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Ghani plants a tree to ring in the new year
As millions of Afghans ushered in a new year Sunday, in the Persian calender, President Ashraf Ghani marked the occasion by planting a tree at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
Later, Ghani and First Lady Rula Ghani, along with First Vice President Amrullah Saleh visited a Nawroz exhibition of locally produced goods.
In his new year message, Ghani called on the Taliban to stop killing Afghans and not to let “strangers” manipulate them.
“The Taliban have no legitimacy for this war. They are [Taliban] proud that they did not attack the foreign forces, but who gave them the legitimacy to kill their Afghan brothers? It is enough and don’t be the hand tool of strangers,” Ghani said.
Ghani also said the New Year, 1400, would be a year of digitization for Afghanistan.
“Today is a happy day that in the shortest time all our civilian salaries and air and defense will be electronic and will be done by phone,” Ghani said.
“Distribution of electronic IDs distributions has surpassed three million, and Afghanistan will see a major digital boom this year,” Ghani added.
Rula Ghani also said she hopes that the war will end this year.
“I hope that violence and war should stop in the New Year,” said Rula Ghani.
Participants at the expo, who displayed goods and crafts, said that besides other benefits peace will provide economic growth for the country.
Some politicians, meanwhile, voiced concerns about the lack of consensus for peace among politicians and government.
“From the president to low ranking officials should be united and represent Afghans, without this peace talks is waste of time,” said Noorulhaq Olumi, a politician.
“I am optimistic but still there are some issues that concern me. The lack of unity among Afghan leaders has led to us not having a comprehensive plan for peace,” said Zabihullah Mojadidi, another politician.
This comes after security forces from Takhar province said Sunday that Taliban fighters carried out the first attack of the New Year – in Dasht-e-Qala district.
Khalil Asir, a police spokesman, said the Taliban carried out a series of attacks on the Dasht-e-Qala district center before noon today, which were pushed back after several hours of fighting. No casualties were reported.
Latest News
UNESCO: 2.4 million Afghan girls denied education since 2021
UNESCO estimates that the ban could force around 600,000 Afghan women out of the workforce by 2066 and cause $9.6 billion in lost income. It could also increase the risk of early marriage.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Tuesday around 2.4 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) returned to power in 2021.
In a statement on Tuesday, UNESCO said Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are officially barred from secondary and higher education.
The organization warned that the restrictions could increase poverty, reduce employment opportunities and cause long-term damage to Afghanistan’s future.
UNESCO estimates that the ban could force around 600,000 Afghan women out of the workforce by 2066 and cause $9.6 billion in lost income. It could also increase the risk of early marriage.
Girls’ secondary schools were closed in March 2022, followed by a ban on women attending universities in December of the same year. The IEA initially described the restrictions as temporary, but they remain in place.
UNESCO also warned that the restrictions could worsen Afghanistan’s shortage of female teachers. It estimates the country could face a shortage of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.
The organization said more than 90% of 10-year-old children in Afghanistan cannot read a simple text, while the national literacy rate is around 37%.
Nearly half of the country’s schools also lack adequate access to water, sanitation or heating, UNESCO said.
According to the report, around three million people returned to Afghanistan in 2025, putting further pressure on the education system. Since 2021, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters have also forced around 1,000 schools to close.
Russia’s Power Machines Company is interested in investing in the rehabilitation and modernization of Afghanistan’s power plants, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) said on Tuesday.
DABS Chief Executive Officer Abdul Haq Hamkar discussed the potential investment with technical officials from Power Machines, with talks focusing on rehabilitating existing power plants, modernizing equipment and expanding power-generation capacity.
According to DABS, Hamkar said the company would cooperate in facilitating preliminary technical assessments of Afghanistan’s power plants and in exploring investment opportunities in the sector.
Denis Rudakov, head of Power Machines’ commercial department, said the Russian company plans to conduct preliminary technical assessments of existing power plants in Afghanistan.
Based on the findings, Power Machines will prepare proposals for rehabilitating facilities, modernizing equipment and increasing electricity-generation capacity, DABS said.
Afghanistan currently has several operational power plants, while efforts are underway to increase their generation capacity and upgrade their equipment, according to DABS.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), on Tuesday denied that IEA authorities detained Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman the US claims disappeared in Kabul four years ago.
“We have no information about Mahmood Shah Habibi. He is not with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. If he were, this issue would have been resolved long ago,” Mujahid said.
His remarks came a day after the FBI marked the fourth anniversary of Habibi’s disappearance and renewed its appeal for information about his whereabouts.
According to the FBI, Habibi disappeared near his home in Kabul on August 10, 2022. At the time, he was working as a consultant for Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company. He had previously served as Afghanistan’s director of civil aviation.
The FBI has alleged that Habibi was detained by the IEA’s General Directorate of Intelligence.
The FBI has continued its investigation and in 2025 released a missing-persons poster for Habibi. The U.S. State Department has also offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his location, recovery and return.
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