024, with economic support by the French Foreign Ministry, the United Nations and other public and private donations. It has become an escape route for millions of women in Afghanistan.
The international community is more worried about security, immigration and drugs than human rights. All the pressure and interventions over the last four years have been useless, neglect has taken hold
In just over a year, Begum TV has made 8,500 videos in Pashto and Dari available to Afghan women, including an entire school curriculum. This mission was begun by Begum Radio, which broadcasts from Kabul, expanding into television due to the importance of visuals in subjects such as science and mathematics. “80% of our content is educational. From 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. we broadcast classes. In the afternoon, there are entertainment programs and from 6 p.m. on, primetime produced in Paris with psychological support, health advice, music and entertainment programs,” says Aman. She also makes the shows available on the Begum Academy website and via a mobile application. “The goal is to get to the maximum number of women possible,” she says. They also broadcast some dubbed news reports provided by French television, in addition to music and series that are not allowed in Afghanistan.
Many women are depressed by the lack of perspective for their children and for themselves. They all talk about the same problems, insomnia, loss of appetite, depression and suicide, especially the younger ones
Aman seems one step ahead of Taliban logic. Perhaps that’s because she knows it so well. Her family fled to Switzerland when she was eight years old, in the 1980s. She returned in 2001 as a journalist, to cover the U.S. invasion after the September 11 attacks, and decided to stay to connect with her roots and work for her country. She remained there until moving to France in 2015. In March 2021, months before the Taliban took power, Aman created Radio Begum Kabul. “I thought it was important to prepare for the arrival of the Taliban by making a radio station that was just for women, defending the rights that had cost us so much to get, to have a radio station that we could run if they banned us from working, which became a reality,” she explains.
According to Reporters Without Border, “more than 80% of Afghanistan’s women journalists have had to stop working since 15 August, 2021.” The few who continue have had to do so amid constant threats, fear and censorship, continues the 2025 report. In the majority of the country’s regions, women reporters cannot attend press conferences, interview men or show their face in public. One of the fundamentalists’ most recent directives even bars women’s voices from being heard in public places. The enforcement of these regulations, according to Afghan women reporters who remain active, largely depends on the interpretation and disposition of local authorities, but their activity is subject to strict norms and carried out in terror.
“My fear is that this will spread throughout Afghanistan, which is why I believe that the presence of television is even more justified,” says Aman.
Up until December, Aman regularly traveled to Afghanistan to understand the situation on the ground. She had plans to travel once again to Kabul in February, but a week before the trip, the Radio Begum location was tracked and closed by local authorities. Paradoxically, on March 15 the government re-authorized the radio station’s broadcasts, which continue to be emitted from Kabul, though under heavy restrictions. “There is a lot of pressure on media that is directed at women,” says Aman.
For the women who run Begum TV, the hardest part is the normalization of Afghanistan’s new reality. “Many people already assume that, from the age of 12, girls will have to stay home,” says journalist Saira Akakhil, who has hosted a health program for the past seven months that features medical specialists discussing breast cancer, menstruation and other taboo topics. The show also features live psychological consultations and fields calls from people who simply want to vent.
I know I’m putting my family who is still there at risk, but why should I remain silent? As a person, as an actress and as a woman, I can’t remain silent
Internet and satellite television, which is impossible for authorities to control, has become the primary form of resistance for women who remain in the country. “Progressively, we’re going to get more and more direct calls and questions from viewers, just as we have on the radio. Many women are depressed by the lack of perspective for their children and for themselves. They all talk about the same problems; insomnia, loss of appetite, depression and suicide, especially the younger ones,” says Aman, who like the rest of the journalists interviewed, is pessimistic about the future. “The international community is more worried about security, immigration and drugs than human rights. All the pressure and interventions over the last four years have been useless, neglect has taken hold,” she says. Aman still hopes that the international community doesn’t decide to isolate Kabul, an attitude that her opinion, would turn its population into hostages of their current situation.
Marina Gulbahari spent years in a depressive state that she has left behind thanks in large part to her work at Begum TV. In Afghanistan, she had been a movie star since she was a young girl, but she started receiving serious threats after an unveiled appearance at a festival in Korea, after which she decided not to return to the country. She’s spent the last year in France, where she was offered asylum. “I love what I do, I feel that my program brings happiness to those who remain in Afghanistan and changes their perspective,” she says, referring to the music program she directs. She also conducts interviews with other Afghan women, which she wants to remind girls who remain in the country that there are other ways of life besides the one preached by the ultra-conservatives. “I know I’m putting my family who is still there at risk, but why should I remain silent? As a person, as an actress and as a woman, I can’t remain silent,” she says.
Source: English.Elpais.com
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When 300 Saree-Clad Women Saved The Bhuj Airbase During The 1971 India-Pak War
by: Ishita Roy
May 11, 2025
Photos depicting repair in progress at the Air strip (Facebook: Indian Air Force); Bottom Right: Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik (Facebook) and Kanabai Shivji Hirani (ANI)
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On a cold December night in 1971, when it was fire that rained from the skies over Bhuj, and Pakisan's Sabre jets tore through the darkness, dropping 14 deadly napalm bombs on the Indian Air Force airstrip, completely destroying it. The women were the ones who saved it all. In all the chaos, the truth was, the runaway was destroyed, which meant that Indian fighter jets could no longer take off. The war raged on, but Bhuj had fallen silent.
It was indeed a dire situation. The base had been bombed for over 35 times in just two weeks. The enemy was also closing in. This is when the Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik, who was in charge of the Bhuj airbase thought of something extraordinary. He knew that time was slipping and without a functioning runaway, India's defence would be grounded. Soldiers and engineers were too few, and every ticking second could cost the nation dearly.
Something extraordinary happened, when from the nearby village of Madhapur, 300 women, some were mothers, some daughters, some widows, stepped forward. These were ordinary citizens without any training, any protective gear, and zero war experience. However, they had something far stronger, their unshakable love for the country.
Led by the encouragement of the district collector and Karnik himself, these women took up an impossible task. They lifted heavy stones, carried buckets of cement, mixed mortar with their bare hands, and rebuilt a bombed-out runway with the same care they’d give their own homes.
They wore green sarees to camouflage themselves from enemy planes. When air raid sirens screamed, they dived into bushes, hearts racing but resolve steady. In an interview to ANI, one of the women who had helped build the runaway, Kanabai Shivji Hirani told ANI, "When Pakistani planes came, we hid. I had a green cloth because it helped us blend into the environment. It looked like part of nature. I had a lot of green cloth. I did not have 5 rupees, so I took 1 rupee from here and there to buy it." They worked through hunger, fear, and sleepless nights. One woman smeared cow dung to seal cracks; another used her pallu to wipe sweat from a younger worker’s brow. Within just 72 hours, they had rebuilt the airstrip — and given India its wings back.
Thanks to them, fighter jets soared again, turning the tide of the war. The nation stood taller. On December 16, Pakistan surrendered.
Hirani, who was only 24 back then still remembers every hour she spent on that airstrip. In an interview to ANI, she said, "In 1971, when the war between Indian and Pakistan happened, I was 24 years old. At that time, Pakistan bombed the runway in Bhuj. They destroyed everything during a nighttime bombing raid. Then the question arose - what do we do now?...It was not possible to build the runaway soon, but we made it possible by rebuilding it, as it was a matter of the country."
Decades later, her voice carries the same fire. "PM Modi should take action on this, stop the water and food supply to Pakistan. The only way they will understand things is to stop it," she told ANI.
Her words are not of hate, but of the lived experience and of the courage — the same one that lit up Bhuj when the world thought it would go dark.
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Source: Www.Timesnownews.Com
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Zainab Al Turabi boosts Bahraini women's presence in Arab sports events
10 May 2025
Riyadh, May 10 (BNA): Zainab Al Turabi, Secretary-General of the Bahrain Esports Federation, has been elected Vice President of the Women and Equality Committee of the Arab Esports Federation. She is the first Bahraini woman to hold this position, marking a significant step in highlighting Bahraini women’s role in regional sports leadership.
The election took place during a federation meeting attended by representatives from across the Arab world. Hussain Al Kooheji is President of the Bahrain Esports Federation and Vice President of both the Arab and Gulf Esports Federations. He commended the achievement as a reflection of Bahrain’s commitment to empowering national talent. He also highlighted the support of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister; and His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, President of the General Sports Authority, and President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee.
Al Kooheji expressed full confidence in Al Turabi’s ability to represent Bahrain and Arab women effectively, highlighting the federation’s support for her role and continued efforts to develop the esports sector and promote women’s participation.
Source: Www.Bna.Bh
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Damascus Women’s Team Wins National Powerlifting Championship
11 May، 2025
Damascus, SANA- The Damascus Women’s Team secured first place in the overall standings of the National Powerlifting Championship, which took place over two days at al-Fayhaa Sports Complex in Damascus.
The championship featured 55 athletes from ten provinces, competing across various categories: juniors, youth, senior women, and masters.
Source: Sana.Sy
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International Criminal Court targets Taliban crimes against women
10 May 2025
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan has sought arrest warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani to hold them accountable for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan. While the ICC's actions signal international awareness of the Taliban's abuses, they are a far cry from on-the-ground justice. Stronger political support and collective actions are needed from governments, international bodies and civil society in order to delegitimise the regime and support Afghan women and girls' rights, particularly in education and employment.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan has moved to hold Taliban leaders accountable for the persecution of women, girls and non-gender conforming individuals in Afghanistan. His investigation formed the basis for allegations that Taliban leaders are responsible for crimes against humanity under article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, specifically for gender-based persecution across Afghanistan since 15 August 2021.
Through more than 100 decrees, the Taliban has restricted women and girls’ fundamental rights to physical integrity and autonomy, education, political and civic participation, in addition to freedom of movement, expression and assembly. As pursuing accountability for gender-based crimes in Afghanistan is a key priority for the ICC, Khan has requested arrest warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani before the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber II on the Situation in Afghanistan.
The ICC Prosecutor’s Taliban arrest warrants are an overdue yet powerful action. In a country where global political shifts have historically sealed the fate of regimes — from the Soviet-backed era to the collapse of the Republic of Afghanistan following the US–Taliban 2020 agreement — international actions are closely watched and often spark widespread reactions across Afghan society.
The ICC’s move signals that at least one arm of the international legal system is observing and documenting the Taliban’s abuses. In a war-weary nation where survival often hinges on adapting to shifting power dynamics, this signal may embolden civic actors who continue to resist Taliban rule in quiet yet defiant ways.
While the ICC’s action is a step towards holding the Taliban accountable, they will not change Taliban policy toward women and girls, and Taliban’s top leaders are highly unlikely to be brought to justice in the Hague.
Justice under international law is notoriously slow, often unfolding over years or decades while civilian victims suffer under oppressive regimes. Under the Afghanistan Pre-Trial, charges have yet to be confirmed and a trial date set. The absence of a robust international monitoring mechanism inside Afghanistan undermines efforts to document abuses to inform state actions and bring legal accountability.
Diplomatic actions to hold the Taliban accountable are vital. But countries like Iran, Pakistan and Russia have normalised relations with the Taliban. Some Western nations, such as Norway, also continue to engage with the regime under the banner of ‘inclusive dialogue’ and ‘peacebuilding’, detracting from international legal pressure.
A decentralised grassroots campaign led by Afghan women has also been advocating for the codification of gender apartheid under the Crimes against Humanity Treaty under consideration at the United Nations General Assembly. Gender apartheid is the systematic gender-based oppression that subjugates women and girls, violating their fundamental human rights. Recognition of gender apartheid under a new treaty could provide a universal foundation for preventing widespread state-sanctioned oppression of women and girls.
The Rome Statute provisions do not criminalise gender apartheid but the ICC arrest warrants support the anti-gender apartheid international campaign. A UN Crimes Against Humanity Treaty codifying gender apartheid as a crime would be more universal and far-reaching than the ICC’s jurisdiction. But the treaty discussions have been pushed to 2027 — demonstrating the inertia of international legal reform and leaving Afghan women abandoned. Without coordinated political responses, international law alone cannot bring accountability in Afghanistan.
To counter the Taliban’s institutionalised gender persecution, political mobilisation is essential — mirroring the global response to the racial apartheid in South Africa. Then, the world came together through coordinated economic sanctions, cultural and sports boycotts and grassroots activism, providing tangible power to international law and political pressure. Equivalent collective action is urgently required today.
Governments, multilateral bodies, non-governmental organisations, civil society and influential sectors like the media, arts and academia must form a united front to isolate the Taliban. This pressure is essential to delegitimise the regime and amplify the forms of resistance that Afghan women have been organising over the past years.
But mobilisation cannot stop at rhetoric. It must translate into tangible support for women and girls inside and outside Afghanistan. This includes expanding access to education through scholarships, creating online learning platforms, opening pathways to remote employment and funding grassroots women-led initiatives.
While most Western countries no longer maintain embassies in Afghanistan, this should not prevent them from taking practical steps to support Afghan girls’ right to education. One approach is to fund targeted scholarship programs for Afghan girls at universities abroad. Though visa processing in Afghanistan is currently unfeasible, many Afghan-led organisations remain active on the ground and can assist with logistical challenges.
Girls who can travel with a male guardian to a neighbouring country can complete visa processing in regional capitals, enabling them to safely pursue their studies. One example is the collaboration between the Linda Norgrove Foundation, UK and Scottish governments that secured visas and places at medical schools for 19 girls from Afghanistan.
With political will and collaboration between foreign ministries and education organisations, workable solutions for continuing education under gender apartheid are possible. Rhetoric from states and leaders must turn to action to provide support for the more than 20 million women and girls whose existence has been virtually erased under the Taliban regime.
Source: Eastasiaforum.Org
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The Taliban’s Onslaught on Female Literacy in Afghanistan and its Impact
10 May, 2025
Seema Sengupta
Zabiullah Mujahid has been an articulate spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate and Taliban Emir Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, explaining their positions to the world with great finesse.[i] “All Afghans will have their rights secured under the future government and women shall also have the right of work and education in an Islamic framework.” Since girls’ education is a divine command in Islam—with the Holy Quran leaving no doubt whatsoever that women, like men, are obligated to increase their knowledge and pursue it—the Taliban was expected to adhere to their promise.[ii] This is despite their track record of violating this millennia old Islamic tradition during their first rule from 1996 to 2001.[iii] But the Taliban reneged on their commitment, sticking to their traditional age-old stand of issuing anti-education edicts for girls above six.
2025 marks four years since the start of the ban on girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan, and this regressive decision continues to harm the future of millions of Afghan girls. If this restriction persists until 2030, more than four million girls will be deprived of their right to education beyond the primary level. UNICEF warns of catastrophic consequences, starting from a negative impact on the healthcare system and the economy of Afghanistan as a whole.[iv] UNICEF predicts that Afghanistan will experience a severe shortage of qualified female health workers if this marginalization of girls within the educational system continues, putting the entire health infrastructure in disarray. With fewer female doctors and midwives, women will be deprived of medical treatment and necessary para-medical support. “We are estimating an additional 1,600 maternal deaths and over 3,500 infant deaths. These are not just numbers, but they represent lives lost and families shattered”—Executive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell said. Indeed, the repercussions will last for generations as Afghanistan leaves half of its population behind.
Importantly, girls face a higher risk of child marriage with adverse effects on their well-being and health. A UN Women report asserted that the cumulative effect of the Taliban’s edicts has largely resulted in the imprisonment of women within the walls of their homes.[v]
Historically, the Afghan leadership endeavoured to empower women through literacy, except for three distinct phases of a blanket ban. Since the early 20th century, girls’ education in Afghanistan, despite its significant progress, remained deeply contested, with three regimes even enforcing gender exclusion—first, under Amir Habibullah Kalakani’s reign in 1929 and twice during the Taliban’s rule, from 1996-2001, and again since August 2021.[vi] During the Mujahideen era (1992–1996), access to education was hindered because of the civil war and restrictions imposed on women.
Ever since its foundations were laid down in 1875, education in Afghanistan has almost exclusively been confined to the capital, Kabul. Till 1919, there were only four schools when King Amanullah Khan made primary education universal and compulsory for the first time. Thereafter, he created schools for girls and even sent some female students to Turkey on exchange programmes.[vii] Despite these achievements, Afghanistan’s conservative socio-cultural and patriarchal traditions, a weak central state and fratricidal ethnic conflicts intermittently hampered women’s access to education throughout the 20th century.
Nevertheless, from 1930 to 1960, women’s education made steady progress, especially in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, before facing a radical setback in the 1990s post-Cold War era. Before the Taliban’s first ascendancy to power in 1991, Afghanistan boasted a co-educational school system with no less than 7,000 women pursuing higher education and at least 230,000 girls enrolled in schools.[viii] There were 190 female university professors along with 22,000 women working as teachers in various schools. Moreover, women also constituted half of the country’s public servants and 40 percent of its total medical professional workforce. The situation deteriorated rapidly since 2021 and Afghanistan ranked last in the 2023-2024 Women, Peace and Security Index published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in collaboration with Oslo’s Peace Research Institute.[ix]
For Afghan women, peace is more than just stopping decades of conflict—it is a dynamic concept which can usher in societal change through the relinquishment of conservatism. “My daughter and granddaughter should enjoy everything that was prohibited for our generation—they deserve more than the basic rights,” former Bamiyan Province Governor and Minister of Women’s Affairs, Culture and Education Dr. Habiba Sarabi explained in 2020.[x] Afghanistan witnessed an exodus of a vast number of professionals instead, after the Taliban took over the country in 2021. It caused significant brain drain.[xi] The last thing that the war-ravaged nation needed was jeopardising a wholesome recovery by preventing half the population from participating in education.
After the Taliban’s ouster in 2001, when the ban on girls’ education was lifted, the World Bank commissioned a study to analyse the economic benefits of this decision. Data from the Labour Force and Household Surveys conducted in Afghanistan in 2007, 2014 and 2020 formed the basis of that analysis.[xii] It was discovered that with the expansion of educational opportunities at all levels in post-Taliban Afghanistan, the infant mortality rate declined by half, while the gross national income per capita tripled from US $810 in 2001 to $2,590 in 2020. A great part of the country’s economic progress during this period was attributed to women.
Although the average return on investment in education remains low in Afghanistan, for women it is fairly high. Every additional year of schooling a woman participates in increases it by 13 percent, placing it much higher than the global average of 9 percent of return on investment in education.
Since education is a key driver of financial stability, lack of access to it only perpetuates generational poverty. A UNESCO policy paper revealed that 420 million people could be lifted out of poverty if all adults completed secondary education, and an additional 60 million would escape poverty if adults gained just two more years of schooling worldwide.[xiii] Since more than half of Afghanistan’s population lives in poverty, denying girls access to education further worsens the crisis.
A 2017 study conducted by the Afghanistan Central Statistics Organization found that 28 percent of Afghan girls were forced into a marriage before turning 18, with 4 percent among them being married off before age 15. The impact of the Taliban’s policy on society at large is best reflected in the findings of research conducted by a local digital platform, Bishnaw-Wawra, which interviewed over 3,000 young women. They revealed that by August 2023, 70 percent of them were aware of girls being forced into marriage before adulthood. According to UNICEF’s analysis, keeping girls out of secondary school costs Afghanistan 2.5 percent of its annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which essentially means the national economy could get a boost of approximately US $5.4 billion if all three million Afghan girls completed secondary education and entered the workforce.[xiv] Thus equal educational opportunities for women transcends the domain of justice and equality, consolidating sustainable development and upholding Afghanistan’s economic potential.
Afghan women were already playing a vital role in society—from the household to their community, but to varying degrees—when the Taliban took over in 2021. They even participated in the peace negotiations and expressed concern at the US ignoring their suggestions while negotiating with the Taliban. “Women’s inclusion has only been limited to a number of 30 minutes consultations”—lamented Afghanistan’s High Peace Council Member Wazma Frogh in 2019.[xv] The women’s group were extremely concerned about those behind-the-scenes negotiations, which to them were not transparent.
The Taliban could not shed its regressive mindset on the issue of women’s education, jobs and their participation in nation-building. They pushed Afghanistan to a situation whereby the country’s GDP was a mere $17.25 billion in 2023 while real growth stayed at 2.3 percent.[xvi] The economic costs supplemented by the wider social costs associated with lower levels of education for women will be catastrophic for the country as well as the region in the long term. The Taliban’s dogmatic approach to the issue of women’s education is driven by three primary factors derived from conservatism and political expediency. Firstly, the Taliban believes Afghanistan’s present curriculum is antithetical to Islamic principles and does not align with Afghan culture. To them, modern education is nothing but a tool to promote western culture and values. Secondly, through this ban the Taliban seeks to demonstrate who is in real control in Afghanistan and leverage it for obtaining diplomatic recognition from the international community. Lastly, an influential ideologically conservative circle offering moral support to the Taliban wants women to be restricted within the household.
Source: Manaramagazine.Org
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Iran executes man convicted of rape
11 May ,2025
Iranian authorities on Sunday executed a man convicted of raping a young woman in the northern province of Semnan, the judiciary said.
The convict, who was not identified, “was executed by hanging,” said the judiciary’s Mizan Online website, without providing further details on the incident.
Mizan reported that the case went through “the necessary legal formalities.”
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The country maintains the death penalty for several crimes, including rape and sexual assault.
Iran carries out the highest number of executions globally after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.
In December, Iranian authorities executed a man convicted of assaulting dozens of women in Tehran.
Source: English.Alarabiya.Net
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2025/05/11/iran-executes-man-convicted-of-rape
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/begum-afghan-women-banned-education/d/135497