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Ten Afghan couples marry in mass wedding in Kabul
Ten couples from various provinces married in a mass wedding ceremony in Kabul on Sunday in a stand against the traditional expensive and extravagant wedding parties.
Khodadad Rasooli, the organizer of the event, said a number of the couples who married had waited years to tie the knot as they had not been able to afford the usual lavish affair.
“Couples from Parwan, Bamiyan, Ghazni and Maidan Wardak provinces got married at this event,” said Rasooli.
“Some of these couples had been engaged for seven, eight, or 10 years and had not been able to get married due to financial hardship; this is what made us organize this party.”
Weddings in Afghanistan are traditionally very expensive as dowries need to be paid, gold has to be purchased, bridal wear bought and hundreds, sometimes thousands of guests attend the parties at massive wedding halls.
Young couples often start married life in debt as they take out loans to pay for the event.
Sherin Sultani, one of the brides who got married on Sunday, said her new husband had to seek work outside of the country in order to earn money to get married.
He had “to go to foreign countries for work so that he could afford the expense”, she said.
“The cost of a wedding is very high; I could not afford one, as I would have had to spend between 600,000 AFN ($6,560) and 700,000 AFN ($7,654),” Hamid, one of the groom’s said.
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OIC Kabul mission chief meets German envoy to discuss Afghanistan situation
The Director General of the OIC Mission in Kabul, Mohammed Saeed Alayyash, met on Sunday with Rolf Dieter Reinhard, Head of the German Liaison Office for Afghanistan in Doha and Acting Chargé d’Affaires of the German Embassy in Afghanistan.
During the discussion, both sides exchanged views on the latest developments in Afghanistan. They focused on the security situation, as well as the humanitarian and economic conditions faced by the Afghan people.
The two officials also reviewed recent political developments and broader challenges in the country, highlighting the need for continued international engagement and support.
The meeting emphasized the importance of ongoing cooperation and coordination between the OIC Mission and the German side in addressing Afghanistan’s challenges and in supporting efforts to promote stability and improve the humanitarian situation.
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Pakistan president claims situation in Afghanistan is ‘similar to or worse than pre-9/11’’
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has warned that the presence of militant groups in the region poses risks to global peace, and repeated Islamabad’s concerns regarding what it describes as the activities of “terrorist organisations operating from Afghanistan.”
Zardari made the remarks in a statement issued Sunday, as he thanked world leaders for expressing solidarity with Pakistan following the recent attack on an imambargah in Islamabad, which left dozens dead and many others wounded. The incident was claimed by Daesh militant group.
According to the statement from the President’s Secretariat, Zardari said Pakistan remains committed to combating terrorism and stressed that no single country can address the threat alone.
“Pakistan has long maintained that terrorism cannot be confronted by a single country in isolation,” he was quoted as saying.
Citing Pakistan’s experience, he said in the statement that whenever “terrorist groups are allowed space, facilitation or impunity beyond national borders, the consequences are borne by innocent civilians all over the world.”
Zardari further claimed that the situation in Afghanistan under the Islamic Emirate authorities has created conditions “similar to or worse than pre-9/11,” and said this has influenced security developments across the region. IEA has repeatedly rejected such allegations, insisting that Afghan soil is not used against any country.
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Fazlur Rehman: Afghanistan’s economic situation is better than Pakistan’s
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), has said that Afghanistan’s economic situation has become better than Pakistan’s, as Pakistan faces deepening financial hardship and increasing emigration.
Speaking at a gathering in Rawalpindi, Fazlur Rehman warned that business activity in Pakistan is collapsing and that many Pakistanis are leaving the country in search of stability. He sharply criticized Islamabad’s policies toward Afghanistan, describing them as “complete failures.”
Addressing Pakistan’s repeated claims that militants enter from Afghan territory, he said: “Authorities say terrorists are coming from there. If they are coming, stop them. If they are coming, eliminate them. The Afghan government has never objected to your actions.”
He also rejected the logic behind these allegations, pointing to the closure of key crossings between the two countries: “When not even a single pomegranate can enter Pakistan from Afghanistan today, how can militants enter?”
Fazlur Rehman argued that Pakistan’s foreign policy is shaped not by the civilian government, but by the military establishment: “One general comes and says we will negotiate; another comes and says we will wage war.”
Pakistani officials have long claimed that attacks inside Pakistan are planned from Afghan soil. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has consistently denied this, saying Afghanistan cannot be blamed for Pakistan’s internal security failures.
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