RFE/RL's Radio Azadi is one of the most popular and trusted media outlets in Afghanistan. Nearly half of the country's adult audience accesses Azadi's reporting on a weekly basis.
A young Afghan woman is running a secret school for girls inside her home in Kabul. The woman, a university graduate, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that she is teaching around 50 girls at her own expense.
Hundreds of Afghans have marched in Kabul demanding the release of billions of dollars of assets held in the United States in a protest sanctioned by the ruling Taliban as the country grapples with a growing economic crisis that threatens to turn into a humanitarian disaster.
The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have announced that they will resume issuing passports, providing a window of hope for those who have applied for travel documents in an effort to leave the country.
The unrecognized Taliban government in Afghanistan has again called on the United Nations to recognize its nominee to head the country's representation at the international body.
With most high schools and jobs closed to girls and women under Taliban rule, some are trying to learn one of the few professions still open to them. A sewing studio in Farah Province is offering job training, but equipment is in short supply and students struggle to afford the materials they need.
Nine Afghan boxers who traveled to Serbia to compete in an international tournament last month are refusing to return to their homeland, fearing they will be targeted by the Taliban regime.
Amnesty International says it has documented torture and extrajudicial executions committed by the Taliban as the group seized power in Afghanistan in August.
The United Nations says the first four months of Taliban rule in Afghanistan have been marked by "credible allegations" of more than 100 extrajudicial killings, the denial of women's rights, and the recruitment of boys to be soldiers.
The Taliban says two separate bomb explosions in a predominately Shi'ite neighborhood of the Afghan capital claimed the lives of two civilians and wounded four others.
Ehsanullah and his wife recently had triplets. He says he doesn't have enough money to feed and clothe his family and has no choice but to sell one or two of the newborn children. According to the United Nations, almost 24 million people in Afghanistan suffer from acute hunger.
Freshta Mowahid ran three companies in Kabul with around 50 female workers. When the Taliban returned to power and barred women from most jobs, she was forced to dismiss all of her employees, many of whom were the sole breadwinners for their families.
Groups of Afghan women took to the streets this fall to protest the Taliban takeover and the regime's restrictions on their roles in public life. But after Taliban security forces met those demonstrations with violence, activists started holding smaller protests in private.
Mohadese Mirzaee, 23, became the first female airline pilot in Afghanistan less than a year before the Taliban seized power. Her career came to a sudden halt as she fled the country, fearing reprisals from the new regime. Now in Bulgaria, Mirzaee hopes to return home and resume flying.
“Women and girl survivors of gender-based violence have essentially been abandoned in Afghanistan. Their network of support has been dismantled, and their places of refuge have all but disappeared,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Afghan women's rights activists held a protest in Kabul on December 5, insisting that they will continue to fight for their right to education, employment, and participation in politics after the Taliban-led government issued a decree on women's rights that they say is inadequate.
A former Radio Azadi journalist recounts a tense, late-night drive through Taliban checkpoints as he flees from Kabul to Pakistan for an uncertain future.
The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, has welcomed a Taliban decree calling for the enforcement of certain women's rights, but said much more is needed to protect their rights "in every aspect of Afghan society."
Since the Taliban took power in August, women and girls have been shut out of most parts of public life as the regime formulates policies under its strict interpretation of Islamic law. For two sisters in Kandahar, that has meant the end of the art classes they loved.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said several European countries are working on opening up a common site for diplomatic representation in Kabul that would enable their ambassadors to return to Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August.
The family of an Afghan man has accused the Taliban of torturing and killing him after he criticized the militant group in a recent Facebook post. Since seizing power in August, the Taliban has been accused of carrying out hundreds of extrajudicial killings.
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![“The aim of establishing this school is to help girls catch up on their studies after their education was stopped after [the Taliban] grabbed power,” Mursal told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.](https://d2x4y0oydjbn21.cloudfront.net/08ef0000-0a00-0242-3d81-08d9c53c2ecc_cx0_cy0_cw80_w100_r1.jpeg)
![“The aim of establishing this school is to help girls catch up on their studies after their education was stopped after [the Taliban] grabbed power,” Mursal told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.](https://d2x4y0oydjbn21.cloudfront.net/08ef0000-0a00-0242-3d81-08d9c53c2ecc_cx0_cy0_cw80_w66_r1.jpeg)
