Afghanistan
Country focus

Country of Origin
Information Report
January 2022

More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu)
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ISBN 978-92-9465-661-2

doi: 10.2847/92796

BZ-08-21-392-EN-N© European Asylum Support Office, 2021
Cover photo, ‘Daily Life in Afghanistan's Capital’, Milad Hamadi for the Tasnim News Agency , 19
September 2021, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) ©, url

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. For any use or reproduction of photos
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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Acknowledgements
The following departments have reviewed this report:
Belgium, Centre for Documentation and Research (Cedoca), Office of the Commissioner
General for Refugees and Stateless Persons
Greece, Asylum Processes and Training Department, Greek Asylum Service, Ministry ofMigration and Asylum
The Netherlands, Office of Country Information and Language Analysis (OCILA), Ministry ofJustice
Norway, Landinfo, the Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre
Slovakia, Department of Documentation and Foreign Cooperation, Migration Office of the
Ministry of Interior
Sweden, Unit for Migration Analysis, the Swedish Migration Agency
It must be noted that the review carried out by the mentioned departments, experts ororganisations contributes to the overall quality of the report but does not necessarily imply theirformal endorsement of the final report, which is the full responsibility of EASO.

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Contents
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................. 3Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Disclaimer................................................................................................................................................ 6
Glossary and Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 8
Sources ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Limitations in monitoring developments in Afghanistan ................................................................... 8
Analysing preliminary findings ....................................................................................................... 8Media presence .............................................................................................................................. 9
Source assessment ....................................................................................................................... 10
Decrease in relevant reporting..................................................................................................... 11
Map ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
1. Taliban governance ........................................................................................................................... 14
1.1 Reinstating the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.......................................................................... 14
1.1.1 Announcement and international recognition ................................................................... 14
1.1.2 Government formation ....................................................................................................... 15
1.1.3 Political system .................................................................................................................... 17
1.1.4. Capacity to run the state .................................................................................................... 18
1.2 State institutions......................................................................................................................... 20
1.2.1 Government institutions and state service ......................................................................... 20
1.2.2 Security institutions............................................................................................................. 21
1.3 Central control ............................................................................................................................ 23
1.4 Initial reports of the implementation of Sharia law in daily life ................................................. 25
1.5 Justice system ............................................................................................................................. 28
1.5.1 Capital and corporal punishment ........................................................................................ 30
1.5.2 Prisons and prison conditions ............................................................................................. 30
2. Situation under Taliban rule for the general population and certain profiles .................................. 33
2.1 Compliance with Taliban moral and religious norms ................................................................. 33
2.2 Reactions to demonstrations and protests ................................................................................ 34
2.3 Women and girls ......................................................................................................................... 37
2.3.1 Access to work..................................................................................................................... 384

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

2.3.2 Access to education............................................................................................................. 39
2.3.4 Access to sports ................................................................................................................... 40
2.4 Hazara and Shia Muslims ............................................................................................................ 40
2.5 Persons affiliated with the former government, security forces or foreign forces .................... 45
2.6 Journalists and media workers ................................................................................................... 48
2.6.1 Female journalists and media workers ............................................................................... 51
2.7 Human rights defenders and activists ........................................................................................ 51
2.8 Healthcare professionals ............................................................................................................ 52
2.9 Musicians and artists .................................................................................................................. 54
2.10 LGBTIQ persons ........................................................................................................................ 55
2.11 Persons seeking asylum or remaining abroad, and returnees ................................................. 56
3. General security situation ................................................................................................................. 58
3.1 Recent security trends ................................................................................................................ 58
3.1.1 ISKP ...................................................................................................................................... 59
3.1.2 Al-Qaeda .............................................................................................................................. 61
3.1.3 The Taliban’s ability to secure law and order ..................................................................... 62
3.2 Incidents of violence against civilians......................................................................................... 62
3.3 Displacement and return ............................................................................................................ 65
3.3.1 IDPs ...................................................................................................................................... 65
3.3.2 Refugees and returnees ...................................................................................................... 66
3.4 Humanitarian situation ................................................................................................................... 66
Annex 1: Appointments to the Taliban’s interim government and other positions ............................ 68
Annex 2: Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 72
Annex 3: Terms of Reference .............................................................................................................. 106

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Disclaimer
This report was written by EASO according to the EASO COI Report Methodology (2019)1. The reportis based on carefully selected sources of information. All sources used are referenced.
The information contained in this report has been researched, evaluated and analysed with utmost
care. However, this document does not claim to be exhaustive. If a particular event, person ororganisation is not mentioned in the report, this does not mean that the event has not taken placeor that the person or organisation does not exist.
Furthermore, this report is not conclusive as to the determination or merit of any particularapplication for international protection. Terminology used should not be regarded as indicative of aparticular legal position.
‘Refugee’, ‘risk’ and similar terminology are used as generic terminology and not in the legal sense as
applied in the EU Asylum Acquis, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the
Status of Refugees.
Neither EASO nor any person acting on its behalf may be held responsible for the use which may bemade of the information contained in this report.
The drafting of this report was finalised on 8 December 2021. More information on the reference
period for this report can be found in the Introduction.

1 EASO, EASO Country of Origin Information (COI) Report Methodology, June 2019, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Glossary and Abbreviations
AAN

Afghanistan Analyst Network

ACB

Afghanistan Cricket Board

AIHRC

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission

ANDSF

Afghan National Defence and Security Forces

ANJU

Afghanistan National Journalists Union

AUAF

American University of Afghanistan

IDP

Internally Displaced Person

IEA

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

IED

Improvised explosive device

ISKP

Islamic State Khorasan Province

MoD

Minister of Defence

MoI

Minister of Interior

NRF

National Resistance Front

NSIA

Afghanistan’s National Statistics and Information Authority

SFSA

Seasonal Food Security Assessment

SJSU

San Jose State University

UXO

Unexploded ordnance7

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide information relevant for international protection statusdetermination. The report contains information on developments in Afghanistan after the Taliban
takeover on 15 August 2021 until 8 December 2021.
The content of this report differs from the previous EASO report on Afghanistan covering thesecurity situation in the country2, which had as a main focus on the conflict dynamics. As the conflict
between the previous Afghan government and the Taliban movement cannot be described as
ongoing, and as the conflict-related violence levels have naturally changed, the current topics ofinterest for international protection status determination are now rather linked to the Taliban’s
government formation, policy making and policy implementation, as well as to the situation under
Taliban rule for the general population and for some specific groups or profiles. Security incidents
and violence related to resistance, insurgent groups, terrorism and similar elements have, however,been included in the chapters covering the general security situation.
This report does not cover events after 8 December 2021. However, as regards the situation of
women it should be noted that on 26 December 2021 the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue andPrevention of Vice reportedly issued a guidance saying that women should not be offered transportof more than 45 miles (72 kilometres) if unaccompanied by a close male relative and calling on
drivers to not offer rides to women that are not wearing hijab.3

Methodology
This report was drafted by EASO and quality reviewed by relevant departments in Member States
mentioned in the Acknowledgement section, in line with the EASO COI Report Methodology (2019)4
and the EASO COI Writing and Referencing Style Guide (2019).5

Sources
In accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology the content of this report relies on a range ofdifferent open-source material, as well as interviews with sources between 8 and 11 November
2021. Several of the oral sources interviewed for this report have been anonymised upon their own
request. For additional information, see the Bibliography.

Limitations in monitoring developments in Afghanistan
Analysing preliminary findings
The political situation and conflict dynamics radically changed in Afghanistan when the US withdrew
their forces and the former government collapsed in mid-August, leading to the Taliban taking
power and reinstating the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). The Terms of Reference that formed
the basis of the report structure, contain questions related to the type of state and rule that may beestablished under the Taliban, and how it will impact the everyday life of the Afghan people andcertain groups of the population. Such forward looking questions are impossible to answer with
2 EASO, EASO COI Report: Afghanistan – Security situation update, 9 September 2021, url
3 AFP, No trips for Afghan women unless escorted by male relative: Taliban, 26 December 2021, available at: url;

RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan Women Banned From Making Trips Unless Escorted By A Chaperone, 26 December 2021, url
4 EASO, EASO Country of Origin Information (COI) Report Methodology, June 2019, url
5 EASO, Writing and Referencing Guide for EASO Country of Origin Information (COI) Reports, June 2019, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

certainty at this stage, mainly due to a great information gap on the situation in the country and on
the Taliban’s intentions, but also due to the transitional and highly volatile period that Afghanistan
undergoes at the time of writing. During an EASO organised seminar on Afghanistan on 23
November 2021, three expert speakers, independent of each other and with different fields ofinterest, stressed that it is too early to draw any final conclusions about the situation in Afghanistan
or how it might unfold in the future.6
Against the background of prevailing research limitations, this report demonstrates preliminary
findings on how Taliban rule has manifested itself since the takeover of Kabul but does not analyse
whether these findings are representative of the Taliban leadership’s intentions nor of their bearing
for the future. For the same reason the demonstrated security incidents and trends are events
known to EASO but should not be viewed as an exhaustive description of the current situation.

Media presence
During the drafting period, journalism was facing major challenges in Afghanistan. Consequently, thepossibilities to cover the situation from abroad reduced significantly. One of the main monitoring
challenges was the fact that a great number of international and local journalists evacuated or fled
the country.7 A number of international media outlets withdrew their correspondents during theevacuation efforts in the last weeks of August 2021 and relied on monitoring the situation fromabroad. However, there were international correspondents that stayed in the country, returned or
took up duties in Afghanistan after the evacuations8, but in some cases it remained unclear whether
international media had reporters on the ground or relied on freelancers.9
The local media landscape was severely affected by the Taliban takeover, both by restrictions on
media freedom and financial problems.10 A significant number of media outlets stopped operating
after the takeover.11 In mid-September the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) estimatedthat at least 153 media organisations had ceased operations12 and that about 1 300 local journalists
remained in Afghanistan, primarily in Kabul.13 The availability of sources on the ground and relevant
open source material was impacted by local journalists fleeing or going into hiding14, as well as

6 Dam, B., investigative journalist, statement made at EASO’s hybrid seminars on Afghanistan, 23 November 2021, Athens,

Greece; Berg Harpviken, K., research professor at PRIO, statement made at EASO’s hybrid seminars on Afghanistan, 23
November 2021, Athens, Greece; Shapour, R., analyst at AAN, statement made at EASO’s hybrid seminars on Afghanistan,
23 November 2021, Athens, Greece
7 RSF, RSF seeks UN Security Council meeting on plight of journalists in Afghanistan, 18 August 2021, url; CNN, The media
spotlight in Afghanistan is about to dim as journalists evacuate, 20 August 2021, url
8 See for instance: CNN, CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward boards flight out of Afghanistan, 20 August 2021, url; CNN,
Clarissa Ward returns to Kabul just a month after Taliban takeover, 28 September 2021, url; Sune Engel Rasmussen,[Twitter], posted on: 15 September 2021, url; Washington Post (The), Kabul airport chaos: How the Washington Post team
escaped Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, 20 August 2021, url; Washington Post (The), Q&A: Ask The Post’s SusannahGeorge about reporting on the Taliban, 11 October 2021, url
9 CNN, The media spotlight in Afghanistan is about to dim as journalists evacuate, 20 August 2021, url
10 Ariana News, Crippling economy closing Afghan media outlets, 11 October 2021, url
11 France24, Afghanistan’s media enters the unknown under Taliban rule, 24 August 2021, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Media
Activity Faces Sharp Decline: Report, 3 October 2021, url; TOLOnews, Journalists Call for Access to Official Information, 18
October 2021, url
12 IFJ, Afghanistan: Attacks to the media escalate as Taliban control takes hold, 17 September 2021, url
13 Guardian (The), Taliban’s return ‘catastrophe’ for journalism in Afghanistan, 14 September 2021, url
14 IFJ, Afghanistan: “Every minute I fear they will try to find and kill me”, 30 September 2021, url

9Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

financial drawbacks that left many without an income, forcing journalists to search for other
employments.15 Especially reporting on events taking place in other areas than Kabul was sparse.16

Source assessment
As the possibilities to cover the situation reduced17, reporting on Taliban interactions with the
Afghan population was limited, and in many cases tended to be ‘anecdotal’.18 Fake news circulated19
and social media were frequently used as a source by many reporters. Twitter was, for instance,
frequently used as a source to report on Taliban policy20 which made it difficult to assess whether
the statements were official, verify the source, and identify nuances in stated policy changes. In
some cases, dubious information was even republished by major newspapers.21 Similarly, some fakesocial media accounts akin to established media spread false information22 as well as fake social
media accounts were attributed to former and incumbent government officials.23 A related issue
was journalists reporting from abroad who shared information on claimed atrocities and violations
by the Taliban on social media.24 The possibilities to verify circulating information and track theoriginal or primary sources were limited.
It should also be taken into account that much of the reporting on Afghanistan during the drafting
period came from Western media outlets, US media in particular, and from reporters mainly working
from outside Afghanistan. Furthermore, there was a concentration of reports on events in Kabul. In
an article by International Journalists’ Network (IJNET), some journalists working in Afghanistan or in
the region pointed out that the reporting situation left room for errors and misrepresentation. It
also noted problematic narratives and language resonating in many reports resulting insensationalising content stemming from biases and a lack of cultural and contextual
understanding.25 In this report, cross checking has been conducted in line with EASO’s COI
Methodology, checking information in Western media with local sources as far as possible. However,assessing the reliability of local media reports also became increasingly complex. Still operating
media outlets and journalists reportedly adjusted to the new conditions under Taliban rule.26 For
instance, this could be noticed in a general decrease of potentially provocative content, as well as

15 Khaama Press, Degeneration of journalism, Afghan journalist making bricks to feed family, 01 October 2021, url;

RFE/FL/Gandhara, As Afghan Media Struggles Under Taliban, Jobless Journalists Grow Desperate, 11 October 2021, url
16 International Crisis Group, Taliban Rule Begins in Afghanistan, 24 August 2021, url; Afghan law professor, online
interview, 9 November 2021. This source is not based in Afghanistan but remains in contact with personal contacts on the
ground. The source has extensive experience of academic research on, inter alia, the Afghan justice system. The source
wishes to be anonymous.
17 RSF, RSF seeks UN Security Council meeting on plight of journalists in Afghanistan, 18 August 2021, url; CNN, The media
spotlight in Afghanistan is about to dim as journalists evacuate, 20 August 2021, url
18 International Crisis Group, Taliban Rule Begins in Afghanistan, 24 August 2021, url
19 Deadline, Afghanistan Has Its Own Fake News Problem – Special Report, 20 September 2021, url; France24, Fake photoof new Afghan central bank chief goes viral, 21 September 2021, url
20 See for example: BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban deputy denies reports of leaderships row in new video, 15 September 2021,
url; New York Times (The), At Afghan Universities, Increasing Fear That Women Will Never Be Allowed Back, 27 September
2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Defense Minister Admits To Revenge Killings Despite Amnesty, 23 September 2021,
url
21 New York Times (The), At Afghan Universities, Increasing Fear That Women Will Never Be Allowed Back, 27 September
2021, url; NPR, Kabul University chancellor says female students will be allowed, but segregated, 2 October 2021, url
22 Deadline, Afghanistan Has Its Own Fake News Problem – Special Report, 20 September 2021, url
23 Pajhwok Afghan News, Tens of fake social media pages attributed to high profile figures, 18 October 2021, url
24 See for example: Bilal Sarwary, [Twitter], posted on: 25 October 2021, url
25 IJNET, Report responsibly on Afghanistan with this advice, 5 October 2021, url
26 RSF, RSF seeks UN Security Council meeting on plight of journalists in Afghanistan, 18 August 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

increased content praising the Taliban.27 A tendency to self-censorship could also be noted.28 In
addition, the Taliban issued 11 guidelines for journalists which included rules against topics inconflict with Islam or ‘insulting national personalities’. Journalists were also instructed to produce
reports in coordination with the interim-government’s media office.29 Human Rights Watch
described these rules as ‘suffocating media freedom’ and criticised them for being so broad andvague that they in practice prohibited any critical reporting about the Taliban.30

Decrease in relevant reporting
There were a number of sources that stopped publishing or updating material that previously has
been important to COI production on Afghanistan. For example, the following sources or products
stopped publishing public material during the reference period:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Afghanistan’s National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA)31
Reports on protection of civilians in armed conflict by the United Nations Assistance Mission
in Afghanistan (UNAMA)32
Report of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR)33
Long War Journal mapping Taliban control in Afghanistan34
The New York Times’ Afghan War Casualty Report35
Voice of Jihad (Taliban official website)36
RiV (Reduction in Violence) Monitoring37
Reporterly (resumed in early November 2021)38
United States Department of Defense’s (USDOD) Reports on Enhancing Security and Stability
in Afghanistan39

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) is also a source frequently used inprevious EASO COI products. ACLED continues their coding of events, but experiences increased
difficulties in sourcing events.40
Furthermore, there were no active monitoring bodies reporting from Afghanistan, which limited thepossibilities to monitor human rights violations or other misconduct. On 18 September 2021 theAfghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) issued a statement in which it said thatit could not carry out its function as all offices had been ‘occupied’ by Taliban forces. Furthermore,
AIHRC stated that they were hindered in carrying out their duties as they had little confidence in the
Taliban government respecting the mandate of AIHRC or female staff members.41

27 BBC, How Afghanistan's media is changing under Taliban rule, 21 August 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Fewer women, No

Entertainment: Kabul’s Media Scene Transforms After Taliban Takeover, 18 August 2021, url
28 New York Times (The), ‘Everything Changed Overnight’: Afghan Reporters Face an Intolerant Regime, 11 September
2021, url
29 New York Times (The), New Taliban Guidelines Stir Fear About the Future of Press Freedom, 23 September 2021, url
30 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Severely Restrict Media, 1 October 2021, url
31 Afghanistan. National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), [official website inaccessible]
32 UNAMA, Reports on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, 2021, url
33 OHCHR, Human Rights Reports OHCHR/UNAMA, n.d., url
34 FDD’s LWJ, Mapping Taliban Control in Afghanistan, 15 September 2021, url
35 New York Times (The), The Afghan War Casualty Report, 5 August 2021, url
36 Voice of Jihad, [official website inaccessible]
37 RiV Monitoring, [homepage], last updated: 12 August 2021, url
38 Reporterly, [homepage], n.d., url
39 USDOD, Publications, n.d., url
40 ACLED, ACLED Methodology and Coding Decisions around the Conflict in Afghanistan, September 2021, url, pp. 12–13
41 AIHRC, Statement on the status of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, 18 September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

12Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Map

Map 1: Afghanistan - administrative divisions, source: UNOCHA42

42 UNOCHA, Afghanistan - administrative divisions, January 2014, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

1. Taliban governance
1.1 Reinstating the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
1.1.1 Announcement and international recognition
Following the sudden collapse of the former government of Afghanistan43 and the Taliban takeoverof the capital Kabul on 15 August 202144, the Taliban announced the reestablishment of the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA)45, which was previously in power in Afghanistan between 1996 and2001.46 In October 2021, the Taliban called on Afghan media to refer to them as the IEA and not to
use terms like the ‘Taliban group’ or ‘Taliban faction’, they further stated that they controlled theentire territory of Afghanistan and provided service to the people.47
The Taliban searched for international recognition, as well as assistance to avoid a humanitarian andeconomic disaster in Afghanistan.48 However, no country officially recognised the IEA49, and the UN
referred to the Taliban as the ‘de facto’ authorities.50 Yet, some countries kept their embassies openin Kabul, for instance China, Pakistan, Russia, Iran and Qatar, and some engaged with the announced
interim government.51 Some of the more notable initial interactions with other states were themeeting between a US delegation and the Taliban representative in Doha, Qatar, on 10 October
202152, Pakistan’s foreign minister’s visit to Kabul two weeks later, and, following talks with the
Taliban in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that the Taliban might be removed
from Russia’s list of extremist groups.53 UNAMA also had some initial interaction with the interim
government.54
The United States Department of States (USDOS) indicated that ‘candid and professional’ discussions
were held in Doha on 9 and 10 October 2021, on concerns related to security, terrorism, safe
passage, human rights, and humanitarian assistance, and reiterated that ‘the Taliban will be judged
on its actions, not only its words’.55 Pakistan’s foreign minister vowed on 21 October 2021 that
Pakistan would provide humanitarian assistance, resume flights with Kabul and facilitate bordercrossing trade.56 On 2 November 2021, less than two weeks after this statement, Pakistan reportedly
reopened Chaman border to allow crossings from Afghanistan after a month-long closure.57 As of 5
November 2021, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad was reopened, operating with former
government staff.58
In late October 2021, the Taliban declared that they met the conditions for international recognition,
as several stakeholders met with them, including the US, some EU Member States, Russia, China,
43 CSIS, The reason for the collapse of Afghan forces, 17 August 2021, url, p. 2
44 van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion, external dominance, AAN, 12 September

2021, url
45 WSJ, Taliban unveil new Afghan government, 7 September 2021, url
46 BBC, Hardliners get key posts in new Taliban government, 7 September 2021, url
47 VOA, Taliban order Afghan media to use group’s official name, 1 October 2021, url
48 France24, Taliban warns US not to ‘destabilise’ new Afghan regime in face-to-face talks, 9 October 2021, url
49 RFE/RL/Gandhara, UN Indefinitely Delays Decision On Taliban, Burma Junta Recognition, 7 December 2021, url
50 UN News, Anxiety in Afghanistan as Taliban struggles for legitimacy, 17 November 2021, url
51 WSJ, Who Are the Taliban and What’s Next for Afghanistan?, 27 September 2021, url
52 USDOS, US delegation meeting with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, 10 October 2021, url
53 Ariana News, Russia Mulling excluding IEA from list of extremists group: Putin, 22 October 2021, url
54 UN News, Anxiety in Afghanistan as Taliban struggles for legitimacy, 17 November 2021, url
55 USDOS, US delegation meeting with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, 10 October 2021, url
56 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Pakistani foreign minister pledges to expand trade after visit to Kabul, 21 October 2021, url
57 Reuters, Pakistan reopens Chaman border crossing to Afghanistan, 2 November 2021, url
58 TOLOnews, Afghan embassy in Islamabad resumes operations, 5 November 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Iran and Pakistan.59 The Express Tribune, however, reported that Pakistan, Russia, China and the US
had agreed on a continuation of ‘practical engagement’ with the Taliban but had asked them tofollow ‘moderate policies’, and to ‘do more’ before a formal recognition could be considered.60

1.1.2 Government formation
The Taliban announced an interim government on 7 September 202161 and two additional rounds ofappointments followed.62 As of 5 October 2021, the interim government was composed of over 30
ministries.63 Lists of the appointments made can be found in Annex 1.
All appointments to the interim government consisted of persons from within the Taliban
movement, and many served in the government of the 1990s.64 For instance, the appointed prime
minister, Muhammad Hasan Akhund, and his deputy, Abdul Ghani Barader, held various senior
positions during the previous Taliban rule. The appointed director of intelligence, Abdul Haq Wasiq,
was previously deputy director of intelligence, and the appointed foreign minister Mullah Amir Khan
Mutaqi previously served as Minister of Information and Culture.65
Furthermore, the cabinet comprised several persons on the UN Security Council’s sanction list66, andalso included three out of five senior Taliban members that were held by the US in Guantanamo Bay
for over a decade and later exchanged for a US soldier in 2014.67 They are the Minister ofInformation and Culture, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhah, the Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs,
Mullah Noorullah Noori, and the Director of Intelligence, Abdul Haq Wasiq.68 Fazl Mohammad
Mazloom served as Deputy Defence Minister in the interim government for a short period, andMohammab Nabi Omari was appointed governor of Khost province.69 They all participated in thepeace talks in Doha before the Taliban takeover.70
Regarding the Taliban’s affiliation with armed groups, the Haqqani network was included in theinterim government by the appointment of Serajuddin Haqqani as Minister of Interior.71 Serajuddin
Haqqani has been deputy leader of the Taliban since 2015. In the meantime, members of the
Haqqani network are allegedly closely linked to al-Qaeda.72 According to some sources, al-Qaeda
remained a threat in Afghanistan.73 International Crisis Group, on the other hand, stressed that al-‫ په رسميت د ژ‬:‫[ اسالم امارت‬informal translation ‘Islamic Emirate: we have filled the
59 Nunn Asia, ‫پېندو ژشطونه مو پوره کړي‬‫ي‬
conditions for international recognition’], 29 October 2021, url
60 Express Tribune (The), Taliban recognition unlike in near future, 11 November 2021, url
61 BBC, Hardliners get key posts in new Taliban government, 7 September 2021, url
62 van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; Zabihullah
Mujahid, [Twitter], posted on: 21 September 2021, url; JustPaste.it, ‫اسالم امارت اعالمیه‬‫[ د نویو ټاکنو په اړه د‬informal translation‫ي‬‘Islamic Emirate’s declaration on new appointments’], 4 October 2021, updated on 5 October 2021, url
63 van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url
64 van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion, external dominance, AAN, 12 September
2021, url
65 TOLOnews, Hibatullah Akhundzada to lead Taliban Govt, 9 September 2021, url
66 UN Security Council, Haqqani network, n.d., url; UN Security Council, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, n.d., url
67 New York Times (The), Once Jailed in Guantánamo, 5 Taliban Now Face U.S. at Peace Talks, 26 March 2019, url
68 TOLOnews, Hibatullah Akhundzada to lead Taliban Govt, 9 September 2021, url
69 BBC, Hardliners get key posts in new Taliban government, 7 September 2021, url; van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretakerCabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; JustPaste.it, ‫اسالم امارت اعالمیه‬‫[ د نویو ټاکنو په اړه د‬informal‫ي‬translation ‘Islamic Emirate’s declaration on new appointments’], 4 October 2021, updated on 5 October 2021, url
70 New York Times (The), Once Jailed in Guantánamo, 5 Taliban Now Face U.S. at Peace Talks, 26 March 2019, url
71 TOLOnews, Hibatullah Akhundzada to lead Taliban Govt, 9 September 2021, url
72 New York Times (The), ISIS branch poses biggest immediate terrorist threat to evacuation in Kabul, 25 August 2021,
updated on 4 November 2021, url; WSJ, In Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan, Al Qaeda-Linked Haqqani Network Rises to Power,
26 August 2021, url
73 CNN, Pentagon: “We know that al Qaeda is a presence” in Afghanistan, 20 August 2021, url; New York Times (The), Kabul
Airport Attack Highlights Enduring Threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda, 26 August 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Qaeda did not have ‘the organisational capability to capitalise on the Taliban’s win’ and that they attimes ‘seemed detached from events unfolding in Afghanistan’.74
The appointments to the interim government were all-male75, and most were Pashtuns andclericals.76 Some appointments included persons from other ethnicities than Pashtuns77, such as
members from the Tajik78, Uzbek79, and Hazara80 communities. For example, Haji Noor Uddin of
Tajik ethnicity was appointed acting minister of commerce, and his two deputies were also Tajik.81
Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi of Uzbek ethnicity was appointed second deputy prime minister82, andMuhammad Hasan Ghyasi of Hazara ethnicity was appointed second deputy minister of publichealth.83
On 8 November 2021, the Taliban appointed new provincial governors for Badakhshan, Baghlan,
Bamyan, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Jawzjan, Kabul, Kunduz, Logar, Maidan Wardak, Nimroz, Paktia,
Paktika, Sar-e Pul, Uruzgan, and Zabul and deputy governors for the majority of these provinces.
Additionally, provincial police chiefs were appointed for Baghlan, Balkh, Farah, Faryab, Ghor, Kabul,
Kunar, Kunduz, Logar, and Takhar, and a ‘security chief’ for the districts of Herat’s Shindand area.84
There were some reports on ethnic representation on local level, for instance in Panjsher (which is
predominantly populated by members of the Tajik community85). The governor and his deputy, thesecurity commander and his deputy (who is also head of intelligence), as well as all security
personnel (including operational Taliban commanders) reportedly came from the local population.86
Furthermore, the Taliban appointed Mawlavi Mahdi from the Hazara community as intelligencechief for Bamyan province.87 Mahdi previously served as a district governor within the Taliban’s
shadow governance.88 According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Mahdi was tasked to fill local
government positions in Bamyan province, which is predominantly populated by members of the
Hazara community, with persons from the local population.89

74 International Crisis Group, How Islamist militants elsewhere view the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan, 27 October 2021,

url
75 UN Women, Expert’s take: Gender equality is critical for the Afghanistan’s future, long-term development, and sustained
peace, 14 October 2021, url
76 van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion, external dominance, AAN, 12 September
2021, url
77 WSJ, Taliban add minorities, technocrats, to Afghan government, but no women, 21 September 2021, url
78 International News (The), Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara representatives included: Taliban expand cabinet to ‘make’ it
inclusive, 22 September 2021, url
79 Pajhwok Afghan News, Who is who in Taliban’s caretaker cabinet?, 9 September 2021, url
80 International News (The), Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara representatives included: Taliban expand cabinet to ‘make’ it
inclusive, 22 September 2021, url
81 International News (The), Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara representatives included: Taliban expand cabinet to ‘make’ it
inclusive, 22 September 2021, url; Zabihullah Mujahid, [Twitter], posted on: 21 September 2021, url; JustPaste.it, ‫د عالیقدر‬‫المؤمنی د فرمان له ی‬‫ی‬‫ری‬‫ټاکن وشوې‬‫مخ د‬‫امې‬‫[ ر‬informal translation ‘Based on supreme leader’s decree‫اسالم امارت په تشکیالتو يک الندي ي‬‫ي‬
the following appointments were made within the Islamic Emirate’], 21 September 2021, url
82 van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; Pajhwok AfghanNews, Who is who in Taliban’s caretaker cabinet?, 9 September 2021, url
83 International News (The), Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara representatives included: Taliban expand cabinet to ‘make’ it
inclusive, 22 September 2021, url
84 TOLOnews, New governors appointed in 17 provinces, 8 November 2021, url
85 DW, Why Afghanistan′s Panjshir remains out of Taliban′s reach, 20 August 2021, url‫[ مال حمید خر ی‬informal translation ‘Mullah
86 Kabul lovers, ۲ ‫اسان قوماندان امنیه طالبان در پنجشې آماده جنگ با امرهللا صالح و مقاومت‬‫ر‬
Hamid Khorasani Taliban security in Panjshir ready for war against Amrullah Saleh and 2 resistance’], 22 September 2021,‫[ مال عبدالحمید خر ی‬informal translation ‘Mullah Abdul Hamid
url; Hamayon Afghan Official, ۲ ‫اسان برضدامرهللا صالح و مقاوم‬Khorasani against Amrullah Saleh and 2 resistance’], 5 September 2021, url
87 Washington Post (The), The Taliban hopes Maulavi Mahdi, a 33-year-old Hazara, will help win over the ethnic group, 2November 2021, url
88 Ruttig, T., The case of Mawlawi Mehdi and Balkhab District: Are the Taleban attracting Hazaras?, AAN, 23 May 2020, url
89 WSJ, Taliban reach out to Shiite Hazara minority, seeking unity and Iran ties, 2 September 2021, url

16

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

1.1.3 Political system
The Taliban did not announce in detail how they intend to govern Afghanistan, nor which type ofpolitical system they envisaged to adopt. Instead, there was a tendency to refer to Sharia as the legal
system they were going to impose.90 During the first press conference after the takeover, Taliban
spokesmen said that the Taliban had changed during the past 20 years in terms of experience,maturity and vision, but that Afghanistan was still a Muslim nation and that there would be ‘a strong
Islamic government’. The Taliban also announced that they intended to act on the basis of theirprinciples, religion and culture, and emphasised the importance of Islam and that ‘nothing should beagainst Islamic values’.91 The same day, 17 August 2021, senior Taliban member Waheedullah
Hashimi told Reuters that ‘we will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in
Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it’.92 Political analysts commenting theissue claimed that the ideal state of the Taliban was highly centralized with laws and policy being
implemented nationwide.93
After the announcement of the interim-government, the Taliban did not give any time indications on
how long it would hold office or on what constitutional basis it would function.94 On 28 September
2021, the Afghan Ministry of Justice published a statement in which the acting Minister of Justice
was said to have indicated to the Chinese ambassador that provisions from the constitution of theKing Mohammad Zahir era would be enacted temporarily, except for content contradicting Sharia
law or ‘principles of the Islamic Emirate’.95
After the takeover the Taliban did not indicate that they would hold elections.96 However, the official
spokesperson for the Taliban’s Qatar office, Suhail Shaheen, did not fully exclude this possibility as
he told Voice of America’s (VOA) Urdu Service that the issue of elections would be determined whendrafting a new constitution.97 On the other hand, the Taliban have previously repeatedly rejected
the idea of forming a government based on elections.98 In the above-mentioned interview with
Reuters, senior Taliban member Hashimi said that ‘there will be no democratic system at all’.99
According to an article by United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the interim government was‘modelled on the same system’ as in the 1990s with both a spiritual leader and a prime ministerheading the government.100 Looking at its decision-making structure, the announced emirate could
be described as a religious theocracy101 ruled by the commander of believers and supreme leader
Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada102 who has had the authority over the Taliban’s political, religious
and military affairs since 2016. On 31 October 2021, after years of absence from public view andrumours of being deceased, Akhundzada appeared in public and held a speech in Kandahar city.103

90 Rahimi, H. Opinion. What the Taliban may be getting wrong about Islamic governance, Al Jazeera, 24 August 2021, url;

WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October 2021,
url; CNN, Taliban's religious police instructed to be more moderate, but vulnerable Afghans say brutal justice is still being
meted out, 12 October 2021, url
91 Al Jazeera, Transcript of Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul, 17 August 2021, url
92 Reuters, Exclusive: Council may rule Afghanistan, Taliban to reach out to soldiers, pilots, 18 August 2021, url
93 Hussain, M., Taliban’s Evolving Strategy, 2 September 2021, url; Mobasher, M. B., What Does the Future Holds for the
New Taliban Government?, MIR, 13 September 2021, url
94 International Crisis Group, Who Will Run the Taliban Government, 9 September 2021, url
95 Ministry of Justice, His Excellency Acting Minister Of Justice Met With The Chinese Ambassador, 28 September 2021, url
96 AP, Taliban form all-male Afghan government of old guard members, 9 September 2021, url
97 VOA, Taliban Not Ruling Out Holding Elections, 16 September 2021, url
98 Mobasher, M. B., What Does the Future Holds for the New Taliban Government?, 13 September 2021, MIR, url
99 Reuters, Exclusive: Council may rule Afghanistan, Taliban to reach out to soldiers, pilots, 18 August 2021, url
100 USIP, For the Taliban, governing will be the hard part, 5 October 2021, url, p. 3
101 DW, Afghanistan: What is Taliban’s religious ideology?, 2 November 2021, url
102 van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; TOLOnews,
Hibatullah Akhundzada to lead Taliban Govt, 9 September 2021, url
103 Reuters, Taliban reclusive supreme leader appears, belaying rumours of his death, 31 October 2021, url

17

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

1.1.4. Capacity to run the state
Most persons appointed to the interim government were of a clerical background, and few seemed
to have any higher non-religious educational background or other competencies specifically related
to the post they were appointed.104 In a statement to media in September, the appointed Minister ofHigher Education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said that university degrees were of no importance as ‘theMullahs and the Taliban in power have no Doctor’s degree, Master’s degree or even a high school
degree, but are the greatest’.105 According to WSJ, the appointed clerics had little experience ofmanaging ministries and government departments106 although many had experience of serving in
the previous Taliban government.107 Other sources suggested that the Taliban do not haveexperience of funding or personnel to deliver sophisticated government services.108
In an interview by Vox, Haroun Rahimi, an assistant professor of law at the American University ofAfghanistan (AUAF), called the appointments a way of ‘distributing power’ and ‘rewarding loyalists’,
rather than making appointments on the basis of qualification. The same source stated that all
appointments made in Herat city and within the Ministry of Higher Education had been ‘unqualified’Taliban members, primarily mullahs with few known qualifications related to their new positions.
The head of the Central Bank previously ran the Taliban’s finances, and according to Rahimi he mostcertainly lacked experience in monetary policy and interacting with the World Bank, theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) and the international system of finances.109 Omar Sadr, also
assistant professor at AUAF, pointed out to Al Jazeera that after 100 days of the new rule theeconomic policy of the Taliban was still unclear, as well as how they intended to address issues suchas poverty and unemployment.110 Four employees at financial institutions told Associated Press (AP)that Taliban officials lacked experience in banking or financial issues.111 One of the interviewees told
AP that the Taliban did not understand the magnitude of the financial crisis, although one could not
expect them to understand international monetary policy being ‘guerrilla fighters at heart’.112 An
Afghan human rights expert, interviewed by EASO on 11 November 2021, also stated that the
Taliban did not realise the urgency of the situation and the need to conform with some demands toreach international assistance.113 According to WSJ, Afghanistan’s electric utility company washeaded by a mullah.114
There were sources that indicated that the Taliban seemed genuine and serious about maintaining
functioning ministries and delivering state service.115 However, Afghan public services heavily
depended on foreign aid and support even before the takeover, and the lack of foreign aid and

104 van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion, external dominance, AAN, 12 September

2021, url; Vox, What the Taliban’s new government reveals about how they will rule, 13 September 2021, url
105 Said Sulaiman Ashna, [Twitter], 7 September 2021, url
106 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October
2021, url
107 van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion, external dominance, AAN, 12 September
2021, url
108 Al Jazeera, 100 days of the Taliban, 23 November 2021, url; New York Times (The), Why the Taliban’s Repression of
Women May Be More Tactical Than Ideological, 4 October 2021, url
109 Vox, What the Taliban’s new government reveals about how they will rule, 13 September 2021, url
110 Al Jazeera, 100 days of the Taliban, 23 November 2021, url
111 AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on former technocrats, 19 October 2021, url
112 AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on former technocrats, 19 October 2021, url
113 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021. This source left Afghanistan as the Taliban took
power but remains in communication with sources on the ground. The source monitor developments within the humanrights field through local sources in the country. The source wishes to be anonymous.
114 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October
2021, url
115 East Asia Forum, Afghanistan’s Taliban-led future, 16 October 2021, url; AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on
former technocrats, 19 October 2021, url

18

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

support posed a great challenge to fund public services.116 The appointment of persons on UN
sanctions lists to the interim government further complicated the possibilities for the Taliban
government to receive international support.117 Sanctions, lack of aid, frozen Central Bank reserves,and isolation were some of the factors that impacted Afghan economy and the Taliban’s ability to
govern, as social services were severely underfunded and as the situation caused a difficult
humanitarian situation.118
The Taliban called on former government financial workers to return to work119 and reportedly
made certain appointments to restore the financial system.120 In the above-mentioned interview by
AP, four employees from financial institutions stated that the Taliban had commanded bureaucrats
from the Finance Ministry, Central Bank and other state-owned banks to resume work to cope withthe financial challenges, acknowledging that they did not have the expertise to manage the situation
themselves.121
Another issue related to the capacity to run the state administration was that many qualified staff
members left the country in August, causing a significant ‘brain drain’ in many sectors.122 According
to AP, among those who stayed all did not resume work, and a department within the Finance
Ministry had shrunk from 250 employees to 50 employees during better days.123 WSJ on the other
hand reported that most male workers at government ministries had returned to work. 124 There
were also challenges in paying salaries to state employees.125
Despite the challenges outlined above, Andrew H. Watkins, senior expert at USIP, emphasised the
speed of the Taliban transition of leaders and fighters from an insurgency to ‘officials of a stillforming government’. Watkins pointed out that the Taliban within two months had ‘extracted oathsof fealty or at least gestures of tacit acceptance’ from most remaining political leaders, appointed aninterim government, established new security institutions in the cities and had established control
over the borders, set customs, engaged in regional diplomacy, struck down the resistance inPanjsher, and devoted resources to handle security challenges such as ISKP.126 In a guest essay for
The New York Times, Ashley Jackson, co-director of Centre for the Study of Armed Groups, statedthat the Taliban had prepared for Western forces to withdraw for years, although theiradministration was ‘rudimentary’ and ‘stretched thin’. Jackson emphasised ‘stark’ differences
between areas that had been under Taliban influence for long and that tend to be deeply
conservative, and more progressive areas that recently saw a shift of power, concluding that there
were few indications of the Taliban being equipped to govern the cities or the country as a whole on
their own.127

116 Terpstra, N., The 'new' Taliban regime in Afghanistan: different methods but the same political goal, Conversation (The),

6 September 2021, url
117 Reuters, U.N. warns of ‘colossal’ collapse of Afghan banking system, 22 November 2021, url
118 USIP, Afghanistan’s Economic and Humanitarian Crisis Turn Dire, 14 October 2021, url
119 AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on former technocrats, 20 October 2021, url
120 Reuters, Taliban expand economic team as Afghan crisis deepens, 21 September 2021, url
121 AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on former technocrats, 20 October 2021, url
122 Economic Times (The), Afghanistan brain drain complicates Taliban rule: Experts, 2 September 2021, url
123 AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on former technocrats, 20 October 2021, url
124 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October
2021, url
125 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October
2021, url; AP, The economy on the brink, Taliban rely on former technocrats, 20 October 2021, url
126 Watkins, A. H., An Assessment of Taliban Rule at Three Months, November 2021, url
127 Jackson, A., Opinion. This Is What Taliban Control Looks Like In 2021, 17 August 2021, in New York Times (The), url

19

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

1.2 State institutions
1.2.1 Government institutions and state service
During the years as an insurgency the Taliban established a shadow governance and a shadow court
system.128 For more information on the shadow justice structures before the takeover, see EASO’s
report: Afghanistan. Criminal law, customary justice and informal dispute resolution.
As they had the whole state apparatus to manage after the takeover as well as the need to provide
basic public services, an initial approach seemed to be to incorporate elements of the existing civil
service into the new administration.129
Appointments were made to central ministries130 and within the provincial administration.131 The
most notable change from the previous government was that the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue
and Prevention of Vice was reinstated. Under the previous Taliban rule one of the main functions of
the body was to enforce the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia.132 No appointments were made to
the previous Ministry of Women’s affairs, whose office building was assigned to the Ministry for the
Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.133 Persons working for the previous administration
were asked to return to work.134 However, many employees within the state administration
evacuated in August, some did not resume their jobs despite the general amnesty that was issued
after the takeover, and there were also reported issues in paying salaries.135
Afghan banks started to reopen in Kabul on 25 August 2021, after being closed for more than a week
due to the takeover.136 Initially there was a weekly withdrawal limit corresponding USD 200, but on 3
November the limit was raised to USD 400.137 According to a report by UNDP (United Nations
Development Programme) from November 2021, cited by Reuters, banks had stopped extending
new credits, and non-performing loans had almost doubled to 57 % in comparison to the previous
year. UNDP warned of a possible collapse of the banking system within the coming months due tothe inability to repay loans, cash liquidity crunch and lower deposits as about 40 % of Afghanistan’s
deposits was expected to be lost by the end of 2021.138
Since the Taliban takeover, maintaining the electricity supply has been a major issue as power bills
have not been paid. WSJ reported on Kabul facing blackouts in October 2021, and the former chief
operating officer of Afghanistan’s state power monopoly stated that it ‘needs an urgent infusion of$90 million to stave off a collapse’.139

128 Terpstra, N., The 'new' Taliban regime in Afghanistan: different methods but the same political goal, Conversation (The),

6 September 2021, url
129 Terpstra, N., The 'new' Taliban regime in Afghanistan: different methods but the same political goal, Conversation (The),
6 September 2021, url
130 Nunn.asia, [Twitter], posted on: 7 September 2021, url; van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other seniorappointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion,
external dominance, AAN, 12 September 2021, url‫ری‬
131 Justpaste.it, ‫المؤمنی حفظه هللا فرمان‬‫امې‬‫‘[ په والیتونو ک د یو لړ ټاکنو په اړه د عالیقدر ر‬informal translation ‘Supreme Leader’s decree
on a number of provincial level appointments’], 7 November 2021, url
132 Guardian (The), Taliban name all-male Afghan cabinet including minister wanted by FBI, 7 September 2021, url
133 Al Jazeera, Taliban replaces ministry for women with ‘guidance’ ministry, 18 September 2021, url
134 Al Jazeera, Taliban announces ‘amnesty’, reaches out women, 17 August 2021, url; AA, Taliban notify Gov’t servants toreturn to jobs, 21 August 2021, url
135 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October
2021, url
136 Al Jazeera, Banks in Kabul reopen, drawing crowds of cash-starved Afghans, 25 August 2021, url
137 AP, Afghan Central Bank doubles cap on weekly withdrawals, 3 November 2021, url; Reuters, Afghanistan central bankraises limit on bank withdrawals to $400 a week, 3 November 2021, url
138 Reuters, U.N. warns of ‘colossal’ collapse of Afghan banking system, 22 November 2021, url
139 WSJ, Kabul Faces Blackout as Taliban Don’t Pay Electricity Suppliers, 3 October 2021, url

20

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

On 22 September 2021, the Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO) described theAfghan health system as ‘on the brink of collapse’ and pointed out the cuts in donor support leading
to reduced operations and health facilities shutting down. According to the statement, only 17 % of
Sehatmandi health facilities (Afghanistan’s largest health project) were fully functional.140 Since
then, there have been additional reports on a deteriorating situation with, inter alia, unpaid salaries
to medical personnel, shortages in medicines and equipment as well as a decreased access tohealthcare among women, and a drop in rates of skilled birth attendance.141
Schools reopened after the takeover142, except for secondary education for girls which remained
closed in most parts of the country.143 Economic hardship also affected the educational sector, withdifficulties to pay salaries to teachers and other staff.144 According to TOLOnews, 50 % of private
education centres closed since the Taliban takeover, due to a significant decrease in students as the
economic situation of Afghan families deteriorated.145 Some private universities resumed theiractivities and held graduation ceremonies, while public universities reportedly remained closed.146
On 6 October 2021, the passport distribution service reportedly begun in Kabul.147 In mid-November
there were reports indicating that 100 000 passports had been issued in seven provinces148 although
the passport distribution in Kabul halted due to technical issues.149 On 24 November 2021 theTaliban announced that the passports would be issued in 10 more provinces150, and on 5 December
they announced that the service would be provided in 14 additional provinces and that the passport
service would soon resume in Kabul.151 Only passports of the previous government style were
issued, and according to the acting General Director of the Passport service, Alam Gul Haqqani,
people who had already registered online and paid for their passports would be prioritised.
According to another Taliban official 170 000 online requests were registered before 15 August
2021, and once these passports were issued Afghans would be able to register for new passports(although in the former government style). Alam Gul Haqqani further stated in October thatbetween 900 000 and one million printed passports were available which would be enough for the
coming eight to nine months.152
For information on the justice system see chapter 1.5.

1.2.2 Security institutions
When the Taliban entered Kabul on 15 August 2021, the group was estimated to have 75 000
militants in Afghanistan who caused the collapse of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces

140 WHO, Acute health needs in Afghanistan must be urgently addressed and health gains protected, 22 September 2021,

url
141 Krishna, G. & Howard, S., Afghanistan’s doctors urge world to put politics and prejudice aside to save its healthcare, 3

November 2021, available at: url
142 DW, Schools reopen in Afghanistan — but not for girls, 18 September 2021, url
143 BBC, Afghanistan: Girls' despair as Taliban confirm secondary school ban, 8 December 2021, url
144 TOLOnews, Herat Teachers Demand Their, 20 October 2021, url
145 TOLOnews, 50% of Private Education Centers Closed Nationwide Since Takeover, 30 November 2021, url
146 Daily Mail, Female students in Afghanistan graduate from private university - watched on by Taliban leaders, 29
November 2021, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Economic Situation Hurting Private Universities, 3 November 2021, url
147 Bakhtar News, Process of distributing passports began in Kabul, 6 October 2021, url
148 Republicworld.com, Taliban to extend passport services to seven Afghanistan provinces: Report, 14 November 2021,
url; TOLOnews, Govt to Reopen Passport Offices in 7 Provinces, 13 November 2021, url
149 ANU, Afghanistan: Passport distribution in Kabul still on hold for past 12 days, 29 November 2021, url
150 Ariana News, Gov't to resume issuing passports in 10 more provinces, 24 November 2021, url
151 TOLOnews, '32 Provinces' to Offer Passport Services: Officials, 5 December 2021, url
152 Ariana News, Interview with Mawlawi Alam Gul Haqqani, Head of Passport Department, 13 October 2021, url; DW,‫[ صدور پاسپورت در افغانستان از رس گرفته شد | افغانستان‬Informal translation: Passport issuance resumed in Afghanistan], 5 October
2021, url

21

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus(ANDSF).153 One month later, the Taliban’s army chief of staff Qari Fasihuddin reportedly announced
that they were working to ‘form a "regular" and "strong" army’.154
As of 7 September 2021, the Taliban had, inter alia, appointed a Minister of Defence (MoD), a
Director of Intelligence Affairs of the MoD, a Minister of Interior (MoI), a Deputy MoI forCounternarcotics, a Deputy MoI for Interior security, and a Head of Intelligence.155
In Kabul City, Taliban fighters increasingly put on military uniforms.156 As of 4 October 2021, thenumber of Taliban forces in Kabul was estimated at about 4 000 men that were deployed to provide
security as policemen. However, most of them were reportedly dressed in local traditional
clothing.157
According to Nunn Asia, a Pashto independent local news agency, ‘Special Security and Defence
forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ are called Fateh Zwaq (“victorious force”).158
In September 2021, Taliban officials made public statements indicating ‘plans to improveorganization and marshal fighters’ and called on members related to defence, interior andintelligence agencies to move to military bases.159 On 11 November 2021, the Taliban established amilitary court to deal with complaints against the Taliban military forces based on a decree of theSupreme Leader.160 The Taliban’s interior ministry spokesperson, Qari Sayed Khosti, stated that a
training programme is underway, that professionals will be deployed on all levels, and also called onformer police personnel to return to work.161
In October 2021, Balkh's governor, Mawlawi Qudratullah Abuhamza, reportedly stated that ‘soldiersfrom different ethnic groups have been recruited into the Balkh military corps, who will provide
security and safety of the people’.162
According to BBC Pashto, on 8 November 2021, the Taliban issued a degree that changed the namesof the previous army corps (Qol-e Ordou) as follows:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Kabul Corps changed to Kabul Central Corps
209th Shaheen Corps in Mazar changed to to Al-Fatha Corps
17th Pamir Corps in Kunduz changed to Omary Corps
205th Attal Corps in Kandahar changed to Badar Corps
201st Silab Corps in Laghman changed to Khalid Ibn-e Walid Corps
203rd Tander Corps in Paktia changed to Mansouri Corps
207th Zafar Corps in Herat changed to Al-Farooq Corps
215th Maiwand Corps in Helmand changed to Azm Corps.163

153 CSIS, The reason for the collapse of Afghan forces, 17 August 2021, url, p. 2
154 TOLOnews, Taliban Says it Will Build Regular Army, Include Former Members, 15 September 2021, url
155 van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url
156 Stars and Stripes, After 20 years of waging guerrilla warfare, Taliban fighters say they miss the battle, 19 September

2021, url
157 France24, From insurgency to city beat: Taliban police learn the rope, 6 October 2021, url‫[ الهجره سټودیو د افغان ځانګړو ځواکونو تازه انځورونه ژ‬informal translation ‘Al-Hejra Studio has published new
158 Nunn Asia, ‫نش کړي‬images of Afghan special forces’], 2 November 2021, url
159 AP, Taliban order fighters out of Afghan homes they took over, 30 September 2021, url‫ی‬
160 AVA, ‫ این حکم از‬.‫ دادگاه نظام ایجاد شدهاست‬،‫دولت اسالم طالبان اعالم کرده که بهمنظور رسیدک به شکایات و عرایض علیه نېوهای نظام طالبان‬‫ر‬‫رهې طالبان صادر شده است‬‫[ سوی مال هبتهللا آخوندزاده؛ ر‬informal translation ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has announced thecreation of a military court in order to address complaints against Taliban military personnel’], 11 November 2021, url;
TOLOnews, Islamic Emirate to Form Military Court, 11 November 2021, url
161 France24, From insurgency to city beat: Taliban police learn the rope, 6 October 2021, url
162 TOLOnews, In Balkh Mod official urges troops to guard the nation, 17 October 2021, url
163 BBC Pashto, ‫[ طالبانو د افغانستان د قول اردوګانو نومونه بدل کړي‬informal translation ‘Taliban changed the names of military corpsof Afghanistan’], 8 November 2021, url; Khaama Press, Taliban retitles all military corps in Afghanistan, 8 November 2021,
url

22

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

On 11 November 2021, Bakhtar news agency cited Mawlawi Ataullah Omari, the commander of the
Al-Fatah Corps, stating that the Taliban made the air force operational in Balkh province where themajority of the former government air force pilots and technicians had returned to work. Zia-ul-Haq
Aghasi was appointed as the commander of Balkh air force.164

1.3 Central control
The exact structure of Taliban forces, and the movement’s decision-making practices or chain ofcommand were not fully clear.165 Several sources described the Taliban as decentralised and flexible,
which was an effective approach as an insurgency, but not necessarily an asset in their governancecausing inefficiency in decision-making.166 As an effect, policy implementation differed depending on
geographical contexts, such as local stakeholders.167 An Afghan human rights expert confirmed thisand observed that statements in Kabul generally were not translated into action in all provinces, andthat there was not a uniform policy implementation across Afghanistan. According to the source
Taliban behaviour was contextual, depending on the province and its local dynamics.168
A USIP study from 2019 concluded that the Taliban’s shadow governance held a level oforganisation, hierarchical decision-making, and policy coherence unusual for insurgencies, but did
also note uneven policy implementation on local level.169 Although the Layha charts170 of 2010
described the organisational structure as highly centralised with top-down decision-making171, theUSIP study concluded that policymaking and its application were influenced by local Taliban leaders’‘personalities, preferences and relationships’. In practice they were not as hierarchal and top-down
as often indicated by the Taliban, but ‘at least as much bottom-up’ as consensus within the
movement had been prioritised before coherence.172 An Afghan law professor, interviewed by EASO
on 9 November 2021, stated that the Taliban had been very hesitant to compromise and give in tointernational demands and explained this as a result of not wanting to risk creating discontent risingfrom ‘the bottom’ among the fighters. Showing flexibility in sensitive issues would pose a serious
challenge for the cohesion of the movement as fighters might perceive flexibility on women’s rights,
cutting relations with other Islamist/Jihadi groups or including members of the previous government
looked at as ‘foreign puppets’, as contradictory to the narrative they were told when they were
mobilised to fight.173
The Afghan law professor separated the Taliban’s consistency in the societal sphere from themilitary sphere. As an insurgency, the Taliban showed ‘outmost unity’ in issues related to military
strategy, ceasefire and mobilisation, and having a flat organisational structure did not hinder themfrom acting coherently. However, when engaging in social issues such as education or healthcare,the composition of the movement, containing several decentralised networks, were more notablewith local variations. With the Taliban in power, one could see the same pattern with cases of
164 Bakhtar News, Air force of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan started operating in Balkh, 11 November 2021, url
165 DW, Afghanistan: What will the Taliban do without an enemy to fight?, 11 October 2021, url; Reuters, Taliban have theirwork cut out to win hearts and minds in Kabul, 10 September 2021, url
166 van Bijlert, M., The Taleban’s Caretaker Cabinet and other Senior Appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; Vox, What
the Taliban’s new government reveals about how they will rule, 13 September 2021, url
167 USIP, Insurgent Bureaucracy: How the Taliban Makes Policy, November 2019, url, p. 37
168 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
169 USIP, Insurgent Bureaucracy: How the Taliban Makes Policy, November 2019, url, p. 37
170 The Taliban’s Layha can be described as the movements ‘code of conduct’ which was periodically issued for theirmembers, the latest version in 2010. See: Clark, K., The Layha. Calling the Taleban to Account. Appendix 1. The Taleban
Codes of Conduct in English, AAN, 2011, url
171 Johnson, T. H., Taliban narratives: the use and power of stories in the Afghanistan conflict, Hurst & Company, London,
2017, chapter 8; Clark, K., The Layha. Calling the Taleban to Account, AAN, 2011, url, p. 12
172 USIP, Insurgent Bureaucracy: How the Taliban Makes Policy, November 2019, url, p. 37
173 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Taliban members taking matters in their own hands, imposing their own versions of what the
Taliban should be doing as a government, despite what the official spokesperson or central
leadership said. The source further described high level fissures between a southern and an eastern
leaning of the movement, but also mentioned that there was a lot of variation from province toprovince, from city to city reflecting the local Taliban leadership. According to the source there could
be differences even on lower level as the fighter’s own preferences could play a role.174 Other
sources also pointed at ideological differences between factions within the Taliban175, and tensions
between an ‘older’ and a ‘younger’ generation, describing the latter as having a more ‘hardline’approach.176
Regarding the leadership’s control in the military chain of command and control over foot soldiers,
there were speculations on internal competition and in-fighting.177 An anonymised ‘Afghanistanbased security analyst’, told Deutsche Welle (DW) that there were ‘numerous accounts’ of unclear
military structures across the country. According to the source, such disputes were most visible in
Kabul as, for example, several commanders came from different locations of Afghanistan, hadcompeting interests and claimed responsibility of the same area or issue, which caused disputes,
sometimes escalating into violence.178 Another source, conflict expert Weeda Mehran, told Foreign
Policy (FP) that violence between rival factions became more public and called the Islamic State
Khorasan Province (ISKP) ‘a convenient scapegoat’ for attacks ‘possibly committed’ in internal power
struggles.179 An Afghan human rights expert also stated that alleged ISKP attacks could be a way of
disclosing political competition and competition of resources within the Taliban.180 Dr. Melissa Kerr
Chiovenda, assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, told EASO on 9 November 2021
that there had been some Taliban infighting in Bamyan. According to her it was unclear to people
what had actually happened but there seemed to be issues of the Taliban in controlling foot-soldiers
as well as rifts inside the movement.181 There were also several reports on Taliban fighters
subjecting civilians and journalists to violence, as well as conducting house-to-house searches andretaliation acts despite the general amnesty that was issued for all who served within the previous
government.182 Yet, it remained unclear whether such acts were sanctioned by the leadership orcaused by a lack of discipline or control in the chain of command.183
Although it was difficult to determine whether reported atrocities were systematic or not, there wasreportedly room for Taliban fighters to act on their own initiative as they did not seem to facepunishment or any consequences.184 Taliban representatives made statements in which they
acknowledged that Taliban fighters sometimes did not act in line with the official policy because of
personal enmities and desire for revenge.185 In some cases, the Taliban claimed that they would
174 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
175 DW, Afghanistan: What is the Taliban′s religious ideology?, 2 November 2021, url; FP, With Haqqanis at Afghanistan'sHelm, the Taliban Will Grow Even More Extreme, url
176 Financial Times, Afghanistan’s young Talibs: ‘No compromise with the enemy of our martyrs’, 18 September 2021, url;
Washington Post (The), What the Taliban’s youngest fighters tell us about the future of the movement, 12 November 2021,
url
177 USIP, Five Questions on the Taliban’s Caretaker Government, 9 September 2021, url
178 DW, Afghanistan: What will the Taliban do without an enemy to fight?, 11 October 2021, url
179 FP, Taliban Splintered by Internal Divisions, External Spoilers, 12 November 2021, url
180 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
181 Kerr Chiovenda, M. (Dr.), professor at Zayed University, online interview, 9 November 2021
182 UN Security Council, The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, 2 September
2021, url, p. 5; France24, Afghan journalists tell of Taliban beatings after covering protests, 9 September 2021, url; CNN,
Taliban accused of murdering pregnant Afghan policewoman in front of her family, 6 September 2021, url; Khaama Press,
Protest turns violent in Kabul; journalists, women were beaten, 21 October 2021, url
183 New York Times (The), A Taliban spokesman urges women to stay home because fighters haven’t been trained torespect them, 24 August 2021, url; Diplomat (The), The Taliban’s False Amnesty, 24 September 2021, url
184 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021; Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November
2021; Times of India, Out-of-control foot soldiers run amok, embarrass Taliban, 27 September 2021, url
185 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Defense Minister Admits To Revenge Killings Despite Amnesty, 23 September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

punish members acting against the official policy186, that they would establish commissions toprevent unwanted behaviour187, and remove problematic members from military ranks.188
Furthermore, they declared a ‘ban on arbitrary military operations and courts’ by Taliban members
and stated that they were willing to create five sub-commissions to apply these measures in allprovinces.189 However, as noted by sources interviewed by EASO there were no reports of Taliban
fighters being punished or facing other consequences for misconduct190, except for an instance in
October 2021 when Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated that two people involved in ashooting at a wedding had been arrested, without clarifying whether these persons were Taliban
fighters of not.191 Patricia Gossman, associate director for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch,told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that there were many reports of people beingarrested ‘purely for having any association with the former security forces and family members
being interrogated or beaten by Taliban looking for former officials’, and that those carrying out
such abuses appeared to have been given a ‘free hand’ while top-officials denied such events taking
place.192

1.4 Initial reports of the implementation of Sharia law in daily life
Sharia law allows for different interpretations and varies between different schools of thought. The
Taliban’s view of Sharia law is based on the Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence and rooted in thelate-19th-century Deobandi movement. It is also influenced by local traditions and tribal codes
making it different from the interpretation and implementation of Sharia law in other countries withjustice systems under Islamic law.193 During the first press conference after the takeover of Kabul,
Taliban spokesmen stated that the Taliban had changed since their last time in power, butemphasised that nothing should be against Islamic values. In their promises of allowing women’s
rights and media freedom they stated that such rights should be allowed within ‘the limits of Sharia’,‘our cultural frameworks’ and ‘Islamic values’.194 However, the Taliban did not elaborate on whatsuch limits would look like in practice195, and during the reporting period the situation remained
unclear.196
As previously mentioned, the implementation of Sharia law differed in areas controlled by the
Taliban during their time as an insurgency.197 During their time as an insurgency, there were also
reports indicating a tendency to implement gradually stricter policies as they gained influence in anarea.198

186 Bilal Karimi, [Twitter], posted on: 23 September 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Defense Minister Admits To

Revenge Killings Despite Amnesty, 23 September 2021, url; Khaama Press, Taliban creates commission to expel
unfavourable members, 13 October 2021, url
187 TOLOnews, Taliban Commission to Probe Violence Against Media, 22 August 2021, url
188 Bilal Karimi, [Twitter], posted on: 23 September 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Defense Minister Admits To
Revenge Killings Despite Amnesty, 23 September 2021, url; Khaama Press, Taliban creates commission to expel
unfavourable members, 13 October 2021, url
189 AVA, Taliban bans arbitrary operations and courts, 12 November 2021, url
190 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021; Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November
2021
191 Ariana News, IEA arrests two gunmen after wedding party shooting, 31 October 2021, url; CNN, Three wedding guests
reportedly shot dead in Afghanistan for playing music at reception, 1 November 2021, url
192 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Takes Revenge On former Afghan Security forces, 12 October 2021, url
193 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban ‘Tribal Version’: Shari’a Is Not The Same Everywhere, 2 October 2021, url
194 Al Jazeera, Transcript of Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul, 17 August 2021, url
195 Al Jazeera, Transcript of Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul, 17 August 2021, url
196 Berkley Forum, Islam, Politics, and the Future of Afghanistan, 3 November 2021, url
197 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Public Executions, Floggings ‘Inevitable’ Under Taliban Court Rulings, 8 September 2021, url
198 HRW, “You Have No Right to Complain”. Education, Social Restrictions, and Justice in Taliban-Held Afghanistan, 2020,
url, pp. 38, 42–43, 47–48

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There were reports indicating local divergence in implementing Islamic rule and official policy during
the reference period. One example concerned secondary education which was interrupted as the
Taliban took power, and resumed only for boys in mid-September.199 Secondary education for girls
stayed closed awaiting arrangements in line with Islamic law ensuring ‘a safe learning environment’according to Taliban spokespersons.200 However, in early October the official spokesman for the
Taliban’s political office in Qatar posted on Twitter that girls were going back to school in Kunduz201,
which was also confirmed by local teachers.202 Meanwhile the education ministry official
Mohammad Abid told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that there had been no policy changes concerning
girls’ high school education.203 In most parts of the country girls could not access secondary
education204, but it resumed for girls in some northern provinces (reportedly Balkh, Kunduz, and Sare Pul)205, as well as in Herat Province.206
In some areas of southern Afghanistan, more conservative social policies reflecting moreconservative norms were reported, although conservative traditions impacted the public life even
before the Taliban takeover.207 One woman in Lashkar Gah told WSJ that she had to wear a burqa.208
However, this was a common practice in many areas before the takeover209 and burqa was notofficially decreed as mandatory.210 In Kandahar most women had reportedly been barred fromresuming work or education.211 Taliban officials in Helmand reportedly banned barbers from shaving
or cutting beards, and issued a warning that those violating the rule would be punished by the
religious police.212 There were also reports on similar restrictions in Ghor213, Kabul214, Uruzgan215,
Kapisa and Takhar216, although this information could not be verified through other sources.
According to TOLOnews, these restrictions also prohibited women to own smartphones in Helmand,
Takhar and Kapisa. TOLOnews also reported that Ministry of Culture and Information officials statedthat limitations on shaving beards and smartphones were not in line with the Taliban’s official
position.217 According to WSJ, the Taliban authorities in Kabul ‘overruled’ decisions in Helmand on
cutting hair or shaving beards.218
A report of Human Rights Watch and the San Jose State University (SJSU) Human Rights Institutesuggested a dire situation for women and girls in Herat city, claiming that the Taliban committed‘widespread and serious human rights violations against women and girls’ and had instilled fear
among them. Seven women activists, educators and university students in Herat were interviewed
about their life under the Taliban, and, in sum, they said that their lives had completely changed,

199 Guardian (The), Taliban ban girls from secondary education in Afghanistan, 17 September 2021, url
200 Al Jazeera, Girls to return to secondary schools ‘soon as possible’: Taliban, 21 September 2021, url
201 Suhail Shaheen, [Twitter], posted on: 4 October 2021, url
202 TOLOnews, Girls Attend Schools in Kunduz, Balkh, Sar-e-Pul, 9 October 2021, url
203 AFP, Some girls return to school as Taliban seeks to manage image, 5 October 2021, available at: url
204 TOLOnews, Schools Reopen for Girls in Grades 7-12 in Balkh Province, 8 October 2021, url
205 TOLOnews, Girls Attend Schools in Kunduz, Balkh, Sar-e-Pul, 9 October 2021, url; New York Times (The), Taliban Allow

Girls to Return to Some High Schools but With Big Caveats, 27 October 2021, url
206 TOLOnews, Girl’s Schools for Grades 7-12 Reopen in Herat, 8 November 2021, url
207 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021; WSJ, Strange Quiet Arrives in Afghanistan After Decades ofWar, 11 October 2021, url
208 WSJ, Strange Quiet Arrives in Afghanistan After Decades of War, 11 October 2021, url
209 New Yorker (The), The Other Afghan Women, 6 September 2021, url
210 DW, Afghanistan: What Taliban’s new media rules mean for female actors, 28 November 2021, url
211 AFP, Anxiety and fear for women in Taliban stronghold, 9 October 2021, available at: url
212 BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban ban Helmand barbers from trimming beards, 26 September 2021, url; Bilal Sarwary, [Twitter],posted on: 26 September 2021, url
213 Hast-e Subh Daily, Taliban Banned Beard Shaving in Ghor, 1 November 2021, url
214 BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban ban Helmand barbers from trimming beards, 26 September 2021, url
215 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban’s ‘New’ Governing Style Includes Beatings For Beard Shaving, 6 October 2021, url
216 TOLOnews, Taliban: Some Restrictions in Provinces Not Official, 27 September 2021, url
217 TOLOnews, Taliban: Some Restrictions in Provinces Not Official, 27 September 2021, url
218 WSJ, Strange Quiet Arrives in Afghanistan After Decades of War, 11 October 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

being trapped indoors and afraid to leave their houses without a male family member.219 However,other sources did not suggest a ‘hardline’ rule in Herat referring to the more ‘modern’ values anddiverse culture that defines the area.220 Women reportedly were not expected to fully cover221, andall-women demonstrations took place in the city.222 An Afghan law professor described that somewore more or less the same clothing as before the Taliban took power, although some wore moreconservative clothing out of fear of the Taliban. This source had not heard of any mistreatment of
women due to their clothing or for going out in public.223 However, some female residents told The
Washington Post that Taliban fighters had asked them to stop wearing make-up or dismissed themfrom their jobs, and one woman stated that she had been harassed at a police stop for driving
alone.224 Such tendencies of Taliban fighters seemingly acting on their own initiative in implementing
Sharia law were also reported elsewhere.225
Women reportedly struggled to resume qualified work226, and some women reportedly did not dare
to go outside, although the Taliban did not physically confine them to their homes.227 A Taliban
official in Kandahar told AFP in October 2021 that women had not been banned from anything andthat it was the women’s own fault if they did not feel secure enough to go back to work.228 A
political rights activist based in Kandahar told National Public Radio (NPR) that women in general still
went out in the area, and that ‘normal housewives’ could continue their lives and, for instance, go
shopping. On the other hand, women working within the government, NGOs, or at the universities
could not resume their ‘normal routine work’ or move outside, mobilise and socialise as they used
to.229 According to the Afghan law professor, there was a push against the social progress that had
been taking place in areas like Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, Balkh and Kabul to some extent, althoughthese areas seemed to be quite robust and enduring in maintaining the relative social progress,
while in other more conservative areas, such as Kandahar, there were completely different social
policies reflecting more conservative norms. On the other hand, the situation had not changed muchin such conservative areas either as they were already conservative before the takeover, although insome parts of the country that has been ‘incredibly’ conservative, like the south, there wereindications that some social progress under the past 20 years was being reversed as the Taliban got
back in power.230 For more information on the situation of women, see chapter 2.3.
The Taliban did not issue an official ban of music after the takeover, although they disapproved ofplaying music at weddings and other public events.231 Musicians were reportedly afraid to performand found a lack of directives on whether they were allowed to carry out their work.232 There werereports on a popular musician from Badakhshan being welcomed back from Tajikistan by the local
219 HRW & SJSU, Afghanistan: Taliban Abuses Cause Widespread Fear, 23 September 2021, url
220 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021; Washington Post (The), Life under Taliban in Herat,

Afghanistan: Harsh public justice and private despair, 7 October 2021, url
221 Washington Post (The), Taliban faces a new hurdle in Afghanistan: Protecting public from Islamic State, 18 October
2021, url
222 TOLOnews, Herat Teachers Demand Their Salaries, 20 October 2021, url; Al Jazeera, Herat women protest against
Taliban over right to work, 2 September 2021, url
223 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
224 Washington Post (The), Taliban faces a new hurdle in Afghanistan: Protecting public from Islamic State, 18 October
2021, url
225 HRW, From Taliban to Taliban: Cycle of Hope, Despair on Women’s Rights, 1 November 2021, url
226 Washington Post (The), Taliban faces a new hurdle in Afghanistan: Protecting public from Islamic State, 18 October
2021, url; NPR, How life has changed for Afghan women and girls since the Taliban takeover, 18 October 2021, url
227 Washington Post (The), Taliban faces a new hurdle in Afghanistan: Protecting public from Islamic State, 18 October
2021, url; AFP, Anxiety and fear for women in Taliban stronghold, 9 October 2021, available at: url
228 AFP, Anxiety and fear for women in Taliban stronghold, 9 October 2021, available at: url
229 NPR, How life has changed for Afghan women and girls since the Taliban takeover, 18 October 2021, url
230 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
231 CNN, Three wedding guests reportedly shot dead in Afghanistan for playing music at reception, 1 November 2021, url
232 AP, Under Taliban thriving Afghan music scene heads to silence, 22 September 2021, url; TOLOnews, Afghan MusiciansFace Uncertain Future, 21 October 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Taliban233 as well as on occasional incidents of violence against musicians and artists.234 For more
information on musicians and artists, see chapter 2.9.

1.5 Justice system
Under the previous government, Afghan jurisdiction was based on three parallel and overlapping
systems or sources of law: formal statutory law, tribal customary law, and Sharia law.235 The Taliban
administered shadow Sharia courts for years236, and they were welcomed by many due todissatisfaction with the justice system provided by the Afghan state.237
For more information on the shadow justice structures before the takeover, see EASO’s report:
Afghanistan. Criminal law, customary justice and informal dispute resolution.
In an article by RFE/RL of 8 September 2021, several experts were consulted on the coming judicial
structure under the Taliban. The coming justice system was believed to be a continuation of theestablished shadow courts which were identical to the judicial system of the former government,with both criminal and civil courts on district and provincial level, as well as a supreme court.238
The shadow court system was overseen by the head of the Taliban’s judicial commission, Abdul
Hakim Ishaqzai, who also headed the shadow supreme court.239 Ishaqzai was appointed to an
equivalent function within the structure of the announced interim government240 and was appointed
Minister of Justice on 7 September 2021.241 The Telegraph reported that shadow judges took
positions within the justice system of the former government.242 In mid-October 2021 a new
Supreme Court was reportedly established.243
In the Taliban’s transition from an insurgency to a government, Afghanistan’s justice system lacked
an official constitution and official laws.244 In interviews to international media, judges and police
officers said that the basis of their judgements and actions was Sharia law.245 However,
implementing Sharia law opens up for variations according to some experts interviewed by FP and
RFE/RL.246 Rana Osman, doctoral researcher at SOAS University of London, explained that to achievesome values and norms within Sharia law the methods of jurisprudence have been dependent oninterpretation and ‘implementation style’, which could open up for the system to ‘become an
extension of the arm of power of an authoritative state’. Mahmood Mahroon, professor at Kabul
University called the situation under the Taliban’s shadow government ‘completely arbitrary’ andmentioned the lack of laws. Journalist Stefanie Glinski stated that the Taliban were not great jurists,
and that they viewed ‘everything through their own clouded lens’ as Sharia law leaves much open tointerpretation and scholarship.247 Ashley Jackson told RFE/RL that there were ‘some degree’ of

233 Miraqa Popal, [Twitter], posted on: 19 October 2021, url; Bilal Sarwary, [Twitter], posted on: 19 October 2021, url
234 Foschini, F., Music Censorship in 2021: The silencing of a nation and its cultural identity, AAN, 17 November 2021, url
235 Hakimi, A. & Sa’adat, M., Legal reform or erasure of history? The politics of moral crimes in Afghanistan, 2020, url
236 Jackson A. & Weigand, F., Rebel rule of law. Taliban courts in the west and north-west of Afghanistan, ODI, url, p. 2
237 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url
238 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Public Executions, Floggings ‘Inevitable’ Under Taliban Court Rulings, 8 September 2021, url
239 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Public Executions, Floggings ‘Inevitable’ Under Taliban Court Rulings, 8 September 2021, url
240 Express Tribune (The), Abdul Hakim Haqqani appointed Afghanistan’s chief justice, 15 October 2021, url
241 van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion, external dominance, AAN, 12 September

2021, url
242 Telegraph (The), Taliban will chop off hands of thieves as harsh punishments return, 7 September 2021, url
243 Frontier Post (The), Taliban announces creation of Supreme Court of Afghanistan, 15 October 2021, url
244 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url
245 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url; DW, Afghanistan’s justice system altered under the Taliban, 6 October
2021, url
246 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Public Executions, Floggings ‘Inevitable’ Under
Taliban Court Ruling, 8 September 2021, url
247 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

geographic variability in the functioning of shadow courts, especially for women and in processing
more sensitive issues. Jackson referred to the influence of local customs and tribal structures, that
seemed to be more present in the South-eastern parts of the country than in the Western parts.248
AFP reported on the delay in judicial proceedings for some prisoners as the Taliban struggled to
implement their justice system across Afghanistan. Awaiting the local judge in Panjwai district in
Kandahar, Taliban fighters reportedly represented the whole justice system and were ‘left to theirown whims and understanding of the group’s interpretation of Islamic law’.249 WSJ referred to court
staff who stated that Kabul’s new primary court did not hold trials, but hosted mediation for
disputes. If compromises could not be reached, case files were prepared for future hearing before ajudge.250 There were also reports of judges, local leaders and other Taliban officials actively working
with public order, security and solving disputes.251 For instance a judge, previously serving in a
district shadow court in Ghazni, told FP that he was currently serving in the main court of Ghazni city
together with four muftis252. Furthermore, a local police officer in Chak district in Wardak told FP in
October 2021 that a judge in the sharia court currently helped people solve their problems, and thatbigger disputes were taken to the provincial court in Maidan Shar.253 An anonymous lawyer in Kabul,referring to secondary information from another lawyer, told the legal news and research service
JURIST that the Taliban were looking to hire judges and prosecutors and that they had alreadyappointed prosecutors in some areas.254
DW reported that the justice system had been ‘radically changed’ after the Taliban takeover andreferred to public shaming for petty crime and public execution of a kidnapper as examples ofpunishments under Sharia law.255 However, as noted by journalist Sulaiman Hakemy in an opinion
for The National, it was not always clear whether punishments were issued by a court or on the spotby Taliban fighters.256 Regarding DW’s reports on public executions for instance, other sources did
not report on ‘public executions’, but on an event of public display of four corpses in Herat.257
According to an article by AP, the Taliban announced that the four men had been caught in a
kidnapping and were killed by the police during an exchange of gunfire.258 A second display ofcorpses took place in the Obe district of Herat Province on 5 October 2021, and Taliban officials said
that the three men were killed after an attempted home theft.259 Neither reports on the instances ofpublic shaming mentioned any court proceedings.260 According to Hindustan Times, the crimes ofsome of those subjected to public shaming were not known261, and according to AP public shaming
was revived by Taliban fighters.262 The Washington Post reported that Taliban fighters were
248 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Public Executions, Floggings ‘Inevitable’ Under Taliban Court Rulings, 8 September 2021, url
249 AFP, Justice delayed as Taliban build their legal system in Afghanistan, 13 November 2021, available at: url
250 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October

2021, url
251 CNN, The Taliban have Afghanistan's justice system in their hands. CNN shows what it's like, 11 October 2021, url; NewYork Times (The), This Is Life in Rural Afghanistan After the Taliban Takeover, 15 September 2021, url252
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World defines a mufti as ‘a Muslim jurist capable of giving, when requested, anonbinding opinion know as a fatwa, on a point of Islamic law’. See, Oxford University Press, The Oxford Encyclopedia of
the Islamic World, 2009, url
253 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url
254 JURIST, Afghanistan dispatches: ‘the Taliban are looking to hire judges and prosecutors’, 14 October 2021, url
255 DW, Afghanistan’s justice system altered under the Taliban, 6 October 2021, url
256 Hakemy, S., Opinion. The shaky ethics of public flogging in Afghanistan, National (The), 20 September 2021, url
257 AP, Taliban hang bodies in public; signal return to past tactics, 25 September 2021, url; Guardian (The), Taliban publicly
display bodies of alleged kidnappers in Herat, 25 September 2021, url; CNN, Taliban put alleged kidnappers’ bodies on
display, 25 September 2021, url
258 AP, Taliban hang bodies in public; signal return to past tactics, 25 September 2021, url
259 Washington Post (The), Harsh public justice and private despair reign in Taliban-ruled Herat, 6 October 2021, url
260 Hakemy, S., Opinion. The shaky ethics of public flogging in Afghanistan, National (The), 20 September 2021, url
261 Hindustan Times, Kidnappers’ body hung in public view: Punishments that Taliban are bringing back in Afghanistan, 25
September 2021, url
262 AP, Taliban official: Strict punishment, executions will return, 23 September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

undisciplined and sent people to prison on the slightest suspicion of illegal activity without legal
counsel, ‘languishing in cells until a formal judicial system is in place’.263

1.5.1 Capital and corporal punishment
In September 2021, Zabiullah Mujahid told The Telegraph that amputation of hands would beamong the punishments in court. In the same article unnamed Taliban officials said that somephysical punishments were necessary parts of Islamic law and would be revived but did notcomment whether public executions and stoning would be reintroduced.264 According to a local
judge in Ghazni city, interviewed by FP in the end of October 2021, that such punishments could be
return into practice, although this would require a lengthy decision-making process.265 Mullah
Nooruddin Turabi told AP in September 2021 that the foundation of Afghanistan’s laws will be theQuran and that some punishments used during the last Taliban rule would be revived. Further,
Turabi said that ‘cutting off hands is very necessary for security’ and that executions will be issued bycourt, but the punishments might not be carried out in public.266
According to The Washington Post, Taliban ‘police chiefs and fighters openly said they want theirleadership to impost the kinds of strict Islamic punishments that were in place from 1996 to 2001’.267
In an interview by Vox, Haroun Rahimi, assistant professor at AUAF, stated that public executions
and floggings would be inevitable under a court system in line with the Taliban’s interpretation of
Sharia law. Rahimi further stated, according to Sharia law, that punishment of certain crimes ‘against
God’, such as stoning for adultery, public flogging for drinking alcohol, hand amputation for some
types of theft, must be carried out in public. In the case of retributive justice served for other typesof crimes, such as execution for murder on the request of a victim’s family, public display might not
be as necessary according to Rahimi – although a Quranic verse says that witnesses should be taken
to floggings, which might imply carrying out such punishments in public as well.268
In mid-October the Taliban announced that punishments shall not be carried out in public unless thesupreme court issues and orders for such actions.269
No reports on corporal or capital punishments issued by a court were found during the reference
period.
As reported by AFP in November 2021, Taliban judges avoided to issue too harsh punishments toavoid losing support among the population.270 However, there were reports on Taliban fighters
subjecting civilians to violent treatment, inter alia whipping alleged thieves.271

1.5.2 Prisons and prison conditions
Soon after the takeover, the Taliban announced the release of ‘all political detainees’ throughout
Afghanistan272 and released thousands of prisoners, inter alia from Kabul’s main prison Pul-e
263 Washington Post (The), Taliban faces a new hurdle in Afghanistan: Protecting public from Islamic State, 18 October

2021, url
264 Telegraph (The), Taliban will chop off hands of thieves as harsh punishments return, 7 September 2021, url
265 FP, 12 Million Angry Men, 28 October 2021, url
266 AP, Taliban official, Strict punishment, executions will return, 23 September 2021, url
267 Washington Post (The), Taliban faces a new hurdle in Afghanistan: Protecting public from Islamic State, 18 October
2021, url
268 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Public Executions, Floggings ‘Inevitable’ Under Taliban Court Rulings, 8 September 2021, url
269 Zabihullah Mujahid, [Twitter], posted on: 14 October 2021, url; Dawn, Taliban ask officials not to carry out public
executions unless directed by apex court, 15 October 2021, url
270 AFP, Justice delayed as Taliban build their legal system in Afghanistan, 13 November 2021, available at: url
271 Metro, Taliban return to brutal ways as they whip and torment ‘thief’, 5 October 2021, url
272 CNN, Taliban leader calls for all remaining “political detainees” to be released, 18 August 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Charkhi.273 On 20 August 2021, an Afghan journalist running the YouTube channel ‘Kabul lovers’,
provided a documentary from Pul-e Charkhi prison and interviewed the Taliban security personnel.
According to a Taliban member responsible for the prison, the majority of the inmates had alreadyleft when the Taliban came and the remaining prisoners, around 200 persons, were released.274
Some of the former inmates became guards.275 Earlier in August 2021, the Taliban released 708
prisoners in four provinces276, and in November 2021 they released 21 prisoners from Helmand
central prison.277
In an interview on 31 October 2021, Qari Habibullah Zadran (also known as Qari Mohammad Haroon
Bader), the military acting director of prisons in Afghanistan, stated that there were around 4 000
prisoners in Afghanistan including 600 in Pul-e Charkhi.278 One month before, most of the prison’s
cells appeared to be empty, with one part housing about 60 prisoners, mainly accused of crime anddrug users.279 According to Al Jazeera the prison could house 5 000 prisoners, although the cells
could be ‘packed’ with more than 10 000 prisoners.280 The Taliban’s managing director of the prison
claimed that it had the capacity to keep 6 000–7 000 prisoners.281
On 10 November 2021, TOLOnews cited Khalil Hamza, spokesman for the Taliban’s intelligencedepartment, claiming that 600 ISKP members were imprisoned in several parts of Afghanistan
including its top members.282 This information could not be verified by other sources.
According to the Taliban’s military acting director of prisons, former government employees of theprison returned to work. He further stated that the inmates were provided with food, medical care,access to legal procedures, and allowed to receive visits from male and female family members. He
further claimed that there were plans to establish madrassas and professional schools (previously
known as Sanhati) in Pul-e Charkhi prison where inmates would be able to work and receive
professional trainings.283 However, there were reports indicating that inmates did not have access tolegal counsel and suffered in cells, awaiting a formal judicial system being put in place.284 Female
inmates reportedly lacked medical care in Kabul prison. According to Mullah Abdullah Akhund,
Taliban administrator for the women’s prison in Kabul, most women in prison were detained forelopement charges. In addition, women victims of domestic violence reportedly moved to a
women’s prison instead of returning to their families following the closure of shelters.285
In October 2021, the Taliban reportedly trained 130 uniformed guards for prisons and planned totrain further 160 guards who will serve as prison guards both in Kabul City and in the provinces.
During the training, the guards were reportedly taught that the prisoners would be punished only by
the law and that the guards’ duty is to protect them not to harm them.286 The head of Pul-e Charkhi
prison indicated that the Taliban do not seek revenge referring to the announced amnesty for
Afghans who served in the former government, army and police.287 However, there were reports of

273 WSJ, Afghan government collapses as Taliban take Kabul, 15 August 2021, url‫ی‬‫[ گزارش کامل از زندان پل ی‬informal translation ‘full
274 Kabul Lovers, ) ‫زندان های طالبان ک ها خواهد بود ؟‬( ‫چرخ تحت اداره طالبان‬documentary about Pul-e Charkhi prison under the Taliban (who will be Taliban prisoners?’], 20 August 2021, url
275 BBC, Inside the prison staffed by former inmates released by the Taliban, 25 September 2021, url
276 Pajhwok, Taliban free 708 prisoners in 4 four provinces, 22 August 2021, url
277 Bakhtar News, [Twitter], posted on: 28 November 2021, url
278 Ariana News, Saar: situation of Afghanistan prisons discussed, 31 October 2021, url
279 Al Jazeera, Once inmates, Taliban now in charge of a Kabul prison, 14 September 2021, url
280 Al Jazeera, Once inmates, Taliban now in charge of a Kabul prison, 14 September 2021, url
281 France24, Afghanistan: les Taliban prépare la réouverture de la plus grande prison de Kaboul, 18 October 2021, url
282 TOLOnews, 600 Daesh members detained in past 3 months: officials, 10 November 2021, url
283 Ariana News, Saar: situation of Afghanistan prisons discussed, 31 October 2021, url
284 Starts and Stripes, The Taliban’s new challenge: enforcing law, 19 October 2021, url
285 South Asia Morning Post, Life inside a Taliban-run prison for Afghan women, 29 September 2021, url
286 France24, Afghanistan : les Taliban prépare la réouverture de la plus grande prison de Kaboul, 18 October 2021, url
287 Euronews, Inside the Afghan jail where the ex-inmates are now the prison guards, 13 September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Taliban fighters arresting people and using violence and torture in custody.288 According to an
Afghan human rights expert there was a lack in training of Taliban fighters taking up duties as police
officers and prosecutors in Nangarhar making them turn to torture as a means for investigation.289
According to the Taliban’s military acting director of prisons, current prisoners were detained basedon criminal charges including murder and killings. Some of the prisoners who fled from prison on 15
August 2021, had been arrested and reincarcerated. He further stated that the Taliban held theprisons’ database, which it intended to use to identify and arrest further fugitive prisoners.290 It wasalso reported that the Taliban incarcerate people with minor ‘suspicion of illegal activity’.291
In November 2021, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan indicated thatthey had met with the Director of the Office of Prison Administration in Afghanistan. They further
stated that as part of ICRC’s humanitarian mandate, they carried out visits to detentions centres andprovided support to improve the conditions of detainees.292 ICRC also distributed hygiene items in
Sarpoza prison in Kandahar province.293

288 BBC, Afghanistan: Journalists tell of beatings by the Taliban, 9 September 2021, url
289 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
290 Ariana News, Saar: situation of Afghanistan prisons discussed, 31 October 2021, url
291 Starts and Stripes, The Taliban’s new challenge: enforcing law, 19 October 2021, url
292 ICRC Afghanistan, [Twitter], posted on: 16 November 2021, url
293 ICRC Afghanistan, [Twitter], posted on: 16 November 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

2. Situation under Taliban rule for thegeneral population and certain profiles
2.1 Compliance with Taliban moral and religious norms
Throughout the reference period it remained unclear which laws were enforced by the establishedauthorities.294 As previously mentioned, there was a tendency of Taliban officials to state that they
were implementing Sharia without further clarifications.295 An Afghan human rights expert described
the lack of clarity regarding the prevailing legal order as one of the most prominent factors of life in
Afghanistan after the takeover; people did not know what was legal or not, whether the laws of theprevious administration were still in place or had been replaced. The source called the situation ‘asuspension of the legal order’.296
As the laws were difficult to identify, some people altered their characteristics and behaviour toconform with what was perceived as Taliban norms.297 For example, in the first days after the
Taliban entered Kabul many people stayed indoors, and especially professional women and persons
fearing retaliation reportedly did not go outside.298 There were also reports on an increased demand
for traditional clothing for men and women299, and some men letting their beards grow out.300
Reactions to behaviour perceived as non-compliant with Taliban moral and religious norms seemed
to differ. According to journalist Ali Latifi, the top leadership’s assurances that people could resume
their daily lives did not ‘reach the bottom’, and there were instances of fighters subjecting people toviolence or verbal confrontations.301 For instance, men were reportedly stopped and harassed by
Taliban fighters for wearing Western style clothes302 or cutting beards303, and women for leaving
their homes without a male relative304 or not wearing a burqa.305
The Head of the Ministry of Virtue and Vice in Ghazni province told CNN that the authority wanted
to help Afghans to embrace Islamic rule, and persons who did not follow their interpretation of
Sharia law were to be ‘informed’ on their deed. Using force to convince someone was ‘against theEmirate’s policy’ and ‘a gentler approach’ was outlined in a handbook.306 The head of the same
ministry in Kandahar told The Guardian that the staff members would focus on persuasion and not

294 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October

2021, url; CNN, Taliban's religious police instructed to be more moderate, but vulnerable Afghans say brutal justice is still
being meted out, 12 October 2021, url
295 Rahimi, H. Opinion. What the Taliban may be getting wrong about Islamic governance, Al Jazeera, 24 August 2021, url;
WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October 2021,
url; CNN, Taliban's religious police instructed to be more moderate, but vulnerable Afghans say brutal justice is still being
meted out, 12 October 2021, url
296 Afghan Human Rights Expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
297 Afghan Human Rights Expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
298 FT, Deaths reported as Taliban faces growing dissent in Afghan cities, 19 August 2021, url
299 Pajhwok Afghan News, Hijab, turban prices soar in Kabul with Taliban’s return, 22 August 2021, url
300 CNN, The Taliban have Afghanistan's justice system in their hands. CNN shows what it's like, 11 October 2021, url
301 Al Jazeera, 100 days of the Taliban, 23 November 2021, url
302 CNN, The Taliban have Afghanistan's justice system in their hands. CNN shows what it's like, 11 October 2021, url;
Telegraph (The), Taliban 'flog young Afghans for wearing jeans', 22 August 2021, url
303 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban’s ‘New’ Governing Style Includes Beatings For Beard Shaving, 6 October 2021, url; Hasht-e
Subh Daily, Taliban Banned Beard Shaving in Ghor, 1 November 2021, url
304 HRW & SJSU, Afghanistan: Taliban Abuses Cause Widespread Fear, 23 September 2021, url
305 openDemocracy, I travelled around Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. This is what I saw, 24 November 2021, url
306 CNN, Taliban's religious police instructed to be more moderate, but vulnerable Afghans say brutal justice is still being
meted out, 12 October 2021, url

33

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

violence, and also shared a booklet with guidelines.307 However, this handbook reportedly set
different stages for responses to prohibited acts, stretching from education and guidance to the useof force.308 According to Human Rights Watch, the later stages outlined in the manual included
prohibition of vice in ‘an aggressive, angry and scary manner’ or ‘physically’. Human Rights Watch
further stated that, except for instructions on how to enforce rules against ‘vice’, the manual also
contained guidelines for all Afghans and Taliban members. For instance, the handbook outlined rules
on dress codes for women but added that such mandates should be enforced in ‘an easy and kindway’.309
According to CNN, the religious police was keen on showing ‘a lighter touch’ and referred to asequence where, in the presence of CNN, they informed the public to make sure that womencovered and did not travel without a close male relative. During this episode, they did not pay
attention to a man openly smoking a cigarette, an action which was forbidden under their previous
rule.310 Omar Sadr, assistant professor at AUAF, stated that the Taliban were cautious of how topresent themselves in some areas, and he thought that they had softened their attitude in certain
areas, although there were no indications of any departure from their core fundamental
principles.311 An Afghan journalist suggested that the Taliban had not changed since the 1990s, andthat the virtue and vice squads were trying to operate away from the eyes of (especially Western)
media.312

2.2 Reactions to demonstrations and protests
Demonstrations and other protest actions occurred on several occasions after the Taliban takeover,with participants demonstrating against Taliban rule313, against the closure of banks314, demanding
proper rights for women315, urging the international community to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets316,
demonstrating against forced evictions317, and teachers and medical personnel demanding theirsalaries.318 Demonstrations in support of the Taliban also took place.319 On 8 September 2021, theTaliban issued an instruction prohibiting unauthorised assemblies.320 Two days later OHCHR
expressed concern over what was described as an ‘increasingly violent response’ towards peacefulprotesters.321

307 Guardian (The), ‘We don’t want people to be in a panic,’ says chief of Taliban morality police, 19 September 2021, url
308 Guardian (The), ‘We don’t want people to be in a panic,’ says chief of Taliban morality police, 19 September 2021, url;

HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban ‘Vice’ Handbook Abusive, 29 October 2021, url
309 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban ‘Vice’ Handbook Abusive, 29 October 2021, url
310 CNN, Taliban's religious police instructed to be more moderate, but vulnerable Afghans say brutal justice is still being
meted out, 12 October 2021, url
311 Al Jazeera, 100 days of the Taliban, 23 November 2021, url
312 NPR, A more moderate Taliban? An Afghan journalist says nothing has changed, 7 October 2021, url
313 Reuters, Three dead after anti-Taliban protests in Jalalabad-witnesses, 18 August 2021, url
314 Khaama Press, Hundreds of people protest against closure of banks in Kabul, 28 August 2021, url
315 India Today, Taliban fighters watching, Afghan women protest for their rights on Kabul streets, 18 August 2021, url;
TOLOnews, Women Call for Political, Social Inclusion, 5 December 2021, url
316 Khaama Press, People protested in Kabul against US over frozen assets, 24 September 2021, url
317 CNN, Taliban gives thousands of Kandahar residents three days to leave their homes, 15 September 2021, url
318 Khaama Press, Hundreds of doctors ask for their 14-month unpaid salaries in Kabul, 10 October 2021, url; TOLOnews,
Herat Teachers Demand Their Salaries, 20 October 2021, url
319 New York Times (The), At Pro-Taliban Protest, a Symbol of America’s Lost Influence: Faces Obscured by Veils, 11
September 2021, url; Pajhwok Afghan News, Farah women rally for rights under Islamic law, 21 September 2021, url;
Pajhwok Afghan News, Khost protest calls for unfreezing of Afghanistan money, 23 September 2021, url
320 OHCHR, Press briefing notes on Afghanistan, 10 September 2021, url; New York Times (The), As Taliban Crush Dissent,
New Leaders Face Cascading Challenges, 8 September 2021, url
321 OHCHR, Press briefing notes on Afghanistan, 10 September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Anti-Taliban protests reportedly took place in Jalalabad, Kabul, Khost and Kunar.322 In some cases,
the protests were met with violence by Taliban fighters. In Jalalabad, Taliban fighters reportedly shot
and attacked ‘dozens of people’ carrying the Afghan republic’s national flag on 18 August 2021.323 Al
Jazeera reported on two deaths324, while Reuters reported on three deaths and more than a dozen
people injured during this event, although Reuters stated that it remained unclear whether thedeaths were caused by shooting or a stampede.325 Marking the Afghan National Independence Day,
19 August 2021, demonstrations were held in Kabul and other cities during which protesters carried
the Afghan republic’s national flag.326 According to Al Jazeera, at least two persons were killed in
Asadabad (the capital of Kunar province). Witnesses said that Taliban opened fire at a crowd after amember of the crowd had stabbed a Taliban fighter.327 In the second week of September 2021, antiPakistan protests reportedly took place in Kabul with participants in ‘hundreds’.328 Taliban fightersreportedly beat four Afghan media workers, and detained and kept journalists and protestors in abasement.329 During the same week, anti-Taliban protests took place in Herat330, Parwan, Nimruz,
Kunduz, and Kapisa provinces.331 In some cases, Taliban fighters subjected protesters to violence andarrests occurred.332 In Herat, two men were reported shot dead and seven others wounded as
Taliban fighters fired at protesters.333
Several demonstrations for women’s rights took place throughout the reference period334, and in theweek of 2 – 8 September 2021 there were daily reports of demonstrations taking place.335 Most
reported demonstrations occurred in Kabul but there were also reports on ‘women’s
demonstrations’ in Herat336, Mazar-e Sharif337, Badakhshan338 and smaller cities.339 Since then
women-staged protests have reportedly waned after violent crackdowns took place and a ban on
unauthorised protests was issued.340 In many cases there were no reports of Taliban fighters
322 New York Times (The), The Taliban respond with force to an outpouring of public anger, 18 August 2021, url;

RFE/RL/Gandhara, Report Of Taliban Violence In Afghanistan As Ghani Denies Theft, 18 August 2021, url
323 RFE/RL, Report Of Taliban Violence In Afghanistan As Ghani Denies Theft, 18 August 2021, url
324 Al Jazeera, Afghans display national flag as they mark independence day, 19 August 2021, url
325 Reuters, Three dead after anti-Taliban protests in Jalalabad-witnesses, 18 August 2021, url
326 New York Times (The), Demonstrations Against the Taliban Spread Throughout Kabul, 19 August 2021, url
327 Al Jazeera, Afghans display national flag as they mark independence day, 19 August 2021, url
328 Al Jazeera, Hundreds of Afghans take to Kabul’s streets calling for ‘freedom’, 7 September 2021, url
329 Khaama Press, Journalists beaten, detained while covering protest in Kabul, 7 September 2021, url
330 Garda World, Afghanistan: One person killed after Taliban forces open fire on protesters in Herat, 7 September 2021, url
331 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghans Defy Taliban Protest Ban Amid Growing Fear Over Government’s Direction, 9 September
2021, url
332 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghans Defy Taliban Protest Ban Amid Growing Fear Over Government’s Direction, 9 September
2021, url
333 UN News, Taliban response to protests increasingly violent, warns OHCHR, 10 September 2021, url
334 India Today, Taliban fighters watching, Afghan women protest for their rights on Kabul streets, 18 August 2021, url;
TOLOnews, Women Call for Political, Social Inclusion, 5 December 2021, url; Khaama Press, Women protest in Kabul
against Taliban’s policies for them, 19 September 2021, url; Guardian (The), Afghan women stage protest in Kabul after
Taliban crack down on women’s rights – video report, 19 September 2021, url; AFP, Taliban disperse women protesters
with gunfire in Kabul. 30 September 2021, url; Khaama Press, Women protest over closed schools for girls in Afghanistan,
26 October 2021, url; Heather Barr [Twitter], posted on: 10 October 2021, url
335 BBC, Afghanistan: Women protest against all-male Taliban government, 8 September 2021, url; BBC, Afghanistan:
Taliban fire warning shots at protest in Kabul, 7 September 2021, url; CNN, Taliban accused of murdering pregnant Afghan
policewoman in front of her family, 6 September 2021, url; BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban break up women’s rights protest in
Kabul, 5 September 2021, url; New York Times (The), Taliban Fighters Crush a Women’s Protest Amid Flickers of Resistance,
8 September 2021, url; AP, Afghan women demand rights as Taliban seek recognition, 3 September 2021, url; Al Jazeera,
Herat women protest against Taliban over right to work, 2 September 2021, url
336 Al Jazeera, Herat women protest against Taliban over right to work, 2 September 2021, url
337 CNN, Taliban accused of murdering pregnant Afghan policewoman in front of her family, 6 September 2021, url;
TOLOnews, Women Protest For Rights In Northern Afghanistan Despite Militant Threats, 6 September 2021, url
338 BBC, Afghanistan: Women protest against all-male Taliban government, 8 September 2021, url
339 Al Jazeera, Afghans protest, fearing curbs on women’s rights, free speech, 8 September 2021, url
340 RFE/RL/Gandhara, ‘Safe Spaces’: After Taliban Crackdown, Afghan Women Take Their Protests Home, 8 December
2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

interfering, although Taliban members were physically present.341 However, there were also reports
on Taliban fighters using violence against protesters and journalists to disperse larger
demonstrations.342 Taliban fighters have reportedly used tear gas and pepper spray343, beaten or
threatened to beat protesters344 using whips and batons that emit electric shocks.345 Journalists andother media workers were reportedly beaten and detained while covering some of the protests.346
On 4 and 7 September 2021, two largescale protests took place in Kabul with an estimate ofrespectively ‘hundred’ and ‘hundreds’ of women protesting against Taliban rule and demanding
women’s rights. On 4 September 2021, the Taliban used tear gas, rifle butts and metal clubs or tools
to rout the gathering.347 On 7 September 2021, Taliban fighters reportedly fired into the air todisband the protest, and BBC related that dozens of women took shelter from gunfire for about 20
minutes in a basement car park.348 On 10 September 2021, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for
OHCHR, told a briefing in Geneva that OHCHR had received reports of severe beatings of protesters,
as well as house-to-house searches to identify those who attended certain protests.349
In November 2021, The Guardian reported that the Taliban infiltrated and intimidated womengroups. According to the article, Taliban fighters appeared on private addresses and called womenactivists on their phones. One activist claimed that the Taliban used women to pose as journalists to
extract personal information from protesters, and that they spread rumours among activists about
their phone numbers being shared with Taliban members.350
Three reports were found of demonstrations in support of Taliban rule.351 On 11 September 2021, agroup of women demonstrated in Kabul and Taliban fighters reportedly accompanied the protesters
and hindered media from interacting with them.352 On 21 September 2021, Pajhwok Afghan News
reported on a demonstration in Farah, which consisted of mainly female participants demonstratingin support of the Taliban interim government and stressing women’s rights under Islamic law.353 On
23 September 2021, an ‘all-male’ demonstration in support of the Taliban was held in Khost city. 354
Another all male demonstration demanding the US and UN to unfreeze Afghan assets, taking placeon 24 September 2021 in Kabul, was reportedly ‘well protected’ by Taliban fighters.355

341 India Today, Taliban fighters watching, Afghan women protest for their rights on Kabul streets, 18 August 2021, url;

TOLOnews, Women Call for Political, Social Inclusion, 5 December 2021, url
342 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Militants Use Tear Gas, Fire Warning Shots As Women In Kabul Demand Equal Rights, 4September 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Militants ‘Used Force’ To Disperse Rally For Women’s Rights In Northern
Afghanistan, 7 September 2021, url
343 BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban break up women’s rights protest in Kabul, 5 September 2021, url
344 New York Times (The), Taliban Fighters Crush a Women’s Protest Amid Flickers of Resistance, 8 September 2021, url
345 BBC, Afghanistan: Women beaten for demanding their rights, 8 September 2021, url
346 TOLOnews, [Twitter], posted on: 7 September 2021, url; Bais Hayat, [Twitter], posted on: 7 September 2021, url; CNN,
Taliban fighters use whips against Afghan women protesting the all-male interim government, 9 September 2021, url; NewYork Times (The), As Taliban crush dissent, New Leaders Face Cascading Challenges, 9 November 2021, url; Khaama Press,
Protest turns violent in Kabul; journalists, women were beaten, 21 October 2021, url; France24, Taliban strike journalists at
Kabul women’s rights protest, 21 October 2021, url
347 New York Times (The), Taliban Fighters Crush a Women’s Protest Amid Flickers of Resistance, 8 September 2021, url
348 BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban fire warning shots at protest in Kabul, 7 September 2021, url
349 Guardian (The), At least four killed in Taliban crackdown on protests, says UN, 10 September 2021, url; Reuters, Taliban
response to Afghan protests increasingly violent, UN says, 10 September 2021, url
350 Guardian (The), They stayed to fight the Taliban. Now the protesters are being hunted down, 4 November 2021, url
351 New York Times (The), At Pro-Taliban Protest, a Symbol of America’s Lost Influence: Faces Obscured by Veils, 11
September 2021, url; Pajhwok Afghan News, Farah women rally for rights under Islamic law, 21 September 2021, url;
Pajhwok Afghan News, Khost protest calls for unfreezing of Afghanistan money, 23 September 2021, url
352 New York Times (The), At Pro-Taliban Protest, a Symbol of America’s Lost Influence: Faces Obscured by Veils, 11
September 2021, url
353 Pajhwok Afghan News, Farah women rally for rights under Islamic law, 21 September 2021, url
354 Pajhwok Afghan News, Khost protest calls for unfreezing of Afghanistan money, 23 September 2021, url
355 Khaama Press, People protested in Kabul against US over frozen assets, 24 September 2021, url

36

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

2.3 Women and girls
During their first press conference after the takeover, the Taliban addressed women’s rights,
highlighting that women will be respected and active in society within the limits of Sharia. As
previously mentioned, they did not clarify or elaborate on what those limits were.356 Women were
not represented in the announced interim government357, and no appointments were made to the
Ministry of Women’s Affairs whose offices were used by the reinstated Ministry for Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice.358 Furthermore, women reportedly faced difficulties in accessing
work359 and girls faced difficulties in accessing secondary education.360
The Taliban ensured that their restrictions on women’s access to work and secondary education
were temporary awaiting ‘safe’ workplaces and learning environments.361 However, Mahbouba
Seraj, executive director of Afghan Women’s Network, stressed that the Taliban used the samenarrative as during their previous rule, when ‘temporary’ restrictions on education for girls were
never lifted.362 An Afghan human rights expert stated that on a general note the situation for womenacross the country had worsened as regards accessing their rights, regardless of living in a ‘hardline’
area or not, although women in conflict-affected rural areas, for instance, experienced difficulties inaccessing their rights even before the takeover.363 Some sources suggested that restricting women’s
rights seemed to be a political tactic of the Taliban, not only an ideological matter, to demonstrate
power364 or to make room for compromise in efforts to receive international aid.365 For information
on provisional differences in the implementation of Sharia law affecting women see chapter 1.4.
The Afghan human rights expert, as well as other sources366, pointed out victims of domestic
violence as vulnerable. As most shelters were no longer operating many were forced to return to livewith their abusers.367 A small number of shelters reportedly remained open, but did not accept newcases.368 A shelter director in Kabul told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi in September 2021 that Taliban
fighters had searched the office several times, and confiscated vehicles and private property.369
Another manager of a shelter in Kabul told The Guardian in October 2021 that the Taliban were ‘still
figuring out what to do about women’s refuges’, and suggested that they fear that women in the
shelters will leave and enter prostitution.370 Furthermore, sources noted that the humanitarian

356 Al Jazeera, Transcript of Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul, 17 August 2021, url; New York Times (The), What is

Shariah Law, And What Does it Mean for Afghan Women, 19 August 2021, url; WSJ, Sharia Law, Women’s Rights in
Afghanistan and the Taliban: What to Know, 23 August 2021, url
357 AP, Taliban name deputy ministers, double down on all-male team, 21 September 2021, url
358 New York Times (The), Taliban Seize Women’s Ministry Building for Use by Religious Police, 17 September 2021, url;
TOLOnews, Officials Deny Removal of Women’s Ministry, 22 October 2021, url
359 TOLOnews, Afghan Women Seek Right to Return to Govt Jobs, 10 September 2021, url; Guardian (The), Kabul
government’s female workers told to stay at home by Taliban, 19 September 2021, url; AFP, [Twitter], posted on: 20
September 2021, url
360 Guardian (The), Taliban ban girls from secondary education in Afghanistan, 17 September 2021, url
361 BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban unveil new rules banning women in TV dramas, 21 November 2021, url
362 Al Jazeera, 100 days of the Taliban, 23 November 2021, url
363 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
364 New York Times (The), Why the Taliban’s Repression of Women May Be More Tactical Than Ideological, 4 October 2021,
url
365 NPR, The Taliban give back some rights to women, but it may be all a political strategy, 21 November 2021, url
366 HRW, Afghan Women Fleeing Violence Lose Vital Protection, 24 September 2021, url; Geneva solutions, No safety under
Taliban for Afghan women fleeing domestic violence, 18 October 2021, url; Guardian (The), ‘I don’t know where to go’:uncertain fate of the women in Kabul’s shelters, 1 October 2021, url
367 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
368 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan Women's Shelters Vanishing Under Taliban Rule, 26 September 2021, url; Guardian (The), ‘I
don’t know where to go’: uncertain fate of the women in Kabul’s shelters, 1 October 2021, url
369
RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan Women's Shelters Vanishing Under Taliban Rule, 26 September 2021, url
370 Guardian (The), ‘I don’t know where to go’: uncertain fate of the women in Kabul’s shelters, 1 October 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

situation in Afghanistan forces families to negative coping strategies, such as marrying off young
girls.371
On 3 December 2021, the Taliban released a ‘decree on women’s rights’, setting out rules governing
marriage and women’s ownership. The decree stated that women should not be considered as‘property’ or be forced into marriage, and that widows have a share in their husband’s property.372
However, the decree did not address women’s access to education or work. Afghan womeninterviewed by CNN on 3 December 2021 stated that ‘the decree would do little to change theirlives’, as the stipulated rights were already enshrined under Islamic law.373 Mahbouba Seraj,
executive director of the Afghan Women's Skills Development Centre, welcomed the decree and told
Reuters that more rules should be released to clarify ‘women’s rights to access public spaces’.374
After the finalisation of the drafting of this report, a guidance related to women’s freedom of
movement was issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, see theIntroduction.

2.3.1 Access to work
No uniform policy was announced related to women’s access to work.375 During the first days after
the takeover, female government employees were advised to stay home, and only women inpositions that could not be replaced by men were allowed to resume work.376 Some of these
positions were in departments for design and engineering and attendants of public toilets for
women.377 Some female government employees were reportedly barred from entering their offices
by Taliban fighters.378 Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen asked female staff members withinpublic healthcare to resume their work on 28 August 2021379, and employees at Kabul International
Airport, including women, reportedly resumed work as of 13 September 2021.380 According to
Financial Times (FT) women were not officially barred from private sector jobs.381
According to Human Rights Watch, referring to a report of United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Taliban officials had issued a written agreement
providing ‘unconditional’ permission to women aid workers to work in three provinces as of 28
October 2021, while women aid workers in over half the country were allowed to work under‘severe’ restrictions, such as being escorted by a male family member.382
Female judges, whose number amounts in Afghanistan to around 250, were reported to face fears
about their safety in the country, particularly after a release of prisoners by the Taliban.383
International Association of Judges (IAJ) and International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ)

371 UNICEF, Girls increasingly at risk of child marriage in Afghanistan, 12 November 2021, url; UNDARK, In Afghanistan,

Climate Change Drives an Uptick in Child Marriage, 11 November 2021, url
372 Pajhwok Afghan News, Taliban supreme leader issues decree on women’s rights, 3 December 2021, url; Reuters, Taliban
release decree saying women must consent to marriage, 3 December 2021, url; Al Jazeera, Taliban bans forced marriage ofwomen in Afghanistan, 3 December 2021, url
373 CCN, Taliban decree on women's rights, which made no mention of school or work, dismissed by Afghan women andexperts, 4 December 2021, url
374 Reuters, Advocates welcome Taliban decree barring forced marriages but call for more, 3 December 2021, url
375 VOA, Taliban-run Kabul Municipality to Female Workers: Stay Home, 19 September 2021, url
376 Guardian (The), Kabul government’s female workers told to stay at home by Taliban, 19 September 2021, url; AFP,
[Twitter], posted on: 20 September 2021, url
377 AP, Taliban-run Kabul municipality to female workers: Stay home, 19 September 2021, url
378 TOLOnews, Afghan Women Seek Right to Return to Govt Jobs, 10 September 2021, url
379 AA, Taliban asks women healthcare workers to resume duties, 28 August 2021, url
380 TOLOnews, Kabul Airport Employees, Including Women, Return to Work, 13 September 2021, url
381 FT, Afghan women resist the return of Taliban’s segregation, 20 October 2021, url
382 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Blocking Female Aid Workers, 4 November 2021, url
383 Reuters, Hunted by the men they jailed, Afghanistan’s women judges seek escape, 3 September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

published a joint statement on 20 September 2021, in which judges were stated to be in ‘very grave
danger’, fearing for their and their families’ lives. Female judges were claimed to be at ‘added risk’
due to their gender as the Taliban did not ‘accept that women have the right to judge men’. IAJ andIAWJ further noted that judges had been subjected to house-searches, threatening messages andphysical harassment, and they also had their bank accounts suspended.384 Only a few female judges
had reportedly managed to evacuate due to the fact that most Afghan women, including the judges,
lacked national identity cards and passports.385
In November 2021, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued media
guidelines banning films or shows ‘against Islamic or Afghan values’ and in which Afghan media werecalled to stop broadcasting ‘soap operas or dramas featuring women actors’.386 The guideline alsoordered women presenters to wear hijab.387 Taliban fighters reportedly hindered female journalists
from resuming work.388 For more information on the situation female journalists see chapter 2.6.1.

2.3.2 Access to education
Girls of primary age were told to return to schools after the takeover.389 According to the Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan all of the organisation’s schools for girls and boys in primary age hadreopened as of 5 November 2021, encompassing 14 of Afghanistan’s provinces.390
However, girls were excluded from secondary education, which initially only reopened for boys.391
During October 2021, secondary schools reportedly resumed for girls in several provinces, including
Kunduz392, Balkh393, Sar-e Pul394 and Herat.395 On the other hand, secondary education remained
closed for girls in most parts of the country396, including Kabul.397 In October 2021, Thomson Reuters
Foundation reported on girls taking secret online lessons in Herat, and reported that hundreds ofgirls and women continued to learn online or in hidden makeshift classrooms.398 The New YorkTimes reported that the rules on gender segregated classes created a shortage of teachers which
limited girls’ opportunities to receive high school education.399 On 2 November 2021, the Taliban’s
Director of External Programmes and Aid at the Ministry of Education told Reuters that the Taliban
would soon announce ‘good news’ on high school education for girls. Furthermore, he noted that
the Taliban were not striving to ‘deleting’ women and girls from schools or universities.400
On 5 September 2021, the Taliban-run Ministry of Education issued a document concerning the
education of female university students, stipulating that female students, teachers, and educational

384 IAJ & IAWJ, Joint IAJ and IAWJ Statement on the Current Situation in Afghanistan, 22 September 2021, url
385 New York Times (The), Female Judges in Afghanistan, Now Jobless and in Hiding, 20 October 2021, url
386 DW, Afghanistan: Taliban issue guidelines against women actors, 21 November 2021, url
387 Reuters, Taliban release media guidelines, ban shows with female actors, 23 November 2021, url
388 DW, Afghan journalists ‘have to get out of the country’, 15 September 2021, url
389 Al Jazeera, Taliban says Afghan girls will return to secondary schools soon, 18 October 2021, url
390 GP, Fler afghanska flickor tillbaka i skolbänken [informal translation: ’More Afghan girls back in school’], 5 November

2021, url
391 Guardian (The), Taliban ban girls from secondary education in Afghanistan, 17 September 2021, url; BBC, Afghanistan:Girls excluded as Afghan secondary schools reopen, 18 September 2021, url
392 France24, Girls return to schools in Afghan province, remain barred elsewhere, 5 October 2021, url
393 TOLOnews, Schools Reopen for Girls in Grades 7-12 in Balkh Province, 8 October 2021, url
394 TOLOnews, Girls Attend Schools in Kunduz, Balkh, Sar-e-Pul, 9 October 2021, url
395 TOLOnews, Girls’ Schools for Grades 7-12 Reopen in Herat, 8 November 2021, url
396 BBC, Afghanistan: Girls' despair as Taliban confirm secondary school ban, 8 December 2021, url
397 France24, Girls return to schools in Afghan province, remain barred elsewhere, 5 October 2021, url
398 Thomson Reuters Foundation, Afghanistan’s girls learns, code ‘underground’ amid Taliban curbs, 29 October 2021,
available at: url
399 New York Times (The), Taliban Allow Girls to Return to Some High Schools but With Big Caveats, 27 October 2021, url
400 Reuters, “We are not deleting them”: Afghanistan’s Taliban promise progress on girls’ schooling soon, 2 November
2021, url

39

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

staff must wear a black ‘Islamic abaya robe and niqab that covers the hair, body, and most of theface’ as well as gloves. The document ordered the classes to be gender segregated, at least by acurtain, and that teaching for girls and women had to be done by women or, in the absence offemale teachers, by elderly men who are well-known for being trustworthy. These measures werealso to be implemented in private universities.401 As previously mentioned the education sector
faced economic hardship, and according to TOLOnews, 50 % of private education centres had closed
since the takeover as of 30 November.402 Some private universities resumed their activities and held
graduation ceremonies, including female students, while public universities reportedly remained
closed.403

2.3.4 Access to sports
Hundreds of female athletes reportedly went into hiding404 or were evacuated from Afghanistan
after the Taliban takeover, inter alia, female soccer and basketball players.405
With regard to access to sports, a Taliban cultural commission official, Ahmadullah Wasiq, told SBS
News on 8 September 2021 that women would be banned from sports where they expose too muchof their bodies and that they did not think that women would be allowed to play cricket as ‘it is notnecessary’.406 On 10 September 2021, Azizullah Fazli, then acting Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB)
Chairman, indicated in an interview that the board would outline how women will be able to playcricket ‘very soon’.407 In October 2021, Fazli stated during an interview that the stance of top Taliban
government officials is that there is no official ban on women’s sports and that they had ‘no problem
with women taking part in sport’. According to Fazli ACB had not been asked to stop women fromplaying cricket.408 In early November 2021, Australia postponed a cricket test match against
Afghanistan, due to the unclarity on whether Afghan women would be allowed to play cricket.409 On
24 November 2021, Mirwaus Ashraf, the new chairman of the ACB stated that female cricketers cancontinue playing, and that ACB will provide for their basic needs and facilities.410

2.4 Hazara and Shia Muslims
There is no up-to-date data on the number of ethnic and religious minorities in Afghanistan.411 While
the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) includes no data on ethnic and religious
groups412, some estimate that Shia Muslims in Afghanistan compromise 10–20 % of the

401 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Imposes New Dress Code, Segregation of Women At Afghan Universities, 6 September 2021,

url; CNN, Curtains separate male and female Afghan students as new term begins under Taliban rule, 7 September 2021,
url
402 TOLOnews, 50% of Private Education Centers Closed Nationwide Since Takeover, 30 November 2021, url
403 Daily Mail, Female students in Afghanistan graduate from private university - watched on by Taliban leaders, 29
November 2021, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Economic Situation Hurting Private Universities, 3 November 2021, url
404 Al Jazeera, Ban? No ban? Afghan cricket chief offers hope to women athletes, 13 October 2021, url; BBC Sport,
Afghanistan women’s cricket team: Players hiding in Kabul fear Taliban rule, 1 September 2021, url
405 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Dozens More Afghans Linked To Women’s Soccer, Basketball Are Evacuated From Afghanistan, 21
October 2021, url; BBC, Rescuing the Afghanistan girls’ football team, 24 November 2021, url; Guardian (The), Dozens
more female footballers and family members escape Afghanistan, 15 September 2021, url
406 SBS News, Taliban say women won’t be allowed to play sport, 8 September 2021, url
407 SBS News, Afghanistan’s cricket board signals Taliban backtrack on women’s cricket ban, 10 September 2021, url
408 Al Jazeera, Ban? No ban? Afghan cricket chief offers hope to women athletes, 13 October 2021, url
409 Al Jazeera, Australia postpones its first-ever Afghanistan cricket Test match, 5 November 2021, url
410 TOLOnews, Afghan Official Says Women Can Continue Playing Cricket, 24 November 2021, url
411 Reuters, For Afghan Hazaras, where to pray can be life and death choice, 21 October 2021, url
412 Afghanistan, NSIA (National Statistics and Information Authority), Afghanistan Statistical Yearbook 2020, April 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

population413 and that Hazaras compromise 15 % of the population.414 The Hazaras constitute thelargest part of Afghanistan’s Shia Muslims.415
The Hazara group is native to the region of Hazarajat in central Afghanistan416, which comprises theprovinces of Ghor, Bamyan, and Daykundi417 as well as parts of Ghazni, Uruzgan, and Wardak.418 In
Hazarajat, the Hazara were reported to have been involved in conflicts with the nomadic population,
the majority of whom is comprised by Pashtuns.419 For more information, see EASO ReportAfghanistan – Criminal law, customary justice and informal dispute resolution, pp. 24-25.
Many Hazaras migrated or were displaced to other parts of Afghanistan because of poverty and thecontinuing conflict since the start of the Afghan war in 1978.420 During the Taliban rule between
1996 and 2001421, several massacres were perpetrated on the Hazara: in Mazar-e Sharif in 1998422,
and in Yakawlang (Yakaolang), Bamyan in 2001.423 After the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, thesituation of the Hazara community was reported to have improved424: as noted by a researcher,Michael Semple, the Hazara ‘maximized their participation in the new political, economic and social
fields, in particular education.’425 However, new security threats emerged for the Shia Muslim(Hazara) community from 2016 and onwards as the ISKP was established as a new conflict actor in
Afghanistan carrying out attacks targeting, inter alia, Hazaras.426 For information on the situationand treatment of the Hazara and Shia Muslims by the former government, the Taliban, and ISKP in
2018 – 2020, see EASO Query on Hazaras and Shias.
In June 2021, a Hazara leader in Central Afghanistan, Zulfiqar Omid, claimed having mobilised 800
fighters into ‘self-protection groups’.427 As reported by DW on 1 September 2021, Omid stated thatthe Hazara resistance comprised 800 regular fighters and 5 000 volunteers and that he wasconducting talks with Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the NRF in the Panjsher valley428, on uniting
Hazara and Tajik forces.429 In an interview with EASO on 9 November 2021, Dr. Melissa Kerr
Chiovenda said that ‘the Hazara militias seemed to have silenced,’ while people whom she might
expect to be involved in any resistance were ‘people, who worked for the former security forces,
and they all were in hiding, including the governor of Bamyan, who hid himself in the mountains.’
According to the sources Dr. Kerr Chiovenda was in contact with, the Hazara militias that had been
active before ‘were not active anymore and stayed low’.430
As noted by an Afghan human rights expert, there seemed to be no Taliban policies in place against
the Hazara minority or on evictions against them after the Taliban took over Afghanistan.431 Shia
Muslims were allowed to perform their religious ceremonies, such as annual celebrations of the
Ashura. Furthermore, the Taliban vowed to protect the Hazara community and Taliban fighters
413 Reuters, For Afghan Hazaras, where to pray can be life and death choice, 21 October 2021, url
414 FT, Afghanistan’s Shia are fearful in face of Taliban takeover, 26 August 2021, url
415 USHMM, Early Warning Project, Countries at Risk for Mass Killing 2021-22, November 2021, url, p. 10416 Britannica, Hazara, n.d., url
417 Johnson Th., H. and Adamec, L. W., Historical Dictionary of Afghanistan, Fifth Edition, Rowman & Littlefield, London,

2021, p. 216
418 Australia, DFAT, DFAT Country Information Report, Afghanistan, 27 June 2019, url, p. 10
419 Giustozzi, A., Typologies of nomad-settler conflict in Afghanistan, AREU Issues Paper, AREU, January 2018, url, pp. 2, 9.
420 Britannica, Hazara, n.d., url
421 CFR, The Taliban in Afghanistan, 15 September 2021, url
422 MRG, Hazaras, n.d., url
423 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Hazara in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Region Fear Repeat of Taliban Atrocities, 31 July 2021, url
424 MRG, Hazaras, n.d., url
425 Semple, M., The rise of the Hazaras and the challenge of pluralism in Afghanistan 1978-2011, n.d., url
426 HRW, Afghanistan: Surge in Islamic State Attacks on Shia, 25 October 2021, url
427 New York Times (The), Attacked and Vulnerable, Some Afghans Are Forming Their Own Armies, 24 June 2021, url
428 France 24, Afghan resistance has sanctuary in Tajikistan, but fighting Taliban a ‘non-viable prospect,’ 4 October 2021, url
429 DW, Afghanistan’s repressed minority faces a hostile Taliban, 1 September 2021, url
430 Kerr Chiovenda, M. (Dr.), online interview, 9 November 2021.
431 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

reportedly guarded Shia Mosques432 However, the Taliban were reported to have confirmed that its
governance would be based solely on Sunni Hanafi jurisprudence.433 The Taliban Cabinet, announced
on 7 September 2021, had no Hazara representatives. On 21 September 2021, a member of the Shia
Hazara community, Mohammad Hasan Ghiasi, was appointed deputy health minister,434 which is thehighest post to which a Hazara was appointed in the current cabinet. As reported by AP on 16
November 2021, the Taliban leadership rejected ‘repeated requests’ of Hazara community leaders
to be included into the government administration; several Hazaras, who were appointed to posts inthe provincial administration had been part of the Taliban insurgency since long and few Hazaras
recognised them as representatives.435 According to Dr. Andrea Chiovenda, interviewed by EASO on
9 November 2021, there had been a few ‘symbolic’ appointments of Hazaras to mid or lower levels
within the new government, but he stated that he would not call it an ‘inclusion’ of Hazaras.436
According to Dr. Kerr Chiovenda, sources in Bamyan and Daykundi noted that the Taliban had notappointed locals to govern in the provisional centres, but people from ‘outside’, whom, she figured,
most Hazaras in the area did not know.437
At the end of August 2021, many Hazaras were reportedly crossing to Pakistan.438 Referring toactivists, the Guardian reported that around 10 000 Hazaras arrived in Quetta city in Baluchistan
province in Pakistan.439 As reported by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on
19 October 2021, Hazaras constituted 40 % ‘among the new arrivals in Iran.’440
With the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, instances of violence against theHazara were reported to have increased.441 As found by Amnesty International (AI), at least nine
Hazara men were killed by the Taliban fighters (six shot and three tortured to death) in the village ofMundarakht, Malistan district, Gazni province, between 4 and 6 July, after the Taliban captured theprovince.442 On 30 August 2021, the Taliban reportedly killed 13 ethnic Hazara, including nine former
ANDSF members who were executed after they had surrendered and two civilians, including a 17year-old-girl, who attempted to flee after ‘the Taliban opened fire on a crowd of people’ in Kahor
village, Khidir district, Daykundi province.443
Forced evictions of Hazaras also reportedly took place. According to Patricia Gossman, associate
director at Human Rights Watch Asia division, ‘Hazaras and others’ were evicted due to theirethnicity or political opinion.444 According to the Afghan human rights expert, in areas where
evictions took place, it seemed to occur due to a perception of the Hazara minority as ‘inferior’,making it relatively easy for local Taliban authorities to grab their property and force them out of
their homes without risking much.445 ABC reported, however, that Taliban officials in Kabul had
retracted some eviction orders in Daikundi, but as of 15 October 2021 no residents had returned.446

432 AP, Despite mistrust, Afghan Shiites seek Taliban protection, 16 November 2021, url
433 Mohammadi, S. and Askary, S., Why the Hazara people fear genocide in Afghanistan, Al Jazeera, 27 October 2021,

url

434 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Expands Afghan Cabinet Lit but Again Fails To Include Women, 21 September 2021, url; WSJ,

Taliban Add Minorities, Technocrats to Afghan Government, but no Women, 21 September 2021, url
435 AP, Despite mistrust, Afghan Shiites seek Taliban protection, 16 November 2021, url
436 Chiovenda, A. (Dr.), online interview, 9 November 2021.
437 Kerr Chiovenda, M. (Dr), online interview, 9 November 2021
438 Guardian (The), Hazara Shias flee Afghanistan fearing Taliban persecution, 29 August 2021, url; DW, Afghanistan’s
repressed minority faces a hostile Taliban, 1 September 2021, url
439 Guardian (The), Hazara Shias flee Afghanistan fearing Taliban persecution, 29 August 2021, url
440 UNHCR, Afghanistan situation Emergency preparedness and response in Iran, 19 October 2021, url, p. 2. This figure isbased on the data from UNHCR interviews conducted with 870 families (3 609 individuals).
441 Mohammadi, S. and Askary, S., Why the Hazara people fear genocide in Afghanistan, Al Jazeera, 27 October 2021, url
442 AI, Afghanistan: Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men – new investigation, 19 August 2021, url
443 AI, Afghanistan: 13 Hazara killed by Taliban fighters in Daykundi province – new investigation, 5 October 2021, url
444 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Forcibly Evict Minority Shia, 22 October 2022, url
445 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 17 December 2021
446 ABC, Despite promises, Taliban begin evicting Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras from their land, 15 October 2021, url

42Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

The Afghan human rights expert further stated that some Taliban fighters had the mindset that they
could harass or discriminate people from the Hazara community without being held accountable,
but it depended on the view and mindset among the fighters. The source gave an example of acolleague who is a member of the Hazara community who struggled to get the same service at the
passport office as non-Hazara colleagues. The source thought that the anti-Hazara mindset was
widespread among Taliban fighters, not only for having an ‘identifiable’ ethnicity but also due theHazara community’s engagement in the former government and in social progress in general. For
instance, Hazara women serving within the armed forces and in artistic and cultural activities, whichhave caused a perception within conservative parts of the Afghan society that the Hazara minority
has embraced a culture not in line with the Taliban’s definition of Islam. The source stated that
Hazaras are seen as ‘Westernised’ which adds to their ‘victimisation’.447 Dr. Andrea Chiovenda andDr. Melissa Kerr Chiovenda also stated that the Hazaras were perceived as more supportive of theWest than other groups in Afghanistan. They further stated that Hazaras in general gained morefrom the democratic system as well as the educational system, and had more interest in having
foreign troops present in the country. Dr Chiovenda and Dr. Kerr Chiovenda believed that there wasa common negative perception of the Hazaras as not being ‘right Muslims’, and stated that there
was an ‘anti-Hazara’ language among the general population even before the takeover. They further
stated that people in support of the Taliban, and that are part of the movement’s current statebuilding, usually do not have a positive perception of the minority. Thus, the Taliban’s strive to gain
support could be at the expense of the Hazaras, for example taking sides in favour of non-Hazaras inland disputes. In the past, the Taliban usually took the side of Pashtun nomads in land disputes.448
Among the cases of forced evictions were, as noted by AP in November 2021, Taliban officials
expelling Hazaras from several villages in Daykundi province, claiming they were living on land which
they did not own.449 In September 2021, the local news agency Hasht-e Subh Daily reported onvideos circulating on social media, in which Hazara elders accused the Taliban of confiscating houses
and land of Hazaras in Nawabad and Balasar-e Tagabdar villages in Gizab district, which was adjunctby the Taliban to Pato district, Daykundi province450. As reported by the source, the Talibanappointed deputy governor of Daykundi, Jomhur Khan, who claimed ownership of the lands, and aperson called Zaher Khan Timor, urged around 300 families to leave their houses and lands withinnine days. The Taliban authorities in Daykundi were reported to have started an investigation.451
According to WSJ, eviction orders in Gizab were addressed to Hazara residents of Kindir andTagabdar villages and resulted in 700 families fleeing their homes.452 As reported by UNOCHA,
around 400 families (approximately 2 800 persons) were evicted from their villages of Kindir andDahan-e Nala in Gizab during 20 – 26 September 2021.453 Similarly, the governor of Pato district,Mullah Musafir, was reported to have ordered the residents of Shagholja and Khargak villages,
whose ownership of the land is ‘legally disputed’ according to the Taliban, to leave their homes infive days. The new settlers were reportedly ethnic Pashtuns from Uruzgan province.454 As reported
by Hasht-e Subh, there was also an anonymous source reporting on evictions of Hazara families fromtheir houses and lands in Pato by Kuchi nomads: one of such instances was reported in the Khalaj

447 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 17 December 2021
448 Chiovenda, A. (Dr.), professor at Zayed University, online interview, 9 November 2021; Kerr Chiovenda, M. (Dr.),

professor at Zayed University, online interview, 9 November 2021
449 AP, Despite mistrust, Afghan Shiites seek Taliban protection, 16 November 2021, url
450 As noted in EASO’s 2020 report on the security situation in Afghanistan, the administrational allocation of Gizab district
had been a source of contestation, with sources allocating it to both Uruzgan and Daykundi provinces; see EASO,
Afghanistan: Security Situation, September 2020, url
451 Hasht-e Subh Daily, Taliban Affiliates Force Hazaras to Migrate From Daykundi, Central Afghanistan, 14 September
2021, url
452 WSJ, Taliban Evict Hazara Shiite Muslims From Villages, Rewarding Loyalists, 30 September 2021, url
453 UNOCHA, Afghanistan – Weekly Humanitarian Update (20 – 26 September 2021), n.d., url, p. 2
454 WSJ, Taliban Evict Hazara Shiite Muslims From Villages, Rewarding Loyalists, 30 September 2021, url

43Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

village of the district.455 As noted by the Human Rights Watch, evictions took place in 15 villages ofDaykundi province.456
In September 2021, Hasht-e Subh Daily reported that members of the Kuchi community enteredparts of the Nawar district, Ghazni province, to graze their flocks on Hazara farmlands; theseaccusations were denied by the Taliban spokesperson Bilal Karimi, while the district governor‘promised to address the issue.’ Furthermore, the Kuchi were reported to have evicted four families
from their homes in the Qorban-Mordah village and prohibited the use of the water dam to thevillagers of Surma area.457
In the beginning of October 2021, as reported by Human Rights Watch, ‘hundreds of Hazara families’
were evicted by ‘the Taliban and associated militias’ in Helmand and Balkh provinces. In the Qubat
al-Islam district of Mazar-e Sharif, Balkh province, Hazara residents were reportedly evicted by‘armed men from the local Kushani community’ who ‘were working with local Taliban security
forces.’ While Taliban officials stated that the evictions were conducted in accordance with a court
order, the evicted residents claimed having ownership over the land since 1970s.458
As noted by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative (SRSG) for Afghanistan and the headof UNAMA, Deborah Lyons, in November 2021, the Shia community continued to be targeted by
ISKP.459 In October 2021, ISKP claimed responsibility for two attacks on Shia Muslim (Hazara)
mosques: on the Said Abad (Gozar-e Sayed Abad) Mosque in Kunduz on 8 October 2021460, in which
at least 72 people were killed and more than 140 wounded461 and on Fatimiya (Bibi Fatima) mosquein Kandahar on 15 October462, in which 47 people were killed and more than 80 wounded.463 The
Fatimiya mosque is also known as the Imam Bargah mosque and is the largest Shia mosque in thecity464; as reported by the Guardian, the mosque was particularly crowded on the day of the attack
due to memorial prayers held for the victims of the Said Abad mosque in Kunduz.465 On 25 October
2021, Human Rights Watch quoted a statement of ISKP, issued after the Kandahar attack, in which
the group said it ‘would target Shia in their home and centres.’466
Following the blast in Kandahar, it was reported that the Taliban took the responsibility overproviding security in the Fatimiya mosque, guarded previously by the Shia community.467 In
November 2021, four Taliban fighters were reported to have been guarding a Shia mosque in Kabul
together with a guard from the Hazara community. As reported by the Hazara leaders, after theattacks on Shia mosques in Kunduz and Kandahar, the Hazara ‘in most cases’ got their weapons
back, which had been confiscated by the Taliban when it took control over the country.468

455 Hasht-e Subh Daily, Taliban Affiliates Force Hazaras to Migrate From Daykundi, Central Afghanistan, 14 September

2021, url
456 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Forcibly Evict Minority Shia, 22 October 2021, url
457 Hasht-e Subh Daily, Kuchis are Taking Advantage of Hazara Farmlands in Ghazni’s Nawur District, 20 September 2021,
url
458 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Forcibly Evict Minority Shia, 22 October 2021, url
459 UNAMA, SRCG Lyons Briefing to the UNSC on the Situation in Afghanistan, 17 November 2021, url
460 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Scores Killed, Wounded In IS-K Suicide Blast Inside Afghan Shi'ite Mosque, 8 October 2021, url
461 Al Jazeera, ‘Blood and pieces’: Kunduz residents describe blast aftermath, 9 October 2021, url
462 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Funerals Held for Victims of Kandahar Mosque Bombing Claimed by IS-K, 16 October 2021, url
463 Guardian (The), Shia mosque bombing in Afghanistan that killed at least 47 claimed by ISKP, 15 October 2021, url
464 New Arab (The), Taliban pledge to step up Shia mosques’ security after suicide bombing, 16 October 2021, url
465 Guardian (The), Shia mosque bombing in Afghanistan that killed at least 47 claimed by ISKP, 15 October 2021, url
466 HRW, Afghanistan: Surge in Islamic State Attacks on Shia, 25 October 2021, url
467 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Funerals Held for Victims of Kandahar Mosque Bombing Claimed by IS-K, 16 October 2021, url
468 AP, Despite mistrust, Afghan Shiites seek Taliban protection, 16 November 2021, url

44Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

In the reporting period, the Dasht-e Barchi area of western Kabul, which is dominated by Shia Hazara
population, witnessed several explosions that caused civilian casualties.469 For a description ofincidents in the Dasht-e Barchi area, see chapter 3.2.

2.5 Persons affiliated with the former government, security forces
or foreign forces
On 17 August 2021, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for all government workers.470
However, on 19 August 2021, a RHIPTO Center intelligence report referred to by Reuters presented
information claiming that the Taliban had compiled a blacklist and were hunting down people withsuspected links to the previous administration or to US-led forces, noting that those ‘particularly atrisk are individuals in central positions in military, police and investigative units.’471 In an interview
with BBC, RHIPTO Center director Christian Nellemann stated that there were a ‘high number ofindividuals’ targeted by the Taliban, and called the threat ‘crystal clear’.472 However, Afghanistan
experts Thomas Ruttig and Kristian Berg Harpviken have expressed scepticism on the conclusions of
the RHIPTO report saying that they seemed exaggerated. Ruttig further stated that credible
information on the situation following the takeover was lacking and that the picture was more
complex than the RHIPTO report expressed.473 A former Afghan government official quoted by The
New York Times also reported ‘a pattern of pursuit of Afghan special operations forces personnel
and commandos of the intelligence service [...], as well as police and security chiefs across thecountry’, and also mentioned that it was too early to judge whether this was part of Taliban policy,
or whether individual Taliban members were taking revenge for past incidents. According to thesame article, the Taliban had detained at least a dozen former provincial officials across the country,
while the former head of the Interior Ministry’s police criminal investigation unit, Bismillah Taban,stated that the Taliban were searching for him. According to Taban, one of his colleagues had been
killed by the Taliban, and another colleague had been tortured in the search for Taban’s hide-out.
During the same month, August 2021, an armed group reportedly accessed the headquarters of the
National Security Directorate and the Ministry of Communications, and retrieved thousands of
payroll lists and top-secret files, including files on intelligence officers and informers. Two former
officials stated that it was not clear whether the group belonged to the Taliban, and suggested thatthey might had been Pakistani agents ‘working in tandem’ with the Taliban.474
In September 2021, another article by The New York Times argued that many Afghans werequestioning the Taliban leaders’ control over their fighters, and their ability to oversee the August2021 amnesty. According to the article, ‘former government officials, aid workers and diplomats say
Taliban leaders have barely managed to keep their well-armed rank-and-file in check.’475 At the sametime, violent incidents targeting security officials were reported: five former police officers were
killed in two separate incidents in Kandahar476, while in Ghor Province, a pregnant police officer was
reportedly killed in front of her family, although the Taliban denied any involvement in the469 Al Jazeera, Afghanistan: Deadly explosion hits mainly Shia suburb of Kabul, 13 November 2021, url; Reuters, Blast hits

Shi’ite area of Afghan capital Kabul, 13 November 2021, url; Reuters, Islamic State claims twin blasts in Afghan capital
Kabul, 17 November 2021, url
470 VOA, Taliban's Afghanistan Takeover — a Timeline, 17 August 2021, url; France24, Taliban declares general 'amnesty'
for Afghan government officials, 17 August 2021, url
471 Reuters, Taliban are rounding up Afghans on blacklist – private intel report, 19 August 2021, url
472 BBC, Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt, report says, 20 August 2021, url
473 Landinfo, Temanotat. Afghanistan. Talibans maktovertakelse [informal translation: ‘Afghanistan. The Taliban’s
takeover’], 2 September 2021, url, p. 21
474 New York Times (The), As the Taliban Tighten Their Grip, Fears of Retribution Grow, 29 August 2021, url
475 New York Times (The), Afghans With Ties to U.S. Who Could Not Get Out Now Live in Fear, 3 September 2021, url
476 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Takes Revenge On Former Afghan Security Forces, 12 October 2021, url; Pajhwok AfghanNews, Ex-policemen among five killed in Kandahar, 10 September 2021, url

45Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

incident.477 In the same month, Afghanistan International news quoted reports of Taliban fighters
conducting house-to-house searches in Kabul, looking for interpreters of foreign troops, embassy
personnel and former government authorities.478 This information could not be corroborated.
The Taliban’s acting Army Chief of Staff, Qari Fashuddin, stated that soldiers and officers from theformer government would be allowed to join the planned new Afghan army.479 The TalibanIntelligence Direction of Ghazni province reportedly instructed its members to identify in their ranks,
among others, ageers (mercenaries) belonging to the former government, and report them to theintelligence direction.480 Meanwhile, in an audio recording, the Taliban’s defence minister Mullah
Mohammad Yaqoob, allegedly admitted that some militants had committed revenge killings despite
the declared amnesty, and stated that no Taliban fighters had the right to break the amnesty. The
statement was posted on a social media website by a Taliban spokesperson and was reportedlyshared by several Taliban PR officials, including Zabihullah Mujahid.481 According to Reuters, Yaqoob
stated that some ‘miscreants and notorious former soldiers’ within Taliban units had committed
abuses, and issued a rebuke over the misconduct.482
In October 2021, Patricia Gossman, associate director for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch,told RFE/RL of accounts ‘of people being arrested purely for having any association with the former
security forces, and family members being interrogated or beaten by Taliban looking for former
officials’. According to the same source, ‘the Taliban forces carrying out these abuses appear to havebeen given a free hand while officials at the top deny it is happening.’483 Violent incidents continued
to be reported during that month and in November 2021: according to the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC), Taliban fighters executed an Afghan army officer previously working as aninterpreter for the Australian Defence Force484, while unknown gunmen ‘shot a former Afghan army
soldier in front of his house, killing him and two friends standing nearby’.485 In Khost, a former police
officer was shot dead.486
More recently, on 30 November 2021, Human Rights Watch published a report stating that they had
documented ‘summary execution or enforced disappearance’ of 47 former ANSF members ‘who hadsurrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces’ between 15 August – 31 October 2021, andthat their research indicated that over 100 former security force personnel and family members ofsuch individuals had been targeted. There were also reports on killings or forced disappearances in
the provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, Kundz, and Kandahar.487 On 4 December 2021, the European
Union, the United States, and 20 other countries, quoting Human Rights Watch’s report as well asother sources, jointly condemned the Taliban over the alleged killings of former members of the
Afghan security forces.488

477 CNN, Taliban accused of murdering pregnant Afghan policewoman in front of her family, 6 September 2021, url; BBC,Afghanistan: Taliban accused of killing pregnant police officer, 5 September 2021, url
478 Afghanistan International, [Facebook], ‫[ طالبان جستجوی خانه به خانه را آغاز کرده اند‬informal translation ‘Taliban started
house to house search’], 15 September 2021, url
479 TOLOnews, Taliban Says it Will Build Regular Army, Include Former Members, 15 September 2021, url‫[ دافغانستان اسالم امارات داستخباراتوکمیسیون د ی‬Islamic Emirate of
480 Dr. Ahmad Waqas [Twitter], ‫غزن واليت داستخباراتو ریاست‬Afghanistan, Intelligence Commission, Direction of Intelligence of Ghazni province’], 15 September 2021, url
481 RFE/RL/Gadhara, Taliban Defense Minister Admits To Revenge Killings Despite Amnesty, 23 September 2021, url; Bilal
Karimi, [Twitter], posted on: 23 September 2021, url
482 Reuters, Afghan Taliban defence minister orders crackdown on abuses, 24 September 2021, url
483 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Takes Revenge On former Afghan Security forces, 12 October 2021, url
484 ABC, Interpreter who assisted ADF executed by Taliban, 20 October 2021, url
485 Reuters, Islamic State violence dents Taliban claims of safer Afghanistan, 9 November 2021, url
486 Pajhwok Afghan News, Ex-policeman found dead in Khost, 21 October 2021, url
487 HRW, “No Forgiveness for People Like You”. Executions and Enforced Disappearances in Afghanistan under the Taliban,
30 November 2021, url
488 USDOS, Joint Statement on Reports of Summary Killings and Enforced Disappearances in Afghanistan, 4 December 2021,
url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

On 1 October 2021, Dutch public television NOS reported that the Taliban had summoned Afghaninterpreters previously working for the Netherlands to appear in court. The interpreters were in
hiding and, according to NOS, the interpreters’ families were informed that they might be held
responsible if the interpreters failed to appear in court.489 Later that month, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
quoted Afghan pilots who had fled to Tajikistan after the Taliban takeover, stating that their relatives
in Afghanistan were threatened by the Taliban to force them to return to the country.490
An Afghan human rights expert explained that while it did not seem like there was a policy oftargeting and killing former Afghan security forces, it seemed to happen a lot in some areas. For
instance, in parts of the country like southern, south-eastern and eastern Afghanistan, targetedkillings were a bigger issue than in ‘perhaps’ some parts of the northern areas. However, there arealso areas there who see similar patterns of targeted killings. The compliance on the ground with theannounced amnesty looked different from province to province, and the source stated that the
Taliban were either unable or unwilling to control their soldiers doing ‘crazy’ and ‘outrageous’
things. Furthermore, the Taliban did not hold their fighters accountable when they went after
former combatants or civilians and conducted atrocities such as killings, hangings, and subjecting
people to violence.491 An Afghan law professor reasoned that if the Taliban were to go after andpunish anyone who worked against them, the number of targeted attacks would be significantly
higher than the records today as it would include hundreds of thousands of people. According to thesame source the Taliban had the capacity to carry out such operations in many parts of the country,
but the number of reprisal killings was not so high. The revenge killings seemed to be on a lower
level according to the source, who also added that the extent was hard to know and that ‘thepattern was scattered’.492
As of 11 November 2021, the Afghan human rights expert had seen reports of 30 targeted attacks inthe past two months, and the victims were killed because of their links to the former government
and the security forces or because being alleged ISKP affiliates. According to the source theallegations of victims being ISKP affiliates could be a cover to target some individuals, and Nangarhar
was a ‘hotspot’ for such recent events. Alleged ISKP affiliates were killed without due process, drawn
out of their homes and shot on the spot, or illegally detained and subjected to torture. Although thesource could not say whether such events were part of a larger Taliban policy, the Taliban leadershipdid not seem to have issues with their fighters going after people considered to be of ‘high risk’ suchas ISKP affiliates.493 The Afghan law professor also stated that, although it was hard to say whether
the revenge killings were centrally sanctioned or not, the source ‘absolutely believed’ that the
Taliban systematically targeted anyone perceived as a potential threat, i.e. anyone who could alignthemselves with the National Resistance Front (NRF); anyone with possible connections to the ISKP;
intelligence officials or elite forces of the previous administration who could potentially join antiTaliban movements, and influential figures who could challenge the Taliban. People that were apotential threat to the Taliban were monitored, harassed, threatened or even killed according to thesource, especially persons with suspected links to ISKP who were often executed on the spot.494 Dr.
Andrea Chiovenda, adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, told EASO
during an interview on 9 November 2021 that the Taliban could not enforce its amnesty, and alsomentioned a ‘worrisome’ situation in Nangarhar with almost daily reports of bodies hanging fromtrees along the roads, and similar events taking place in Laghman and Kunar.495 There were also
media reports on killings in Nangarhar where bodies were found with handwritten notes in their
489 France24, Taliban summon Afghan interpreters who worked for Dutch, threaten families, 5 October 2021, url
490 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan Pilots who Fled to Tajikistan Say Taliban Is Threatening Relatives Back Home, 23 October

2021, url
491 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
492 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
493 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
494 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
495 Chiovenda, A. (Dr.), professor at Zayed University, online interview, 9 November 2021

47

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

pockets accusing them of being ISKP fighters.496 Some feared that accusations of ISKP affiliation
made room for the Taliban to target any suspects.497
Personal enmities were also a part of the targeting according to the Afghan human rights expert,
who had seen several reports of revenge killings. According to the source, it seemed like the Taliban
fighters felt like they ‘earned’ to commit such killings by becoming victorious.498 The Afghan law
professor also emphasized personal enmities, as well as local conflicts and ethnic tension behindtargeted killings. The source explained that targeted killings were often driven by revenge by Taliban
fighters, and usually local Taliban taking revenge on local actors because of longstanding conflicts inthat area. There were also patterns of local rivalry, and rivalry between tribes who have aligned
themselves with either the Taliban or the former government. After the takeover the dynamics havechanged and therefore some ethnic tensions have been aggravated according to the source.499
As previously mentioned, female judges and prosecutors reportedly lived in hiding fearing for theirlives as some had ruled against Taliban members as well as released prisoners.500 IAJ and IAWJ
published at joint statement in which judges were stated to be in ‘very grave danger’, and stressedthat revenge killings might occur, and that judges had been subjected to house-searches,
threatening messages and physical harassment, and had their bank accounts suspended. Also,
family, friends and neighbours were said to have been pressed to reveal judges’ whereabouts.501 A
similar account was published by Business Insider quoting a former judge, who claimed that ‘Taliban
fighters went into his house looking for him and searched the homes of his families, friends, andcolleagues.’ Another former judge in hiding told Business Insider that some Taliban fighters were
pursuing ‘personal vendettas’ against judges, and could not be controlled by the Taliban
leadership.502

2.6 Journalists and media workers
During their first press conference after the takeover, the Taliban assured that they were committed
to media ‘within our cultural framework’ and that private media could continue to ‘be free andindependent’ and continue their activities with the requests that Islamic values should be taken into
account, that media should be impartial and not work against national values or unity.503 In
September 2021, the Taliban issued guidelines for journalists, including rules against addressing
topics in conflict with Islam or ‘insulting national personalities’, and instructing media to produce
reports in coordination with the Taliban government’s media office.504 Human Rights Watch called
these regulations ‘so broad and vague as to prohibit virtually any critical reporting about the Taliban’and ‘suffocating media freedom in the country’.505 In late November 2021, Khaama Press reported
that local authorities in Badakshan province had asked media outlets’ report to be published after ‘areview and censorship’.506

496 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
497 Washington Post (The), Taliban sends 1,300 fighters to eastern Afghanistan to battle Islamic State, 22 November 2021,

url
498 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
499 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
500 New York Times (The), Female Judges in Afghanistan, Now Jobless and in Hiding, 20 October 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gadhara,

Afghanistan’s Former Prosecutors Hunted By Criminals They Helped Convict, 21 September 2021, url
501 IAJ & IAWJ, Joint IAJ and IAWJ Statement on the Current Situation in Afghanistan, 22 September 2021, url
502 Business Insider, Hunted by the Taliban, Afghanistan’s former judges are disguising themselves and going underground.
’I have a lot of enemies right now,’ said one., 2 October 2021, url
503 Al Jazeera, Transcript of Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul, 17 August 2021, url
504 New York Times (The), New Taliban Guidelines Stir Fear About the Future of Press Freedom, 23 September 2021, url
505 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Severely Restrict Media, 1 October 2021, url
506 Khaama Press, Media freedom at risk as Taliban censors news reports in northern Afghanistan: Report, 29 November
2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Numerous journalists fled from Afghanistan after the takeover or went into hiding.507 Subsequent
reports stated that some people in unnamed ‘non-journalistic bodies’508 and institutions had used
the identities of journalists to evacuate friends and families, while actual reporters were left in the
country.509 According to a representative of the Afghanistan Civil Society And Journalist Group, press
cards and media documents had been forged.510
On 3 October 2021, the National Association of Journalists stated that 70 % of media outlets in
Afghanistan had stopped operating following the Taliban takeover.511 Taliban restrictions impacted
the media landscape, inter alia limiting popular content512, but the main reason behind media
outlets shutting down was reportedly financial issues.513 About 70 % of Afghan journalists hadreportedly lost their jobs as of mid-October514, leading to a growing feeling of desperation among
media workers finding themselves without an income.515 One local journalist with ten years’
experience reportedly felt forced to take up work in the construction industry making bricks toprovide for his family.516
Still operating media workers faced restrictions in carrying out their work. The Taliban’s regulations
were vague, and thus difficult to follow in practice.517 DW reported in October that the Taliban rule
for media was not uniform, and that the situation for Afghan journalists differed ‘from place to placeand case to case’. Journalists in Nangarhar did not experience any direct interference in their workby the Taliban, while other faced severe problems such as direct threats from Taliban fighters.518
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stated that private TV channels were subjected to threats andquoted a producer who stated that the Taliban had beaten five of the channel’s staff members andlabelled them as ‘takfiri’ (unbelievers). The producer also accused Taliban members of‘systematically’ trying to influence reporters in the field.519
Reporters also faced difficulties in covering unauthorised events such as women’s protests.520
Between 6 and 8 September 2021, at least 14 journalists covering protests were detained and later
released according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and at least nine were subjected toviolence in custody.521 Two men working for the local newspaper Etilaat-e Roz were arrested while
covering a woman’s protest in Kabul, and after their release they showed bruises and witnessed ofsevere beatings with batons, electric cables and whips while in custody.522 Some of their colleagues
were also ‘pushed and slapped’ by Taliban fighters when seeking after the two men at the police
station.523 On 21 October 2021, CPJ reported that three journalists were assaulted by Taliban

507 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Severely Restrict Media, 1 October 2021, url
508 Khaama Press, Common Afghan impersonating journalists flown out of Afghanistan: Afghan Journalists Union, 10

November 2021, url
509 TOLOnews, Afghan Journalists’ Identities Falsely Assumed by Evacuees, 27 September 2021, url
510 Ariana News, Journalists, activists slam evacuees for faking their professions, 27 September 2021, url
511 Khaama Press, 70 % of Afghan media outlets stopped working since Taliban takeover, 3 October 2021, url
512 Guardian (The), Switched off: Afghan media struggle to survive under Taliban rule, 27 November 2021, url
513 Ariana News, Crippling economy closing Afghan media outlets, 11 October 2021, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Media Face
Budget Issues, Lack of Access to Information, 21 September 2021, url
514 TOLOnews, Journalists Call for Access to Official Information, 18 October 2021, url
515 RFE/RL/Gandhara, As Afghan Media Struggles Under Taliban, Jobless Journalists Grow Desperate, 11 October 2021, url
516 Khaama Press, Degeneration of journalism, Afghan journalist making bricks to feed family, 01 October 2021, url
517 LA Times, Many of Afghanistan’s journalists have fled. Those who remain face a harsh new world, 22 October 2021, url;
DW, Afghanistan: Journalists encounter tough times under Taliban rule, 7 October 2021, url
518 DW, Afghanistan: Journalists encounter tough times under Taliban rules, 7 October 2021, url
519 RSF, New (unofficial) oppressive rules imposed on journalists in Afghanistan, 24 August 2021, url
520 LA Times, Many of Afghanistan’s journalists have fled. Those who remain face a harsh new world, 22 October 2021, url
521 CPJ, Taliban fighters detain, flog, and beat journalists covering protests in Afghanistan, 8 September 2021, url
522 France24, Afghan journalists tell of Taliban beatings after covering protests, 9 September 2021, url; LA Times, Taliban
beats protesters and arrests journalists at women’s rally in Kabul, 8 September 2021, url; New York Times (The), As Taliban
Crush Dissent, New Leaders Face Cascading Challenges, 8 September 2021, url
523 Al Jazeera, Taliban accused of torturing journalists for covering protests, 9 September 2021, url

49

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

fighters while covering a women’s protest in Kabul.524 There were also reports of Taliban fighters
subjecting journalists to violence during other types of protests525, and subjecting media workers toviolence and confiscating equipment of unclear reasons.526
Soon after the takeover, some journalists were also reportedly searched for by Taliban fighters.
France24 reported that the Taliban were tracking down people perceived as a threat to their rule,
including journalists, in at least four provinces, using ‘any means at their disposal’.527 DW reported
that the Taliban had raided the homes of at least three of their journalists, and that a family memberof one of the journalists was killed and another injured by Taliban fighters during a house-to-housesearch.528 According to France24, the Taliban opened fire after it was revealed that the journalist
had fled abroad.529 In another instance close to the takeover, armed men reportedly broke into thehome of a TV station director, stole vehicles and other equipment and threatened him.530
On 27 October 2021 the Afghanistan National Journalists Union (ANJU) claimed that it had recorded
more than 30 separate incidents of ‘violence and threats of violence’ against journalists the past twomonths, and in almost 90 % of the cases the Taliban were identified as perpetrators.531
Among incidents leading to the death of journalists, there was Fahim Dashti, who was also a NRF
spokesperson. Dashti was killed in Panjsher on 6 September 2021, and while NRF representatives
claimed that he was targeted and killed by Pakistani Air Force drones, the Taliban stated that he diedin an internal conflict between resistance commanders.532 On 2 October 2021, journalist and lecturer
Sayed Maroof Sadat was killed by unknown gunmen in Jalalabad City, along with three otherpeople.533 In another attack, one media worker was lightly wounded by gunmen on a motorcycle in
Kabul534, while a journalist working for media outlet Salam Watandar was shot and ‘severely injured’
by another passengers when travelling in a taxi.535 Journalists were moreover subjected to physicalviolence by border guards.536 Some journalists were also reportedly abducted by Taliban fighters andsubsequently released.537
In August 2021, the Taliban claimed to have formed a committee that would prevent and probe actsof violence against journalists538 and Taliban representatives met with and apologised to the two
Etilaat-e Roz journalists subjected to torture on 8 September 2021.539 Steven Butler, the Asia
programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told Al Jazeera that the
Taliban promised to investigate matters, but had not presented any actual findings. Furthermore,
524 CPJ, Taliban fighters assault at least 3 journalists covering women’s protest in Afghanistan, 21 October 2021, url
525 New York Times (The), Reporters in Afghanistan Face an Intolerant Regime: ‘Everything Changed Overnight', 11September 2021, url; CPJ, Afghan photographer Morteza Samadi detained by Taliban since September 7, 13 September
2021, url
526 TOLOnews, TOLOnews Reporter, Cameraman Beaten by Taliban, 26 August 2021, url
527 France24 Observers, ‘I knew they’d come for us’ Afghan journalists, activists report Taliban reprisals, 20 August 2021,
url
528 DW, Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban, 19 August 2021, url
529 France24 Observers, ‘I knew they’d come for us’ Afghan journalists, activists report Taliban reprisals, 20 August 2021,
url
530 TOLOnews, Taliban Commission to Probe Violence Against Media, 22 August 2021, url
531 Al Jazeera, Watchdog: 30 recent cases of violence against Afghan journalists, 28 October 2021, url
532 TOLOnews, Well-Known Journalist Fahim Dashti Killed in Panjshir, 6 September 2021, url
533 Khaama Press, Former Afghan journalist, journalism lecturer killed in eastern Nangarhar province, 3 October 2021, url
534 AP, Official: Afghan journalist survives attack by gunmen, 30 October 2021, url
535 Salam Watandar, AJC condemns attempt on the life of Salam Watandar journalist, 22 September 2021, url
536 TOLOnews, TOLOnews Reporter Beaten by Soldiers in Torkham, 24 October 2021, url
537 Xinhuanet, Afghan media safety group resumes all activities in Kabul, 2 October 2021, url; TOLOnews, Herat Family Asks
Emirate to Release Photojournalist, 30 September 2021, url; Bilal Sarwary, [Twitter], posted on: 15 September 2021, url;Bashir Ahmad Ghwakh, [Twitter], posted on: 15 September 2021, url; Larawbar, ‫خېیال داود تپاند نادرکه کړی دی‬‫طالبانو په ګردیز يک ر‬[informal translation ‘Taliban disappeared the journalist Dawoud Tapan in Gardez’], 14 September 2021, url
538 TOLOnews, Taliban Commission to Probe Violence Against Media, 22 August 2021, url
539 Washington Post (The), After Etilaatroz journalists were brutally beaten, Taliban apologizes and vows to investigate, 17
September 2021, url

50Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

CPJ had experienced difficulties in establishing contacts with the Taliban to advocate for the rights of
Afghan media workers.540

2.6.1 Female journalists and media workers
The situation for women working in the media was reportedly difficult.541 While many female
journalists fled from Afghanistan soon after the takeover542, many of those who stayed werereportedly sent home from their workplaces.543 On 19 August 2021, two female journalists at Radio
Television Afghanistan (RTA) claimed that the Taliban were barring them from entering theiroffices544, while two days later, Pajhwok Afghan News reported that the Taliban in Ghazni hadbanned female presenters and music from broadcasting media. 545 By the end of August 2021, fewer
than 100 of the estimated 700 women journalists in Kabul were still working, according to a survey
by RSF.546
During the first days after the takeover, women quickly disappeared from broadcasting media, butsome female news anchors and reporters soon resumed work and appeared on screen.547 A female
news anchor interviewed a Taliban spokesperson on air548, and a female journalist reported from thestreets of Kabul.549 However, both left Afghanistan550 and women’s general appearance on
broadcasting media reportedly dropped again soon thereafter.551
In October 2021, a journalist told DW that the Taliban had announced that women journalists were
not allowed to appear on camera in Badakshan province, and that women working with radio were
only permitted to continue working if all staff members in a program were women.552 More recently,
on 21 November 2021, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
issued new guidelines for the media industry, where it stated that female reporters should wear ahijab when appearing on screen.553

2.7 Human rights defenders and activists
Taliban fighters reportedly conducted ‘door-to-door’ searches after the takeover, looking for interalia, activists.554 On 11 September 2021, Taliban fighters allegedly broke into the house of Fahima
Rahmati, a local female activist in Kandahar Province, and dragged her family members out, beat

540 Al Jazeera, Afghan journalists lament ’bleak’ future for media under Taliban, 22 October 2021, url
541 LA Times, Many of Afghanistan’s journalists have fled. Those who remain face a harsh new world, 22 October 2021, url
542 AJ, Afghan women speak up against new Taliban media guidelines, 25 November 2021, url; Politico, How Athens

became the unexpected hub for Afghan women, 22 November 2021, url; Dawn, 'My computer is my weapon': Afghan
woman journalist, who pretended to be a boy, stands up to Taliban, last updated 18 November 2021, url
543 ABC, Afghan journalists face threats and beatings despite Taliban promises of a free press, 25 October 2021, url
544 AFP, [Twitter], 20 August 2021, url; TOLOnews, Afghan Female Journalist Ask Taliban for Right to Work, 19 August 2021,
url
545 Pajhwok Afghan News, Music, female employees in radios banned in Ghazni, 21 August 2021, url
546 RSF, Fewer than 100 of Kabul’s 700 women journalists still working, last updated 1 September 2021, url
547 BBC, Afghanistan crisis: ‘Hey world, do you care what happens here?’, 22 August 2021, url; Reid, R., UN Human Rights
Council to talk about Afghanistan: Why so little appetite for action, AAN, 23 August 2021, url
548 TOLOnews, [YouTube], ‫ د کابل پر وضعیت مرکه‬:‫نیمه ورځ‬, [informal translation ‘half-day: discussion on the situation in Kabul’]
August 17 August 2021,, url
549 TOLOnews [Twitter], Video – Tolonews’ Hasiba Atakpal reports on the situation in Kabul, 17 August 2021, url
550 CNN, Female journalist flees Afghanistan following groundbreaking TV interview with Taliban spokesman, 30 August
2021, url; Hasiba Atakpal, [Twitter], posted on 1 September 2021, url
551 Reid, R., UN Human Rights Council to talk about Afghanistan: Why so little appetite for action, AAN, 23 August 2021, url
552 DW, Afghanistan: Journalists encounter tough times under Taliban rule, 7 October 2021, url
553 Guardian (The), Afghan journalists decry Taliban rules restricting role of women on TV, 23 November 2021, url; DW,
Afghanistan: Taliban issue guidelines against women actors, 21 November 2021, url
554 France24 Observers, ‘I knew they’d come for us’ Afghan journalists, activists report Taliban reprisals, 20 August 2021,
url; France24 Observers, ‘Lay low and stay home’: The only option for Afghans targeted by Taliban, 23 August 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

them, and took them to an unknown location, following information they had about former NDS
operatives residing in a house in that area.555 On 13 September 2021, Michelle Bachelet, the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that they had received information regarding Taliban
raids on offices of some non-governmental organisations and civil society groups.556 Activists
interviewed by CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, also noted that ‘between 16th August and13th September 2021, the Taliban conducted several raids on women-led NGOs across Afghanistan
and in some cases, they confiscated their vehicles and sealed their offices’.557
During telephone interviews with Human Rights Watch and the SJSU Human Rights Institute, seven
women in Herat, including activists, educators, and university students explained that they ‘had
heard reports that the Taliban had searched for at least some women’s rights activists and highprofile women in Herat’, while one of them claimed to have been informed about a list of 25 highprofile women from Herat, wanted by the Taliban.558 No further information on the date when theinterviews were conducted was provided by the source.
On 21 September 2021, France24 Observers released a special program in which four anonymous
persons remaining in Afghanistan recounted life under the Taliban. One of them stated that the
Taliban had conducted ‘targeted searches’ to look for activists, but have done it so quietly to avoid
drawing attention. Another person said that the Taliban had lists of persons that have worked withforeigners or as social activists. A third person claimed that the Taliban assassinated a colleague, awomen’s rights activist and a nurse, by shooting her in the forehead in her own house.559
Regarding the treatment of activists during the demonstrations in the first weeks of September
2021, OHCHR referred to ‘credible reports’ about beatings and detention of protesters, including
activists and human rights defenders, by Taliban fighters during demonstrations that took place on 8
of September in Faizabad City in Badakhshan province and Kapisa.560
On 4 November 2021, Frozan Safi, a women’s rights activist and lecturer, was found shot dead in thecity of Mazar-e Sharif, after she went missing on 20 October.561 On 6 November 2021, an official of
the Taliban Interior Ministry confirmed the arrests of two individuals related to the killing of four
women in Mazar-e Sharif, including Frozan Safi. No information about whether the arrested persons
confessed to the killings and a motive to commit them was given.562

2.8 Healthcare professionals
Soon after the takeover, the Taliban asked women working within healthcare to return to theirjobs.563 In November 2021, Human Rights Watch reported that UNOCHA had mapped agreements
between aid agencies and the Taliban in Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, ‘showing where female staff
members will be permitted to function’. According to the report, Taliban officials had provided awritten agreement providing ‘unconditional’ permission to women aid workers in only threeprovinces, while in the rest of the country women aid workers were restricted to effectively engage
to their job by the requirement of male guardianship.564

555 Pajhwok Afghan News, Taliban attack Fahima house, arrest family members, 13 September 2021, url
556 OHCHR, Oral update on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, 13 September 2021, url
557 CIVICUS, Activists And Journalists At Risk, Crackdown On Protests In Afghanistan Following Taliban Takeover, 15September 2021, url
558 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Abuses Cause Widespread Fear, 23 September 2021, url
559 France24 Observers, Out Observers recount life under Taliban rule in 2021 [Online video], 21 September 2021, url
560 OHCHR, Press briefing notes on Afghanistan, 10 September 2021, url
561 Guardian (The), Women’s rights activist shot dead in northern Afghanistan, 5 November 2021, url
562 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Arrests Two In Connection With Killing Of Four Women, Including Activist, in Afghanistan, 6November 2021, url
563 Reuters, Taliban say Afghan woman health service staff should go back to work, 27 August 2021, url
564 HRW, Afghanistan: Taliban Blocking Female Aid Workers, 4 November 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

In September, representatives of the Afghanistan Nurses Association (ANA) stated that the situation
was ‘unclear’ and referred to cases where some patients did not accept a female nurse and ‘armed
soldiers’ entering the wards of a hospital making some nurses flee from their workplace.565 Many
health workers were too afraid to resume their duties despite the Taliban’s request of their return towork.566 According to an opinion by representatives of Women in Global Health, Ohio State
University Wexner Medical Center, and Kabul University, the reality of health care workers differedacross Afghanistan, and the lack of clear guidance on the rules in force and how the situation may
evolve was stated to cause distress and self-restriction among healthcare workers, leaving manyfemale health workers at home.567
On 15 September 2021, The New York Times visited a local hospital in Cake-e Wardak (Wardak
Province), in which 14 of 65 employees were women. A midwife working at the hospital said thatmembers of the Taliban had visited them and spoken to her, and that she did not experience any
threat from the new rule.568 AFP did a reportage from a village in Daymirdad district (Wardak
Province), which had been under Taliban control the past 25 years. Local Taliban leaders reportedly
allowed some flexibility on gender segregation at the local clinic where men and women often
worked side-by-side. According to the Taliban official in charge of health care in the district, Islamic
law permits men and women working together when necessary, although under normal
circumstances there should be separating curtains in place.569
On 21 September, France24 Observers released a special program in which four anonymous persons
recounted life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. One source said that the Taliban assassinated acolleague, a women’s rights activist and a nurse, by shooting her in the forehead in her home.570 The
same month a well-known Afghan psychiatrist was abducted by unknown armed men in Balkh.571 His
body was found weeks later, showing signs of torture according to his family.572
In October 2021, a midwife in Paktika told a reporter of The Christian Science Monitor that the clinic
where she works was intruded by a Taliban commander and two fighters who said that women‘have no right to go out or work’, that women ‘attending meetings with men’ and going out withoutmale guardians had ‘ruined Afghanistan’, and that midwives are not necessary as death is in thehands of God. According to the article, midwife services have been able to continue under Taliban
rule to some extent. However, the Taliban’s view on women’s education and work remained
unclear, and according to the article rules and norms were applied seemingly ‘haphazardly fromregion to region’. A midwife who fled Afghanistan but remained in daily contact with colleagues
described midwives as ‘frontline health care providers’ with a constant worry of what will happen tothem and their families.573
On 2 November 2021, Kabul military hospital was attacked as two explosions detonated near its
entrance and was followed by heavy gunfire. Sources from the interior ministry told Al Jazeera that
19 people were killed and 43 wounded. ISKP later claimed responsibility for the bombing.574

565 ICN, Afghan nurses report on extreme challenges and need for international support, 21 September 2021, url
566 France24, Under years of Taliban rule, women nurses work alongside men, 13 October 2021, url
567 Jung, L., Khorsand, L., Afzali, A., Dahir, M., Yassir Essar, M., Dhat, R., Staring into the darkness: women health workers in

Afghanistan, 6 September 2021, url
568 New York Times (The), This Is Life in Rural Afghanistan After the Taliban Takeover, 15 September 2021, url
569 France24, Under years of Taliban rule, women nurses work alongside men, 13 October 2021, url
570 France24 Observers, Out Observers recount life under Taliban rule in 2021, 21 September 2021, url
571 Hasht-e Subh Daily, World Mental Health Day: A Psychiatrist Is Missing in Balkh, 11 October 2021, url
572 Guardian (The), Abducted Afghan psychiatrist found dead weeks after disappearance, 19 November 2021, url
573 Christian Science Monitor (The), How Afghan midwifes are challenging Taliban strictures on women, 7 October 2021, url
574 Al Jazeera, Afghanistan: Deadly blasts, gunfire hit Kabul military hospital, 2 November 2021, url

53Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

2.9 Musicians and artists
Documenting the situation of musicians and artists in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, The New YorkTimes reported that, while the Taliban ‘have not banned art outright’, they have closed music
schools, and radio and television networks were reported to have stopped airing songs, musicals andcomedy shows.575 According to AP, some Taliban fighters are enforcing their own rules, and haveharassed musicians and music venues. Further, wedding halls limit music at gatherings, andmusicians are afraid to perform.576 In turn, several Afghan musicians interviewed by TOLOnews
expressed concern over their future, and called for the government to facilitate alternative job
opportunities if music will not be allowed577, while RFE/RL reported that some Afghan musicians hadgone into hiding.578 According to the CNN, Afghan artists were destroying their own work due to fearof retribution of the Taliban.579 Additionally, the Taliban were reported to have painted over murals,
replacing them with their own slogans.580 In October 2021, The New York Times reported that atleast ‘100 young artists, teachers and their relatives’, previously targeted by the Taliban, had fled
Afghanistan.581 According to a subsequent report, they were granted asylum in Portugal.582 Other
singers fled to Pakistan, and were hiding in Islamabad and Peshawar.583 Some were reported to‘struggle to make a living’ in Pakistan.584 In November 2021, the Taliban ordered that television
channels refrain from airing shows featuring women artists.585 Films and programs against ‘Islamicor Afghan values’ were also banned, as were ‘films that promote foreign cultures or traditions in
Afghan society, or which provoke immorality’.586
Among the violent incidents recorded against artists, on 27 August 2021, an Afghan folk singer was
reportedly murdered by Taliban members in Andarab district, Baghlan province.587 In October 2021,
journalist Bilal Sarwary reported that the Pashto poet Heelamand Zhwanday was taken out of hishome and murdered.588 On 29 October 2021, three men claiming to be Taliban members opened fire
at a wedding reception in Nangarhar province. A Taliban spokesperson stated that the wedding was
attacked as music was being played, but emphasised that no one in the ranks on the Islamic Emirate
has the right to turn anyone away from music.589 Soon after, the Taliban spokesperson and deputy
minister of information and culture Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that two people allegedly
involved in the shooting were arrested but did not clarify whether they were Taliban fighters or
not.590575 New York Times (The), Afghan Art Flourished for 20 Years. Can It Survive the New Taliban Regime?, 31 October 2021, url
576 AP, Under Taliban thriving Afghan music scene heads to silence, 22 September 2021, url
577 TOLOnews, Afghan Musicians Face Uncertain Future, 21 October 2021, url
578 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Afghan Musicians Fear Being Silenced By The Taliban, 29 August 2021, url
579 CNN, Afghan artists destroy their work fearing Taliban retribution, 13 October 2021, url
580 CNN, Afghan artists destroy their work fearing Taliban retribution, 13 October 2021, url; Business Insider, This artist

painted murals to challenge the Taliban after their last rule. Then the militants destroyed them, leaving him fearing for his
life, 22 September 2021, url
581 New York Times, Musicians Flee Afghanistan, Fearing Taliban Rule, 3 October 2021, url
582 Sky News, Afghanistan: Musicians are desperate to flee following the Taliban takeover - this is why, 22 October 2021, url
583 BBC, Afghanistan's singers flee Taliban violence, 16 September 2021, url
584 Al Jazeera, Fleeing Afghan musicians stuck in limbo in Pakistan, 12 October 2021, url
585 VOA, Taliban Edict Targets ‘Immoral’ Afghan TV Shows Featuring Female Artists, 21 November 2021, url
586 DW, Afghanistan: What Taliban's new media rules mean for female actors, 28 November 2021, url
587 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Accused Of Slaying Afghan Folk Singer, 29 August 2021, url; Sami Mahdi, [Twitter], posted on:
28 August 2021, url
588 Bilal Sarwary, [Twitter], posted on: 20 October 2021, url
589 CNN, Three wedding guests reportedly shot dead in Afghanistan for playing music at reception, 1 November 2021, url
590 Ariana News, IEA arrests two gunmen after wedding party shooting, 31 October 2021, url; CNN, Three wedding guests
reportedly shot dead in Afghanistan for playing music at reception, 1 November 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

2.10 LGBTIQ persons
The digital news platform Openly reported that before the Taliban takeover it was too dangerous forgay men to live openly in Afghanistan, ‘whatever changes had been won over the past 20 years’.591
After the takeover in mid-August, members of the LGBTIQ592 community reportedly lived in fear for
their lives, and many went into hiding.593 There were allegations of street attacks and threats overthe phone to LGBTIQ persons.594 Although killings involving LGBTIQ Afghans could not be‘independently verified’595, ABC reported on allegations of the beheading of a gay man596, while
Thomson Reuters Foundation noted that a gay man had allegedly been killed by the Taliban after gay
material was found on his mobile phone during a checkpoint search.597 In a telephone interview withFrance24, Kimahli Powell, the Executive Director of Rainbow Railroad, the only international LGBT+
organisation on the ground in Afghanistan, claimed that the Taliban have a ‘kill list’ for members of
the LGBTIQ community. According to Powell there were a lot of information sharing after the
takeover, and the Taliban seemed to complement these lists through data leaks and entrapment.
For instance, the organisation received information from individuals who had received emails fromsomeone asking for personal data and claiming to be connected with Rainbow Road.598 The Guardian
reported on rumours of the Taliban attempting to trick gay men by contacting them on social media
and offering ways to escape from Afghanistan. The same source reported that some transwomenfelt forced to grow beards to hide their gender identity, and that lesbian women reportedly were
under pressure to act ‘more feminine’.599
On 29 October 2021, a group of 29 LGBTIQ Afghans arrived in Britain, after an evacuation operation,
coordinated by the human rights organisations of Rainbow Railroad, Stonewall and Micro Rainbow,
and the British foreign ministry.600 Two LGBTIQ activists outside of Afghanistan told CNN they had
separate lists each with hundreds of names of people who want to flee.601 Nemat Sadat, a gay AfghanAmerican novelist who taught at an Afghan university from 2012 to 2013, has reportedly a list of more

591 Openly, LGBT+ Afghans in hiding, fearing death under Taliban, 19 August 2021, url
592 The term has been found in various forms in the sources. In line with the EU strategy, available at:https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/lgbtiq_strategy_2020-2025_en.pdf, referring to sexual and gender minorities
as: lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) persons, the drafter of this COI has uniformly
implemented the abbreviation LGBTIQ.
593 Thomson Reuters Foundation, LGBT+ Afghans in hiding, fearing death under Taliban, 19 August 2021, url; BBC, LGBT in
Afghanistan: 'I could be killed on the spot', 20 August 2021, url; ABC, LGBT Afghans are on the run, afraid they could bestoned to death under Taliban law, 2 September 2021, url; CNN, Angry and afraid, Afghanistan's LGBTQ community say
they're being hunted down after Taliban takeover, 18 September 2021, url; Guardian (The), ‘The Taliban will have nomercy’: LGBTQ+ Afghans go into hiding, 20 September 2021, url
594 ABC, LGBT Afghans are on the run, afraid they could be stoned to death under Taliban law, 2 September 2021, url; DW,
Afghanistan: LGBTQ people fear for their lives under Taliban rule, 10 September 2021, url; CNN, Angry and afraid,
Afghanistan's LGBTQ community say they're being hunted down after Taliban takeover, 18 September 2021, url; DW, Transin Afghanistan: A mortal danger under the Taliban, 2 October 2021, url; Thompson Reuters Foundation, LGBT+ Afghans
fear being forgotten 100 days since Taliban takeover, 23 November 2021, url
595 Thompson Reuters Foundation, LGBT+ Afghans fear being forgotten 100 days since Taliban takeover, 23 November
2021, url
596 ABC, LGBT Afghans are on the run, afraid they could be stoned to death under Taliban law, 2 September 2021, url
597 Thompson Reuters Foundation, LGBT+ Afghans fear being forgotten 100 days since Taliban takeover, 23 November
2021, url
598 France24, ‘The Taliban has a kill list’ for the Afghan LGBT community, NGO says, 2 November 2021, url
599 Guardian (The), ‘The Taliban will have no mercy’: LGBTQ+ Afghans go into hiding, 20 September 2021, url
600 Guardian (The), First group of LGBT+ Afghans fleeing Taliban arrive in the UK, 30 October 2021, url
601 CNN, Angry and afraid, Afghanistan's LGBTQ community say they're being hunted down after Taliban takeover, 18
September 2021, url

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

than 500 Afghans he has identified who want to leave Afghanistan out of fear for their lives because
they are part of the LGBTIQ community.602
While the Taliban did not address the rights of LGBTIQ people during the first days after the
takeover603, on 29 October 2021, ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal told Reuters that humanrights will be respected within the framework of Islamic law, but this does not include LGBTIQ rights
as that is against Sharia law.604

2.11 Persons seeking asylum or remaining abroad, and returnees
On 30 August 2021, the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung published an interview with Taliban
spokesperson Zabihulla Mujahid. According to Mujahid he thought that many left Afghanistan out offear due to propaganda, and that the Taliban are not happy that people are leaving Afghanistan
although anyone with documents should be entitled to leave. When asked whether Afghan asylum
seekers in Germany or Austria with rejected asylum claims and who had possibly also committed
crimes would be accepted back into the country, Mujahid replied that they would be accepted if
deported, and presented to a court to decide on how to proceed.605 It was not clear whether
Mujahid referred to returnees in general or only returnees who had committed crimes in thisstatement.
Two days after the Taliban takeover, the Indian newspaper The Print published an article on Afghan
women in India fearing that their families could be targeted by the Taliban for sending them abroad
to study. One woman had reportedly asked her family to destroy all pictures of her without a hijabor posing together with male friends as well as embassy documents and degrees.606 An Afghan law
professor expressed a personal concern as often being critical of the Taliban in, for example, social
media. The source stated to have taken down any connections with family members, as well as
photos, from social media platforms, and claimed that ‘a lot of people’ take similar precautions tosafeguard contacts that are still under Taliban control.607
According to an Afghan human rights expert, there was a negative narrative on Afghans that had left
Afghanistan among Taliban sympathizers and some Taliban segments. According to the source,
people who had left were seen as not having any Islamic values or being on the run from things they
have done. On the other hand, the Taliban have prioritised passports for Afghan labours working
abroad as that would mean an income for the country. So, on one level the Taliban mightunderstand the economic aspect, but on another level, know that many abroad disagree withthem.608
An Afghan law professor described two narratives of the Taliban on persons leaving Afghanistan tolive in Western countries. In one narrative the Taliban said that people flee due to poverty and thatit has nothing to do with any fear of the Taliban, but life is better economically in the West. The
other narrative was about the elites that left: they were not seen as ‘Afghans’, but as corrupt‘puppets’ of the ‘occupation’, opposed to the population. They were said to have no ‘roots’ in

602 People, LGBTQ Afghans Facing 'Violent Death' Under Taliban Are Hiding and Fleeing But Need Help, Advocates Say, 7

October 2021, url; Independent (The), ‘Race against time’ to help hundreds of LGBTQ+ Afghans escape the Taliban, 19
October 2021, url; Thompson Reuters Foundation, LGBT+ Afghans fear being forgotten 100 days since Taliban takeover, 23
November 2021, url
603 CNN, Angry and afraid, Afghanistan's LGBTQ community say they're being hunted down after Taliban takeover, 18
September 2021, url; AI, Afghanistan: The fate of thousands hanging in the balance, 21 September 2021, url, p. 11
604 Reuters, ‘Just give us our money’: Taliban push to unlock Afghan billions abroad, 20 October 2021, url
605 Kronen Zeitung, Wir nehmen eure straffälligen Asylwerber zurück!, 30 August 2021, url
606 Print (The), 'Burn my degrees, photos of me without hijab': Afghan women in India tell families back home, 17 August
2021, url
607 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
608 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Afghanistan, so as soon as ‘the foreigners’ left, they took this group with them. This narrative could
also include, for example, activists, media workers and intellectuals, and not only former
government officials. According to the source the Taliban often said that a ‘good Muslim’ would notleave and that many who left for the West were not ‘good enough Muslims’.609
Dr. Andrea Chiovenda and Dr. Melissa Kerr Chiovenda, anthropologists at Zayed University,
described a similar narrative that people who wants to leave are not ‘the right kind of person’ andnot perceived as ‘good Muslims’. However, they separated the tradition of Pashtun men goingabroad for periods to work, which is a long tradition, from other Afghans who go away and stay in
non-Muslim countries – which is not ‘the right way to do it’. They further stated that in rural Pashtun
areas a person wanting to leave for Europe or the US would in general be perceived with suspicion,and even persons having Western contacts.610

609 Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021
610 Chiovenda, A. (Dr.), online interview, 9 November 2021; Kerr Chiovenda, M. (Dr.), online interview, 9 November 2021

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3. General security situation
3.1 Recent security trends
As noted by the UN Security General on 2 September 2021, the number of conflict-related violencesuch as ‘airstrikes, armed clashes and incidents caused by improvised explosive devices’ (IEDs)
showed a decrease as the Taliban were establishing control over the country since the beginning ofAugust 2021.611 The Taliban announced the seizure of Panjsher on 6 September 2021612, although
the leader of the resistance forces in Panjsher, Ahmed Massoud, claimed the fighting was stillongoing.613 According to UNOCHA, fighting was taking place in Baghlan province in the end of
August, resulting in displacement614, and security incidents were reported in Panjsher, Kabul, andParwan during 6 and 12 September 2021.615
ACLED data for the period of 16 August 2021 – 15 November 2021 revealed some regional
differences. The majority of cases of violence against civilians was recorded in the provinces of
Nangarhar and Kabul, followed by Baghlan and Panjsher.616 It should be noted that ACLED facedsome reporting issues, as explained in the Introduction.
As reported by international media sources in mid-September, a considerable decrease in conflictrelated violence was seen in most parts of Afghanistan’s countryside.617 Farmers in Mizan district ofZabul province told WSJ that they could water their fields at night with a flashlight without a risk ofbeing shot, and in Qalat, the capital of Zabul, young men had started with overnight picnics in thedesert.618 Pajhwok Afghan News reported that the second week of September could be ‘marked as
the second week in the past decade in which no civilian was killed or injured or no conflict related
incidents happened’, although other security related incidents, such as beheadings, explosions, andkillings, took place.619 On 23 October 2021, Pajhwok Afghan News reported again on record low
levels of casualties, counting six deaths and three wounded during the week, in contrast to 56 killed
and 90 injured the week before (most casualties were caused by an attack on a Shia mosque in
Kandahar).620
Travelling by road was reported to have become safer in certain areas.621 According to WSJ,
commuting from Kandahar city to Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand, previously considered too
dangerous, was reportedly ‘clogged with traffic’ in September 2021.622

611 UN General Assembly, The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, 2September 2021, url, para 22
612 AP News, Taliban say they took Panjshir, last holdout Taliban province, 7 September 2021, url
613 Al Jazeera, Panjshir, the last pocket of resistance, falls to Taliban, 7 September 2021, url
614 UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (23 – 29 August 2021), 30 September 2021, url, p. 2
615 UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (6 – 12 September 2021), 15 September 2021, url, p. 2
616 EASO analysis based on publicly available ACLED data. ACLED, Curated Data Files, Afghanistan, 15 November 2021, url
617 New York Times (The), This is Life in Rural Afghanistan After the Taliban Takeover, 15 September 2021, url; Los Angeles
Times, In Afghanistan’s war-torn countryside, America’s exist means one thing: Peace, 17 September 2021, url
618 WSJ, Strange Quiet Arrives in Afghanistan After Decades of War, 25 September 2021, url
619 Pajhwok News, Afghan conflict ends but economic problems surging, 18 September 2021, url
620 Pajhwok News, last week, casualties in Afghanistan fall to record low, 23 October 2021, url
621 Guardian (The), ‘The challenge for us now is drought, not war’: livelihoods of millions of Afghans at risk, 21 September
2021, url; WSJ, Strange Quiet Arrives in Afghanistan After Decades of War, 25 September 2021, url
622 WSJ, Strange Quiet Arrives in Afghanistan After Decades of War, 25 September 2021, url

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3.1.1 ISKP
Despite the general decrease in violence following the Taliban takeover623, Afghanistan witnessed anumber of attacks claimed by or attributed to ISKP624 and the violence levels in Nangarhar saw anincrease with almost daily incidents.625 According to a November 2021 statement of Deborah Lyons,the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UNAMA, ISKP became ‘increasingly
active, stepping up attacks from 60 in 2020 to 334 in 2021, and gained ground across allprovinces.’626 In email correspondence with EASO, Abdul Sayed, security specialist and researcher ofradical militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, commented that he did not ‘understand thebarometers behind this assessment’. According to Sayed, ISKP members could possibly have spread
across Afghanistan individually, particularly escaped prisoners, but this did not mean that they‘posed a threat in those areas’. Based on ISKP attacks and Taliban raids against hideouts, Sayed
stated that ISKP had a strong presence in Eastern Afghanistan (Nangarhar and Kunar provinces), as
well as Kabul and northern Afghanistan.627
According to media reports, ISKP used ‘the same hit-and-run tactics’ until recently practiced by the
Taliban against the previous Afghan government, including roadside explosions and targetedkillings.628 The security incidents were particularly reported in northern and southern provinces aswell as in Kabul City.629 Attacks were particularly reported to take place in Nangarhar province630,
defined as a ‘stronghold’ of ISKP,631 and its capital, Jalalabad.632 On several instances, ISKP targeted
the Shia (Hazara) community.633 Researcher Antonio Giustozzi told Reuters in early November 2021
that ISKP ‘had been carrying out a campaign of targeted killings since around the summer of 2020and had continued since the Taliban victory in August 2021 on a “roughly comparable scale.”’634
ISKP was reported to have no territorial control in Afghanistan635, and no such probability was
forecasted for the imminent future.636 ISKP’s ability to conduct assaults against the Taliban,
however, reportedly raised some doubts over the Taliban’s ability to contain the group637 andmaintain security and stability.638 In October 2021, the European Parliamentary Research Service(EPRS) noted that the presence of ISKP was ‘potentially increasing the risk of civil war.’639 Other

623 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
624 AP, Bomb at Kabul mosque kills 5 civilians, Taliban say, 3 October 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Intensifying Violence

Between Taliban, IS-K Heralds New War In Afghanistan, 13 October 2021, url
625 Washington Post (The), Taliban sends 1,300 fighters to eastern Afghanistan to battle Islamic State, 22 November 2021,
url
626 UN, Abandoning Afghanistan Now, amid Humanitarian Crisis, Would Be ‘Historic Mistake’, Special Representative Tells
Security Council, 17 November 2021, url
627 Sayed, A., email, 6 December 2021. Abdul Sayed is a security specialist and researcher on radical militant groups in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sayed is based in Lund, Sweden.
628 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
629 AP News, Roadside bombing targets Taliban, kills Afghan civilians, 23 October 2021, url
630 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Intensifying Violence Between Taliban, IS-K Heralds New War In Afghanistan, 13 October 2021, url;
Reuters, Islamic State violence dents Taliban claims of safer Afghanistan, 9 November 2021, url
631 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Intensifying Violence Between Taliban, IS-K Heralds New War In Afghanistan, 13 October 2021, url
632 AP, Bomb at Kabul mosque kills 5 civilians, Taliban say, 3 October 2021, url; AP, Taliban arrest 4 Islamic State militants
north of Kabul, 6 October 2021, url; BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
633 AP, Suicide attack on Shiite mosque in Afghanistan kills 47, 15 October 2021, url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Funerals Held forVictims of Kandahar Mosque Bombing Claimed by IS-K, 16 October 2021, url; UN Security Council Report, November 2021
Monthly Forecast, 29 October 2021, url
634 Reuters, Islamic State violence dents Taliban claims of safer Afghanistan, 9 November 2021, url
635 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
636 AP, EXPLAINER: Can the Taliban suppress the potent IS threat?, 12 October 2021, url
637 EPRS, Security situation in Afghanistan, Implications for Europe, October 2021, url, p. 3
638 AP, Roadside bombing targets Taliban, kills Afghan civilians, 23 October 2021, url
639 EPRS, Security situation in Afghanistan, Implications for Europe, October 2021, url, p. 3

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sources noted that the Taliban were capable of handling ISKP640 or stressed that the threat was
exaggerated.641 Sources reported that the aim of ISKP was to ‘sow sectarian divisions’642 and to
discredit the Taliban’s guarantee for security in the country.643 As stated by Jacob Zenn, senior fellow
at the Jamestown Foundation, this would give ISKP ‘chances to rule in areas where the Taliban isdiminished.’644 In November 2021, conflict expert Weeda Mehran suggested to FP that ISKP was a‘convenient scapegoat’ for attacks ‘possibly committed’ in the Taliban’s internal power struggles.645
As of November 2021, Antonio Giustozzi estimated the number of ISKP militants in Afghanistan ataround 4 000.646 As noted by security analyst Abdul Sayed, it was difficult to say whether they were
all active.647 As noted by BBC, there were fears that ISKP could recruit Afghanistan-based foreign
fighters from Central Asia and Pakistan, as well as ‘disillusioned Taliban members’ in case ‘rival
factions’ would ‘develop within the group in the future.’648 According to reporting of AP, ISKP was‘reaching out to tribes and other groups to recruit from their ranks while stamping out dissent
among moderate Salafis.’649 Referring to Taliban leaders, former security officers and Afghans
knowing defectors, WSJ reported that a ‘relatively small, but growing’ number of former membersof Afghanistan’s intelligence service and elite military units were joining ISKP to resist the Taliban.650
Following attacks in Nangarhar province on 18 and 19 September 2021, the Taliban spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid said that ISKP had no ‘genuine presence’ in Afghanistan, stating, as quoted byReuters, that ‘some people who may be our own Afghans have adopted the ISIS mentality, which is aphenomenon that the people do not support.’651 By mid-October 2021, the new acting foreign
minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, was cited stating that ISKP benefitted from the non-recognition of the
new government in Afghanistan, while dismissing concerns that the group posed a threat.652 At theend of October 2021, the head of the Taliban intelligence services in Jalalabad, as reported by BBC,similarly denied the influence of ISKP in Afghanistan and called ISKP militants ‘a group of traitors
who have rebelled against our Islamic government.’653 Furthermore, in the beginning of November
2021, as reported by Bakhtar News Agency, the Taliban’s deputy spokesman stated that ISKP had no‘fixed position in Afghanistan’ and no ‘capacity to recruit.’654
In the period between 18 September and 10 November 2021, Taliban officials and affiliated media
reported on Taliban raids against ISKP, arrests of ISKP members, and prevention of attacks. On 23
September 2021, Taliban security officials reportedly killed three ISKP members in Akhundzada areaof Jalalabad city.655 On 4 October 2021, hours after the ISKP attack on a mosque in Kabul city, theTaliban reported that its forces raided an ISKP ‘operations center’ in Khair Khana neighbourhood,killing ‘several insurgents.’656 On 6 October 2021, Taliban forces reportedly arrested four ISKP
640 AP, Islamic State attacks test Taliban’s control in Afghanistan, October 13, 2021, available at: url; Guardian (The), US togive humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, Taliban say, 11 October 2021, url
641 ORF, ISKP: The exaggerated threat, 29 August 2021, url
642 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Intensifying Violence Between Taliban, IS-K Heralds New War In Afghanistan, 13 October 2021, url
643 AP, EXPLAINER: Can the Taliban suppress the potent IS threat?, 12 October 2021, url; Reuters, Islamic State violence
dents Taliban claims of safer Afghanistan, 9 November 2021, url; EPRS, Security situation in Afghanistan, Implications for
Europe, October 2021, url, p. 3
644 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Intensifying Violence Between Taliban, IS-K Heralds New War In Afghanistan, 13 October 2021, url
645 FP, Taliban Splintered by Internal Divisions, External Spoilers, 12 November 2021, url
646 Reuters, Islamic State violence dents Taliban claims of safer Afghanistan, 9 November 2021, url
647 National News (The), Taliban play down ISIS-K threat despite spate of attacks, 12 October 2021, url
648 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
649 AP, EXPLAINER: Can the Taliban suppress the potent IS threat?, 12 October 2021, url
650 WSJ, Left Behind After U.S. Withdrawal, Some Former Afghan Spies and Soldiers Turn to Islamic State, 31 October 2021,
url
651 Reuters, Taliban say no al Qaeda or ISIS in Afghanistan, 21 September 2021, url
652 Ariana News, Muttaqi says non-recognition of IEA govt is benefitting Daesh, 17 October 2021, url
653 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
654 Bakhtar News, Islamic Emirate Denied Reports that ISIS has Recruited Former Troops, 3 November 2021, url
655 Bakhtar News, Three Members of ISKP Killed in East Afghanistan, 23 September 2021, url
656 AP, Taliban raid suspected IS hideout after bombing in capital, 4 October 2021, url

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members in the Pashae area of Paghman district of Kabul city657, seizing also documents andweapons.658 On 10 October 2021, security forces reportedly arrested 14 ISKP members, who
confessed their engagement in planning suicide attacks and explosions in Khost province.659 The nextday, five suspected ISKP members were arrested in Ahmadabad District in Paktia province.660 On 17
October 2021, magnetic explosives placed on a passenger car were defused in Ghezel Kotal village ofKalafgan district of Takhar province.661 On 6 November 2021, 25 ISKP members reportedly
surrendered to the Taliban in Nangarhar ‘through the mediation of tribal elders,’ receiving amnestyby the order of Mullah Akhundzada; in total, 250 ISKP members were reported to have surrendered‘in over the past two months’ and were reportedly pardoned.662 In a press briefing in Kabul on 10
November 2021, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated that Taliban security forces
destroyed 21 bases of ISKP in different locations including the provinces of Kabul, Nangarhar, andHerat, capturing about 600 ISKP fighters in the past three months.663 On 3 November 2021, threealleged ISKP members, including a woman, were reported to have been killed in an attack over ahideout of ISKP in Jalalabad.664 On 23 November 2021, according to the director of General
Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) of Nangarhar, around 100 ISKP militants, who were active in
Muhmand Dara, Chaparhar, Kot and Khogiani districts, surrendered665; on 24 November, Pajhwok
Afghan News reported on at least 80 ISKP members, who surrendered to the Taliban in Nangarhar
resulting from a mediation by elders.666
On 29 October 2021, BBC reported that bodies of people who were shot, hanged, or beheaded were
found ‘every few days’ in Jalalabad, with many having notes in their pockets claiming their ISKP
affiliation. While no group claimed responsibility for these killings, the Taliban were reported to havebeen ‘widely assumed to be responsible.’667 For more information on reported killings in Nangarhar,
see chapter 2.5.

3.1.2 Al-Qaeda
Regarding al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Lloyed Austin stated that thegroup ‘may attempt to regenerate’ in the country.668 In June 2021, the UN Analytical Support andSanctions Monitoring Team estimated the human capacity of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan as ranging‘from several dozen to 500 people.’669 While during the negotiations of the peace agreement with
the US the Taliban stated it would not allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group into areas under
its control and renewed this statement after the takeover of 15 August 2021, it was reported that
the Taliban received ‘congratulatory messages from al-Qaeda and its regional affiliates.’670 Following
the Taliban takeover, sources referred to reported relations between al-Qaeda and the Haqqani
network671, whose leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was appointed interior minister in the interim
657 Bakhtar News, Four ISIS Members Arrested in Paghman, Kabul, 7 October 2021, url
658 AP, Taliban arrest 4 Islamic State militants north of Kabul, 6 October 2021, url
659 Bakhtar News, ISIS Plan to Carry Out Terrorist Attacks in Khost Failed, 10 October 2021, url
660 Bakhtar News, Five ISIS Members Arrested in Paktia, 12 October 2021, url
661 Bakhtar News, Tragic event prevented in Takhar, 18 October 2021, url
662 TOLOnews, 25 Daesh Members Surrender To Islamic Emirate, 6 November 2021, url
663 Xinhua, Afghan administration downplays IS threat, arrests 600 militants, 10 November 2021, url
664 Xinhua, Security forces kill 3 IS members in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar, 30 November 2021, url
665 Xinhua, About 100 IS militants surrender in E. Afghanistan, 23 November 2021, url
666 Pajhwok News, 80 Daesh militants surrendered in Nangarhar, 24 November 2021, url
667 BBC, The Taliban’s secretive war against IS, 29 October 2021, url
668 AP, Pentagon chief: al-Qaida may seek comeback in Afghanistan, 9 September 2021, url
669 UN Security Council, Twelfth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant toresolution 2557 (2020) concerning the Taliban and other associated individuals and entities constituting a threat to thepeace, stability and security of Afghanistan, S/2021/486, 1 June 2021, url, para 45
670 BBC, Afghanistan: the pledge binding al-Qaeda to the Taliban, 7 September 2021, url
671 EPRS, Security situation in Afghanistan, Implications for Europe, October 2021, url, p. 2; BBC, Afghanistan: the pledgebinding al-Qaeda to the Taliban, 7 September 2021, url

61

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

government.672 In September 2021, Zabihullah Mujahid rejected accusations that al-Qaeda
maintained presence in Afghanistan.673

3.1.3 The Taliban’s ability to secure law and order
Before the Taliban’s takeover, the city of Kabul was rife with crime674, with robberies andkidnappings occurring on nearly daily basis.675 The Taliban reportedly quickly established security
forces in the capital with Taliban fighters patrolling the streets to maintain security.676 Some sourcesreferred to residents that stated that the crime rates had reduced significantly in Kabul since the
Taliban took power.677 However, residents of Kabul have reportedly seen an emergence of robberies
conducted by persons in the name of the Taliban678; there were also reports on the Taliban arresting
individuals on charges of ‘misusing the name of the Islamic emirate and perpetrating crime against
the people’.679 An Afghan human rights expert stated that there were cases of extortion either
directly or indirectly through Taliban fighters. The source further stated that, due to thehumanitarian situation, there were Taliban fighters also struggling with food insecurity, making
some use ‘the Taliban brand’ to go into people’s homes, steal vehicles and threaten people.680
In September 2021, UNOCHA reported on an increase in criminal activities in western provinces andsouthern provinces, mainly in Uruzgan, Helmand and Kandahar, as well as in the northern province
Kunduz.681
On 3 December 2021, a local media reported that Taliban security forces rescued a 9-year-old girl in
Mazar-e Sharif, who was kidnapped on her way to school; one of the kidnappers was reportedly
killed and nine others arrested.682

3.2 Incidents of violence against civilians
During the weeks of fighting in Panjsher and after that, social media sources were reporting on
human rights violations committed by the Taliban against captured resistance fighters and civilians;
however, as noted by Patricia Gossman, associate director for the Asia division of Human Rights
Watch, ‘a credible investigation’ was needed to verify them.683 As reported by BBC on 13 September
2021, at least 20 civilians were killed in Panjsher valley, among whom a shopkeeper, who wasreportedly tortured and killed after being accused by the Taliban of ‘selling sim cards to resistancefighters.’684
On 26 August 2021, ISKP claimed responsibility for the attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport
amid the ongoing evacuation efforts, in which two suicide bombers attacked the airport’s Abbey

672 EPRS, Security situation in Afghanistan, Implications for Europe, October 2021, url, p. 2
673 Reuters, Taliban say no al Qaeda or ISIS in Afghanistan, 21 September 2021, url
674 Guardian (The), Taliban patrols return to the streets of Kabul – in pictures, 6 October 2021, url
675 Al Jazeera, Taliban: From Afghanistan’s rugged mountains to policing streets, 5 October 2021, url
676 Guardian (The), Taliban patrols return to the streets of Kabul – in pictures, 6 October 2021, url; Al Jazeera, Taliban: From

Afghanistan’s rugged mountains to policing streets, 5 October 2021, url
677 WSJ, Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security, 20 October
2021, url; Ariana News, Four suspected kidnappers captured in Kabul, hostages freed, 2 October 2021, url
678 Hasht-e Subh Daily, Kabul Residents Tired of Increasing Armed Robberies, 21 October 2021, url
679 TOLOnews, Armed Robbers Posing as Islamic Emirate Members Arrested, 18 October 2021, url
680 Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021
681 UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (6 – 12 September 2021), 15 September 2021, url; UNOCHA,
Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (13 – 19 September 2021), 23 September 2021, url; UNOCHA, Afghanistan:
Weekly Humanitarian Update (20 – 26 September 2021), 30 September 2021, url
682 Atn News, Security forces rescue girl, arrest 9 kidnappers in Balkh operation, 3 December 2021, url
683 New York Times (The), In Panjshir, Few Signs of an Active Resistance, or Any Fight at All, 17 September 2021, url
684 BBC, Afghanistan crisis: Taliban kill civilians in resistance stronghold, 13 September 2021, url

62Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Gate and gunmen opened fire on civilians and military personnel685, killing at least 169 Afghans and
13 US troops. On 29 August 2021, a US drone strike killed ten civilians of the same family, including
seven children686, after mistaking a civilian NGO worker carrying canisters of water in his trunk for aterrorist with explosives.687
The following are illustrative, but not exhaustive, incidents of violence resulted in civilian casualties,
sorted by type of incident and time of its occurrence.
On 18 September 2021, at least three people were reported to have been killed and about 20 others
wounded in a series of five blasts in Nangarhar province. It was reported that Taliban members wereamong the casualties and that the target of the roadside bombs were Taliban vehicles.688 The nextday, a roadside bomb reportedly targeted a Taliban border police vehicle in Jalalabad, killing at least
five people, including a child.689 ISKP claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb attacks targeting
the Taliban on both days through the ISKP-affiliated Amaq News Agency, which announced that atleast 35 Taliban militants were killed or injured.690 On 18 September 2021, two people werereported to have been wounded after a magnetic bomb targeted a vehicle in Dasht-e Barchi area of
Kabul city,691 which is an area dominated by Shia Hazara population.692 On 22 September 2021, a
Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Jalalabad.693 On 25
September 2021, local officials reported that at least one person was killed and seven others
wounded, including four civilians, after a roadside bomb was detonated to target a Taliban convoy in
Jalalabad.694
On 3 October 2021, at least five civilians were killed in an ‘apparent roadside bomb’ explosion
outside Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul during a memorial service for the mother of Taliban spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid. No immediate claim of responsibility was made but three suspects werereported to have been arrested as suspicion fell on ISKP.695 On 14 October 2021, an explosion of aroadside bomb targeting the Taliban police chief for the Shigal district of Asadabad, the capital of
Kunar province, killed the police chief, wounding four Taliban fighters696 and seven civilians,
including a schoolboy.697 On 23 October 2021, at least two civilians, one of whom a child, were killed
and four other civilians wounded698 after twin roadside bombs targeted a Taliban vehicle in
Jalalabad.699 On 3 November 2021, two Taliban security force members were killed and three others,
as well as a civilian identified as a school teacher, wounded when a roadside bomb targeted a
Taliban pickup truck in Police District 8 in Jalalabad.700 On 30 November 2021, at least two people
were reported to have been injured in an explosion in Kabul’s Police District 6. According to a
spokesmen of Kabul security department, the explosion was caused by a mine placed in the area.701
On 12 November 2021, at least three people were reported to have been killed and 24 injured in an

685 RFE/RL/Gandhara, At Least 72 Afghans, 13 U.S. Troops Killed in Kabul Airport Attacks, 26 August 2021, updated 27

August 2021, url
686 AP, Afghan killed by drone praised by co-workers in US aid group, 15 September 2021, url; BBC, Afghanistan: US admits
Kabul drone strike killed civilians, 18 September 2021, url
687 New York Times (The), In US Drone Strike, Evidence Suggests No ISIS Bomb, 10 September 2021, url
688 Reuters, Three killed in blasts in Afghan city of Jalalabad, sources say, 18 September 2021, url
689 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Blast Hits Taliban Vehicle In Eastern Afghanistan, 19 September 2021, url
690 Reuters, Islamic state claims responsibility for attacks in eastern Afghanistan, 19 September 2021, url
691 Garda World, Afghanistan: Explosion reported in western Dasht-e Barchi area of Kabul Sept. 18, 18 September, url
692 Al Jazeera, Afghanistan: Deadly explosion hits mainly Shia suburb of Kabul, 13 November 2021, url
693 RFE/RL/Gandhara, At Least Five Killed In Attacks Targeting Taliban In Eastern Afghanistan, 22 September 2021, url
694 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Bomb Blasts Hit Taliban Convoy In Eastern Afghanistan Killing At Least One, 25 September 2021, url
695 AP, Bomb at Kabul mosque kills 5 civilians, Taliban say, 3 October 2021, url
696 Ariana News, District police chief killed in Kunar roadside bombing, 14 October 2021, url
697 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Police Chief Killed In Bomb Attack In Eastern Afghanistan, 14 October 2021, url
698 AP, Roadside bombing targets Taliban, kills Afghan civilians, 23 October 2021, url
699 Afghanistan Times, Twin Bombs in Jalalabad Kill Two Civilians, 24 October 2021, url
700 Xinhua, 6 killed in separate explosions in Afghanistan, 3 November 2021, url
701 Tolonews, Two Injured in Kabul Blast, 30 November 2021, url

63Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

explosion in a mosque during Friday prayers in Tereli area of the Spin Gar district of Nangarhar
province; no group was reported to have claimed responsibility for the attack.702 On 13 November
2021, at least six people were killed and seven wounded in an explosion reportedly caused by amagnetic bomb that was attached to a passenger minivan in the Dasht-e Barchi area of Kabul.703 It
was further reported that the blast occurred near a Taliban checkpoint and killed journalist Hamid
Saighani, who worked for Ariana television network, although it was not known whether he was thetarget of the attack.704 On 17 November 2021, one civilian was killed and six wounded in a car bomb
explosion in Dasht-e Barchi area of Kabul, and another explosion was reported in Karte 3 area
nearby; ISKP reportedly claimed responsibility for the both attacks.705
On 22 September 2021, as reported by Radio Azadi of RFE/RL, gunmen in a rickshaw opened fire ona Taliban vehicle in Jalalabad, killing two Taliban members and at least one civilian; according to the
Taliban, all killed people were civilians.706 On 5 October 2021, at least two Taliban members werereportedly killed and three civilians wounded, after unidentified gunmen ‘opened a fire on a Taliban
patrol at a vegetable market in Jalalabad.’707 On 6 October 2021, two Taliban members were killed
and at least three civilians wounded when unidentified gunmen attacked two Taliban members,
who, as reported by eyewitnesses, were collecting taxes from vendors in Hada area of Laghman
province.708 On 8 November 2021, one person was reported to have been killed and three others
wounded after ‘a group of bandits’ attacked ‘a convoy of passengers’ on the Ghor-Kabul highway in
Kotal Bekk village in Yakawlang district of Bamyan province. The driver was reportedly fatally shot
while attempting to escape; three passengers were wounded ‘after resisting the bandits.’709
On 8 October 2021, at least 72 people were reported to have been killed710 and 143 wounded afteran ISKP suicide bomber carried out an attack on the Said Abad (Gozar-e Sayed Abad) Mosque inKunduz, used by Shia Muslim (Hazara) minority, during Friday noon prayers.711 ISKP was reported tohave stated through its Telegram channels that its suicide bomber ‘detonated an explosive vest amida crowd’ and identified the attacker as ‘Muhammad al-Uyguri’.712 As reported by AP, ISKP-affiliatedAmaq News Agency stated that ‘the attack targeted both Shias and the Taliban for their purported
willingness to expel Uyghurs to meet demands of China.’713 On 15 October 2021, during Friday
prayers, suicide bombers attacked the Fatimiya mosque in Kandahar, also used by the Hazara, killing
47 people and wounding at least 70.714 ISKP reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack via its
Telegram channels, stating it was carried out by two suicide bombers at different parts of themosque, the hallway and the centre. On 16 October 2021, the Taliban police chief in Kandaharstated that the Taliban would be responsible for security in the mosque, which was previously
guarded by the Shia community.715
On 2 November 2021, ISKP militants were reported to have conducted an attack on the Sardar
Mohammad Dawood Khan hospital, described as a 400-bed military health facility, situated in the10th district of Kabul. Five ISKP attackers and three Taliban guards were reportedly killed at the702 Atn News, Explosion hits mosque in Nangarhar, 12 November 2021, url
703 Reuters, Blast hits Shi’ite area of Afghan capital Kabul, 13 November 2021, url
704 VOA, Bus Bombing Kills Afghan Journalist, 13 November 2021, url
705 Reuters, Islamic State claims twin blasts in Afghan capital Kabul, 17 November 2021, url
706 RFE/RL/Gandhara, At Least Five Killed In Attacks Targeting Taliban In Eastern Afghanistan, 22 September 2021, url
707 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Taliban Claims Arrest of Four Islamic State Militants Near Kabul, 6 October 2021, url
708 Hasht-e Subh Daily, Attacks on Taliban Members Continue in Nangarhar and Laghman, 6 October 2021, url
709 Bakhtar News Agency, Deadly Attack of Bandits on Convoy of Passengers on Ghor-Kabul Highway, 9 November 2021, url
710 Al Jazeera, ‘Blood and pieces’: Kunduz residents describe blast aftermath, 9 October 2021, url
711 AP, IS bomber kills 46 inside Afghan mosque, challenges Taliban, 8 October 2021,

url; RFE/RL/Gandhara, Scores Killed,
Wounded In IS-K Suicide Blast Inside Afghan Shi'ite Mosque, 8 October 2021, url; BBC, Afghanistan: Deadly attack hits
Kunduz mosque during Friday prayers, 9 October 2021, url
712 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Scores Killed, Wounded In IS-K Suicide Blast Inside Afghan Shi'ite Mosque, 8 October 2021, url
713 AP, IS bomber kills 46 inside Afghan mosque, challenges Taliban, 8 October 2021, url
714 AP, Suicide attack on Shiite mosque in Afghanistan kills 47, 15 October 2021, url
715 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Funerals Held for Victims of Kandahar Mosque Bombing Claimed by IS-K, 16 October 2021, url

64Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

hospital entrance; at least seven other people, including three women and a child, were also killed in
the assault.716 As reported by Reuters, ‘a Taliban security official speaking on condition ofanonymity’ stated that at least 25 people were killed and 50 wounded, although the casualty toll
was still to be confirmed. The Taliban officials identified one of the persons killed in the attack as thehead of the Kabul military corps and ‘one of the first senior Taliban commanders to enter theabandoned presidential palace’ after the takeover of Kabul.717 ISKP claimed responsibility for theattack on its Amaq News Agency’s Telegram channel.718
UNOCHA reported on several incidents, in which civilians were killed or harmed by abandoned IEDs
and unexploded ordnances (UXOs), especially in rural areas of Kandahar where at least 56 civilians
were injured in the six weeks between 27 September 2021 – 7 November 2021.719 On 25 November
2021, four children were reported to have been killed and one child injured in an explosion of ‘some
explosive remnants’ on the outskirts of Taluqan, the capital of Takhar. The children were reportedly
carrying scrap metals, with ‘an explosive device’ among them, for sale.720

3.3 Displacement and return3.3.1 IDPs
As of 15 November 2021, UNHCR estimated the figure of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in
Afghanistan at 3.4 million, reporting that around 667 000 Afghans had been internally displaced dueto the conflict since January 2021.721 Until the beginning of November 2021, IDPs were registered in
33 Afghan provinces, and 80 % were women and children.722 Most of the IDPs were displaced toregional capitals and urban centres as well as to Kabul city.723 As noted by International Crisis Groupin September 2021, the number of IDPs in Afghanistan ‘over the last seven months was twice themonthly average in the last five years,’ and the figures were expected to increase ‘as aid agencies’
accounting catches up with the scale of the crisis.’724
According to UNOCHA data on internal displacement in Afghanistan, 21 991 Afghans were internallydisplaced in the period between 4 August and 18 October 2021. The provinces of origin, included
into the UNOCHA data as of 5 December 2021, were Panjsher (3 990 IDPs), Daykundi (2 877 IDPs),
Kunduz (2 695 IDPs), Herat (1 818 IDPs), Kapisa (1 680 IDPs), Ghor (1 510 IDPs), Takhar (1 165 IDPs),
Paktya (896 IDPs), Baghlan (882 IDPs), Parwan (863 IDPs), Farah (794 IDPs), Badakhshan (630 IDPs),
Badghis (399 IDPs), Kandahar (392 IDPs), Balkh (385 IDPs) Helmand (91 IDPs), Kunar (98 IDPs), Logar(280 IDPs), Samangan (280 IDPs), Maidan Wardak (217 IDPs), and Faryab (49 IDPs). The provinceswith the largest arrival of IDPs in the same period, included in UNOCHA data, were Kabul (11 863
IDPs), Herat (4 018 IDPs), Daykundi (2 856 IDPs), Kapisa (1 057 IDPs), Paktya (896 IDPs), Farah (717
IDPs), and Kandahar (306 IDPs).725

716 AP, IS attack on Kabul hospital leaves 7 dead, 16 wounded, 2 November 2021, url
717 Reuters, Dozens killed and wounded as blasts and gunfire hit Kabul hospital, 3 November 2021, url
718 RFE/RL/Gandhara, Islamic State Claims Attack On Kabul Hospital That Killed At Least 19, 2 November 2021, url
719 UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (27 September – 3 October), 7 October, 2021, url; UNOCHA,

Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (4 – 10 October 2021), 14 October 2021, url; UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly
Humanitarian Update (18 - 24 October 2021), 29 October 2021, url; UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update(25 - 31 October 2021), 5 November 2021, url; UNOCHA, Afghanistan: Weekly Humanitarian Update (1 – 7 November2021), 12 November 2021, url
720 Xinhua, 4 killed in explosions in Afghanistan: officials, 25 November 2021, url
721
UNHCR, Flash External Update: Afghanistan Situation #10, As of 15 November 2021, 22 November 2021, url, p. 1
722 UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation External Update – 1 November 2021, 6 November 2021, url, p. 1
723 IPC, Afghanistan, n.d., url, p. 2
724 International Crisis Group, Afghanistan’s Growing Humanitarian Crisis, 2 September 2021, url
725 UNOCHA, Conflict Induced Displacement in 2021, updated 5 December 2021, url

65Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

In November 2021, UNHCR estimated that around 169 000 IDPs had returned to their places oforigin in the period between September and November 2021, with 36 % having returned tosouthern and 35 % to north-eastern regions of the country.726

3.3.2 Refugees and returnees
At the end of August 2021, UNHCR estimated 1 435 000 registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan and
780 000 in Iran.727 In November 2021, UNHCR reported on continuous ‘movements of largely
undocumented Afghans resorting to irregular land border crossing points’ with Iran.728 The
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) noted on 10 November 2021 that 4 000 – 5 000 Afghans wereleaving Afghanistan for Iran daily via informal border crossings. Referring to Iranian Students’ News
Agency, NRC noted that ‘at least 300 000 Afghans have entered Iran’ since the Taliban takeover.729
According to an IOM Afghanistan Situation Report comprising the data until 3 November 2021,
around 1 077 600 undocumented Afghans returned to Afghanistan since 1 January 2021, including
around 1 063 400 returnees from Iran and about 14 220 from Pakistan. In the period between 28
October and 3 November 2021, IOM reported on 32 366 undocumented Afghan returnees: 31 609
returnees from Iran and 757 from Pakistan.730 According to media reports in the beginning of
October 2021, around 600 families, who were displaced during clashes between the Taliban and theprevious government, were reported to have returned to Badakhshan from Tajikistan, as stated by
the governor of Badakhshan.731

3.4 Humanitarian situation
As noted by the World Bank, interruption of international aid and disruption of trade and thebanking system followed immediately after the Taliban took over the country.732 Foreign grants,
amounting to around 8.5 billion dollars a year and covering 43 % of Afghanistan’s GDP, including
75 % of public expenditures, 50 % of the budget, and around 90 % of expenditures in the security
sphere, were frozen due to sanctions on insurgent movements and their leaders. Besides the largest
part of the international aid, Afghanistan’s currency reserves were also frozen.733 As underlined by
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UNAMA, Deborah Lyons, inNovember 2021, financial sanctions, which paralysed Afghanistan’s economy, were the primarycause for ‘the dire humanitarian situation’ in the country’.734
The prices of food commodities in Afghanistan were reported to have increased significantly: from
June to September 2021, the cost of wheat flour was reported to have increased by 28 % and theprice of cooking oil reportedly increased by 55 % compared to the same period in 2020. Based on
Seasonal Food Security Assessment (SFSA) data for 2021, 95 % of Afghanistan’s population reported
a decrease in household incomes compared to 2020, with 83 % of urban and 72 % of rural

726 UNHCR, Flash External Update: Afghanistan Situation #10, As of 15 November 2021, 22 November 2021, url, p. 1
727 UNHCR, Operational Data Portal, Refugee Situations, Afghanistan, accessed 11 November 2021, url
728 UNHCR, Afghanistan Situation External Update – 1 November 2021, 6 November 2021, url, p. 3
729 NRC, Humanitarian needs in Iran rise as 300 000 Afghans arrive since Taliban takeover, 10 November url
730 IOM, IOM Afghanistan Situation Report, 28 October – 3 November 2021, 11 November 2021, url
731 Bakhtar News, Hundreds Families Returned Homes in Badahkhsan, 4 October 2021, url; Xinhua, About 600 displaced

Afghans return home in northern Badakhshan province, 4 October 2021, url
732 World Bank (The), The World Bank in Afghanistan, updated 8 October 2021, url
733 Kate Clark, Killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs: Afghanistan’s economic distress post 15-August, AAN, 11
November 2021, url
734 UN, Abandoning Afghanistan Now, amid Humanitarian Crisis, Would Be ‘Historic Mistake’, Special Representative Tells
Security Council, 17 November 2021, url

66Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

households reporting a significant reduction.735 According to Integrated Food Security Phase
Classification (IPC) analysis for September 2021, nearly half of Afghanistan’s population wasreported to experience ‘high levels of food insecurity,’ while the figures of ‘food insecure people’
were the highest since the first IPC analysis in 2013, which made the situation in Afghanistan ‘theworld’s second-largest food crisis, in absolute terms.’736 Based on World Food Programme (WFP)
surveys, for the first time, urban residents were reported to have faced the same level of foodinsecurity as rural residents, with ‘virtually no family’ in urban and rural environments that would be
able to ‘afford sufficient food’.737
In September and October 2021, which is the post-harvest season, 18.8 million Afghans, or 47 % of
the total population, was reported to have faced ‘high levels of acute food insecurity, classified in
Crisis or Emergency (IPC Phases 3 or 4),’ which was nearly a 30 % increase from the period in 2020.
Of this figure, around 6.8 million Afghans were reported to experience ‘critical levels of acute foodinsecurity, classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4).’738 According to IPC figures, the provinces with thesituation of Emergency (IPC Phase 4) comprised in September-October 2021 all three provinces in
the North-West (Herat, Badghis, and Ghor), almost all provinces in the North (Faryab, Jowzjan, Sar-e
Pul, Balkh, and Samangan), some of the central provinces (Uruzgan, Daykundi, Bamyan, and Kabul),Ghazni province in the South, Badakhshan in the North-East, and Nuristan and Laghman in the East;other provinces were classified as Crisis (IPC Phase 3).739
According to a projection for the period between November 2021 and March 2022, the number ofAfghans in IPC Phase 3 or above was predicted to increase to 22.8 million, which is nearly a 35 %increase compared to the same period in 2020. The reasons behind the deterioration in food accesswere reported to comprise climate conditions (droughts), high food prices, international sanctions,increasing unemployment, and ‘possibly increased displacement.’740

735 IPC, Afghanistan, n.d., url, p. 2
736 IPC, Afghanistan: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Snapshot, September 2021 – March 2022, 25 October

2021, url, p. 2
737 WFP, Afghanistan set to be world’s worst humanitarian crisis, report warns, 25 October 2021, url
738 IPC, Afghanistan, n.d., url, p. 1; IPC, Afghanistan: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Snapshot, September
2021 – March 2022, 25 October 2021, url, p. 1
739 IPC, Afghanistan: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Snapshot, September 2021 – March 2022, 25 October
2021, url, p. 2
740 IPC, Afghanistan: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Snapshot, September 2021 – March 2022, 25 October
2021, url, p. 1

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Annex 1: Appointments to the Taliban’s
interim government and other positions
On 9 September 2021, TOLOnews provided a short biography of the interim government key
members:
•

•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•

Prime Minister: Muhammad Hasan Akhund, from Shah Walikot district in Kandahar. Heldvarious posts during the first Taliban regime (foreign minister, governor of Kandahar andmilitary official in the north of Afghanistan).
Deputy Prime Minister: Abdul Ghani Barader, from Dehrawood district in Uruzgan. Cofounder of the Taliban led by Mullah Omar.
Defence Minister: Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob, from Dehrawood district in Uruzgan. Sonof Taliban founder Mullah Omar.
Director of Intelligence: Abdul Haq Wasiq, from Khogyani district in Ghazni. Worked as
deputy Director of Intelligence in the previous Taliban regime. Detained in the US's
Guantanamo detention centre for 13 years.
Minister of Interior: Serajuddin Haqqani. Son of the late Jalaluddin Haqqani, who led the
Haqqani Network.
Foreign Minister: Mullah Amir Khan Mutaqi, from Zurmat district of Paktia province. Served
as Minister of Information and Culture in the previous Taliban regime.
Minister of Information and Culture: Mullah Khairullah Khairkhah, from Kandahar province.
Detained in Guantanamo detention centre for 12 years.
Minister of Justice: Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Haqqani, from Maiwand district in Kandahar.
Graduated from a Pakistani madrasa and worked in judicial organisations.
Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs: Mullah Noorullah Noori, from Zabul province. Served
as governor of Balkh and Laghman provinces in the previous Taliban regime. Detained in
Guantanamo detention centre for 13 years.741

Between 7 September and 4 October, the following appointments to posts within the government,
state agencies and institutions were announced:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Minister of Justice: Mawlawi Abdul Hakim Shari – Kandahar
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Amir Khan Muttaqi – Helmand
Deputy Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai Logar
Minister of Finance: Mullah Hedayatullah Badri (aka Gul Agha Ishakqzai) – Kandahar
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock: Mawlawi Shamsuddin Pahlawan Badakhshan
Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs: Mullah Nurullah Nuri - Zabul
Deputy Minister of Border Affairs: Haji Gul Mohammad - Helmand
Second Deputy Minister of Border Affairs: Gul Zarin Kochi
Minister of Civil Aviation and Transportation: Mullah Hamidullah Akhundzada
Minister of Economy: Qari Din Muhammad Hanif
Minister of Education: Sheikh Mawlawi Nurullah
Deputy Minister of Education: Mawlawi Sakhaullah

741 TOLOnews, Hibatullah Akhundzada to lead Taliban Govt, 9 September 2021, url

68Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
•

Minister of Public Health: Qalandar Ibad
Deputy Minister of Public Health: Abdul Bari Omar
Deputy Minister of Public Health: Mohammad Hasan Ghyasi
Minister for Hajj and Religious Affairs: Mawlawi Nur Muhammad Saqib
Minister of Higher Education: Mawlawi Abdul Baqi Haqqani
Deputy Minister of Higher Education: Dr Lutfullah Khairkhwa
Minister for Information and Culture: Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa
Deputy Minister of Information and Culture: Zabihullah Mujahed
Minister of Invitation and Guidance, Prevention of Vice & Promotion of Virtue: Sheikh
Muhammad Khaled
Minister of Martyrs and Disabled Affairs: Mullah Abdul Majeed Akhund
Deputy Minister of Martyrs and Disabled: Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhund
Minister of Mines and Petroleum: Mullah Muhammad Essa Akhund
Minister of Public Works: Mullah Abdul Manan Omari
Minister of Refugee Affairs: Khalil ul-Rahman Haqqani
Deputy Minister of Refugee Affairs: Arsala Khoroti
Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development: Mullah Muhammad Yunus Akhundzada
Minister of Telecommunication: Mawlawi Najibullah Haqqani
Minister of Water and Power: Mullah Abdul Latif Mansur
Deputy Minister of Water and Power: Engineer Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Omar
Deputy of Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority: Haji Ghulam Ghaws
Chief of Staff: Mawlawi Ahmad Jan Ahmadi
Head of Da Afghanistan Bank: Haji Muhammad Idris
Head of Afghanistan’s Nuclear Energy Agency: Engineer Najibullah
Head of the Central Statistics Office: Dr Mohammad Faqir
Deputy Mayor of Kabul: Mawlawi Abdul Rashid
Head of the National Olympic Committee: Engineer Nazar Mohammad Motmaen
Head of the Red Crescent Society: Mawlawi Matiul Haq
Deputy head of the Red Crescent Society: Mullah Nooruddin Turabi
Head of the southwestern zone: Mawlawi Sardar Mohammad
Head of the south-eastern zone ‘Tamiz’ [possibly referring to the tertiary court]: Sheikh
Mohammad Hanif.742

As of 4 October 2021, the following army appointments were announced:
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•
•
•
•
•
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•

Chief of the Army: Qari Fasihuddin
Commander of the Helmand Corps: Mullah Sharafuddin Taqi
Deputy of the Helmand Corps: Mullah Mohibullah Nusrat
Chief of Staff of Helmand Corps: Mullah Mohammad Khan Dawat
Commander of the Herat Corps: Mawlawi Mohammad Zarif Muzaffar
Deputy of the Herat Corps: Mullah Abdul Shakur Baryalai
Chief of Staff of the Herat Corps: Mawlawi Abdul Rahman Haqqani
Commander of the Kabul Corps: Mawlawi Hamdullah (killed in Kabul, 2 November 2021.743)

742 Nunn.asia, [Twitter], posted on: 7 September 2021, url; van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other seniorappointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url; van Bijlert, M., The focus of the Taleban’s new government: internal cohesion,
external dominance, AAN, 12 September 2021, url
743 Reuters, Dozens killed and wounded as blasts and gunfire hit Kabul hospital, 2 November 2021, url

69Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Deputy of the Kabul Corps: Mawlawi Nusrat
Chief of Staff of the Kabul Corps: Qari Baryal
Commander of the Kandahar Corps: Mullah Mehrullah Hammad
Deputy of the Kandahar Corps: Mullah Wali Jan Hamza
Chief of Staff of the Kandahar Corps: Mawlawi Hizbullah Afghan
Commander of the Kunduz Corps: Mullah Rahmatullah Mohammad
Deputy of the Kunduz Corps: Qari Mohammad Ismail Turkman
Chief of Staff of the Kunduz Corps: Qari Mohammad Shafiq
Commander of the Mazar Corps: Mawlawi Attaullah Omari
Deputy of the Mazar corps: Mawlawi Amanuddin
Chief of Staff of the Mazar Corps: Mullah Abdul Razaq Faizullah
Commander of the Paktia Corps: Qari Mohammad Ayub
Deputy of the Paktia Corps: Mullah Rohul Amin
Chief of Staff of the Paktia Corps: Mullah Ahmadullah Mubarak.744

On 7 November 2021, following appointments were made on provincial level according to a decree
issued by the Taliban’s supreme leader:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Governor of Badakhshan province: Abdul Ghani
Governor of Baghlan province: Qari Bakhtiar
Deputy governor of Baghlan province: Mohammad Edris
Chief of security for Baghlan province: Safaullah Akhund
Deputy governor of Balkh province: Noor-al Hadi
Chief of security for Balkh province: Matihullah
Governor of Bamyan province: Abdullah Sarhadi
Governor of Farah province: Rohani Sayeb
Deputy governor of Farah province: Jahadyar
Chief of security for Farah province: Haji Massom
Governor of Faryab province: Qari Pahlawan
Chief of security for Faryab province: Hazifa
Governor of Jawzjan province: Shoyab
Deputy governor of Jawzjan province: Abdul Manan Mahmood
Governor of Kabul province: Qari Barialai
Deputy governor of Kabul province: Mufti Mohammad Edris
Chief of security of Kabul province: Wali Jan Hamza
Deputy governor of Kunar province: Abdullah
Chief of security for Kunar province: Abdul Haq Haqqani
Governor of Kunduz province: Nessar Ahmad
Deputy governor of Kunduz province: Habib-u Rahman Sohaib
Chief of security of Kunduz province: Azizullah
Deputy governor of Laghman province: Sayed Ahmad
Governor of Logar province: Haji Mali Khan
Deputy governor of Logar province: Enaamullah
Chief of security for Logar province: Mohammad-u Din Shah Mokhbet
Governor of Maidan Wardak province: Amin Jan Kochai
Deputy Governor of Maidan Wardak province: Sher Ahmad

744 van Bijlert, M., Taleban’s caretaker Cabinet and other senior appointments, AAN, 7 October 2021, url

70Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Governor of Paktika province: Abdullah Mukhtar
Governor of Paktya province: Mohammad Ali Jan
Deputy governor of Samangan province: Abdul Manan
Governor of Sar-e Pul province: Abdul Rahman Akaa
Deputy governor of Sar-e Pul province: Mohammad Nader
Chief of security for Takhar province: Habibullah Shaker
Governor of Uruzgan province: Haji Dawat
Chief of security for Ghor province: Leeb
Deputy governor of Zabul province: Abdul Khaleq Abed
Governor of Nimruz province: Najibullah Rafeh
Governor of Ghazni province: Eshaq Akhundzada
Deputy governor of Ghazni province: Sayed Hanif (Ebada Agha)
Deputy governor of Daykundi province: Haji Rashed
Governor of Zabul province: Besmellah (Abdullah)
In charge of security of five districts of Shindand district (Herat province): Solaiman Agha.745

745 Afghanistan, ‫المؤمنی حفظه هللا فرمان‬‫ی‬‫‘[ په والیتونو ک د یو لړ ټاکنو په اړه د عالیقدر امې‬informal translation ‘Supreme Leader’s decree‫ر‬‫ر‬
on a number of provincial level appointments’], 7 November 2021, url; Zabihullah Mujahid, [Twitter], posted on 7 November
2021, url71

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

Annex 2: Bibliography
Oral sources
Afghan law professor, online interview, 9 November 2021. This source is not based in Afghanistan
but remains in communication with personal contacts on the ground. The source has extensive
experience of academic research on, inter alia, the Afghan justice system. The source wishes to beanonymous.
Afghan human rights expert, online interview, 11 November 2021. This source left Afghanistan as
the Taliban took power but remains in contact with sources on the ground. The source monitorsdevelopments within the human rights field through local sources in the country. The source wishes
to be anonymous.
Berg Harpviken, K., research profession at Peace Research institute Oslo (PRIO), statement made at
EASO’s hybrid seminars on Afghanistan, 23 November 2021, Athens, Greece
Chiovenda, A. (Dr.), professor at Zayed University, online interview, 9 November 2021. Dr. Andrea
Chiovenda is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, and focuses on
psychological anthropology, gender among Pashtuns in Afghanistan, and Afghan refugees in Greece.
Dam, B., investigative journalist, statement made at EASO’s hybrid seminars on Afghanistan, 23
November 2021, Athens, Greece
Kerr Chiovenda, M. (Dr.), professor at Zayed University, online interview, 9 November 2021. Dr.
Melissa Kerr Chiovenda is an assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, and focuses onpolitical anthropology, Hazaras in Afghanistan, and Afghan refugees in Greece.
Sayed, A., email, 6 December 2021. Abdul Sayed is a security specialist and researcher on radical
militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sayed is based in Lund, Sweden.
Shapour, R., analyst, Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), statement made at EASO’s hybrid
seminars on Afghanistan, 23 November 2021, Athens, Greece
Public sources
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72

Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

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Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus

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December 2021
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December 2021
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Annex 3: Terms of Reference
Reference period
All reporting should focus on the situation following the Taliban takeover (15 August 2021 – latest
possible date before drafting is completed). As background information, in some cases reference canbe made to the situation before the takeover, e.g. concerning areas which were already under
Taliban control and the Taliban behaviour there. This should be clearly indicated.

Reporting from the country•

Which research limitations prevail under the current circumstances in Afghanistan?

Government and administration under the Taliban
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

What is the composition of the government announced by the Taliban (gender, ethnicity,
background and affiliation with the previous Taliban regime, and with other armed groups)?
What is the level of international recognition of the government announced by the Taliban?
What (de facto) state institutions and administration have been established by the Taliban?
How are these institutions staffed?
What security institutions have been put in place by the Taliban? How are those institutions
staffed?
Are there any initial signs on the central Taliban leadership’s execution of authority andcontrol of local Taliban leaders and members across the country?
Are there any initial signs on the Taliban’s interpretation and implementation of Sharia law?
Are there reports on the prevailing justice system?
Are capital and corporal punishments issued and executed? For what crimes?
Are there any initial reports on the Taliban’s operation of prisons and the situation inprisons?

ProfilesIf available, information on the potential targeting of family members should also be included.

Compliance with Taliban moral and religious norms•••

Do the Taliban perceive certain characteristics or behaviour that were usual during theprevious rule as non-compliant with religious and moral norms?
Are there reports on legislation against such characteristics and behaviour and reactions by
Taliban members towards such characteristics and behaviour?
Have individuals been reported to display such characteristics and behaviour since thetakeover? Have individuals been reported to alter such characteristics and behaviour toconform with Taliban norms or what is perceived as Taliban norms?

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Women and girls•••

What are the announced Taliban policies towards women, following their takeover, e.g.
work, sport, freedom of movement, assembly and association, healthcare (inc. reproductive
healthcare), etc.?
How are those policies implemented in practice?
Are there reports of discrimination, violence, or threats against women and/or girls by the
Taliban?

Education•••

What is the general policy of the Taliban concerning education, in particular of girls andyoung women?
What is the practice? Are there differences in bigger cities compared to rural areas?
What is the level of girls’ enrolment in schools?

Ethnic and religious minorities••

What is the official policy of the Taliban towards ethnic and religious minorities?
Are there reports of discrimination, threats or violence against certain minorities by the
Taliban?

Persons affiliated with the former government/security forces
•
•
•
•
•

Since the Taliban takeover, have amnesties been granted and to which profiles? Are theseamnesties conditionals and what conditions apply? Are they time-limited?
What is the implementation of the amnesties in practice?
Are there reports of reprisals, discriminations, violence or threats against former ANSF
members?
Are there reports of reprisals, discriminations, violence or threats against employees of stateauthorities and courts under the previous rule?
Are there reports of reprisals, discriminations, violence or threats against other persons
affiliated with the former government?

Journalists and media workers••

Are there reported incidents of targeting of journalists and media workers by the Taliban?
What is the treatment of female journalists and media workers by the Taliban?

Healthcare professionals and humanitarian workers, including individuals
working for national and international NGOs•

Are there reported incidents of targeting of healthcare professionals and humanitarian aid
workers, including individuals working for national and international NGOs by the Taliban?

Demonstrations and protests•

Are there reports of demonstrations/protests? In which areas? With what demands?
107Country of origin information report | Afghanistan: Country focus•

What is the response to demonstrations by the Taliban?

Security situation•••

What has been reported regarding the general violence levels in Afghanistan?
What security incidents and cases of civilian casualties have been reported? Have theincidents been claimed or attributed to any specific actors?
Is new conflict-induced displacement reported following the Taliban takeover? Are return
movements reported?

Humanitarian situation•••

What is the food security situation following the takeover, in general and in Kabul?
What is the poverty situation following the takeover, in general and in Kabul?
What is the healthcare situation following the takeover, in general and in Kabul?

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doi: 10.2847/92796

109