Despair is growing around the Kabul airport, where chaos reigns as evacuations become increasingly difficult. Six days after the Taliban take over, the roads to the airport remain jammed with traffic, pedestrians and checkpoints. Thousands of American soldiers try to regulate the arrival of Afghans and foreigners, but the US president, Joe Biden, has admitted that the presence of the military does not guarantee a safe passage. Clarissa Ward, CNN correspondent from Afghanistan, one of the last international journalists on the spot, left Kabul overnight. And from the Taliban comes the first fatwa: girls will no longer be allowed to attend mixed classes in the universities of Herat. Here is the breaking latest news of the day.
Greece: 40 km wall to stop refugees
Greece has erected a barrier equipped with a surveillance system along a 40-kilometer stretch of its border with Turkey to stop a possible wave of migrants from Afghanistan. The BBC reports it. “We cannot passively wait for the possible impact”, said yesterday the Minister of Citizens’ Protection, Michalis Chrisochoidis, during a visit to the Evros region: “Our borders will remain inviolable.” Chrisochoidis’ statements follow the comments of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to whom a sharp increase in the population leaving Afghanistan could represent “a serious challenge for everyone”. According to Erdogan, “a new wave of migration is inevitable if the necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and Iran”.
Herat: stop to mixed classes at the university
The Taliban in the western Afghan province of Herat have ordered the government and private universities that girls will no longer be allowed to attend mixed classes, in what is the first fatwa, reported by the Khaama agency. After a three-hour meeting with university professors and heads of private institutions, Mullah Farid, head of the Afghan Islamic emirate for higher education, warned that mixed classes must be abolished because “this system is the root of all evils. of society”. Teachers in the province have warned that because private institutions cannot afford separate classes, thousands of girls could be excluded from higher education. There are reportedly around 40,000 students and 2,000 faculty members at universities and private and governmental institutions in the province.
The poet Gorman in Biden: don’t abandon Afghan women
The young poet Amanda Gorman, who became famous for reading one of her compositions at the inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden, joined her voice to that of dozens of other famous women in the US to ask in an open letter to the US president to save women Afghans most at risk of retaliation by the Taliban. Among the signatories, also the actress Kate Winslet, the CEO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg and the stylist Diane von Furstenberg. In the letter, entitled “Do not abandon Afghan women and girls”, the Biden administration is asked to expand access to visas for women at risk, to increase the number of refugees who can be accepted in the US and to “protect and investing in women who remain in Afghanistan ”. “Immediate actions – states the appeal – must be taken to protect the Afghan women most at risk: women’s rights activists, journalists, educators, representatives of civil society, those who defend human rights”.
Biden-Draghi interview: close coordination on evacuations
US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke of the “latest developments” in Afghanistan. This was reported by a note from the White House, according to which the two leaders “discussed the importance of close coordination” between the military and civilian personnel of the two countries in Kabul, “who are working tirelessly together to safely evacuate their citizens. , the Afghans who have courageously supported us and NATO in the war effort and other vulnerable Afghan citizens ”. Biden and Draghi, the note continues, “welcomed the opportunity for the G7 to plan a common approach on Afghanistan at next week’s summit in virtual format”.
CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward leaves Kabul
Clarissa Ward, you left Kabul. It was she who announced it in a tweet, posting a photo while she was on board the plane that evacuated her: «On board our flight, we are preparing for take-off».
Clarissa Ward had been the protagonist in the last days of courageous reports documenting the chaos in the airport area and the violence committed by the Taliban. there have been moments of tension for Ward and her crew, and her producer was in danger of being shot at this week.
In recent days, two photos of the journalist had been circulated insistently on social media, in which she was shown without a veil in the first and with the black abaya to cover her entirely in the second, an alleged proof of the worsening of the situation in the country, for women in particular. The meme had aroused an avalanche of reactions but Ward had called it “inaccurate”, pointing out that in the first case it was in “a private compound” while in the second photo it was taken “on the streets of Kabul under the control of the Taliban.” “Previously I always wore a veil on the streets of Kabul, although not with my hair completely covered and the abaya. So there is a difference, but not so clear “, he specified.