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Russian artist Andrei Molodkin projected a sculpture featuring blood donated by Afghans along with footage of Prince Harry onto Londons St Pauls Cathedral on Wednesday.

Molodkins projection was in protest against Prince Harry's controversial remarks about the number of people he killed in Afghanistan. The Duke of Sussex received criticism after claiming to have killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan, writing in his new memoir Spare that it was "not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me."

While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn't think of those twenty-five as people. You can't kill people if you think of them as people. You can't really harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods, Prince Harry wrote in his book.

The artist said he collaborated with Afghan donors in the French coastal town of Calais and the UK for the sculpture. The human blood was pumped into the sculpture of the royal coat of arms and then projected onto the cathedral.

The Duke of Sussex, who has stepped down from his royal duties and left the UK with his wife Meghan Markle, served as an Apache helicopter pilot during the war in Afghanistan and his missions resulted in the taking of human lives.

Prince Harry served in the British army for 10 years, rising to the rank of captain and undertaking two tours of Afghanistan.

In February 2008, Britains Ministry of Defense confirmed that Prince Harry had been serving with the army in Helmand, Afghanistan for more than two months.

"Prince Harry is very proud to serve his country on operations alongside his fellow soldiers and to do the job he has been trained for," a statement from Clarence House, a royal residence in London, said at the time.

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Artist projects sculpture filled with human blood onto cathedral to ... - Anadolu Agency | English

Afghanistan edge out an inexperienced Pakistan side in Sharjah series opener.

Afghanistan beat Pakistan by six wickets in the series opener on Friday, the Afghan sides first T20 win over its neighbours.

Pakistan, without five rested front-line players, including captain Babar Azam, struggled on a slow and low pitch at Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after opting to bat first.

Pakistan handed T20I debuts to Saim Ayub, Tayyab Tahir, Ihsanullah and Zaman Khan.But none of the Pakistan batters could accelerate on a two-paced pitch and mostly fell to soft dismissals.

In the absence of formidable openers Azam and Rizwan, replacements Ayub and Mohammad Haris couldnt gauge the low bounce and fell within the batting power play while attempting extravagant shots.

Abdullah Shafique was pinned by Azmatullah Omarzai without scoring and Tayyab Tahir, one of four making their Pakistan debut, lobbed a return catch to Rashid Khan. When Azam Khan was also out for a duck on debut, Pakistan were 41-5 in the eighth over.

Pakistan was in danger of its lowest T20I total of 74 in 2012 against Australia at Dubai but Imad Wasim top-scored with 18.

Unorthodox spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman took 2-9 and Fazalhaq Farooqi 2-13.

In reply,Afghanistan overcame falling to 45-4 in the 10th over to cruise home at 98-4 and win by six wickets with more than two overs to spare.

Former captain Mohammad Nabi raised Afghanistans first victory over Pakistan in what were five attempts over the past decade with a straight six over long off.

Pleasure to win, as weve always lost against them by small margins, Afghanistan skipper Khan said.

Wearing Afghanistan colours and leading the team in a win is a proud achievement. We never know the wicket . . . (but the) mindset was . . . to adjust accordingly.

Afghanistan has a chance at a first-series win in the remaining two T20s on Sunday and Monday.

Sometimes this can happen due to youngsters being nervous but they need to be given chances, Pakistans interim captain Shadab Khan said.As professionals, we cant give excuses regarding conditions, we have to learn from the loss here.

Pakistans fast-bowling debutant Ihsanullah got two wickets in his first over with short-pitched deliveries.

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Afghanistan beats Pakistan for first time in T20 cricket - Al Jazeera English

Updated 2 hours ago

Image source, Twitter/Matiullah Wesa

Matiullah Wesa is a prominent advocate for girls' right to study

A prominent Afghan campaigner for female education has been arrested by the Taliban, even as teenage girls and women remain barred from classrooms.

Matiullah Wesa, 30, had often received threats - he has spent years travelling across Afghanistan trying to improve access to education for all children.

The Taliban did not say why Mr Wesa is in custody. His house was also raided.

His arrest follows the detention of a number of other activists who have been campaigning for women's education.

In February Prof Ismail Mashal, an outspoken critic of the Taliban government's ban on education for women, was arrested in Kabul while handing out free books. He was freed on 5 March but has not spoken out since then.

Mr Wesa is one of the most prominent education activists in Afghanistan and, via his charity PenPath, has been campaigning for girls' right to study since the Taliban barred female education in 2021.

His last tweet - on Monday, the day of his arrest - was a photo of women volunteers for PenPath "asking for the Islamic rights to education for their daughters".

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The UN's mission in Afghanistan has also highlighted Mr Wesa's case and called on the Taliban to clarify his whereabouts and the reasons for his detention.

Mr Wesa was arrested after he came out of a mosque in the capital Kabul on Monday.

"The Taliban came in two vehicles," a person close to the family told the BBC. "He was handcuffed and put in the car.

"Today at 10am, the Taliban went to his house and raided it. They turned it upside down, threatened his family against speaking out, seized phones, documents and computers. Matiullah's brothers were briefly detained and then released with a warning."

Mr Wesa has travelled to hundreds of districts in Afghanistan over the past decade to promote the cause of education.

The PenPath network he founded has more than 2,400 volunteers across the country. They help set up local classrooms, find teachers and distribute books and stationery.

The ban on girls attending secondary schools has not stopped Mr Wesa. "The damage that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable," he tweeted last week.

Women's rights have been gradually eroded since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US-led forces.

Only boys and male teachers were allowed into secondary schools when they reopened in September 2021.

There was a brief spell of hope following an announcement in March 2022 that girls would be allowed to attend secondary schools. But tearful schoolgirls were turned away after what appeared to be an abrupt U-turn by the Taliban leadership.

They said girls would be allowed to return to school after "a comprehensive plan has been prepared according to Sharia and Afghan culture". But in December 2022, female students were also barred from universities.

The Taliban say schools and universities are only temporarily closed to women and girls until a "suitable environment" can be created.

But women are severely curtailed in other ways too. The Taliban have decreed that women should be dressed in a way that only reveals their eyes, and must be accompanied by a male relative if they are travelling more than 72km (48 miles).

And last November, women were banned from parks, gyms and swimming pools, stripping away the simplest of freedoms. The enforcement of the rules is different in different areas, but the rules create an environment of fear and anxiety.

The restrictions have continued despite international condemnation and protests by ordinary women as well as activists speaking up on their behalf.

They have also hindered the work of foreign aid groups after the Taliban said women could not work in domestic and international NGOs except in the health sector.

Some organisations were forced to suspend services at a time when the country is reeling from a severe economic and humanitarian crisis.

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Afghanistan: Girls' education activist arrested by Taliban - BBC

Rights and freedom

UN calls on Taliban to reveal whereabouts of Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, taken into detention by gunmen from outside a mosque after prayers

Tue 28 Mar 2023 03.50 EDT

A prominent activist for girls education has been arrested in Afghanistan, in the latest sign that hardline Taliban authorities are determined to stamp out all opposition to their ban on girls and women attending school or universities.

Matiullah Wesa, founder and leader of the Pen Path charity, had been fighting for education for Afghan children who were out of school both boys and girls for more than a decade, with a focus on rural areas of southern Afghanistan.

Top diplomats and human rights groups, including a senior UN envoy and Amnesty International, called for his immediate release.

He could have left Afghanistan, but he stayed despite the risks to work for his people, advocating for education rights for girls, said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty Internationals South Asia campaigner.

Wesa was detained after attending prayers at his local mosque on Friday, his brother, Attaullah Wesa, told the Guardian: Matiullah was at the mosque in Kabul, offering his prayers. When he stepped out, there were gunmen in two vehicles who ran towards him to arrest him.

Our elder brother was with Matiullah and they tried to question the men, asked them to show ID, but they showed him their weapons instead and took him away, he said, adding that the family was very concerned about Matiullahs safety.

Wesa set up Pen Path with his brother in 2009. At first, they worked with religious scholars and tribal elders to build community support for educating all children, set up schools in villages where there was no government education, and sent mobile classrooms to the most remote areas.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and barred female students from high school, and then from primary school and university, he led high-profile calls for classes to restart, sharing photos and videos of protests usually in private buildings, after harsh crackdowns on public demonstrations.

His message focused on public demand for girls schools, and their right to an education under Islamic law. Men, women, elderly, young, everyone from every corner of the country is asking for the Islamic rights to education for their daughters, he wrote in one of his last tweets before his arrest.

On 21 March, the Persian new year which normally marks the start of the school year in Afghanistan, Pen Path launched a new campaign that angered Taliban authorities, Attaullah said.

It is our basic right education for all and they are not happy about it, he said. The family had been warned that intelligence services were investigating them.

We were informed last month by some of the tribal elders that the Talibans intelligence wanted to arrest Matiullah. We talked to them to help negotiate with the Taliban government to solve this problem they had with our group, he said.

Attaullah says he is determined to keep Pen Paths work going, despite Taliban pressure and the threat to their safety. In our campaigns, we are only asking for the basic rights of our people, what they want. We will not stop our work. They will not stop us, he said.

The UN called on the Taliban to clarify (Wesas) whereabouts, the reasons for his arrest and to ensure his access to legal representation and contact with family. The deputy head of the EU mission in Kabul called his detention shocking and also demanded his release.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world to bar girls and young women from education because of their sex, with the ban thought to be a personal order from the Talibans reclusive and ultra-conservative supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The group claims it is only a temporary bar, until Islamic conditions are met, but critics say that is simply an excuse for a decision which has no religious justification.

The Taliban have refused to detail what the conditions are, or when schools might reopen. A similar de facto ban brought in when they took control of much of Afghanistan in 1996 lasted until they were ousted from power in 2001.

However, there has been criticism of the ruling from within the groups own ranks. Many senior Taliban have been educating their own daughters secretly, in Afghanistan or abroad, and a few have even publicly criticised the ban.

The Taliban did not respond to requests for comment.

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Founder of Afghan girls school project arrested in Kabul - The Guardian

27 March 2023

Left to right: Habiba, Mahtab and Tamana - they are all devastated that young women in Afghanistan cannot attend school

"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, their grief is still raw.

The girls say they fear that global outrage over what's happened to them is fading, even though they live with the pain every day - intensified this week when another school term started without them.

"When I see the boys going to school and doing whatever they want, it really hurts me. I feel very bad. When I see my brother leaving for school, I feel broken," says Tamana. Her voice trembles and tears roll down her cheeks but she goes on.

"Earlier, my brother used to say I won't go to school without you. I hugged him and said you go, I'll join you later.

"People tell my parents you shouldn't worry, you have sons. I wish we had the same rights."

Any hopes they might have had of schools being reopened have been dented by the increasing restrictions the Taliban government has imposed on women.

"There was a little freedom at the beginning, but gradually that changed," Habiba says.

The first restriction following the secondary school ban came in December 2021, when the Taliban ordered that women would have to be accompanied by a male relative if travelling more than 72km (48 miles).

In March 2022, the Taliban government announced that secondary schools would reopen for girls, only to close them within hours.

Less than two months later, a decree was passed that women would have to wear clothing that covered them from head to toe, including a face veil.

In November, women and girls were barred from parks, gyms and swimming pools. Girls were no longer allowed to choose subjects such as economics, engineering and journalism at university.

A month later, a massive blow was delivered when universities were closed to female students, and women were banned from working in domestic and international NGOs except those in the health sector.

"If these limitations increase, I don't think this life is worth living anymore for women. We don't have access to our basic rights as human beings. Life has no meaning without education. I think death is better than a life like this," Mahtab says.

Mahtab had been injured in a bombing at Sayed Ul-Shuhada school in May 2021, when the Taliban were fighting the forces of the previous government of Afghanistan.

"I had injuries on my neck, face and foot. They were painful. But I was determined to continue studying," she says. "I even attended my mid-term exam, but soon after the Taliban came and it was all over."

The Taliban have said that schools and universities are only temporarily closed to women and girls until a "suitable environment" can be created. It is evident that there are divisions within the Taliban government on the issue, but so far any efforts by those who believe girls should be allowed to study have yielded no results.

Regarding some of the other restrictions, the Taliban say they were imposed because women were not wearing a hijab (head covering) or following Islamic laws. Enforcement of the Taliban's rules isn't uniform across provinces, but the regulations create an environment of fear and confusion.

"We always wear a hijab. But it doesn't make a difference. What do they mean? I don't understand," Tamana says.

In our time in Afghanistan before and after the Taliban takeover, we have never met an Afghan woman not wearing a hijab.

To counter the shrinking public spaces for women, Laila Basim had co-founded a library for women in Kabul which we visited in November last year. Thousands of books were neatly stacked on shelves that covered three walls of the room. Women came in to read books, and sometimes just to meet each other - an escape from being indoors in their homes.

Now the library is closed.

"Twice when the Taliban shut the library, we managed to reopen it. But the threats increased day by day. I got phone calls saying how dare I open a library for women. Once they came to the library and told women that they had no right to read books," says Laila. "It became too risky to run it, so I had to take the inevitable decision to shut it down."

Laila Basim has closed the women's library since this photo was taken in November

She says she will continue to find other means to fight the Taliban's policies.

"Of course, I am scared, but the closure of the library is not the end of the road. There are other approaches through which we can raise the voices of Afghan women. It is difficult and will require sacrifices, but we have started it and are committed to it," she adds.

For women who are the only earning members of their families, it's hard to even get from day to day.

Meera (name changed) is a widow in her mid-forties. She used to work as a cleaner at a girls' school, supporting her family of 10. She lost her job when the school closed, and, amid an economic crisis in the country, she's not found much work since.

She now begs on the streets of Kabul.

"I feel like I'm not alive. People know I have nothing so they try to help me out. It is better to die than to live a life without dignity," she says, weeping inconsolably. "If I get potatoes one day, I peel them and cook them. The next day I cook the peelings to feed my family."

Even amid her struggles, Meera wishes her daughters could go to school.

"If they could be educated, they could get jobs. One of my daughters wants to study law and another wants to study medicine. I tell them that I will find money for their education, even if I have to beg for it, but they can't go to university because the Taliban don't allow it," she adds.

"There is nothing except pain or sorrow in every house now," she says.

Additional gathering in Kabul.

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Afghanistan girls' education: 'When I see the boys going to school, it hurts' - BBC