By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Apr 7 2025 – The Taliban’s egregious violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan, especially banning women from education and even from speaking in public, are beyond the pale. Imposing economic sanctions alone, however, has not changed in any significant way the Taliban’s treatment of women.

By demonstrating that they understand the Taliban’s cultural heritage and religious beliefs, Western powers, with the support of several Arab states, will be in a better position to persuade the Taliban that respecting women’s rights is consistent with their beliefs and would be greatly beneficial to their country.

Although the Taliban were exposed to democracy, freedom, and equality for both men and women for nearly 20 years during the American presence, they reversed these reforms once they reassumed power following the American withdrawal in August 2021, even though the Afghans embraced such freedoms wholeheartedly. From the Taliban’s perspective, these reforms were contrary to their beliefs and way of life.

The Taliban’s Egregious Women’s Rights Violations

In 2021, the Taliban banned all education for girls beyond the sixth grade, which has deprived a total of 2.2 million girls and women of their right to education. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell stated last month that the ban continues to harm the future of millions of Afghan girls, and that over four million girls will have been deprived of an education beyond the primary level if the ban persists for another five years. Accordingly, she said, “The consequences for these girls – and for Afghanistan – are catastrophic.”

Since 2021, Afghan women have faced unimaginable oppression. Beyond education bans, the Taliban forced women to cover themselves completely, with criminal penalties for those who refuse to comply. In December 2024, they announced their plan to shut down all NGOs employing women over so-called dress code violations.

Their voices are literally silenced through an August 2024 law that bans women from speaking outside the home. Their rights are stripped away, and their resistance met with brutality. In the shadows of war and conflict, women and girls endure unimaginable suffering, facing heightened levels of gender-based violence, including arbitrary killings, torture, and forced marriage and sexual violence, leaving deep physical and emotional scars.

The Taliban are not oblivious to these findings, as some officials have publicly argued against some bans, but they nevertheless continue to violate women’s rights under the pretext of their bans being consistent with their religious and traditional role in Afghan society.

The Taliban are predominantly from the Pashtun tribes, which are indigenous to the region and have a strong tribal structure and cultural traditions, which influenced the Taliban’s socio-political orientation.

The Historic Perspective

To better understand the Taliban’s mindset, which reflects their resilience and extremism against foreign domination, it is important to reflect briefly on Afghanistan’s history. The region now known as Afghanistan was a target for invaders as early as the sixth century BCE, facing scores of foreign invaders up through the US-led invasion in 2001, yet has shown great resilience against foreign domination, as invaders repeatedly faced fierce resistance and were ultimately forced to withdraw.

Across centuries, Afghanistan has consistently defied foreign powers, earning its reputation as the “graveyard of empires.” The Taliban’s emergence as a movement was, in large part, a response to the chaos and power vacuum left by the Soviet withdrawal in 1990. They rose to power in 1996 and were ousted by the US-led invasion in 2001.

Afghan religious extremism stems from several factors. The U.S. and its allies funded and armed mujahideen fighters during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, fostering radical ideologies. Saudi-funded schools in Pakistan taught extreme Deobandi and Wahhabi ideologies to Afghan refugees, who returned to Afghanistan to fight in the Afghan Civil War.

Following the departure of the Soviets, the Taliban imposed puritanical Islam rooted in Deobandi ideology and ethnic and political manipulation. Extremism was used to consolidate power, suppress minorities, and resist foreign influence.

Cutting aid alone is not the answer

It is necessary for global powers to hold the Taliban accountable for gender persecution and take punitive actions, including cutting off financial aid; however, thus far, imposing economic sanctions alone has not yielded the desired results.

The Taliban’s harsh treatment of women remains unabated, and to effect a real change, the West must change its strategy.

While the threat of more sanctions should continue to hover over the Taliban’s heads, to effect the necessary changes to improve women’s rights, the West should take systematic measures that align with the group’s cultural and religious teachings.

Working with influential Muslim-majority countries, including Indonesia, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, which is the leader of Sunni Islam, is key in order to challenge the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law while highlighting Quranic principles of equality and historical examples of female scholarship in Islam.

In Afghanistan, the restrictions on women’s rights, including education and dress codes, are based on interpretations of Islamic law and cultural practices rather than direct Quranic edicts. To demonstrate to the Taliban leaders that respecting women’s human rights complements rather than compromises their cultural and religious beliefs, the West’s Arab and Muslim partners should cite Quranic verses to make the case.

The first revelation to Prophet Muhammad begins with the command to “read,” which is seen as a universal call to acquire knowledge. Surah Al-Tawbah (9:71) emphasizes the equal responsibility of men and women in seeking knowledge and upholding moral values. Surah Al-Hadid (57:25) promotes education as a means to establish justice and equity in society.

Moreover, the Quran does not explicitly state that women should be segregated from men, nor that they must wear a hijab. Surah An-Nur (24:30-31) instructs both men and women to be modest and guard their private parts, certainly not their heads or faces, but the Taliban interprets this to support the wearing of a burqa that covers Afghan women from head to toe.

In that regard, the West should provide aid to Afghan clerics who advocate for girls’ education and women’s rights within Islamic teachings, and invoke women’s literacy in Afghanistan before the rise of the Taliban to encourage those clerics.

Additionally, targeted economic support for infrastructure projects and agricultural investments should be offered in exchange for reopening girls’ secondary schools or permitting women’s employment in the health and education sectors while emphasizing the economic cost of excluding women.

In conjunction with that, preferential trade terms for Afghan products produced by women should be provided while highlighting how educated women improve public health outcomes for all.

The West should also support community-based schools and computer and science training for women and girls, which reliable local NGOs should administer, and provide safe channels for women activists to air their grievances. Culturally, the West should invest in programs showcasing women artists, poets, and historians as custodians of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

In that regard, the media should be used to disseminate success stories of Muslim-majority countries, like Bangladesh and the UAE, where women’s education and employment coexist with cultural and religious values.

By combining religious dialogue, economic pragmatism, and grassroots movements to empower women, the West should pursue incremental progress, which will be more sustainable than seeking instantaneous change.

Recalling the way the Afghan people were treated by foreign powers over the centuries, the Taliban have developed an instinctive adversarial reaction to anything proposed by any foreign power.

This certainly does not justify their treatment of women, but they need to be persuaded, however, that the proposed changes can only benefit their country’s socio-economic conditions while respecting women’s rights, without compromising their cultural and religious beliefs.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

By External Source
KABUL, Apr 7 2025 – Women in Afghanistan have borne the brunt of the Taliban’s extremist Islamist rule. Four years on, there appears to be no end in sight.

In a country where women are denied the right to education, work and the freedom to travel without the company of a mahram – a male family member – the Taliban now seek to erase what little remains of women’s autonomy, even going so far as to confiscate their cosmetics.

In February this year, the Taliban launched house raids to seize women’s beauty products, yet another act that marks a new low in their campaign to oppress and exclude women from pubilc and private life.

Afghan women are no longer safe even within the four walls of their own homes; frequently subjected to humiliation, threats of violence and no longer even have a choice over their personal belongings

As Farida, (pseudonym) a woman from Sar-e-Pul city in northern Afghanistan recounts the shocking incident, “I was sitting at home that day when suddenly there was a loud banging on the door. My heart started pounding. My husband opened the door with trembling hands, and before he could utter a word, armed men in white clothes burst into the house”.

“They searched every room and turned everything upside down in our home”, she said, “as if a burglar had entered the house, but this time, the burglars were the very people who consider themselves rulers of this land”.

They hurled out everything, said Farida, while one of them picked up a lipstick and with contempt, said, “This is disgraceful! Muslim women don’t need this”, and carried the cosmetics away in a bag.

Afghan women are no longer safe even within the four walls of their own homes; frequently subjected to humiliation, threats of violence and no longer even have a choice over their personal belongings.

With tears in her eyes Farida said, “I felt like they had crushed my entire being”, in reference to the raid, “it was no longer just an attack on collecting cosmetics; it was an attack on our dignity. It felt as if all our rights and privileges as women had been stripped away,” she says.

Buying and selling cosmetics in Sar-e-Pul city has not been an issue, but following a recent tip off, members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice happened to have seized all cosmetics while conducting a search for women’s hair salons and beauty parlours who were operating secretly in the area.

Tamana, (pseudonym) a 22-year-old woman in Sar e Pol city who was prevented from furthering her education, chose hairdressing to support herself, but she is now in despair.

In a telephone conversation, she said, “all I wanted was to complete my studies and become a doctor but unfortunately, with the arrival of the Taliban, we were denied the opportunity to continue further.

“For a year”, Tamana said, “I ran a hair salon at home, where women would come secretly – mostly at night – and receive beauty and makeup services”.

The Taliban have begun raiding homes in Afghanistan to prevent women from using makeup. Credit: Learning Together.

But according to her, that ended when spies tipped off the Taliban and they attacked their house, destroyed all the furniture, seized all the makeup, and made them promise not to do that again.

“Now, I have no other source of income”, she complained, and asked, “Why are they so afraid of women? Why can’t they show us mercy even in our own homes?”

Tamana complained bitterly that the beauty services she provided to women was her only source of income, which supported her elderly father who works “tirelessly from morning until night, repairing people’s shoes, but earns very little to make ends meet”.

To Farida, seizing women’s cosmetics “makes no sense”. As she points out, “buying and selling cosmetics is freely available in shops around the city, and women have no difficulty buying them”.

Besides that, she say, “women like me, who are currently housewives with no jobs, cannot afford a wide range of cosmetics. Therefore, “we have only basic cosmetics such as makeup, eye shadow, mascara, eyeliner, lipstick, nail polish, and perfume, which we mostly use for weddings and birthday parties”.

Given that situation, the Taliban’s raids on people’s homes and seizing cosmetics is seen as more than just a repressive act. Rather, it reflects the Taliban’s fear of women’s independent identity and their femininity. For the Taliban, the capacity of women to make decisions for themselves, even concerning the most private matters, is a threat to their rule.

They want to turn the women of Afghanistan into obedient, colourless, and voiceless beings. To the Taliban, wearing makeup, even in its simplest form, is a sign of a women’s desire for beauty, identity, and independence, and that has to be crushed.

The consequence of the house raids is that women become anxious and fearful; they even decide to destroy their own cosmetics. In doing so, they are not just discarding belongings—they are casting away a part of themselves and their sense of identity.

“The fierce faces of the Taliban are still in my mind and continuously haunt me”, recalls Tamana”, after the raid was conducted. “After they left, I felt worthless. It was as if nothing was left of me. They not only took our cosmetics, they took our hope and self-esteem with them.”

But despite all the repressions, Afghan women have not given up. They persist in their silent resistance, subtly demonstrating admirable courage.

In spite of the restrictions, they have not abandoned their dreams, hoping that one day, the darkness will lift and light will shine on Afghan women once again.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 7 2025 (IPS-Partners)

Education is an essential investment in providing health to those left furthest behind.

On World Health Day, we must connect the dots between education and health in humanitarian crisis settings. A child attending school gets vaccinations and healthcare, a nutritious meal and mental health and psychosocial services. By funding education, we optimize our investments to cover multiple sectors in one investment, such as health.

“The link between education, health and well-being is clear. Education develops the skills, values and attitudes that enable learners to lead healthy and fulfilled lives, make informed decisions and engage in positive relationships with everyone around them,” according to UNESCO.

At the same time, poor health, hunger, war-trauma and diseases negatively impact academic performance, especially in humanitarian emergencies.

According to UNICEF, humanitarian investments in education and health have substantial returns. Every $1 invested in children and their well-being yields a ten-fold societal return.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our strategic partners deliver speedy and lifesaving quality education on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. In places like Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti and Cameroon, this means healthy school meals, greater nutrition, safe classrooms and access to public health initiatives that are available at the beginning of school.

Right now, we are making impossible decisions on humanitarian funding that put millions of lives at risk. The most effective way of utilizing financial means is to ensure multiple impact or a holistic and cross-sectoral approach.

Education is one of the single best investments we can make, while also ensuring healthy lives for all. Not the least for the 234 million children and adolescents who today endure unspeakable crises with no other hope than to attend school, survive and thrive. This is what it is all about: the humanitarian imperative is about saving their lives.

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Excerpt:

World Health Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Apr 7 2025 – The world’s leading scientists and decision-makers in agriculture, climate, and health are meeting in Nairobi this week to promote innovation and partnerships towards a food, nutrition, and climate-secure future. As current agrifood systems buckle under multiple challenges, nearly one in 11 people globally and one in five people in Africa go hungry every day.

Recognizing the urgency of these challenges, CGIAR and the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) have convened the very first CGIAR Science Week, April 7 to 12, 2025, at the UN Complex. In this regard, a high-level opening plenary session today underscored an unwavering commitment to international agricultural research.

During the opening plenary, CGIAR’s Executive Managing Director Ismahane Elouafi told the audience that the food crisis was depressing. “We are faced with one of the food shortage crises in history… We have seen emerging conflicts in so many parts of the world. We have also seen climate change that is accelerating and showing us how bad it is in different parts of the world.

“And this is bad for all of us, but imagine how bad it is for a woman that doesn’t have food for her kids.”

However, this is where science comes to the fore.

“This week marks a pivotal moment in our shared journey towards transforming global agriculture and food systems. CGIAR is unwavering in our commitment to advancing groundbreaking agricultural science that is sustainable, inclusive, and rooted in the belief that research, innovation, and collaboration are the keys to overcoming the complex challenges facing agri-food systems today,” Elouafi said.

There was a lot of emphasis on the role of youth and ensuring they were part of the solution, especially in the global South.

Elouafi welcomed students to the Science Week and said she hoped they would remain committed to the South.

“Go to agriculture, because we all need food, and you could be the solution in the future,” she said.

“And in all honesty, I used to introduce myself as a girl from the South that made it to the North… and it was a success… I want, really,  the kids in the south to go out saying, ‘I’m a girl from the South and I am staying in the South.’”

While officially opening the science conference, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said it was a privilege to represent the President, who is “himself a scientist. In fact, the first scientist president that Kenya has had. The theme of this year’s assembly is timely, considering the unprecedented environmental and food security challenges that the world faces today.”

“The only way forward is through scientific research and on the stakeholders of our country. I am proud to be a member of the National Coalition of Colonists, providing employment for over 60 percent of our population, significantly contributing to national armament and ensuring food security for millions of people.”

“The sector faces immense challenges, from climate change and extreme weather conditions, land deprivation, soil infertility, food insecurity and malnutrition, post-harvest losses, unlimited access to technology, financing, and investments, and of course, confidence. This Science Week is a defining moment. It gives us an opportunity to engage in how to mitigate these challenges.”

As major and connected global challenges threaten the sustainability of food, land, and water systems, global and regional leaders in research, policy, and development say tackling these disruptions requires continued strengthening of collaborative efforts and strategic partnerships towards agri-food systems that are sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and can nourish both people and planet.

A Council of the Wise, a panel session graced by distinguished personalities in Africa, spoke about issues such as politics, policy, and science, and the place of women and youth in transforming agrifood systems. Ameenah Gurib–Fakim, Former President of Mauritius, asked, “Where are the women in Africa in agriculture? What I’m going to say next is not a political statement; it is a fact. Women feed Africa. Where is the technology? Where is the empowerment for our African girls and women?”

“How do we empower them with the technologies? How do we empower them with the capacity to go and open their bank account? How do we empower them to access land? These are issues we have to tackle. Because after all, African food is produced mostly by smallholder farmers, and many of them are women. So, looking at the challenges across Africa, we really have to look at it through the gender lens.”

Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Former Prime Minister of Nigeria and African Union Special Envoy for Food Systems, spoke about population growth and the challenges facing agrifood systems. “In the 60s, the total population of the African continent was about 300 million and we had relative subsistence. Today, we are 1.5 billion people. And in between, between the 60s and today, a lot of things have happened. Progresses and improvements have been made. We have seen food and agriculture strategically implemented, continentally, regionally, and nationally.”

“We have seen our networks of research, science, and innovation really get a significant momentum. But the demographics have beaten the games that we are playing. So, the conclusion that needs to be drawn from that picture is that we need to accelerate. And… we need to do more with less. We know the challenges in terms of productivity, production, land, immigration, and climate. We have the technical answers. The question now is how do we add political solutions to these technical solutions, the scientific solutions, and the innovative solutions? We need political solutions.”

Towards this end, experts and participants from around the globe will explore transformative solutions to the complex challenges facing agri-food systems, such as water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and extreme weather events. Recognizing their intersection while also reflecting on past successes and lessons learned in embracing solutions centered on inclusivity, partnership, and innovation.

There is an emphasis on sustained global investment in innovation, technology, and science as the most effective tools to deliver food, nutrition, and climate security for all, and more so, the most vulnerable people and communities who are increasingly burdened by heightened food insecurity, poverty, and social inequality as unprecedented multiple, complex challenges converge.

Mohamed Beavogui, former Prime Minister, the Republic of Guinea, said that responses to the food and nutrition challenges have not been adequate. Lands are degrading fast. “To date, we are still using about 20 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare while others are using more than 137 kilograms per hectare. Yet, climate change is giving us chaotic rains, droughts, and floods.”

“We do not have, on the ground at least, the right resources. And then, our farmers lack finance, access to technology, etc. And moreover, those who are living between agriculture and the ground, women, are excluded. But there is good news, and a lot of good news; there is a lot of innovation everywhere you look and we need to move it from the lab to the land to the plate.”

Importantly, agricultural research and science is a means to economic stability and gender equality. Given the enormity of the task at hand, the CGIAR is positioning the week as a platform to enhance regional and global partnerships with an aim to scale scientific innovations and solutions but also to reinforce local community-bred practices that work.

Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, Former President of Nigeria who holds a doctorate degree in hydrobiology, spoke of the critical need to have leaders who are aware of the usefulness of science. Stressing that science is a mindset that focuses on problem-solving and that this mindset is a key issue towards solving the challenges facing humanity today.

“In Africa, our leaders spend more time thinking about how to get to leadership and hold on to leadership than thinking about the people. We have to spend more time thinking about the people. Even when the President is not a scientist, they can put the right people, experts and competent people, in the right places. It is about the President having the political will and commitment to move the country forward and adopt science and technology to solve agricultural problems.”

Overall, the Science Week is an opportunity to use the best science, innovation, research, and existing knowledge within communities to draw the most effective roadmap into a future where agrifood systems and interconnected issues of climate change, environment, biodiversity, and water can harmoniously converge to produce the best possible outcomes for both planet and humanity.
IPS UN Bureau Report,

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By Edgardo Ayala
CANDELARIA DE LA FRONTERA, El Salvador, Apr 7 2025 – In Central America’s Dry Corridor, climatic conditions hinder water and food production because rainfall in this ecoregion—from May to December—is less predictable than in the rest of the isthmus.

Cristian Castillo knows this firsthand. The young Salvadoran farmer had just planted tomatoes on his small plot of land, less than a hectare in size, when the hand-dug well he planned to use for irrigation ran dry.

“I had a well, but due to (earth) tremors, the (aquifer’s) veins closed up, and the water stopped flowing,” Castillo told IPS, standing beside his home and field in the rural village of Paraje Galán, a community of 400 families in the Candelaria de la Frontera district, western El Salvador.



But with or without tremors—common in this country of six million people—it’s not unusual for wells to dry up in the Dry Corridor due to prolonged droughts during the rainy season. Without water, there’s no way to grow crops or raise cattle and pigs, which are vital for the survival of local communities.

Stretching 1,600 kilometers, the Dry Corridor covers 35% of Central America and is home to more than 10.5 million people.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), over 73% of the rural population in this belt lives in poverty, and 7.1 million people suffer from severe food insecurity.

Central America, a region of seven countries with a combined population of 50 million, faces deep social inequalities.

Aware of the harsh climatic conditions in the Dry Corridor, around 25 municipalities in the neighboring countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador formed the Trinational Border Association of the Lempa River in 2007. This regional, non-governmental initiative promotes sustainable development projects in their territories.

One such project encourages rainwater harvesting techniques, helping families build collection tanks to irrigate their crops.

Castillo is among those who benefited from the construction of one such tank, with a storage capacity of 10 cubic meters, equivalent to 50 large drums.

“I’ll pump all the collected rainwater to the upper part of the property where the tomato crop is,” explained Castillo, 36.

In the neighboring village of Cristalina, still within the jurisdiction of Candelaria de la Frontera, the Trinational Association was one of the organizations that helped install a potable water distribution tank that now serves about a hundred families who previously lacked this service.

“We had hand-dug wells here, but they weren’t enough anymore. When the (water) project came, we were overjoyed because we would finally have water available all the time,” Cristalina resident Gladis Chamuca, 57, told IPS.