'Enduring commitment': Biden celebrates thriving prisoner swap with Taliban

Christian Datoc

September 19, 10:20 AM September 19, 10:20 AM

President Joe Biden pointed to Mark Frerichs's release as evidence of his administration's "enduring determination" to releasing Individuals overseas.

Frerichs, a Navy veteran who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in early 2020, was released from Taliban captivity Monday in a prisoner swap for Haji Noorzai, a popular Taliban member serving a 17-calendar year drug sentence in the United States.

BIDEN TELLS GRINER AND WHELAN Families HE IS 'COMMITTED' TO SECURING THEIR Launch

Biden referred to as Monday's advancement "the end result of a long time of tireless do the job by focused public servants throughout our governing administration and other husband or wife governments" and vowed to "make guaranteed Mark receives a healthful and safe and sound return" and assist his "transition back into culture."

"My Administration continues to prioritize the secure return of all Individuals who are held hostage or wrongfully detained overseas, and we will not halt right up until they are reunited with their families," the president wrote in a statement. "We have a great deal a lot more perform to do in many other cases, but Mark’s launch demonstrates our enduring motivation. Like our function to free Individuals held in Burma, Haiti, Russia, Venezuela, and in other places, it is our duty to do all we can to provide our individuals property."

Frerichs's launch arrived just times immediately after Biden fulfilled with the people of WNBA star Brittney Griner and retired Maritime Paul Whelan at the White Household. Equally keep on being in Russian captivity.

Whelan has been jailed for practically four decades considering the fact that getting accused of espionage by the Kremlin, while Griner is serving a drug-related sentence just after currently being detained at the start off of Russia's war in Ukraine. The pair continue being the greatest-profile Us residents now held in international captivity.

"We all admire the bravery of the Whelan and Griner family members in the facial area of these unimaginable situations, and we keep on being dedicated to reuniting them with their loved types," the White Home reported next Biden's Friday assembly with the people.

Man’s function: Taliban direct gals to send out male relatives to acquire their work

Cami Mondeaux

July 18, 08:19 AM July 18, 08:19 AM

Several gals in Afghanistan who keep work in the government have been directed by Taliban leaders to mail their male kinfolk to replace them, in accordance to experiences.

Some woman workers who nonetheless hold federal government employment have been explained to to come across male relations to deliver as replacements simply because the “workload in the office environment has greater and they want to hire a male rather of us,” a single woman informed the VFAB.

“I was asked to introduce a male relatives member to change me at the ministry, so I could be dismissed from the occupation,” one particular woman who labored as the head of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance reported. “This is a hard and technological position I was experienced for and have decades of expertise in. And even if he could do the exact same work at some point, what would happen to me?”

Guys TO Provide AS PROXIES FOR Women AT AFGHANISTAN UNITY Discussion board

The selection has prompted pushback from quite a few women of all ages, with some mobilizing to protest.

“We do not acknowledge their order and we will try to get them to change it,” one woman employee in the Ministry of Finance explained. “We have designed a team of woman workforce of the ministry. We are negotiating now, and we will exhibit if they never hear us.”

It’s not clear how many authorities departments have been instructed by the Taliban to commence replacing their woman staff members with male family.

The change in coverage will come months following the Taliban taken off females from their jobs and sent them property, besides for people with govt positions that could not be loaded by gentlemen, who remained in their work opportunities at noticeably lower salaries. Now, Taliban leaders are seeking to replace even gals who remained employed soon after that selection.

The limitations on woman work have resulted in widespread economic strains on the region, triggering an financial loss of about $1 billion to the financial state, which is about 5% of the country’s GDP, according to estimates from the United Nations.

“There is pretty much common poverty in the region,” claimed U.N. Girls Executive Director Sima Bahous. “More than 50 % of the inhabitants requires some kind of humanitarian guidance, and an overall technology is threatened by foods insecurity and malnutrition. The newest limitations make makes an attempt at restoration more difficult, if not impossible.”

Right before the Taliban took power in August 2021, just about 3,000 of Kabul's personnel had been women, earning up about one particular-3rd of the city's workforce, according to the Connected Push.

More than 9 million men and women have been displaced considering that the Taliban took handle of Afghanistan, and 20 million now experience serious starvation, according to an Integrated Food Protection Stage Classification investigation posted in May well.

Gentlemen to serve as proxies for ladies at Afghanistan unity forum

Ryan King

June 29, 11:51 AM June 29, 11:51 AM

Taliban leaders will convene a collecting starting off Thursday of tribal elders and religious scholars in Afghanistan to go over countrywide unity and other urgent issues that will notably be devoid of ladies.

Male delegates at the discussion board will characterize women of all ages, acting Deputy Key Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi advised general public broadcaster RTA on Wednesday. Approximately 3,000 men will show up at the assembly, but it is not crystal clear what exactly will be mentioned or whether or not it will take a look at women's legal rights, which have been curtailed considering the fact that the Taliban took energy last August even with promises for reform.

TALIBAN Buy Women TO BE Included FROM HEAD TO TOE

"The women of all ages are our mothers, sisters. We regard them a whole lot. When their sons are in the accumulating, it signifies they are also concerned, in a way, in the collecting," Hanafi said, Reuters reported.

The accumulating will be the initially of its kind considering the fact that the Taliban toppled the U.S.-backed govt and assumed electric power past 12 months. The planned forum mirrors elements of a "loya jirga," a traditional choice-building approach in Afghanistan in which an assembly of leaders pursue consensus, the outlet reported.

"Unique persons with distinctive views are going to get. ... This will be a constructive stage for balance in Afghanistan and strengthening countrywide unity," Hanafi additional.

Spiritual leaders asked the gathering to assess social and financial subject areas, according to Hanafi. Given that the Taliban arrived roaring again to electricity, the state has confronted dire financial woes, massive humanitarian challenges, and inside ability struggles.

An approximated 24 million persons, or 60% of the nation's inhabitants, are in desperate need of humanitarian aid this sort of as food stuff and medical supplies, the United Nations Business for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned in March.

The Taliban have extended faced criticism for their policies toward females. So significantly, they have declined to reopen universities to women higher than sixth grade, eliciting global uproar and condemnation. In Could, the Taliban issued a decree mandating all females in Afghanistan be protected head to toe in public.

In the meantime, 1,150 miles absent, the nation's Foreign Affairs Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi held talks with U.S. officials in Qatar on Wednesday to negotiate the unfreezing of around $9 billion in Afghan funds. The United States froze the funding in response to the Taliban takeover last calendar year. The prior spherical of talks over the frozen money took location in May.