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Afghanistan’s NGO ban for women exposes rifts in Taliban ranks

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The Taliban’s latest edict banning women from working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has sparked international condemnation and domestic opposition in a country facing economic collapse. It has also revealed splits within the Taliban, with potentially high-stakes risks for Afghanistan’s rulers and its people.

The last week of 2022 began with an awful shock for Sahar H, a 24-year-old Afghan aid worker, and her new year started with severe anxiety.

On December 24 – the day after the Friday weekly holiday in Afghanistan – Sahar was on her computer in Kabul, preparing for an upcoming women’s support session. An NGO programme manager, Sahar did not want her real name, or that of her organisation’s, revealed due to security concerns. 

Engrossed in her work, Sahar barely glanced at her mobile phone when it pinged a WhatsApp message. But when she saw the sender, a fellow NGO worker handling security issues at a partner organisation, it got her attention.

The message contained the latest Taliban edict from the economy ministry and it was a shocker. Citing “serious complaints regarding the non-observance of the Islamic hijab”, the Taliban ordered “all national and international organisations to stop females working” immediately until further notice. Failure to comply would result in revoked licences, the edict warned.

“I immediately stopped working, closed my computer and I just couldn’t stop my tears,” said Sahar in a phone interview from Kabul. “I never thought this would happen.  That day, I lost my most important right: the right to work.”

The edict spelt economic disaster for Sahar’s nine-member family. “All the male members of my family lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover. I was the only one with a job. I was the only one earning a salary and I was covering all the costs – for rent, food, medicines and my younger brothers’ education. Now we are all affected, the whole country is affected,” she said. 

As the world welcomed 2023 with festive lights and fireworks, Afghanistan plunged deeper into a dark night of obscurantism.  Over the past few months, the country’s conservative Islamist rulers have blasted the myth of the “Taliban 2.0” narrative touted during negotiations to enable the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan. They now appear hell-bent on ruining the lives of their fellow Afghans, eradicating women from public life and plunging the country into penury.

Public outrage is mounting inside the country, with protests and walkouts erupting despite the harsh crackdowns on dissent. 

More significantly, there are growing signs of divisions within the Taliban over hardline policies. A tipping point, if it is reached, could have high stakes in a country with a history of settling differences at gunpoint, tipping Afghanistan into civil war. And that could have consequences for the international community – as history has shown.

The ‘Kandaharis’ and ‘Kabul Taliban’ 

Reports of rifts within Taliban ranks have increased since the edict banning women from working in NGOs was issued, and they come from well-informed sources.

“Within the Taliban, this is a minority view. The majority, even in the leadership, is opposed to this decision,” said former US special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in a phone interview from Washington DC.

As the head of the US team that negotiated the February 2020 peace agreement with the Taliban in Doha, Khalilzad spent months engaging with senior Taliban officials in the Qatari capital.

File photo of Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and the Taliban’s Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar signing a peace agreement n Doha, Qatar on February 29, 2020. © Hussein Sayed, AP

Khalilzad, who was born and raised in Afghanistan, stepped down from his special envoy post in 2021. But he says he is still in touch with some Taliban officials although he declined to name them. “I talked to them in the past and I’m talking to them now and they are very much against this decision,” he asserted. 

The problem, though, appears to be a divide between the more moderate Taliban officials and the inner circle of arch conservatives ensconced around the Taliban’s reclusive emir, Hibatullah Akhunzada, based in the southern city of Kandahar.

Undated photo of Hibatullah Akhunzada released in a message ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr. © Afghan Islamic Press via AP

Dubbed “the Kandaharis” or sometimes, “the shura” (council), the rural old guard is widely believed to be responsible for the Taliban’s most controversial policies, including restrictions on female education and the reintroduction of corporal punishment, including public lashings.

Unlike the Taliban officials in Kabul, the Kandaharis rarely, if ever, engage with outsiders. “I don’t know, frankly, the leaders who have decided this ban on women working for NGOs. I don’t deal with them. One can only speculate where they are coming from and what brought on their views, but speculation might not be useful,” maintained Khalilzad.

Sobbing schoolgirls, sputtering Taliban officials 

The first public sign of differences within Taliban ranks came in March 2022 over the movement’s controversial position on female education.

For months leading up to the March 23 reopening of Afghan schools after the winter break, Taliban officials promised that the ban on girls attending high schools would be lifted.

But just a few hours before the scheduled reopening, as Afghan girls waited at school gates, the Taliban abruptly reversed course. When the last-minute ban order reached the schools, news teams, invited by the education ministry, recorded devastating testimonies of girls in their school uniforms sobbing in despair.

In their immediate responses to the press, Taliban officials appeared to be caught off-guard, sputtering justifications on Islamic principles as they absorbed the blows of heated questioning by journalists.

In an extraordinary display of public disagreement, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, later appealed for the reopening of girls high schools in a televised speech to a gathering of top Taliban officials and leaders in Kabul.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai speaks to reporters after talks in Moscow, Russia, on May 28, 2019. © Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP

Stanikzai so far has gotten away with his public expression of disagreement. Other Taliban ministers have not been as fortunate. 

Ministers promise – and are then fired

The December 24 ban on women working for NGOs came just days after the Taliban extended the restrictions on women’s education from high schools to universities. 

Shortly after the August 2021 takeover, the then-acting minister of higher education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, announced that universities across the country would have separate female classrooms. 

It was a decision that segregated females, but didn’t deny them a university education. 

The minister’s announcement provided a green light for universities, enabling them to continue classes for women, often with a curtain separating them from male students. 

But in October 2022, the higher education minister was fired and replaced by arch conservative Nida Mohammad Nadim, who is notorious for his opposition to female education, calling it un-Islamic and against Afghan values. 

Barely two months after Nadim’s appointment, women were barred from attending universities.

Meanwhile the Taliban’s first education minister, Noorullah Munir, who told reporters in September 2021 that women will be allowed to study in schools in accordance with Sharia law, suffered a similar fate. 

Under the orders of the Taliban emir, Munir was replaced by the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, Habibullah Agha, last year.  

“The Taliban over the past 20 years have undergone a significant change in their composition to the extent that those now advocating for the ban, or have an antipathy to women’s modern education, are now a minority.

They are a powerful and influential minority who have gathered around the emir at the top,” explained Ahmed-Waleed Kakar, founder of The Afghan Eye.

“But there are other leaders within the Taliban who are all widely reported to be against this ban,” Kakar continued. “So the real question is, to what extent can the current mode of decision making and the nature of those decisions persist in the face of overwhelming opposition across the country, but also increasing opposition within the Taliban itself.”

Mandated to obey the emir – except…

While the internal divisions are growing, Kakar thinks it’s unlikely that they could splinter the Taliban.

“Since their inception up until this day, the Taliban are ideologically and religiously committed to obey the leader even when they disagree with the leader. That is a religious commitment,” Kakar explained. “The only time this does not apply is if the leader were to do something anti-Islamic.”

Khalilzad believes that time has come. “They have to reverse course of sticking to this decision [on the NGO ban] when the leader does something in violation of Islamic principles and the people are against it,” said the Afghan-American diplomat, who also served as US ambassador to Afghanistan. 

“I believe the Taliban leaders opposed to this decision need to get together and stand up to their leader. This is a challenge: will they rise up to the occasion and work with other Afghans. If they don’t, they will alienate the Afghan people.”

The stakes, according to Khalilzad, are high. “The public mood is changing towards anger and opposition, providing a gift to those who want war. That’s not what Afghans want and that’s not what the Taliban want,” said the former US diplomat. 

When asked if he shares these views with Taliban officials, Khalilzad replied in the affirmative. “I do bring it up with them. They say they understand, but they say this will take time, one has to be patient. I say time is not on their side, anger will grow, pressure will grow, and they will be blamed for the increased suffering of the people. They don’t push back,” he recounted.

Uncertainty and hope

While the Taliban men dither and ask for patience, their womenfolk are sinking into misery as every window of opportunity gets slammed in their faces.

From her home in Kabul, Sahar worries about funding for the programmes she runs. “We were preparing for long-term projects. We already submitted our proposal for 2023 to donors, we were optimistic about getting funds,” she explained.  “But with this Taliban decision, donors are unsure about continuing their funding.”

As a new year kicks off, Sahar says she refuses to give up in despair. “My request is for people from around the world, for donors, not to abandon Afghan women. It’s a very tough situation, but I won’t give up,” she said. “I am optimistic for 2023, there will be better days. The women of Afghanistan will not be forgotten.”

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World

Taliban bans female NGO staff, jeopardizing aid efforts

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  • Taliban orders NGOs to stop female staff from working
  • Comes after suspension of female students from universities
  • U.N. says order would seriously impact humanitarian operations
  • U.N. plans to meet with Taliban to seek clarity

KABUL, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration on Saturday ordered all local and foreign NGOs to stop female employees from working, in a move the United Nations said would hit humanitarian operations just as winter grips a country already in economic crisis.

A letter from the economy ministry, confirmed by spokesperson Abdulrahman Habib, said female employees of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were not allowed to work until further notice because some had not adhered to the administration’s interpretation of Islamic dresscode for women.

It comes days after the administration ordered universities to close to women, prompting global condemnation and sparking some protests and heavy criticism inside Afghanistan.

Both decisions are the latest restrictions on women that are likely to undermine the Taliban-run administration’s efforts to gain international recognition and clear sanctions that are severely hampering the economy.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter he was “deeply concerned” the move “will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” adding: “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. deputy special representative for Afghanistan and humanitarian coordinator, told Reuters that although the U.N. had not received the order, contracted NGOs carried out most of its activities and would be heavily impacted.

“Many of our programmes will be affected,” he said, because they need female staff to assess humanitarian need and identify beneficiaries, otherwise they will not be able to implement aid programs.

International aid agency AfghanAid said it was immediately suspending operations while it consulted with other organisations, and that other NGOs were taking similar actions.

The potential endangerment of aid programmes that millions of Afghans access comes when more than half the population relies on humanitarian aid, according to aid agencies, and during the mountainous nation’s coldest season.

“There’s never a right time for anything like this … but this particular time is very unfortunate because during winter time people are most in need and Afghan winters are very harsh,” said Alakbarov.

He said his office would consult with NGOs and U.N. agencies on Sunday and seek to meet with Taliban authorities for an explanation.

Aid workers say female workers are essential in a country where rules and cultural customs largely prevent male workers from delivering aid to female beneficiaries.

“An important principle of delivery of humanitarian aid is the ability of women to participate independently and in an unimpeded way in its distribution so if we can’t do it in a principled way then no donors will be funding any programs like that,” Alakbarov said.

When asked whether the rules directly included U.N. agencies, Habib said the letter applied to organisations under Afghanistan’s coordinating body for humanitarian organisations, known as ACBAR. That body does not include the U.N., but includes over 180 local and international NGOs.

Their licences would be suspended if they did not comply, the letter said.

Afghanistan’s struggling economy has tipped into crisis since the Taliban took over in 2021, with the country facing sanctions, cuts in development aid and a freeze in central bank assets.

A record 28 million Afghans are estimated to need humanitarian aid next year, according to AfghanAid.

Reporting by Kabul newsroom; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington
Editing by Mark Potter and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran top court accepts rapper Yasin’s appeal against death sentence

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Dec 24 (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by rapper Saman Seydi Yasin against his death sentence even as it confirmed the same sentence against another protester, the judiciary said on Saturday.

Yasin, a Kurd who raps about inequality, oppression and unemployment, had been accused of attempting to kill security forces, setting a rubbish bin on fire and shooting three times into the air during anti-government protests, charges which he denied.

Yasin’s mother last week pleaded in a video for help to save her son. “Where in the world have you seen a loved one’s life is taken for a trash bin?” she said in the video posted on social media.

The court had initially said it had accepted the appeals of Yasin and another protester, but in a subsequent statement the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said only Yasin’s appeal had been accepted.

“The public relations of the Supreme Court of Iran has corrected its news: ‘The appeal of Mohammad Qobadloo has not been accepted … Saman Seydi’s appeal has been accepted by the Supreme Court,” the agency said.

Explaining the decision in its original statement, it cited flaws in investigating the case and said it had been referred back to the court for re-examination.

Qobadloo had been charged with killing a police agent and injuring five others with his car during the protests.

Unrest erupted across Iran in mid-September after the death in custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.

Late on Saturday, the 100th day of the protests, videos posted on social media showed night demonstrations said to be in areas including the capital Tehran, the northeastern city of Mashhad, Karaj west of Tehran, and Sanandaj, the centre of Kurdistan province in the northwest.

Dozens of protesters were seen braving rain and snow to chant slogans including “Death to the dictator” and “Death to (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei!” Reuters could not immediately verify the videos.

DEATH PENALTY

Saturday’s announcement follows the Supreme Court’s suspension of protester Mahan Sadrat’s death sentence 10 days ago. He had been charged with various alleged offences such as stabbing a security officer and setting fire to a motorcycle.

Iran hanged two protesters earlier this month: Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was accused of blocking a main road in September and wounding a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife, and Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, who was accused of stabbing to death two Basij members, and publicly hanged from a construction crane.

Amnesty International called on the international community to pressure Iran to halt Qobadloo’s execution and “not allow Iran’s machinery of death to claim another victim while (the) world’s attention is on celebrating the festive season”.

Amnesty has said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 people in what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.

It said all of those facing death sentences had been denied the right to adequate defence and access to lawyers of their choosing. Rights groups say defendants have instead to rely on state-appointed attorneys who do little to defend them.

Rights group HRANA said that, as of Friday, 506 protesters had been killed, including 69 minors. It said 66 members of the security forces had also been killed. As many as 18,516 protesters are believed to have been arrested, it said.

Officials have said that up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, David Holmes and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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COVID border restrictions on migrants to stay after U.S. Supreme Court order

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WASHINGTON/CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Dec 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said COVID-era restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border that have prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum should be kept in place for now, siding with Republicans who brought a legal challenge.

The restrictions, known as Title 42, were implemented under Republican former President Donald Trump in March 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and gave border officials the ability to rapidly expel migrants to Mexico without a chance to seek U.S. asylum.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, had campaigned on overturning Trump’s hardline immigration measures before taking office in 2021 but kept Title 42 in place for more than a year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this year that Title 42 was no longer needed for public health reasons, and the Biden administration has said it wants it to end but will abide with any court rulings.

A federal judge last month ruled Title 42 was unlawful in response to a lawsuit originally brought by asylum-seeking migrants represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. The judge set the restrictions to be lifted on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

But a group of 19 states with Republican attorneys general sought to overturn that decision by intervening in the case and on Monday took their request to the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

Hours later, Chief Justice John Roberts in a brief order issued a stay that will leave Title 42 in place until further notice from the court. The parties in the legal dispute have until Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) to respond, the court said.

After Robert’s action, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Title 42 “will remain in effect at this time and individuals who attempt to enter the United States unlawfully will continue to be expelled to Mexico.”

The Biden administration had been preparing for Title 42 to end on Wednesday and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday that the White House was seeking more than $3 billion from Congress to pay for additional personnel, technology, migrant holding facilities and transportation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The push for additional resources came as U.S. authorities had been preparing for the possibility of 9,000 to 14,000 people per day trying to cross into the United States if Title 42 was lifted, Reuters and other outlets have reported, around double the current rate.

The Biden administration has been weighing plans to prepare for Title 42’s end, with government officials privately discussing several Trump-style plans to deter people from crossing, including barring single adults seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

[1/10] A group of migrants walks towards a border patrol processing area, accompanied by a Texas National Guard member, as U.S. border cities are bracing for an influx of asylum seekers when COVID-19-era Title 42 migration restrictions are set to end, in Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S. December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Jordan Vonderhaar

DHS last week updated a six-pillar plan that calls for the expanded use of a fast-track deportation process if Title 42 is terminated. The revised DHS plan also suggests there could be expansion of legal pathways for migrants to enter the country from abroad, similar to a program launched for Venezuelans in October.

BORDER CITIES OVERWHELMED

Since Biden took office in January 2021, about half of the record 4 million migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border have been expelled under Title 42 while the other half have been allowed into the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

Mexico accepts the return of only certain nationalities, including some Central Americans and, more recently, Venezuelans.

For months, El Paso, Texas, has been receiving large groups of asylum-seeking migrants, including many Nicaraguans who cannot be expelled to Mexico. On Saturday, the city’s mayor declared a state of emergency to move migrants from city streets as temperatures had dropped below freezing.

U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat whose South Texas district borders Mexico, has said U.S. border officials told him that an estimated 50,000 people are waiting in Mexico for the chance to cross.

“If Title 42 remains in place, we must continue waiting,” said Venezuelan migrant Lina Jaouhari, who said she had attempted to enter the United States from Ciudad Juarez on Dec. 1 but had been sent back to Mexico under Title 42. “It won’t do any good to try to cross again if we know they will send us back.”

In El Paso, shelters have struggled to provide for arriving migrants even as many ultimately are headed to join relatives in other parts of the United States.

Rescue Mission of El Paso, a shelter near the border, last week housed 280 people, far beyond its 190-person capacity, with people sleeping on cots and air mattresses in the chapel, library and conference rooms, said Nicole Reulet, the shelter’s marketing director, in an interview with Reuters.

“We have people where we tell them, ‘We have no room,'” she said. “They beg for a place on the floor.”

Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Jose Luis Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez; Additional reporting by Jackie Botts in Oaxaca City, Richard Cowan in Washington and Lizbeth Diaz in Tijuana and by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Stephen Coates and Bradley Perrett

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World

Children dying in Somalia as food catastrophe worsens

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  • Famine averted for now but crisis worsening – IPC
  • ‘Children are dying now’ – UNICEF
  • U.N. funding appeal facing $1 bln shortfall

MOGADISHU, Dec 13 (Reuters) – More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering catastrophic food shortages and many are dying of hunger, with that number set to rise to over 700,000 next year, according to an analysis by an alliance of U.N. agencies and aid groups.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which sets the global standard for determining the severity of food crises, said its most acute level, “IPC Phase 5 Famine”, had been temporarily averted but things were getting worse.

“They have kept famine outside of the door but nobody knows for how much longer,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson of the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA).

“That people are dying from hunger, there’s no doubt about it, but I cannot put a number on it,” he told a news briefing in Geneva after the latest IPC analysis on Somalia came out.

A two-year drought has decimated crops and livestock across Horn of Africa nations, while the price of food imports has soared because of the war in Ukraine.

In Somalia, where 3 million people have been driven from their homes by conflict or drought, the crisis is compounded by a long-running Islamist insurgency that has hampered humanitarian access to some areas.

The IPC had previously warned that areas of Somalia were at risk of reaching famine levels, but the response by humanitarian organisations and local communities had staved that off.

“The underlying crisis however has not improved and even more appalling outcomes are only temporarily averted. Prolonged extreme conditions have resulted in massive population displacement and excess cumulative deaths,” it said.

Somalia’s last famine, in 2011, killed a quarter of a million people, half of them before famine was officially declared.

Fearful of a similar or even worse outcome this time, humanitarian chiefs were quick to say the situation was already catastrophic for many Somalis.

‘STOP WAITING’

“I have sat with women and children who have shown me mounds next to their tent in a displaced camp where they buried their two- and three-year-olds,” said James Elder, spokesperson of the U.N. children’s charity UNICEF, at the Geneva briefing.

“Whilst a famine declaration remains important because the world should be past this, we also do know that children are dying now.”

The IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale has a complex set of technical criteria by which the severity of crises are measured. Its Phase 5 has two levels, Catastrophe and Famine.

The Somalia analysis found that 214,000 people were classified in Catastrophe and that number was expected to rise to 727,000 from April, 2023 as humanitarian funding dropped off.

Catastrophe is summarised on the IPC website as a situation where starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.

It said famine was projected from April onwards among agropastoral populations in the districts of Baidoa and Burhakaba, in central Somalia, and among displaced populations in Baidoa town and the capital Mogadishu.

The IPC data showed 5.6 million Somalis were classified in Crisis or worse (Phase 3 or above) and that number would rise from April to 8.3 million — about half the country’s population.

The OCHA is appealing for $2.3 billion to respond to the crisis in Somalia, of which it has so far received $1.3 billion, or 55.2%.

David Miliband, head of aid group the International Rescue Committee, said the underfunding of the appeal showed the world was not treating this as an urgent moment.

“The time for action is now in Somalia,” he told Reuters in an interview, adding that what happened in 2011 should serve as a warning. “Stop waiting for the famine declaration,” he said.

Reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Bhargav Acharya and Alexander Winning in Johannesburg and Sofia Christensen in Dakar and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by James Macharia Chege and Ed Osmond

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Iran state body reports 200 dead in protests, Raisi hails ‘freedoms’

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DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) – President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday hailed Iran’s Islamic Republic as a guarantor of rights and freedoms, defending the ruling system amid a crackdown on anti-government protests that the United Nations says has cost more than 300 lives.

A top state security body meanwhile said that 200 people, including members of the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest, a figure significantly lower than that given by the world body and rights groups.

The protests, in their third month, were ignited by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police enforcing strict mandatory hijab rules.

The demonstrations have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Meanwhile, a social media video appeared to show authorities demolishing the family home of Elnaz Rekabi, a climber who competed in an international contest without a headscarf in October. Rekabi later she had done so unintentionally, but she was widely assumed to have expressed support for the protests. read more

State media on Saturday quoted the head of the judiciary in northwestern Zanjan province as saying the ruling to demolish the villa had been issued four months ago as the family had failed to obtain a construction permit.

Unfazed by the brutal crackdown, protesters have raised slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and repeatedly demanded an end to the Islamic government.

Social media videos showed renewed protests late on Saturday in some parts of the capital Tehran, including the eastern Haft Howz area where protesters could be heard chanting: “Murderer Khamenei should be executed.” Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

The authorities blame the revolt on foreign enemies, including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“Iran has the most progressive constitution in the world” because it marries “ideals with democracy,” Raisi said in a speech to parliamentarians, quoting an unidentified African lawyer he said he met several years ago.

“The constitution guarantees the (existence) of the Islamic system,” he said, adding that it also “guarantees fundamental rights and legitimate freedoms.”

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted the interior ministry’s state security council as saying 200 people lost their lives in the recent “riots”.

Amirali Hajizadeh, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Monday that 300 people, including security force members, had been killed in the recent unrest.

Javaid Rehman, a U.N.-appointed independent expert on Iran, said on Tuesday that more than 300 people had been killed in the protests, including more than 40 children.

Rights group HRANA said that as of Friday 469 protesters had been killed, including 64 minors. It said 61 government security forces had also been killed. As many as 18,210 protesters are believed to have been arrested.

A prominent Baluch Sunni Muslim cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, has called for an end to the repression of protests through arrests and killings, and a referendum on changing Iran’s government system.

“The people’s protest has shown that the policies of the last 43 years have reached a dead end,” he said in late November.

dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com, Editing by William Maclean and Louise Heavens

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U.S. appeals court rejects Biden’s bid to revive student debt plan

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Nov 30 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Wednesday declined to put on hold a Texas judge’s ruling that said President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt was unlawful.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Biden administration’s request to pause a judge’s Nov. 10 order vacating the $400 billion student debt relief program in a lawsuit pursued by a conservative advocacy group.

The decision by Fort Worth, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman was one of two nationally that has prevented the U.S. Department of Education under the Democratic president from moving forward with granting debt relief to millions of borrowers.

The administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to similarly lift an order by the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that, at the request of six Republican-led states, had barred it from cancelling student loans.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit in Wednesday’s brief order declined to put Pittman’s ruling on hold while the administration appealed his decision, but the court directed that the appeal be heard on an expedited basis.

The panel included two Republican appointees and one judge nominated by then Democratic President Barack Obama. Pittman was appointed by then Republican President Donald Trump.

The White House had no immediate comment but the administration has said that if the 5th Circuit declined to halt Pittman’s order it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

Biden announced in August that the U.S. government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples. Students who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students will have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to help debt-saddled former college students. Biden’s program has drawn opposition from Republicans, who have portrayed it as shifting the burden of debt from wealthy elites to lower-income Americans.

The Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that the debt forgiveness program run would cost taxpayers about $400 billion.

About 26 million Americans have applied for student loan forgiveness, and the U.S. Department of Education had already approved requests from 16 million by the time Pittman issued his ruling.

Biden last week announced his administration would extend a pause on student loan payments to alleviate uncertainty for borrowers while litigation over the debt relief plan plays out.

Pittman had ruled in a lawsuit by two borrowers who were partially or fully ineligible for the loan forgiveness who were backed by the Job Creators Network Foundation, a conservative advocacy group founded by Bernie Marcus, a co-founder of Home Depot.

The judge said it was irrelevant if Biden’s plan was good public policy because the program was “one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.”

Pittman wrote that the HEROES Act – a law that provides loan assistance to military personnel and that was relied upon by the Biden administration to enact the relief plan – did not authorize the program.

Elaine Parker, president of Job Creators Network Foundation, said in a statement the 5th Circuit’s order on Wednesday prevented the administration during the appeal from trying to “get money out the door to debtors and claim victory.”

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Hogue, Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Nate Raymond

Thomson Reuters

Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.

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World

Nearly 1,000 migrants stranded on board NGO ships as storm hits | Migration News

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Three charity-run vessels in the Mediterranean Sea are awaiting permission to disembark in Italy or Malta, as those on board need urgent assistance amid dwindling supplies and worsening weather conditions.

The vessels operated by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), SOS Mediterranee and SOS Humanity, have been at sea for more than a week, carrying nearly 1,000 people in total.

Italy’s new right-wing government has acknowledged the receipt of their requests to disembark but has stopped short of greenlighting their entrance into port.

“The latest request was made yesterday evening but we received no response,” Riccardo Gatti, MSF team leader on board the Geo Barents, told Al Jazeera via video message.

Similar requests forwarded to the Maltese government have gone unacknowledged.

Gatti said on Saturday the Geo Barents had entered Italian waters to find shelter from an incoming storm, carrying 572 people on board, including an 11-month-old and three pregnant women.

MSF media adviser Candida Lobes said water was being rationed and food supplies were also dwindling. Due to overcrowding, respiratory and skin infections were also spreading.

“The situation is simply unacceptable,” Lobes said.

International obligations

European maritime-humanitarian organisation SOS Mediterranee has called on authorities to comply with international obligations and provide a predictable system of disembarkation.

“Survivors retrieved from distress at sea must no longer be traded into political debates,” the organisation said in a statement on Thursday.

Elisa Brivio, a press officer at SOS Mediterranee, told Al Jazeera that 234 people were on board its Ocean Viking ship, including 40 unaccompanied minors.

“Not everyone can sleep below deck, we prioritise women and children,” Brivio said. “The others are sleeping outside and yesterday we installed some protective tents to shield them from the winds and the storm.”

Among those rescued, many bear the signs of torture and mistreatment.

Till Rummenhohl, head of operations at SOS Humanity, said the 179 people on board the Humanity 1 were “fleeing from detention camps in Libya, where they faced great violence”.

Should no country offer a post of safety, they may be pushed back into international waters.

“[This] would be a clear breach of international law and the Geneva Convention,” Rummenhohl told Al Jazeera. “It’s their human right to apply for asylum and seek safety.”

Italy’s far-right government

Italy last month formed its first far-right-led government since the end of World War II, with Giorgia Meloni becoming the first woman to serve as prime minister.

Rome has insisted that the countries whose flags these NGO boats are flying should bear responsibility for the migrants and refugees on board.

The Norwegian flag-bearing Ocean Viking and Geo Barents and the German-flagged Humanity 1 have been prevented from docking, while Italian patrols, including one carrying 456 people that arrived in Calabria on Thursday, were allowed to disembark.

Italy’s new interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, told local media the government had intended to give flag-bearing countries an “immediate signal”.

“We cannot bear the burden of migrants collected at sea by foreign vessels operating systematically without any coordination with local authorities,” he said.

Piantedosi drafted new measures, alleging that the non-governmental groups violated procedure by not properly coordinating their rescues, a step setting the groundwork for Italy to close the ports.

Charities have denied circumventing procedures and say it is their duty to rescue people in distress at sea.

The German embassy this week urged Italy to provide swift help, saying NGO ships made an important contribution to saving lives at sea.

Norway said it bears no responsibility under human rights conventions or the law of the sea towards people taken on board private Norwegian-flagged vessels.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, coastal states such as Italy and Malta are obligated to accept people from rescue ships “as soon as practicable” and governments should cooperate to provide a place of safety for survivors.

“It is frankly absurd that the Italian and Maltese governments have not yet offered them a place of safety,” Matteo De Bellis, a researcher on asylum and migration at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera.

“This incident signals a step back by Italian authorities in particular since the new government is resurrecting policies that we have seen implemented already in 2018 and 2019,” De Bellis added, referring to a “closed ports” policy implemented by then-Interior Minister and far-right leader Matteo Salvini.

“These policies were and continue to be in breach of international law,” he said.

“It is clear that European states must share responsibility for assisting people in need, but it is equally clear that Italy and Malta must cooperate in good faith to ensure that people rescued at sea are provided a place of safety.”

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World

Climate activists block private jet take-offs at Schiphol Airport

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AMSTERDAM, Nov 5 (Reuters) – More than 100 environmental activists wearing white suits stormed into an area where private jets are kept at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday and stopped several aircraft from departing by sitting in front of their wheels.

The protest was part of a day of demonstrations in and around the airport organised by environmental groups Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion to protest over greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution caused by the airport and aviation industry.

No delays to commercial flights were reported as of the early afternoon.

“We want fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets,” said Greenpeace Netherlands campaign leader Dewi Zloch.

The environmental group says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually.

[1/5] Climate activists protest against environmental pollution from aviation at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, in Schiphol, Netherlands November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

Hundreds of other demonstrators in and around the airport’s main hall carried signs saying “Restrict Aviation” and “More Trains”.

Responding to the protest, Schiphol said it aims to become an emissions-free airport by 2030 and supports targets for the aviation industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Military police tasked with airport security said in a statement they had “made a number of detentions of persons who were on airport property without being allowed”.

The Dutch government announced plans in June for a cap on annual passengers at the airport at 440,000, around 11% below 2019 levels, citing air pollution and climate concerns.

Transportation Minister Mark Harbers told parliament last month his office could not control growing private jet traffic, and the government is considering whether to include the issue in its climate policy.

Reporting by Toby Sterling
Editing by Toby Chopra and Helen Popper

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Islamic State claims Iran shrine attack, Iran vows response

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  • Women and children among casualties – state media
  • President says Iran will respond to attack
  • Protesters mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini’s death in custody

DUBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The militant group Islamic State said it carried out an attack on a Shi’ite Muslim shrine in Iran on Wednesday which killed 15 people, escalating tensions in a country reeling from a wave of protests and prompting warnings of a response from Tehran.

Iranian officials said they had arrested a gunman who carried out the attack at the Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz. State media blamed “takfiri terrorists” – a label Tehran uses for hardline Sunni Muslim militants like Islamic State.

The group has claimed previous attacks in Iran, including deadly twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Wednesday’s killing of Shi’ite pilgrims came on the same day that Iranian security forces clashed with increasingly strident protesters marking the 40-day anniversary since the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi blamed the protests sweeping Iran for paving the ground for the Shiraz attack, and President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran would respond, according to state media.

“Experience shows that Iran’s enemies, after failing to create a split in the nation’s united ranks, take revenge through violence and terror,” said Raisi, speaking before Islamic State released its claim of responsibility.

“This crime will definitely not go unanswered, and the security and law enforcement forces will teach a lesson to those who designed and carried out the attack.”

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said the attacker shot an employee at the shrine entrance before his rifle jammed and he was chased by bystanders.

He managed to fix his gun and opened fire on his pursuers, before entering a courtyard and shooting worshippers. Several women and children were among the dead, it said.

A witness at Shah Cheragh told state television: “I heard sounds of gunfire after we prayed. We went to a room next to the shrine, this lowlife came and fired a barrage of shots. Then (the bullet) hit my arm and leg, it hit my wife’s back, but thank God my child was not hit, he is seven years old.”

DAY OF CLASHES

The attack in Shiraz took place at the end of a day of confrontations across the country between security forces and protesters, with video footage showing some of the most violent clashes in more than a month of unrest following Amini’s death.

The demonstrations have become one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution. A wide range of Iranians have come out on to the streets, with some calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic and the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Security forces opened fire at mourners in Amini’s Kurdish home town of Saqez on Wednesday, according to a witness.

[1/7] A bullet hole seen after a terrorist attack at the Shah Cheragh Shrine in Shiraz, Iran October 26, 2022. Amin Berenjkar/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

“Riot police shot mourners who gathered at the cemetery for Mahsa’s memorial ceremony … dozens have been arrested,” the witness said. Iranian authorities were not available to comment.

The semi-official ISNA news agency said about 10,000 people were at the cemetery, adding that the internet was cut off after clashes between security forces and people there.

Videos on social media showed crowds packing streets in many cities and the bazaars of Tehran and some other cities shut down with people chanting “Death to Khamenei”.

1500tasvir, a Twitter account focused on Iran protests with 280,000 followers, reported a “brutal crackdown” on protesters in multiple locations in Tehran, including a gathering at the Tehran Medical Association.

Video footage on social media appeared to show members of the Basij militia shooting at protesters in Tehran.

Other videos showed protesters chasing riot police and throwing stones. They also showed protesters in the holy Shi’ite city of Mashhad setting fire to a riot policeman’s motorbike. In Tehran, a protester hit a policeman, while in the city of Qazvin riot police opened fire on protesters.

Some protesters chanted: “We will fight, we will die, we will get Iran back” from its clerical rulers.

Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the footage.

State news agency IRNA said a member of the elite Revolutionary Guards was shot dead “by rioters” in the western city of Malayer.

An Iranian former pro-reform official said the spread of the protests appeared to have taken authorities by surprise and contrasted with the establishment’s assertions that support for the Islamic system is overwhelming.

While some analysts said prospects for the imminent dawn of a new political order are slim, activists said a wall of fear had fallen and the path to a new revolution was not reversible.

Students have played a pivotal role in the protests, with dozens of universities on strike. Hundreds of schoolgirls have joined in, chanting “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,” despite fierce crackdowns by security forces.

State media and hardline officials have branded protesters “hypocrites, monarchists, thugs and seditionists”.

Rights groups said at least 250 protesters had been killed, including teenage girls, and thousands had been arrested.

The authorities, who have accused the United States and other Western countries of fomenting what they call “riots”, have yet to announce a death toll but state media have said around 30 members of the security forces have been killed.

Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Dominic Evans
Editing by Michael Georgy, Nick Macfie and Alistair Bell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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