Salam Can anyone tell me what language this song is? Thanks

https://youtu.be/yFQb453Wahg?si=2o-bOsJS5sbJuK9j

For context, I’m a female afghan American and I have come to a realization that it’s very difficult to meet other afghans unless you have a big family or community here. Even though there are a lot of afghans here, we’re still too disconnected. How did you all meet your spouses?

Afghans living abroad are flocking back to visit relatives for the first time since the Taliban takeover. Severe restrictions on women are not top of mind.

Afghans living outside the country have begun flocking back to their homeland, usually to visit relatives who have remained in Afghanistan.

Upon their return, few seem preoccupied by the Taliban’s increasingly draconian restrictions on women — including bans on women going to university and school above sixth grade — or by the reluctance of many local women to leave their homes out of fear of encountering the morality police, according to interviews with residents and visitors.

Instead, many of the visitors, carrying foreign passports or visas, marvel about the sense of security and the construction of new roads under Taliban rule. They post photos of their favorite Afghan dishes, discuss business plans and shop in the Kabul airport’s new duty-free store.

For Afghan women who have had to live under Taliban rule, the enthusiasm of visiting relatives can be puzzling and, increasingly, frustrating.

Visitors often spend so much time at relatives’ homes that the absence of women in many public spaces can go unnoticed, some hosting families said in interviews. Many visitors also spend their time primarily in more affluent parts of Kabul, where enforcement by the morality police remains relatively rare.

Full story from the Washington Post - this is a gifted article: https://wapo.st/4f01rrW

Has anyone heard of NaTakallam? https://natakallam.com
They do language classes with a person, online, and include Farsi, Dari, Arabic, and several other languages. I am hoping to get someone's experience with them as I shop around for someone to help me take the next language step.

Hi, I run an organization offering Free English classes to students around the world. Notably, in Afghanistan. When I started this organization I had never met someone from Afghanistan in my life and was focused on lessons for spanish / mandarin / and russian speakers. However, after a friend helped to promote volunteering, an afghani girl applied and I was so interested just to talk with her and 7 weeks later, her & I created a team of 10 volunteers with 98 students (for our Dari Sections). I am writing here for a couple of reasons.

- If you have connections within Afghanistan or Afghan refugees in Pakistan/Iran/Turkey/Europe/USA (such as working/running an NGO, volunteering, family, etc.) - please dm me because our organization would love to help

- if you yourself would like to volunteer as a tutor, please fill out our form on our website or contact me: freefluencyacademy.com

- if you have any ideas you would like to share please reach out

Also, the best part of me running this organization is all the people, i've met so if you just want to talk also dm.

When Zainab Ferozi saw Afghan women struggling to feed their families after Taliban authorities took power, she took matters into her own hands and poured her savings into starting a business.

Two-and-a-half years after putting 20,000 Afghanis ($300) earned from teaching sewing classes into a carpet weaving enterprise, she now employs around a dozen women who lost their jobs or who had to abandon their education due to Taliban government rules.

Ferozi is one of many women who have launched small businesses in the past three years to meet their own needs and support other Afghan women, whose employment sharply declined after the Taliban took power in 2021.

More from the Japan Times:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/25/world/society/afghan-women-entrepreneurship-taliban/

August 10, 2024

FBI Seeking Information Into the Disappearance of Mahmood Shah Habibi

The FBI is seeking information into the disappearance of Mahmood Shah Habibi in 2022 in Afghanistan. Mr. Habibi is an Afghan-American businessman, and he worked as a contractor for Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company.

On August 10, 2022, Mr. Habibi was taken from his vehicle near his home in Kabul City, Afghanistan, along with his driver. It is believed that Mr. Habibi was taken by Taliban military or security forces and has not been heard from since his disappearance. The FBI believes that Mr. Habibi and his driver were also taken with 29 other employees of Asia Consultancy Group; all except for Mr. Habibi and one other have since been freed.

More info:

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/fbi-seeking-information-into-the-disappearance-of-mahmood-shah-habibi

Opium production in Afghanistan remained low for the second year in a row, reaching 433 tons in 2024, but the figure marks a 30 percent increase from 2023, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Wednesday.

The UNODC said that opium production in Afghanistan remains 93 percent lower than 2022 levels when the Taliban began enforcing a nationwide ban on drug cultivation.

More from Amu TV: https://amu.tv/139921/

Human trafficking networks have infiltrated migrant camps in Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, leveraging bribes and operatives posing as camp workers or migrants to exploit vulnerable individuals, according to a field study conducted by Amu, an independent research organization.

The study, based on interviews with 33 individuals across seven Afghan provinces, highlights the pervasive presence of trafficking networks in camps that host undocumented migrants. Of those surveyed, 63.6 percent described the influence of trafficking networks in these camps as “high,” while 30.3 percent reported it as “low,” and 6.1 percent identified it as “moderate.”

Trafficking networks reportedly rely on bribes and intermediaries who pose as workers, such as janitors, bakers, or even fellow migrants, to maintain control. These operatives take advantage of the poor conditions in camps, offering false promises of escape or assistance in exchange for payment.

“These networks don’t just smuggle people. They’re involved in drugs and even organ harvesting. I’ve seen people lose everything—their money, their health, even their organs.”

More from Amu TV: https://amu.tv/140023/

Filmmakers plea with the UK government via a parliamentary committee to give safe haven to dozens of Afghan actors, journalists, poets, writers, film makers, dancers and other creatives in danger from the Taliban.

“This is a matter of saving the culture of Afghanistan,” Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf said to the parliamentary committee. Makhmalbaf, a decorated auteur who has been campaigning and helping around 800 Afghani creatives and their families exit the nation for the past three years, appeared in front of the UK’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMSC) alongside his children, filmmakers Hana Makhmalbaf and Maysam Makhmalbaf, and Hat Trick boss Jimmy Mulville, to call on lawmakers to take action. This came after Hana Makhmalbaf made a documentary feature about the plight of Afghani creatives titled The List, which played at several festivals.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf stressed that accepting Afghan creatives into the UK would be of net benefit to the nation while simultaneously helping save lives and enrich local culture.

https://deadline.com/2024/11/afghanistan-creative-resettlement-taliban-mohsen-makhmalbaf-jimmy-mulville-uk-government-1236188663/

The latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveals significant gaps in Afghanistan's ability to address substance use disorders, highlighting urgent issues with access, resources, and infrastructure.

The Mapping of Facilities for Treatment of Substance Use Disorders in Afghanistan report, conducted in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is the first comprehensive survey of the country's treatment capacity.

While services are operational in 32 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, systemic barriers - especially for women - severely limit access to care.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1157551

In Afghanistan, journalists and media workers face challenges including arbitrary arrests, torture and severe restrictions on press freedom, according to a new United Nations report released on Tuesday.

The report titled Media Freedom in Afghanistan outlined 256 instances of arbitrary arrest and detention, combined with 130 cases of torture and ill-treatment. An additional 75 documented cases of threats and intimidation have created a climate of fear.

The joint report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, documented 336 cases of human rights violations against media professionals between August 2021 and September 2024.

"Journalists and media workers in Afghanistan work under unclear rules on what they can and cannot report, running the risk of intimidation and arbitrary detention for perceived criticism,” said Roza Otunbayeza, head of UNAMA.

“For any country, a free press is not a choice, but a necessity. What we’re witnessing in Afghanistan is the systematic dismantling of this necessity”.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1157511

Maryam, which is not the reporter’s real name, is one of the few female journalists left in Afghanistan who report primarily on women’s issues. She told CJR that she works anonymously for her own protection and that of her subjects. She rarely meets with sources in public, and sometimes doesn’t even reveal her true identity to the people she interviews. 

Maryam has continued to shine a spotlight on the plight of women living under Taliban rule. “My goal is to raise the voices of women,” she said. “This is not just a job for me, it is a responsibility. And for that reason, I am not scared of doing my job.” When Afghanistan experienced flash floods, in May, Maryam spoke to women in stricken regions who were struggling to access sanitary products; her article, published at the Afghan Times, an online news site that includes a special focus on the stories of Afghan women, noted that some of them felt uncomfortable talking about their periods with aid workers and local authorities who could be Taliban-linked. In July, she reported on the forced closure of women-only restaurants, describing them as one of the “few safe places left for Afghan women workers.”

More from: https://www.cjr.org/world/afghanistan-anonymous-thomson-foundation-young-journalist.php

Hi everyone, just wondering what donation methods someone from Afghanistan can use for a non-profit?

An organization I used to donate to asked me if I can use my PayPal account for the donations and then I can transfer the money to them through western union or money gram (I haven't used these services as a Canadian).

Are there any options out there that's more convenient than this??

Thanks in advance!

I am attempting to help an immigrant and this will help keep him in a safe country. Any help would be appreciated.

Anyone who speaks Pashto . I need to know the pronunciation of few words correctly .

Hello. I am an immigration lawyer in Turkey. I have a few questions. If you or your relatives came to Turkey via irregular routes:

1. How was the experience?
2. How much did it cost?
3. Did you stay in removal centers? If yes, which removal center, and how was the experience?
4. Were lawyers helpful to you?

When I watch videos from Afghanistan, I can't find a overarching theme or corolation between clothes. Please tell me if I am wrong, and explain any styles that occur with like outfits and hats.

I became friends with an Afghan family who moved to the U.S. after the U.S. withdrawal. Since their children had very few toys, I gave them some stuffed animals, including pandas and bears. However, the mom explained that, as Muslims, they can’t have pandas and bears at home. Her English is limited, so I didn’t fully understand why these particular stuffed animals aren’t okay, while others like penguins, dogs, and cats are fine. Can anyone help explain?

It's going to be very weird question but I got a random call from a stranger who told me that a friend mine committed suicide in Kabul, i haven't talked with her for a year, i tried to confirm the information with a friend of her she lives near her she said she saw her funeral but my heart is not accepting it.

I have no other way to know about her, one thing I know about her is that she used to say that her father was a retinal surgeon with a name Wahiduallah Hashimu(Wahid) he worked in Ramoz eye hospital. If anyone can help me out? I also have the location of her house in Kabul, Dasht-e-Barchi

DNA testing kits are on sale, was wondering which one to get as I heard some don’t really classify Afghanistan as its own region. The two I’m looking at are MyAncestry and 23andme, leaning more towards 23andme, but let me know if there are others I should consider that are most accurate for Afghans.