August 15 marks one year since the Taliban takeover, but it\u2019s not a happy occasion for Afghanistan, and the fundamental human rights of Afghans continue to be violated.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan is under occupation. There have been many reports detailing the forced displacement and systemic genocide against the Hazara population, targeted violence and eyewitness reports of the mass killings of 600 Tajik hostages, crimes against humanity in Panjshir, strip-mining of mineral wealth and the war the Taliban are waging against women.<\/p>\n
The Doha Agreement, a peace pact signed between the U.S. and Taliban to mark the withdrawal of all forces in Afghanistan, has also been breached as terrorist groups reposition themselves under the Taliban.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International\u2019s recent report describes the situation of Afghan women as \u201cdeath in slow motion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women face harsher restrictions here than anywhere else in the world, barred from secondary education and most work outside healthcare and education. They are forced to be accompanied by a male guardian for all but short journeys and required to cover their faces in public.<\/p>\n
Restrictions are enforced intermittently but, particularly for poorer and more vulnerable women including those without a guardian, the fear of enforcement alone can be crippling.<\/p>\n
Life for children one year since the Taliban takeover, shows that 97% of families are struggling to provide enough food for their children, and that girls are eating less than boys. Almost 80% of children said they had gone to bed hungry in the past 30 days. Girls were almost twice as likely as boys to frequently go to bed hungry, according to a new report by Save the Children.<\/p>\n
A lack of food is having devastating consequences on children\u2019s health and threatening their future. Nine in 10 girls said their meals had reduced in the past year and that they worry because they\u2019re losing weight and have no energy to study, play and work.<\/p>\n
Life for Afghanistan\u2019s 40mn people has changed significantly since the withdrawal of Nato troops and the victory of the Sunni militants one year ago, with a dramatic economic collapse leaving many Afghans much poorer and hungrier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very worried about this next winter,\u201d said Hsiao-Wei Lee, the UN\u2019s World Food Programme\u2019s Deputy Director for Afghanistan. The country was in urgent need of food aid as well as a wider programme of investment, she said: \u201cWe need the economy to breathe\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009so that [Afghans] are not in the same position as they are now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rajab Ali Yousefi, a 35-year-old shopkeeper in Kabul, said sales of staple foods had halved, forcing him into debt to keep paying his rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness is going down and down,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people who used to buy a bag of something will now buy half of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While humanitarian assistance has helped to stave off mass starvation, aid agencies fear vulnerable Afghans will be unable to withstand further economic shocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can spend all day looking, and there won\u2019t be any work,\u201d said Qalandari. \u201cEverything has collapsed and now we\u2019re begging just for bread.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the Taliban\u2019s claim to have ended its repressive ways, the signs are inauspicious.
\nThe Taliban also brings back the feared Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, enforcing the group\u2019s austere interpretation of Islam.<\/p>\n
Terror attacks have killed about 700 civilians and wounded 1,400 between August and June, said the UN. These are mostly on the Hazara ethnic minority, attributable to the local affiliate of Isis, the Taliban\u2019s Islamist rivals.<\/p>\n
The Taliban, who previously persecuted the Shia Muslims as heretics, say it is now their duty to protect minorities but many Hazara are deeply distrustful of the group.<\/p>\n