IRNA reported that Iran has increased Tehran University’s budget for scholarships to Afghan students fivefold.

An official from Tehran University said this would enable Iran to support more Afghan students, especially women, in 2023.

Currently, 470 Afghan students, nearly a quarter of them women, are studying at Tehran University.

More than half of these students have scholarships, the official added.

Following the Taliban’s closure of universities for Afghan female students, Iran announced that it was ready to provide special facilities for female Afghan students.

Women and girls were largely excluded from public life in Afghanistan.

Iran is also a Muslim country whose Islamic legislation is repeatedly criticised. Women in particular face systematic disadvantages in the Islamic Republic.

Iran has also come under international criticism for its brutal crackdown on nationwide protests, with women leading the unrest.

The Islamic Republic has a modern education and higher education system, and the majority of enrolled students in Iran are women.

In its biggest-ever single-country appeal, the UN said $4.4 billion (3.9 billion euros) was needed within Afghanistan, while a further $623 million was required to support the millions of Afghans sheltering beyond its borders.

The UN said 22 million people inside Afghanistan and a further 5.7 million displaced Afghans in five neighbouring countries needed vital relief this year.

“A full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms. My message is urgent: don’t shut the door on the people of Afghanistan,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.

“Help us scale up and stave off wide-spread hunger, disease, malnutrition and ultimately death.”

Since the Taliban hardline Islamist movement seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, the country has plunged into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging

Washington has frozen billions of dollars of the country’s assets, while aid supplies have been heavily disrupted.

Afghanistan also suffered its worst drought in decades in 2021.

Without the aid package, “there won’t be a future”, Griffiths told reporters in Geneva.

Griffiths said the appeal, if funded, would help aid agencies ramp up the delivery of food and agriculture support, health services, malnutrition treatment, emergency shelters, access to water and sanitation, protection and education.

An estimated 4.7 million people will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, including 1.1 million children with severe acute malnutrition.

According to Ghani, he had just few minutes to decide to flee in the hours before the Taliban took control of the capital in August.

According to the account of the Afghan and US officials, there was an agreement between the Taliban and Ghani to have a peaceful transfer of power but Ghani has disputed that account, saying he had no choice but to abruptly leave Kabul as the Taliban closed in. Speaking in a BBC interview on Thursday, December 30, Ghani said that an adviser gave him just minutes to decide to abandon the capital, Kabul. He also denied widespread accusations that he left Afghanistan with millions in stolen money. Speaking in a BBC interview on Thursday, December 30, Ghani said that an adviser gave him just minutes to decide to abandon the capital, Kabul. He also denied widespread accusations that he left Afghanistan with millions in stolen money.

Ghani’s sudden and secret departure on August 15 left the city in state of confusion as US and NATO forces were in the final stages of their withdrawal from the country after 20 years.

“On the morning of that day, I had no inkling that by late afternoon I would be leaving,” Ghani told BBC radio.

But Ghani in his radio interview with British General Sir Nick Carter, former chief of defence staff, said he fled “to prevent the destruction of Kabul”, claiming two rival Taliban factions were advancing on the city and were ready to enter a bitter battle for control

There was no evidence upon the Taliban entry of the rival factions Ghani referred to

Ghani’s flight meant an orderly transfer of power was not possible, and allowed the Taliban to simply fill the security vacuum. Many Afghans now accuse Ghani, who is now living in the United Arab Emirates, of simply handing them over to the Taliban.

The Taliban quickly took control of the as Afghan government forces surrendered or ran away.

According to humanitarian aid workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Taliban moved to protect their compounds.

US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko has been tasked with investigating those allegations.

After being told by his national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib that his personal protection forces were not capable of defending him, Ghani said he decided to leave.

Mohib, who “was literally terrified”, gave him just two minutes to decide whether to leave, Ghani said, insisting he was not sure where he would be taken even after he was on the helicopter getting ready to take off.

However this doesn’t correlate with what Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai told The Associated Press news agency in an interview earlier this month. He said that Ghani’s departure scuttled the opportunity for government negotiators, including himself and peace council chairman Abdullah Abdullah, to reach an eleventh-hour agreement with the Taliban, who had committed to staying outside the capital.

Karzai said that after calling then-Defence Minister Bismillah Khan, the interior minister and the police chief, and discovering all had fled the capital, Karzai said he invited the Taliban into Kabul “to protect the population so that the country, the city doesn’t fall into chaos and the unwanted elements who would probably loot the country, loot shops”.

A medical source at the Kunduz Provincial Hospital said that 35 dead and more than 50 injured had been taken there, while a worker at a Doctors Without Borders hospital reported 15 dead and scores more wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had earlier said an unknown number of people had been killed and injured when “an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots” in Kunduz.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The bomb attack was carried out at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque during the Friday prayer service when the mosque is typically crowded.

Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the “majority of them have been killed”. He said the attack may have been carried out by a suicide bomber who mingled among the worshipers.

“I assure our Shiite brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety,” Obaida said, adding that an investigation was underway.

Since taking over power last month in Afghanistan, the Taliban have carried out harsh punishments on opponents. On Saturday, 25th September, the group’s fighters shot dead four alleged kidnappers and their bodies were hung in the streets of Herat province.

And now barbers in the capital Kabul have said they have been warned against trimming beards.

In a notice posted on salons in southern Helmand province, Taliban officers warned that hairdressers must follow Sharia law for haircuts and beards.

“No one has a right to complain,” the notice, which was seen by the BBC, read.

“The fighters keep coming and ordering us to stop trimming beards,” one barber in Kabul said. “One of them told me they can send undercover inspectors to catch us.”

Another hairdresser, who runs one of the city’s biggest salons, said he received a call from someone claiming to be a government official. They instructed him to “stop following American styles” and not to shave or trim anyone’s beard.

During the Taliban’s first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, the group banned flamboyant hairstyles and insisted that men grow beards.

The new instructions suggest a return to the strict reign of the group’s past tenure in power, despite promises to the West to be more considerate and milder in its government this time around.

According to the Taliban “there will be no issue about women’s rights” despite widespread international concerns.

Speaking to Fox News on Friday, September 3, Suhail Shaheen said he opposes Western views that “women should have education without [a] hijab. That is a change of culture,… Our culture… they can receive education with hijab. They can work with hijab.”

When asked about future relations with the U.S., Shaheen said, “We should be focusing on how can we work together in a positive and constructive way which is in the best of interest of both sides. There will be no issue about women’s rights. No problem about their education, their work,” he added. “But we should not be after changing each other’s culture as we are not intending to change your culture, you should not be changing our culture.”

Shaheen also described the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan as the closure of one chapter in the country’s history.

“We have closed one chapter. For us it was occupation. We ended that, we were staging resistance,” he told Fox News. “But now it is closed. It is the past. We have to focus on the future that is better for them and for us.”

Shaheen’s comments came after reports emerged that a new interim government will be announced soon in Kabul.

A source close to the militant group told Reuters that the interim government would consist only of Taliban members, contain 25 ministries and a consultative council of a dozen Muslim scholars.

Panjshir Valley, a mountainous, inaccessible region north of Kabul, is the last major stronghold holding out against Taliban rule and has a long history of resisting the insurgent group.

For the past four decades, the NRF has rebuffed advances by the British Empire’s army, Soviet forces and the Taliban.

But following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, with the exception of the Panjshir region that is controlled by the NRF, the Taliban advanced into the region on Thursday night.

The Taliban have been massing forces in and around Panjshir province in recent weeks and said on Monday they had captured three districts in the valley. But the NRF said Thursday’s overnight clashes between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) were very intense.

An NRF source said “They (Taliban) are using their last power to get in, but clashes are still ongoing”

Earlier on Thursday, Fahim Dashti, an NRF spokesperson, said in an audio message that the Taliban lost 40 of their forces in their ongoing attempts to enter Panjshir. Ali Nazary, another spokesperson from the group, said Thursday that the Taliban had also lost a number of heavy equipment and weaponry that had been destroyed.

Current NRF leader

On Wednesday, a Taliban leader called on Panjshiris to accept an amnesty and avoid fighting but acknowledged that negotiations had thus far yielded no result. He said the situation “should be resolved peacefully,” but did not directly address the claims of renewed fighting and casualties.

After the USSR, which controlled Kabul in the 1980s, withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, various factions of Islamic holy warriors split into groups, fighting for control of the country.

The Northern Alliance also known as the NRF was soon formed and led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. Massoud led an anti-Taliban offensive until he was assassinated by al Qaeda operatives two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The NRF is now led by Massoud’s son, Ahmad Massoud, who has vowed to continue the fight against the Taliban in the wake of their near takeover of Afghanistan. People fleeing the Taliban, including the former Afghan Vice President, Amrullah Saleh, have also sought refuge in the Valley.

“It would’ve been the exact opposite,” Trump told Premiere Networks hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton when asked what would have happened if he was in power.

“We were in perfect shape. Abdul – he’s now the head guy – he was the one I was dealing with [when] I said there would be hell to pay if you touch any American soldiers or Americans,” Trump said, referring to Taliban leader and now de facto Afghan leader Abdul Ghani-Baradar

Trump said Biden incidentally let that idea slip from his tongue when he noted during public remarks that there hadn’t been any U.S. service members killed in 18 months because of the deal struck between the two sides.

“They didn’t meet some of them (conditions) so we bombed the hell out of them,” Trump said about the Taliban reportedly violating parts of the deal.

When it came to the withdrawal, which left 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians dead from a terrorist bomb blast, as well as untold numbers of stranded U.S. citizens, Trump said that the U.S. would’ve been out in an orderly manner and that Biden should have either destroyed or taken the billions of taxpayer-funded weapons that are now in the hands of the Taliban

“I said I want every nail, every screw, every tank, every plane – those planes are in very good working order – you look at Apaches they coast a fortune – tens of millions,” Trump said, adding that he was embarrassed to see Taliban militants riding in American military vehicles and aircraft.

“It’s just disgraceful – I think its the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country,” Trump said.

Trump also ripped Biden for showing “disrespect” to families of the 13 fallen service members by looking at his wrist watch during their funeral over the weekend in Delaware.

“Tremendous disrespect was paid by Biden when he kept looking at his watch over and over again— every time a coffin came off the plane, he was looking at his watch,” Trump said.

“The parents are angry, as they should be,” he said. “Nobody should’ve been killed [but] after I got out, Abdul and his group went wild.”

Leonard gave the assurance on Monday during a meeting with journalists in Abuja.

The ambassador explained that Nigeria and Afghanistan’s situations are not the same.

Several quarters in the country had warned the President Muhammadu Buhari against a repeat of what happened in Afghanistan, where the Taliban took over the country.

They expressed fear that the situation in Afghanistan may serve as a morale booster for Boko Haram in Nigeria to take over the country.

Leonard noted that Nigeria has had a strong bilateral relationship with the US, saying that the situations are not the same.

But in dismissing the fear that the US partnership with Nigeria might end up like that of Afghanistan, she added, “I hear people making the analogy with Afghanistan a lot, it does not match up.

“When you listen to what President Biden said on how troops went to Afghanistan in the first place, it was because they were in a horrible tragedy, over 3,000 Americans were killed.

“That is a different construct. The sovereign nations who have had strong bilateral relations. I don’t actually think the two match up.”

“We have paused disbursements in our operations in Afghanistan and we are closely monitoring and assessing the situation in line with our internal policies and procedures,’’ a World Bank spokesperson said in Washington.

“As we do so, we will continue to consult closely with the international community and development partners.

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and the impact on the country’s development prospects, especially for women.

“Together with our partners, we are exploring ways we can remain engaged to preserve hard-won development gains and continue to support the people of Afghanistan,’’ the spokesperson added.

The World Bank has been an important donor of development projects for Afghanistan, which was one of the poorest countries in the world.

The organisation says that it has provided aid to Afghanistan totalling almost five billion dollars from 2002 through April 2021.

In February there were twelve projects in Afghanistan with a volume of around 940 million dollars, plus other projects in cooperation with a local fund for reconstruction.

The International Monetary Fund also based in Washington, announced last week that it would suspend cooperation with Afghanistan until further notice.