Afghanistan - Radio Begum taken off air, staff detained

[ArabellaScott]

Radio Begum is/was a woman-led station. It's been taken off air, and two workers have been detained. Wishing them strength.

https://www.facebook.com/Begumfm/

https://cpj.org/2025/02/taliban-detains-2-media-workers-suspends-women-run-broadcaster-radio-begum/

'Taliban intelligence agents raided the Kabul station of Radio Begum on Tuesday, February 4, suspended broadcast operations, detained two unidentified media workers, and confiscated documents and essential broadcasting equipment, including computers, hard drives, and mobile devices.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture accused the outlet of “non-compliance” with regulations and collaboration with an unnamed foreign-based television network. The ministry said it was investigating the broadcaster’s activities but did not specify a date to end the suspension.'

In total awe of the bravery of these women. Hoping against experience that this decision will be reversed and detainees released.

My thoughts are with these brave, brave women and the people who love them. I hope my fears for them turn out to be unjustified.

I can't imagine living in a society like this where you have to be exceptionally brave to make any kind of protest or even to try to tell the truth.

Those women’s courage is beyond my comprehension. I hope and pray they survive.

I cannot imagine the courage of these amazing women. And now we must all fear for their safety.

The Telegraph is reporting 'Taliban in crisis as leadership split over women's rights'.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/16/taliban-crisis-splits-over-womens-rights-afghanistan/

https://archive.ph/eMNUX

'The Taliban is facing an internal revolt over women’s rights that has become public and could lead to a full-blown conflict in Afghanistan, The Telegraph can reveal.
Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/eMNUX/www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/25/taliban-leader-akhundzada-women-stoned-death-afghanistan/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">country’s supreme leader, is battling a rebellion from senior cabinet ministers over his ban on girls’ education and restrictions on <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/eMNUX/www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/23/taliban-divided-over-isolated-leaders-crackdown-on-women/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">women’s economic participation.
Akhundzada, who has led <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/eMNUX/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/16/battle-lines-why-the-taliban-won-in-afghanistan/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Taliban since 2016 and is now Afghanistan’s de-facto leader, is at odds with Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister, Mullah Yaqoob, the defence minister, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the deputy foreign minister, who all want the Taliban to be more progressive.

Stanikzai has fled to Dubai after his criticism of the supreme leader led to an arrest warrant being issued, while Haqqani is also thought to be out of the country.
Now, Akhundzada has deployed soldiers to Kabul airport to stop other high-ranking officials from leaving.
Akhundzada, who is rarely seen in public and has <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/eMNUX/www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/07/25/haibatullah-akhundzada-talibans-ghost-leader-quietly-biding/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">almost no digital footprint, is facing his biggest crisis since the Taliban swept into power after the chaotic withdrawal of the US from the country in August 2021'

It would be somewhat poetic if women's rights were the issue that brought down the Taliban.

'In December, Khalil Rahman Haqqani, the refugee minister, was killed along with four others in <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/eMNUX/www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/11/taliban-afghanistan-kabul-haqqani-isis-islamic-state/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a suicide attack in Kabul. He was a senior leader within the Haqqani Network and was aiding al-Qaeda’s military in Afghanistan. After coming to power, he was known for lobbying behind the scenes for girls and women to attend secondary schools and universities.'

Thanks to the Telegraph for this very informative article. It shows the situation is far more complex than it may appear at a glance.

One of Kuran's arguments in Private Truths, Public Lies is that preference falsification contributes to political regimes becoming unstable and being destroyed in a relatively short amount of time.

There's a decent summary here and a wider discussion of this wrt this author's experience of Zimbabwe and makes some interesting observations on the harms of preference falsification.

In East Germany, before the Berlin wall came down in 1989, East Germans were almost unanimously in support of the prevailing regime. After the wall fell, very few people admitted to having been in support of the regime that had just fallen.
After several east European satellites of the Soviet Union fell in quick succession, The New York Times was full of stories about people who could finally speak the truth after years of not being able to criticize the regime
…
The second consequence is that in falsifying preferences, people hide the knowledge on which their true preferences rest. They distort, corrupt, and impoverish the knowledge in the public domain. They make it harder for others to become informed about the drawbacks of existing arrangements and the merits of their alternatives. Thus widespread ignorance about the advantages of change. Over long periods, preference falsification can dampen a society’s capacity to want change by bringing about intellectual narrowness and rigidity.

https://justreflections.bhekani.com/p/a-group-decision-that-nobody-wants-just-reflections-issue-43-1171167

I can only hope that reports of internal tensions are accurate and that there will be a fall in support that removes the ability to suppress the lives of women.