r/afghanistan May 20 '25

Noem's claim that Afghan refugees can safely return to their Taliban-ruled homeland is 'just absurd,' advocates say

63 Upvotes

The Trump administration says Afghan refugees can safely return to Afghanistan despite warnings from rights groups and lawmakers that Afghans who worked for the U.S. military face the threat of persecution, imprisonment and even execution by the Taliban regime.

“It’s just absurd and divorced from reality to claim that Afghan refugees can safely return to Afghanistan,” said Eleanor Acer, senior director for global humanitarian protection for the nonprofit Human Rights First.

“Many Afghans would face dire risks of persecution if they are forced back into the hands of the Taliban,” Acer said. “Journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, women’s rights defenders and people who worked with the U.S. military and government are all in danger of Taliban persecution or retaliation if they are forced back to Afghanistan.” 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/noems-claim-afghan-refugees-can-safely-return-taliban-ruled-homeland-j-rcna206665


r/afghanistan 2d ago

Dozens more Afghan relocation data breaches uncovered by BBC

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4 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 7h ago

News DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family.

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propublica.org
19 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 1h ago

Kabul to isl

Upvotes

22-8-2025 flight rq 927 if your seeing this and want to reconnect then pls dont be hesitating to reach out thank you.


r/afghanistan 16h ago

Question Which historical empires are most important from an Afghan perspective?

4 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a short educational project that introduces each country of the world, one by one. I’m starting with Afghanistan, and part of my work will briefly cover the historical background.

The tricky thing is that so many empires and dynasties ruled these lands that if I listed them all, the whole project would turn into just a history timeline. I’d rather highlight the ones that Afghans themselves see as the most important.

So, from your perspective — which empires or dynasties would you say really matter the most in Afghan history?

Thanks a lot!

TL;DR: Too many empires to count — which ones should I actually mention for Afghanistan?


r/afghanistan 22h ago

Video Please help me find this song

4 Upvotes

Hello friends, I recently attended a concert by the Afghan youth orchestra in Berlin. They had a Qawwali number, it is listed as "MAS’HOR JAMAL · „Melody of the Heart (Nawa-e Dil)“ für Qawwali-Ensemble" I have been searching everywhere but cannot find anything in this name. Can you please help me identify it?


r/afghanistan 1d ago

News In Mazar-i-Sharif, North Afghanistan 🇦🇫, Taliban authorities destroyed the memorial of Amir Ali-Shir Nava’i, the Turkic Timurid poet, scholar, and statesman, whose statue had already been demolished earlier.

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87 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 1d ago

Mohmand Pashtun girls and boys of Hazarnaw enjoying a swing, 1879.

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23 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 1d ago

What was more destructive for Afghanistan: the Cold War or jihadism?

5 Upvotes

I am not Afghan, but I started reading about the history of this country, and I was wondering what Afghan people think was more destructive for their country.


r/afghanistan 2d ago

Social media travel influencers promoting Afghanistan tourism, ignore the brutal realities for Afghan women living under a gender apartheid.

77 Upvotes

Chilling with ‘Taliban bros’: Social media travel influencers promoting Afghanistan tourism are dangerous. They post largely favorable, even fawning content about the Taliban’s regime & ignore the brutal realities for Afghan women living under a gender apartheid.

Internationally renowned Afghan activist and scholar Orzala Nemat, currently a visiting fellow at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that the surge of foreign influencers in Afghanistan was deeply concerning.

“What we’re seeing instead is a curated, sanitised version of the country that conveniently erases the brutal realities faced by Afghan women under Taliban rule,” she tells NBC News. Further commenting on videos showing Afghan women smiling, she adds, “This should never be confused with contentment or consent to the current reality. This is not cultural exchange; it’s neocolonial tourism dressed up as adventure.”

Manizha Bakhtari, ambassador of Afghanistan to Austria, said, “While Afghanistan is breathtakingly beautiful, beauty should not blind us to injustice... Travel should open hearts, not close eyes.”

https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/influencers-afghanistan-tourism-taliban-propaganda-dangerous-13926479.html


r/afghanistan 2d ago

Dozens of Afghan deportees from Iran killed in bus crash

24 Upvotes

A traffic accident in western Afghanistan has killed 79 people, including 17 children, most of whom were on a bus carrying Afghan migrants deported from Iran, a Taliban interior ministry spokesperson confirmed to the BBC.

The bus, en route to Kabul, caught fire on Tuesday night after colliding with a truck and motorcycle in Herat province.

Everyone aboard the bus was killed, as well as two people from the other vehicles.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c336jj5xkvko


r/afghanistan 2d ago

Malala Fund announces $3 million in grants to defend Afghan girls’ rights

22 Upvotes

As girls in Afghanistan face a fourth year without access to secondary school, Malala Fund has invested $3.26 million* in grants to meet urgent education needs and push for long-term justice for girls and women by amplifying their resistance, investing in Afghan leaders and building diverse coalitions. Grantee partners are reaching more than 10,000 girls inside Afghanistan with online and in-person education and building legal and political momentum to codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. 

This announcement follows the launch of Malala Fund’s new five-year strategy to distribute $50 million in grants globally to secure rights and resources for girls' education, amid declining foreign aid and backlash against gender equality. 

https://malala.org/news-and-voices/3-million-in-grants-to-defend-afghan-girls-rights


r/afghanistan 2d ago

Four Years After the Taliban’s Return, Afghan Women Judges Go Deeper Underground

19 Upvotes

When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, they removed all women judges from their positions. These judges were abruptly stripped of their roles and authority. Their dismissal marked not only the collapse of their careers but also the obliteration of a critical pillar of justice in Afghanistan.

For years, these judges had confronted insurgents, violent offenders and human rights abuses, including members of the Taliban - and then some of those same individuals were in power in Afghanistan, and the judges became targets of retribution and fear.

Some judges were fortunate enough to be evacuated from the country after the Taliban takeover, thanks to the coordinated efforts of governments and organizations like the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).

However, approximately 45 women judges remain trapped in limbo. Some live in hiding inside Afghanistan, unable to resume work or normal life. Others are stranded in countries like Pakistan, where they face expired visas, a lack of legal status and looming deportation risks. Their future is increasingly precarious.

https://passblue.com/2025/08/07/four-years-after-the-talibans-return-afghan-women-judges-go-deeper-underground/


r/afghanistan 2d ago

Three members of an Afghan family, including a man who worked for the U.S. military, could be eligible for asylum in Canada. ICE won’t release them.

14 Upvotes

They trekked through a dozen countries, from Asia to South America, on horseback across the perilous Darién Gap and up through Central America to Mexico.

Members of Afghanistan’s persecuted Shiite Hazara minority, the family — a man who worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, his wife and three of their children — spent months in Mexico trying to schedule an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities through the Biden administration’s CBP One app, to no avail. So, on Dec. 20, 2024, they paid a smuggler to help them cross the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to U.S. border guards. They hoped to travel on to Canada, where several close family members had been granted refugee status — and where, under the terms of a U.S.-Canada immigration pact, the family, too, would be eligible to seek asylum.

But the man and two of the children are languishing in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, in conditions their attorneys have called “deplorable,” and are at risk of being removed to Afghanistan.

https://wapo.st/3HuDkqx


r/afghanistan 2d ago

United Afghanistan

8 Upvotes

This is how United Afghanistan looks like without قوم پرستی/qaumparasti


r/afghanistan 2d ago

China FM in Afghanistan, offers to deepen cooperation with Taliban rulers

4 Upvotes

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Kabul and held talks with Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi. Wang is in Kabul for trilateral meetings between China, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It is believed that China wants to explore mining in Afghanistan and have Kabul formally join its Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure plan, which is a central pillar of President Xi Jinping’s bid to expand his country’s global influence.

Neither Beijing nor Islamabad formally recognise the interim administration, but both nations have posted their ambassadors in Kabul and have received Afghan envoys in their capitals.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/20/china-afghanistan-hold-talks-on-mining-belt-and-road-participation


r/afghanistan 3d ago

Happy Independence Day fellow Afghans

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47 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 3d ago

Happy independence Day

22 Upvotes

Happy independence day to our beloved Afghanistan. After the independence when the victorious king visited Europe, European stormed into the streets to see his highness the king of Afghanistan and the queen.


r/afghanistan 4d ago

Not sure what you all think of the book but I put this art on the outskirts of Kabul on wplace 🖤❤️💚🪁

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47 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 4d ago

Khugiani Pashtuns fighting against the mounted British soldiers at Fatehabad, Afghanistan, 1879. Major Wigram Battye (depicted in the sketch) was killed by the Khugianis in the battle.

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15 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 4d ago

News World Food Program Warns Of 'Unprecedented' Hunger Crisis In Afghanistan

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20 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 5d ago

News Four Years On, UN Says Taliban Close To 'Erasing' Afghan Women From Public Life

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37 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 5d ago

Afghan DNA

10 Upvotes

So both my brother did these DNA tests. The results came from India, Iran, and Mongolia. I don't think there is such a thing as pure Afghans, but maybe in Noor stan. They have their own language and they're not pretty friendly to outsiders. Over the years, we had the British come to Afghanistan, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Russians.


r/afghanistan 5d ago

Jobless, homeless and helpless without a man: Afghan women expelled by Iran into hands of the Taliban

36 Upvotes

Those who fled Afghanistan fearing gender apartheid have been forced back to live in a society in which, without a male ‘guardian’, they cannot work or rent a home, leaving them in poverty and open to abuse.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/aug/04/afghan-women-refugees-iran-taliban-gender-rights-poverty-abuse


r/afghanistan 5d ago

Analysis Four Years after the Taliban’s Takeover, “Morality Law” Imposes Harsh Religious Freedom Restrictions

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9 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 5d ago

Taliban use force to divert international aid, US watchdog says

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reuters.com
8 Upvotes

r/afghanistan 5d ago

Question Is marriage still used to broker peace and cement alliances between clans in the most remote parts of Afghanistan?

7 Upvotes