The Taliban government celebrated five years in power with flag-draped rickshaws, murals, a cricket match banned to women, and convoys of captured U.S. Humvees rolling through Kabul. Officials tout security and economic 'foundations,' though GDP per capita is falling and only Russia formally recognizes the government.
The war with Pakistan this year deepened an already dire humanitarian picture, compounded by international aid cuts and over six million returnees from Iran and Pakistan. UN rights official Fiona Frazer described 'suffocating restrictions' on daily life, while the Committee to Protect Journalists documented surveillance, beatings, and exile of media workers.
Women remain barred from parks, most jobs, and education past age 12; one 23-year-old described feeling like 'a 500-year-old woman, one who cannot die.' Ireland's foreign minister issued a statement of solidarity, one of many such statements the Taliban does not appear to be reading.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.