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Rights groups upset over exclusion of Afghan women at UN-led Doha meeting

Otunbayeva has meanwhile said the Doha meeting would focus on private sector business and counter-narcotics, issues she described as linked to women’s rights.

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Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirate government is due to send officials to Qatar next weekend to meet top UN officials and envoys from up to 25 countries for a two-day gathering that rights groups have criticized for not including Afghan women, Reuters reported.

It will be the third such UN-led meeting in Doha, but the first attended by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).

“Excluding women risks legitimizing the Taliban’s (IEA) abuses and triggering irreparable harm to the UN’s credibility as an advocate for women’s rights and women’s meaningful participation,” Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch, said of the third planned Doha meeting.

UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo, UN special envoy on Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva, and envoys from various countries are due to meet separately with Afghan civil society groups after meeting with the IEA, the UN has said.

The Doha meetings are “part of a process and not a one-off” and women and civil society continue to be part of it, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Sunday.

“It also aims to encourage the de facto authorities to engage with the international community through a coordinated and structured approach for the benefit of the Afghan people,” Dujarric said.

“Human rights and the rights of women and girls will feature prominently in all the discussions, certainly from the part of the UN,” he added.

Since the IEA returned to power, most girls have been barred from high school and women from universities.

The IEA have also stopped most Afghan female staff from working at aid agencies, closed beauty salons, barred women from parks and curtailed travel for women in the absence of a male guardian.

The IEA have however repeatedly said they respect women’s rights in accordance with Sharia law.

“Sidelining critical discussions on human rights would be unacceptable and set a deeply damaging precedent,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said of the planned Doha meeting.

Otunbayeva has meanwhile said the Doha meeting would focus on private sector business and counter-narcotics, issues she described as linked to women’s rights.

She also said the upcoming meeting had “generated significant expectations that cannot realistically be met in a single meeting.”

“We are trying to establish a process and preserve an important mechanism of consultation. We must be realistic about how much each meeting in this process can deliver, especially at this early stage where confidence and trust are insufficient,” she told the UN Security Council on Friday.

 

 

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Afghanistan summons Pakistani chargé d’affaires over latest airstrikes

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Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires to Kabul and lodged a strong protest against the violation of Afghan airspace and Pakistani military airstrikes on several Afghan provinces.

The ministry handed the Pakistani diplomat a formal protest note following the attacks on Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces on Wednesday night, which reportedly caused civilian casualties.

The Islamic Emirate strongly condemned the strikes, calling them a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and contrary to Islamic, international, humanitarian and good-neighborly principles.

The ministry also rejected what it called baseless claims that Afghan territory was being used as a source of Pakistan’s recent security incidents.

It said using such claims to justify military action was an attempt to distort facts, mislead public opinion and conceal Pakistan’s internal failures.

The Islamic Emirate further accused Pakistan’s military leadership of avoiding commitments made to regional countries and warned that such actions could further escalate tensions in the region.

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Museum dedicated to preserving ‘Jihadi’ artefacts opens in Kandahar

The museum’s collection includes more than 100 items gathered from different locations.

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A museum dedicated to preserving what Afghan authorities describe as “Jihadi artefacts” has officially opened in Kandahar, with officials saying more than 100 items have so far been collected for display.

Mufti Mohammad Tahir Ahmad, Director General for the Preservation of Jihadi Artefacts at the Ministry of Information and Culture, attended the inauguration ceremony alongside Qari Ahmadullah Saeed Khosti, Director of Registration for Jihadi Artefacts and Documents.

Mufti Inamullah Samangani, head of the Kandahar Information and Culture Department, and officials from several government departments also attended the ceremony.

According to the official responsible for preserving the artefacts in Kandahar, the museum’s collection includes more than 100 items gathered from different locations.

The collection includes weapons that officials say were captured from British, Soviet and US forces, as well as personal belongings and other items associated with people killed during Afghanistan’s conflicts over the past two decades.

Officials said efforts to collect additional artefacts would continue in order to expand the museum’s collection.

The museum is now open to visitors, according to the officials.

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Ariana Afghan Airlines ranks seventh among 45 Central Asian airlines

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Ariana Afghan Airlines has ranked seventh among 45 airlines in Central Asia in Skytrax’s 2026 rankings.

Company officials say Ariana Afghan ranked eighth on the list in 2025, but moved up one place this year following improvements in service quality and the expansion of its operations.

According to the officials, in 2026 the airline met criteria including service quality, flight safety, professional cabin crew, and experience in the aviation sector, placing it among the top 10 airlines in Central Asia.

Skytrax is an international organization that evaluates and ranks the quality of services in the aviation industry and airlines, assessing and ranking carriers annually based on specific criteria.

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