South East Asia

One year ago, on Aug. 31, 2021, the last foreign soldier left Afghanistan. Since then, the situation in the country has only grown more fragile, marked by deteriorating living conditions, widespread human rights violations, and increasing political instability. One key contributing factor to the crisis is a dysfunctional centralized governance structure that has become more paralyzed and unresponsive under Taliban control. The group has greatly aggravated the problem with its rigid religious ideology and exclusive political agenda, but it well predates the Taliban takeover. The situation has steadily deteriorated over the past two decades as a result of a system that undermined local mechanisms of resilience, deprived people of access to basic public services, and marginalized them politically. With the Taliban at the helm, the system now only perpetuates further political exclusion, economic deprivation, and human suffering. The worsening economic conditions and political environment in the last year offer ample evidence of this.

The National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan, an anti-Taliban resistance group led by Ahmad Massoud, is fighting against the Afghan Taliban in six provinces of Afghanistan, according to an Afghan website.

The report published by Afghan newspaper Hasht-e-Subh quoted Ali Maisam Nazary, head of NRF’s foreign relations, as saying that NRF’s operations against the Taliban have expanded during the past year to six provinces with 4,000 well-equipped and trained forces.

A local jihadist group and a violent protest movement are driving renewed sectarian strife in Pakistan. To prevent a slide back into violence, Islamabad should ensure those inciting or perpetrating violent acts are prosecuted while denying hardliners the civic space to propagate their hatred.

What’s new? The rise of a local Islamic State franchise and the growing influence of a hard-line and violent protest movement known as “Labaik” that draws support mostly from Pakistan’s Barelvi majority, open a new chapter in the country’s sectarian violence, which until recently was driven largely by Deobandi groups.

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov late Monday after an explosion outside the Russian Embassy in Kabul killed two embassy staff members earlier in the day.

China published a white paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era” on August 10,2022 reiterating its claims over the self-ruled island. This is the third white paper, the two earlier were published in August 1993 and in February 2000. Chinese state media said the white paper demonstrates the country’s resolve to national reunification. The white paper said the Chinese community party (CCP) is committed to the historic mission of resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China’s complete reunification.The reiterated Chinese stand of this third white paper:

How the International Community Turned Its Back

Life under the Taliban is the worst women’s rights crisis on the planet. When the Taliban returned to power last August, they imposed immediate and brutal restrictions, the harshest of which were reserved for women. They quickly imposed a ban on girls’ secondary education, which remains in place despite domestic and international demands to lift it. They also placed restrictions on women’s movement, requiring women to be accompanied by a male family member while traveling, and women’s dress, ordering women to cover their faces in public. Girls and women are also no longer allowed to play sports.