Afghanistan’s brain drain continues as job security, education prospects fade

Special Afghanistan’s brain drain continues as job security, education prospects fade
An Afghan man uses a computer at a market in Mazar-i-Sharif on Oct. 17, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 05 October 2024
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Afghanistan’s brain drain continues as job security, education prospects fade

Afghanistan’s brain drain continues as job security, education prospects fade
  • Taliban blames Western countries for taking away country’s talent
  • But ban on women’s education seen as one of main reasons young people leave

KABUL: Abdullah Jalal is counting down the days to his relocation overseas — a move that will mean him restarting his career but give him the employment security he no longer believes is possible in Afghanistan.

The 29-year-old data management expert has been working for an international organization but said “the future is extremely uncertain.”

“With the current situation in the country, a whole generation is being punished and opportunities are taken away from young experts. I know many friends who have left the country in the past few years or are planning to leave,” he told Arab News.

“Specializations and expertise are not valued in the country anymore … The future employment prospects are not very good.”

Jalal is among the many skilled young professionals who choose to leave Afghanistan every year in search of better opportunities abroad. The numbers peaked in 2021, when hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled as the Taliban regained control of the country.

Three years on, with sanctions slapped on the Taliban administration and a devastating economic and humanitarian crisis, the brain drain continues, further limiting Afghanistan’s capacity for growth.

The trend has been worsened by Taliban policies banning women from attending secondary school and university and most forms of paid employment.

Some parents, like Abdul Saboor, choose to send their daughters overseas so that they can pursue their education. One of his daughters wanted to complete a master’s degree in computer science, but that is no longer possible in Afghanistan.

“Before the suspension of university education, she was teaching at a private university and took some freelance assignments to earn an income and support the family. She is very talented. She taught at a private university and developed websites for some organizations, but she couldn’t continue working,” Saboor said.

“I had to send her — along with my younger daughter who has graduated from high school — to Pakistan to pursue their studies and stay with their aunt. Not all families have this opportunity. I couldn’t see my daughters stay dull at home and continue to live with depression.”

While data about the exact numbers of skilled professionals and graduates leaving the country is unavailable, the International Organization for Migration estimates that in September more than 166,000 Afghans left the country for neighboring Pakistan and Iran alone.

Over the past four decades of wars in the country, 6.4 million Afghans have resettled abroad.

“The brain drain continues to happen even after several years of Islamic Emirate’s rule, creating major gaps in the society,” Dr. Sohaib Raufi, director of the Center for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul, told Arab News.

“The educated generation of the country, including university professors and other experts, have fled Afghanistan and continue to leave the country for various reasons, such as a lack of studying and teaching prospects, fading hopes for a better future.”

Last year, the Taliban called on Western countries to stop taking Afghan talent out of the country, but it is their own policy that is contributing to it, according to Raufi.

“A major factor contributing to the growing brain drain is the continuing suspension of school and university education for girls. Job security is another reason experts leave the country because in some instances expertise and profession is not prioritized in Afghanistan, leaving many outside the workforce,” he said.

“This may, in the long term, lead to scarcity of experts in the country negatively impacting the country’s economy, development and political stability.”


France’s Macron names veteran centrist ally Bayrou as prime minister

France’s Macron names veteran centrist ally Bayrou as prime minister
Updated 15 sec ago
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France’s Macron names veteran centrist ally Bayrou as prime minister

France’s Macron names veteran centrist ally Bayrou as prime minister
  • The priority for Francois Bayrou, a close Macron ally, will be passing a special law to roll over the 2024 budget
  • Parliamentary pushback over the 2025 bill led to the downfall of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron named Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister of 2024 on Friday, tasking the veteran centrist with steering the country out of its second major political crisis in the last six months.
The priority for Bayrou, a close Macron ally, will be passing a special law to roll over the 2024 budget, with a nastier battle over the 2025 legislation looming early next year. Parliamentary pushback over the 2025 bill led to the downfall of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government.
Bayrou, 73, is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days, but will likely face the same existential difficulties as Barnier in steering legislation through a hung parliament comprising three warring blocs. His proximity to the deeply unpopular Macron will also prove a vulnerability.
Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, said they would not be calling for an immediate no-confidence motion against Bayrou.
France’s festering political malaise has raised doubts about whether Macron will complete his second presidential term, which ends in 2027. It has also lifted French borrowing costs and left a power vacuum in the heart of Europe, just as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.
Macron spent the days after Barnier’s ouster speaking to leaders from the conservatives to the Communists, seeking to lock in support for Bayrou. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed were excluded.
Any involvement of the Socialist Party in a coalition may cost Macron in next year’s budget.
“Now we will see how many billions the support of the Socialist Party will cost,” a government adviser said on Friday.
NO LEGISLATIVE ELECTION BEFORE SUMMER
Macron will hope Bayrou can stave off no-confidence votes until at least July, when France will be able to hold a new parliamentary election, but his own future as president will inevitably be questioned if the government should fall again.
Bayrou, the founder of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) party which has been a part of Macron’s ruling alliance since 2017, has himself run for president three times, leaning on his rural roots as the longtime mayor of the south-western town of Pau.
Macron appointed Bayrou as justice minister in 2017 but he resigned only weeks later amid an investigation into his party’s alleged fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants. He was cleared of fraud charges this year.
Bayrou’s first real test will come early in the new year when lawmakers need to pass a belt-tightening 2025 budget bill.
However, the fragmented nature of the National Assembly, rendered nigh-on ungovernable after Macron’s June snap election, means Bayrou will likely be living day-to-day, at the mercy of the president’s opponents, for the foreseeable future.
Barnier’s budget bill, which aimed for 60 billion euros in savings to assuage investors increasingly concerned by France’s 6 percent deficit, was deemed too miserly by the far-right and left, and the government’s failure to find a way out of the gridlock has seen French borrowing costs push higher still.


India celebrates Gukesh Dommaraju’s historic win as youngest world chess champ

India celebrates Gukesh Dommaraju’s historic win as youngest world chess champ
Updated 2 min 22 sec ago
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India celebrates Gukesh Dommaraju’s historic win as youngest world chess champ

India celebrates Gukesh Dommaraju’s historic win as youngest world chess champ
  • Gukesh Dommaraju defeated titleholder Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship
  • Dommaraju is four years younger than Garry Kasparov was when he won his first title

NEW DELHI: Gukesh Dommaraju’s historic win at the World Chess Championship marks the “beginning of a new era” for the game in India, his country’s chess federation said on Friday, as declarations of pride poured in from across his homeland.

Dommaraju, an 18-year-old from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, became the world’s youngest chess champion on Thursday, after defeating titleholder Ding Liren of China — 14 years his senior — in Singapore.

“It’s the beginning of a new era of chess in our country,” Nitin Narang, president of the All India Chess Federation, told Arab News. “It’s an incredible feat and what Gukesh has brought to our nation is a moment of pride for 1.4 billion Indians ... I think this is going to catalyze the new generation of chess players in India.”

Narang was with Dommaraju and his father and coach during the championship.

“It was surreal, and I was so emotional to see how he hugged his dad and how he hugged his coach. For me, that was the peak of the entire championship,” he said.

The Indian teenager snatched victory in the final contest of their three-week match when Ding made a blunder. Video footage from the game showed Dommaraju beaming with excitement as he spotted it.

“When I realized it, it was probably the best moment of my life,” Gukesh told reporters. “I’ve been dreaming about this moment for more than 10 years.”

He is bringing home the most prestigious chess title and the $1.35 million winner’s share of the $2.5 million championship prize fund.

At the age of 12, Dommaraju became the third-youngest grandmaster in the history of chess. He is the second Indian to win the World Chess Championship after Viswanathan Anand, who won it five times, and who became the first grandmaster from India in 1988.

Anand, also a Tamil Nadu native, has played a vital role in mentoring Dommaraju at his chess academy in Chennai.

“It’s a proud moment for chess, a proud moment for India, a proud moment for WACA (WestBridge Anand Chess Academy), and for me, a very personal moment of pride,” Anand wrote on X, as congratulations and declarations of pride poured in from across India and abroad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Dommaraju on his “remarkable accomplishment” and posted on X that “his triumph has not only etched his name in the annals of chess history but has also inspired millions of young minds to dream big and pursue excellence.”

India’s president, Draupadi Murmu, said the win “stamps the authority of India as a chess powerhouse.”

At 18, Dommaraju is four years younger than the Russian legend Garry Kasparov was when he won the title in 1985.

In a series of posts on X, Kasparov said: “Gukesh impressively surmounted every obstacle and opponent in his path, especially considering his age” and that his victory “caps a phenomenal year for India.”

In September, Dommaraju won a team gold and an individual gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Hungary, where India’s women’s team also claimed gold.

-ENDS-


Macron names key centrist ally Francois Bayrou as new French prime minister

Macron names key centrist ally Francois Bayrou as new French prime minister
Updated 57 min 16 sec ago
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Macron names key centrist ally Francois Bayrou as new French prime minister

Macron names key centrist ally Francois Bayrou as new French prime minister
  • Francois Bayrou is French president’s third prime minister of 2024
  • He is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named Francois Bayrou his third prime minister of 2024, tasking the veteran centrist with steering the country out of its second major political crisis in the last six months.

The priority for Bayrou, a close Macron ally, will be passing a special law to roll over the 2024 budget, with a nastier battle over the 2025 legislation looming early next year. Parliamentary pushback over the 2025 bill led to the downfall of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government.

Bayrou, 73, is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days, but will likely face the same existential difficulties as Barnier in steering legislation through a hung parliament comprising three warring blocs. His proximity to the deeply unpopular Macron will also prove a vulnerability.

France’s festering political malaise has raised doubts about whether Macron will complete his second presidential term, which ends in 2027. It has also lifted French borrowing costs and left a power vacuum in the heart of Europe, just as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

Macron spent the days after Barnier’s ouster speaking to leaders from the conservatives to the Communists, seeking to lock in support for Bayrou. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed were excluded.

Any involvement of the Socialist Party in a coalition may cost Macron in next year’s budget.

“Now we will see how many billions the support of the Socialist Party will cost,” a government adviser said on Friday.

NO LEGISLATIVE ELECTION BEFORE SUMMER

Macron will hope Bayrou can stave off no-confidence votes until at least July, when France will be able to hold a new parliamentary election, but his own future as president will inevitably be questioned if the government should fall again.

Bayrou, the founder of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) party which has been a part of Macron’s ruling alliance since 2017, has himself run for president three times, leaning on his rural roots as the longtime mayor of the south-western town of Pau.

Macron appointed Bayrou as justice minister in 2017 but he resigned only weeks later amid an investigation into his party’s alleged fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants. He was cleared of fraud charges this year.

Bayrou’s first real test will come early in the new year when lawmakers need to pass a belt-tightening 2025 budget bill.

However, the fragmented nature of the National Assembly, rendered nigh-on ungovernable after Macron’s June snap election, means Bayrou will likely be living day-to-day, at the mercy of the president’s opponents, for the foreseeable future.

Barnier’s budget bill, which aimed for 60 billion euros in savings to assuage investors increasingly concerned by France’s 6 percent deficit, was deemed too miserly by the far-right and left, and the government’s failure to find a way out of the gridlock has seen French borrowing costs push higher still.


‘Lives at risk’: Women’s medical training ban threatens Afghan health sector

‘Lives at risk’: Women’s medical training ban threatens Afghan health sector
Updated 13 December 2024
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‘Lives at risk’: Women’s medical training ban threatens Afghan health sector

‘Lives at risk’: Women’s medical training ban threatens Afghan health sector
  • From her private hospital in Afghanistan’s capital, doctor Najmussama Shefajo predicts a rise in maternal mortality rates “within three or four years“

KABUL: From her private hospital in Afghanistan’s capital, doctor Najmussama Shefajo predicts a rise in maternal mortality rates “within three or four years,” following the latest restrictions on women’s education.
The Taliban’s supreme leader is reportedly behind a ban on women studying midwifery and nursing at training institutes across the country, already among the worst in the world for deaths in childbirth.
“We may not see the impact very quickly but after three to four years we will see the maternal mortality rate go up and up,” said Shefajo.
“People will for sure have more babies at home. But what about complications? What about operations? Many procedures cannot be done at home.”
Since the Taliban government banned women from universities two years ago, Shefajo has been giving on-the-job medical training, including in midwifery and nursing.
But she said she doesn’t have the capacity or facilities to take on every woman keen to learn in her hospital, despite no shortage of volunteers.
“Midwifery and nursing are like the two wings of the doctors; if the bird doesn’t have wings, it cannot fly,” she added, ducking behind curtains to treat patients.
Already Afghanistan is facing a “desperate shortage of trained health care workers, especially women,” according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
No official notice has been issued by the Taliban government, but health ministry sources and managers of training institutes said this month that they had been told to block women from classes.


Restricting medical training is the latest action against women’s education since the Taliban authorities swept to power in 2021, imposing rules the United Nations has called “gender apartheid.”
“In a country where women and children depend on female health professionals for culturally sensitive care, cutting the pipeline of future health providers would put lives at risk,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
Training institutes had ensured women would continue to learn health care skills, such as midwifery and nursing, or laboratory work, pharmacy and dentistry.
The ban would impact about 35,000 women studying at medical training centers, according to a figure from a health ministry source.
“We are concerned about the effects on the already fragile health care system,” said Achille Despres, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, where the organization offers health services and training.
International NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which runs some of its busiest maternity hospitals in Afghanistan, also warned of the consequences of the ban, given that the nation’s “medical needs... are huge.”
“There is no health care system without educated female health practitioners,” country representative Mickael Le Paih said in a statement.
Afghanistan and MSF already face a dearth of obstetrician-gynaecologists (OB-GYNs) in a country with high fertility rates where women often have children from a young age, Le Paih told AFP.
And demand is only likely to increase, he added, as almost half of Afghanistan’s population is under 15 years old, according to a 2022 health ministry report.
“You can imagine the impact in several years’ time when you will have a large number of women reaching childbearing age,” he said.
The ban will undoubtedly further strain access for the 70 percent of the population living in rural areas.
After news of a ban spread last week, some training facilities closed their doors immediately, while others rushed to hold final exams and graduations, as still others said they would open as normal after the winter break unless they received a written order.
Shefajo and others want to provide online lessons, but say the lack of practical experience would be detrimental to learning.
Hadiya, 22, recently finished her first year studying midwifery, after having been forced to quit computer science studies at university and English courses.
“We may have midwives now, but medicine is changing every day... and it is clear that the situation in Afghanistan in the field of child and mother health is getting worse,” Hadiya told AFP.
“It’s like we’re in a cage, all the girls are thinking of finding a way to leave here so we can at least continue our studies and reach our goals,” she said.
“When I see the situation in Afghanistan, I think no child should be born here.”


Six dead, 30 injured in hospital fire in India 

Six dead, 30 injured in hospital fire in India 
Updated 13 December 2024
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Six dead, 30 injured in hospital fire in India 

Six dead, 30 injured in hospital fire in India 
  • Fire broke out late Thursday night in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and its cause is still being investigated
  • Building fires are common in India due to lack of firefighting equipment, routine disregard for regulations

NEW DELHI: A fire at a private hospital in southern India killed at least six people, police said Friday, with more than two dozen others injured in the blaze.

Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and a routine disregard for safety regulations.

The fire broke out late Thursday night in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and its cause is still being investigated.

All six victims were found unconscious inside a lift at the hospital in the city of Dindigul, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Police superintendent A. Pradeep told AFP that around 30 people had been injured but all were “stable.”

The fire started at the reception area on the ground floor and rapidly spread to the other floors, the Times of India newspaper reported.

The blaze came just weeks after 10 newborns were killed when a fire engulfed a hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier this year, a similar fire broke out at a children’s hospital in New Delhi that killed six infants.

At least 27 people were killed, including several children, when a fire broke out at a packed amusement park arcade in May in the western state of Gujarat.