Despair grips Afghan women health care students facing ban

Afghan female students studying health studies walk along a street in Kabul on December 3, 2024. (AFP)
Afghan female students studying health studies walk along a street in Kabul on December 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 10 December 2024
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Despair grips Afghan women health care students facing ban

Afghan female students studying health studies walk along a street in Kabul on December 3, 2024. (AFP)
  • According to a source within the health ministry, 35,000 women are currently students in some 10 public and more than 150 private institutes offering two-year diplomas in subjects including nursing, midwifery, dentistry and laboratory work

KABUL: For Saja, studying nursing at a health care institute in Kabul was her last lifeline to make something of herself after women were banned from universities in Afghanistan two years ago.
But the Taliban government has crushed this ambition by ordering, according to multiple sources, the exclusion of Afghan women from medical training, sparking panic across institutions.
When she heard the news, Saja, who had been at university before women were barred, said it felt like “reliving the same nightmare.”
“This was my last hope to do something, to become something,” said Saja, not her real name.
“Everything has been taken away from us for the crime of being a girl.”
The authorities have made no official comment or confirmation, nor have they responded to the numerous condemnations and calls to reverse a decision that further blocks women’s access to education.
Since their 2021 return to power, the Taliban government has imposed reams of restrictions on women, making Afghanistan the only country to ban girls from education after primary school.
Directors and employees of health training centers have told AFP they were informed in recent days of the order, issued by the Taliban supreme leader and passed down verbally by the health ministry, to expel women students until further notice.
Institutes across the country — which many women had turned to after the university ban — were given a few days to organize final exams.
But without an explicit announcement or document clarifying the rules, confusion reigns.
Some institutions told AFP they would operate as normal until they received written orders, while others closed immediately or scrambled to hold exams before shuttering.
“Everyone is confused, and no one is sharing what is really happening,” said Saja, who was in her first year at a private institute.
“We have been given two or three exams each day... even though we already finished our exams a few months back,” said the 22-year-old, adding they had to pay fees to sit the exams.

“We received a lot of concerned messages from students and teachers wanting to know what is going on and asking ‘is there any hope?’” said the director of a Kabul private institute with 1,100 students, of which 700 were women.
“No one is happy,” he told AFP from his office steps away from women’s classrooms, where the last lesson on the board advised how to manage stress and depression in patients.
According to a source within the health ministry, 35,000 women are currently students in some 10 public and more than 150 private institutes offering two-year diplomas in subjects including nursing, midwifery, dentistry and laboratory work.
The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) non-governmental organization, which trains 588 women in institutes managed in collaboration with the health ministry, was verbally informed classes were “temporarily suspended.”
This has to be taken “equally seriously as a written document,” said NAC country director Terje Magnusson Watterdal, adding that “there are a lot of people high up within the current government that are quite opposed to this decision.”
He hopes, at the minimum, public institutes will reopen to women.
International organizations like the United Nations, which has said Afghan women are victims of a “gender apartheid,” have already warned of devastating consequences of the plan, in a country where maternal and infant mortality are among the world’s highest.
If implemented, the reported new ban “will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary suffering, illness, and possibly deaths of Afghan women and children, now and in future generations, which could amount to femicide,” UN experts warned Monday.

Midwifery students are especially passionate about their studies, according to Magnusson Watterdal.
“So many of these young women have been motivated to become a midwife because they have lost a mother or an aunt or a sister in childbirth,” he said.
“It’s not just a profession that you choose, it’s a vocation. So, of course, there’s great desperation” among students and staff.
Small protests have been held in parts of Afghanistan, according to sources and images circulated on social media.
Assal, another student using a pseudonym, received an expedited diploma last week, but has little hope of finding a job in a country where unemployment is widespread and opportunities for women are increasingly limited.
“I wanted to practice medicine and study further,” the 20-year-old told AFP.
“They had already taken everything from us. Next thing we won’t even be allowed to breathe.”
 

 


Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says

Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says
Updated 11 sec ago
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Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says

Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says
  • Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed a desire for peace
BUDAPEST:Russia will be “reintegrated” into the world economy and the European energy system once a peace deal is achieved and the war ends in Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday.
“If the US president comes and creates peace, there is a deal, I think Russia will be reintegrated into the world economy ... the European security system and even the European economic and energy system, that will give a huge boost to the Hungarian economy,” Orban, an ally of President Donald Trump, said. “We will win a lot with a peace deal.”
Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and he ordered top US officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Orban has emerged as a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s financial and military support for Ukraine.
While countries in Western Europe have made serious efforts to wean themselves off Russian energy, landlocked Hungary gets 80-85 percent of its gas from Russia, with most of its crude oil supplies also coming from Russia.

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
Updated 14 February 2025
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260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
  • Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts

BANGKOK: Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand’s army announced Thursday.
In a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 people believed to have been victims of human trafficking after they were rescued and sent from Myanmar to Thailand.
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have become known as havens for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and trapped in virtual slavery.
An earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar was initiated in late 2023 after China expressed embarrassment and concern over illegal casinos and scam operations in Myanmar’s northern Shan state along its border. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations, and an estimated 45,000 Chinese nationals suspected of involvement were repatriated.
The army said that those rescued in the most recent operation came from 20 nationalities — with significant numbers from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan and China. There were also nationals of Indonesia, Nepal, Taiwan, Uganda, Laos, Brazil, Burundi, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana and India. They were sent across the border from Myanmar’s Myawaddy district to Thailand’s Tak province on Wednesday.
Reports in Thai media said a Myanmar ethnic militia that controls the area where they were held, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, was responsible for freeing the workers and taking them to the border. Myanmar’s military government exercises little control over frontier areas where ethnic minorities predominate.
Several ethnic militias are believed to be involved in criminal activities, including drug trafficking and protecting call-center scam operations.
The Thai army statement said the rescued people will undergo questioning, and if determined to be victims of human trafficking, will enter a process of protection while waiting to be sent back to their countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said Wednesday that there might be many more scam workers waiting to be repatriated from Myanmar through Thailand, but that Thailand would only receive those that are ready to be taken back right away by their country of origin.
“I’ve made it clear that Thailand is not going to set up another shelter,” he told reporters during a visit in Sa Kaeo province, which borders Cambodia. Thailand hosts nine refugee camps along the border holding more than 100,000 people, most from Myanmar’s ethnic Karen minority.
Phumtham added that Thailand would also need to question them before sending them back, first is to make sure that they are victims of human trafficking, and also to get information that would help the police investigate the trafficking and scam problems.
On a visit to China in early February, Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed along with China’s leader Xi Jinping to crack down on the scam networks that plague Southeast Asia.
Many dramatic stories of Chinese people being lured to work in Bangkok only to be trafficked into a scam compound in Myanmar have surfaced. Chinese actor Wang Xing was a high-profile case but was quickly rescued after his tale spread on social media.
Underlining Beijing’s concern, Liu Zhongyi, China’s Vice Minister of Public Security and Commissioner of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, made an official visit to Thailand last month and inspected the border area opposite where many of the Myanmar’s scam centers are located.
Just ahead of Paetongtarn’s visit to China, the Thai government issued an order to cut off electricity, Internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border with northern Thailand, citing national security and severe damage that the country has suffered from scam operations.
Her government is considering expanding this measure to Thailand’s northeastern areas bordering Cambodia, said Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Thanathip Sawangsang, who explained that officials had already removed Internet cables that were installed illegally in the areas.


Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
Updated 14 February 2025
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Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
  • Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts

WASHINGTON: A federal judge ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who say they have been devastated by his 90-day blanket freeze, Politico reported late on Thursday.
The order blocks the Trump administration from canceling foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before Trump took office on January 20.
The stated purpose in suspending of all foreign aid was to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities, US District Judge Amir Ali wrote in a filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
He added: “At least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.”
Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts, and several have already begun to lay off recent hires who lack full job security.
The Republican has also embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.


Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
Updated 14 February 2025
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Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
  • Rubio intended to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft

WASHINGTON: An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return to Washington late Thursday after developing a mechanical issue.
“This evening, en route from Washington to Munich, the plane on which Secretary Rubio is flying experienced a mechanical issue,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“The plane has turned around and is returning to Joint Base Andrews,” she said. “The secretary intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft.”
The issue with what one official said had to do with the cockpit windshield on the C-32, a converted Boeing 757, occurred about 90 minutes after the flight took off from Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
Although Rubio plans to resume his journey on a new plane, it was not immediately clear if the delay would cause him to miss a scheduled Friday morning meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich.


Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks

Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks
Updated 14 February 2025
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Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks

Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks
  • The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center killed 166 people in November 2008
  • India says Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan denies being involved

WASHINGTON: The US has approved the extradition of a suspect in the 2008 militant attacks in India’s financial capital Mumbai in which over 160 people were killed, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in which 166 people were killed began on November 26, 2008. India says Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan’s government denies being involved.
“I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and one of the very evil people of the world, having to do with the horrific 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to face justice in India. So he is going to be going back to India to face justice,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump did not name the individual but media reports identified him as Pakistani-origin Chicago businessman and Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana.
Late last month, the US Supreme Court rejected Rana’s review petition against his extradition.
Rana was previously sentenced to US federal prison for providing support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Trump was also asked in the press conference about Sikh separatists in the United States, whom India calls security threats. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India.
Trump did not respond directly to the question but said India and the US worked together on crime.
Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in US-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer in a foiled US plot. India says it is probing US allegations.