Free Republic

A spokesman at Afghanistan's Vice and Virtue Ministry says the Taliban are banning women's beauty salons ... It's the latest curb on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, following edicts barring them from education, public spaces and most forms of employment. A spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, didn't give details of the ban. He only confirmed the contents of a letter circulating on social media. ... from the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The ban targets the capital, Kabul, and all provinces, and gives salons throughout the country a month's notice...

A specialized United Nations team assessed that at least three key leaders in the Taliban's ruling government are “affiliated” or “associated” with the al Qaeda terrorist group in Afghanistan. The Taliban, which protected al Qaeda before and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, rapidly took over Afghanistan amid a disastrous U.S. withdrawal in August 2021. The U.N. Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said in its June report that “two provincial governors of the Taliban de facto administration,” Qari Ehsanullah Baryal and Hafiz Muhammad Agha Hakeem, “are affiliated with al-Qaeda.” The team added that “another Talib associated with al-Qaeda,” Tajmir...

In April 2022, Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada decreed that cultivation of the poppy - from which opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin can be extracted - was strictly prohibited. Anyone violating the ban would have their field destroyed and be penalised according to Sharia law. A Taliban spokesman told the BBC they imposed the ban because of the harmful effects of opium - which is taken from the poppy seed capsules - and because it goes against their religious beliefs. Afghanistan used to produce more than 80% of the world's opium. Heroin made from Afghan opium makes...

Social media shows the Taliban sending U.S. military vehicles captured from the former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces along with some ancient Soviet-era tanks to Afghanistan’s border with Iran following a recent skirmish about access to the Helmand River. On May 27, fighting broke out in Nimroz province in southern Afghanistan between the Taliban and Iranian border guards. At least three people were killed in the exchanges of fire. Should hostilities increase between the two sides, Taliban fighters will have thousands of vehicles at their disposal that were paid for by American taxpayers. Subscribe to Task & Purpose Today....

The Taliban threatened on Sunday that it could conquer Iran as tensions increase over water disputes between Afghanistan and Iran, leaving at least three people dead. Senior Taliban commander Abdulhamid Khorasani, aka Nasser Badri, has in a video message warned that the group will fight against Iranians "with more passion" than they did against the US forces. "We will conquer Iran soon if Taliban's leaders give the green light for jihad."

Meanwhile, the Taliban is persecuting Christians. A new inspector general’s report released Tuesday gives us the latest evidence of the perfidy and anti-Americanism of the Biden regime: even after the Taliban took over in that country in the wake of the regime’s catastrophically botched withdrawal of American troops, the American taxpayer remains the world’s largest donor to Afghanistan. This is beyond absurd, as the Taliban, which is inveterately hostile to the U.S., is inevitably going to obtain some or all of that money, and could conceivably used it to finance attacks on Americans and U.S. interests. Is that what the...

Disturbing connections between the macabre practice of necrophilia and Islam are back in the news."In a shocking revelation," starts one Apr. 29 report, "parents in Pakistan now guard their dead daughters against rape by putting padlocks to their graves. ... [N]ecrophilia cases are on the rise in the country."Addressing this same phenomenon, another report states:That a woman is raped every two hours in a country [Pakistan] taking great pride in its family-oriented values has been hammered to the point of repetition in our collective conscience. But the heart-wrenching sight of padlocks on the graves of females is enough for the...

'I'm going to get in trouble,' LuPone said before her remarksActress Patti LuPone declared that she doesn't know the difference between "our Christian Right and the Taliban" during an appearance on "The View" on Tuesday. "I could cry… I don’t know why he’s doing this," an emotional LuPone said in response to a question from co-host Ana Navarro about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the LGBT community. "I don’t know, I mean I've said this before and I’m going to get in trouble. I’ve said this before, and it’s been in print. I don’t know what the difference between our...

Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, controlled by the radical Islamist Taliban organisation, announced that Chinese company Gochin expressed its interest in investing $10 billion in Afghanistan’s lithium deposits, reported The Khaama Press. The Taliban arguably perceive Beijing as a potential source of economic investment following the US withdrawal. The acting minister for Mine and Petroleum, Shahabuddin Delawar, met with the Chinese company representatives in Kabul and said that the investment would create 120,000 direct and a million indirect jobs in the country, reported Khaama Press.

The Taliban, earlier this month, prohibited women and families from accessing the garden restaurants in Herat. Video games, foreign movies, and music have been outlawed in Afghanistan under the Taliban government because they are considered to be anti-Islamic. This ban is first imposed in the western city of Herat in Afghanistan. More than 400 firms in Herat had to shut down as a result of the sudden ban enforced by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. According to Maulana Azizurrahman Mohajir, the provincial head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of...

Afghan refugees who were rescued and brought back to the US have been accused of being racist and sexist towards those helping them, a bombshell report has found.Some of them are said to have launched verbal abuse at staff and even turned their noses up at accommodation they were given.

The United States Treasury Dept is planning to send officials to key parts of the globe to act as enforcers for western sanctions against Russia. Essentially, it’s a blackmail and extortion tour, where Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson will visit non-compliant nations and central Western banking hubs to threaten foreign nations against continued noncompliance.

Negotiations on the recognition of the Taliban by Russia have entered the final stage. Most likely, official recognition will take place in the summer or early autumn of this year.

'[Resettlement agency] officials told OIG that the [Afghan Placement and Assistance Program] involved some of the most significant challenges that they had ever faced,' the report, as seen by Fox News, stated. My heart breaks for folks in (for example) a small town in North/South Dakota who have 5 Trashcanistani families (you can't settle them without a "social network" and have to deal with new neighbors who defecate outside, let their goats roam free range and use their yards as a garbage dump. Who's offspring see largess as weakness to be exploited. This is a body shot to Traditional America.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — A women-run radio station in Afghanistan’s northeast has been shut down for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, a Taliban official said Saturday. Sadai Banowan, which means women’s voice in Dari, is Afghanistan’s only women-run station and started 10 years ago. It has eight staff, six of them female. Moezuddin Ahmadi, the director for Information and Culture in Badakhshan province, said the station violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramadan and was shuttered because of the breach. ... Station head Najia Sorosh denied there...

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, reacts to photos released by the Taliban of U.S. military equipment seized following the Afghanistan withdrawal as House Republicans continue the search for answers on the botched evacuation. ...

When Joe Biden ordered the chaotic, deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, he didn’t just leave behind our dignity, he also left behind billions in weapons and armaments. Although we’ve known that most of that equipment ended up in Taliban hands, new photos and videos are emerging showing just how much we essentially donated to the violent group.The Taliban has reportedly been busy repairing many of the vehicles we had intentionally sabotaged when we abandoned ship:BREAKING: The Taliban has released pictures of US equipment & parts left behind after the August 2021 US withdrawal. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/GMTX93cM55— Antonio Sabato Jr...

"Every day I wake up with the hope of going back to school. They [the Taliban] keep saying they will open schools. But it's been almost two years now. I don't believe them. It breaks my heart," says 17-year-old Habiba.She blinks and bites her lip trying hard not to tear up. Habiba and her former classmates Mahtab and Tamana are among hundreds of thousands of teenage girls who have been barred from attending secondary school in most of Afghanistan by the Taliban - the only country to take such action. One-and-a-half years since their lives were brought to a halt,...

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported – Joe Biden supplied the Taliban terrorist organization and their Islamist accomplices with billions of dollars worth of US weapons, armed vehicles, helicopters, ammunition, and piles of cash. Rather than destroying the equipment before leaving the country, Joe Biden surrendered nearly $85 billion worth of US military equipment to the Taliban. In fact,Joe Biden left 300 times more guns than those passed to the Mexican cartels in Obama’s Fast and Furious program. The Taliban later released video of the weapons Joe Biden left behind and the room full of stacks of $100 bills Joe...

Jimmy Kimmel was branded a 'national disgrace' after fans claimed he 'harassed' Taliban shooting survivor Malala Yousafzai during a bizarre Oscars 2023 segment. The host, 55, left the Nobel Peace Prize winner, 25, visibly uncomfortable as he approached her during a break in proceedings and asked her an awkward question about Harry Styles and Chris Pine's 'spit-gate' drama. The presenter read out a question from a fan named Joanne, saying: 'She asked, your work on human rights and education for women and children is an inspiration–as the youngest Nobel prize winner in history, do you think Harry Styles spit on...