Screengrab from a video on social media
Image Credit: Twitter/@ALbgali_99
Jalan-jalan di kota suci Mekkah telah dilanda air yang deras menyusul hujan lebat di beberapa kota Arab Saudi.
Banjir bandang melanda kota Mekkah di Arab Saudi pada hari Jumat setelah hujan deras semalaman, merusak kendaraan dan properti di kota tersebut.
Video dan gambar banjir bandang menunjukkan kendaraan tersapu oleh semburan air, sementara beberapa jalan utama ditutup.
Mekkah mengalami hujan deras sepanjang Kamis malam hingga Jumat pagi. Pusat Meteorologi Nasional mengeluarkan peringatan cuaca di provinsi Mekkah pada hari Jumat karena hujan terus turun pada tingkat sedang hingga kritis di daerah Rania, Taif, Adham dan Maysan.
Rekaman dari Masjid Agung Mekkah menunjukkan hujan mengguyur peziarah dan jemaah di halaman masjid.
Bandara King Abdulaziz di Jeddah meminta para pelancong menelepon untuk mengkonfirmasi status penerbangan mereka sebelum menuju ke bandara, karena beberapa penerbangan diperkirakan akan dibatalkan karena kondisi tersebut.
أثار الأمطار والسيول التي ضربت حي العتيبية بمكة صباح اليوم الجمعة 1444/5/29هـ
Direktorat mengatakan panitia akan mulai menerima permintaan kompensasi dari mereka yang terkena dampak hujan lebat dan banjir yang melanda kota suci itu.
"Kami tidak mencatat kematian atau cedera akibat hujan lebat," kata direktorat itu.
Gambar dan video yang diposting di media sosial menunjukkan air hujan membanjiri bangunan di Mekkah dan menghanyutkan mobil.
Pusat Meteorologi Nasional (NCM) mengeluarkan peringatan cuaca pada hari Jumat yang akan tetap aktif hingga pukul 9 malam.
Pusat penanggulangan krisis dan bencana di Mekkah memperingatkan warga untuk tidak meninggalkan rumah kecuali diperlukan.
"Masyarakat harus berhati-hati untuk tidak mendekati daerah di mana air hujan terakumulasi untuk memastikan keselamatan mereka," tambahnya.
Pusat meteorologi juga memperingatkan tentang banjir dan badai disertai hujan lebat di Kegubernuran Jeddah, utara Mekkah.
Pada bulan November, dua orang tewas dalam banjir yang melanda kota pesisir Jeddah akibat tingginya curah hujan.
Russian armed forces eliminated a composite tactical group of foreign mercenaries in the direction of the city of Donetsk and hit the units of Ukraine's 10th Mountain Assault Brigade in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
"Russian troops eliminated a composite tactical group of foreign mercenaries during offensive operations in the Donetsk direction and defeated units of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade of Ukraine's armed forces in the area of the village of Rozdolivka in the DPR," the ministry said in a statement.
Up to 60 Ukrainian military personnel and mercenaries, as well as four armored vehicles and three pickup trucks were irrevocably destroyed by Russian troops in this combat area alone, the ministry specified.
Latest Statements From Russia's Defense Ministry
Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:
In the Kharkov region, artillery strikes hit troops and military equipment of the 14th mechanized brigade and the 92nd mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Up to 50 Ukrainian troops, four armored combat vehicles and two pickup trucks were destroyed.
In the DPR, Russian aviation and artillery hit the positions of the 111th Territorial Defense Brigade and the 25th Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. More than 40 Ukrainian troops, three armored combat vehicles and four vehicles were destroyed.
Near Donetsk, in the course of offensive operations, Russian troops destroyed a combined tactical group of foreign mercenaries and defeated units of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The irretrievable losses of the enemy per day in this direction amounted to 60 Ukrainian troops and mercenaries, four armored personnel carriers and three pickup trucks.
Russian aviation and artillery hit the concentration of units of the 92nd Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk People's Republic, killing more than 40 Ukrainian troops, four armored combat vehicles and six vehicles.
Missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of troops hit: the command post of the 65th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the depot of missile and artillery weapons in the Zaporozhye region, as well as 53 artillery units, manpower and military equipment in 92 districts.
Russian aviation shot down a Ukrainian Su-27 in the DPR. In addition, Ukrainian Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters were shot down.
Russian air defense systems in the Donetsk People's Republic shot down a Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force. Also, fifteen Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted during the day.
American author Michael Shellenberger released the seventh tranche of the explosive "Twitter Files" earlier this week to shed light on the FBI's censorship and meddling with the platform. New Twitter owner Elon Musk made internal Twitter files available for several US investigative journalists in December.
The recently released sixth and seventh batches of the Twitter Files shed light on the FBI's instructions to censor specific tweets and accounts for "violating" the company's terms of service.
The internal documents also lifted the veil of secrecy on how the bureau launched an apparent damage control operation prior to the publication of the New York Post's bombshell concerning Hunter Biden's laptop.
On top of that, an email by Twitter's former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker revealed that the platform collected a staggering $3 million from the bureau at least on one occassion.
"My opinion - based on the evidence available - is the FBI did this because the FBI is fundamentally corrupt," Jason Goodman, a US investigative journalist and founder of Crowdsource the Truth, told Sputnik. "Failure to investigate Hunter Biden based on the evidence on the laptop is bad enough. Evidence being revealed now by Twitter’s new management suggests the FBI actively worked to protect Hunter Biden from public scrutiny and hide their own lack of enforcement action. Broad knowledge of the evidence on Hunter Biden’s laptop would certainly have led to public outcry at least for further investigation. We have never witnessed such a brazen criminal act by a US government agency so nakedly exposed. For the past two years, any individual who even debates these facts online loses access to the major social media platforms."
The Twitter Files exposure apparently hit the FBI's raw nerve as the bureau issued an official statement claiming that "the men and women of the FBI" were doing their job, while "conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency."
While commenting on the bureau's statement, one prominent legal expert remarked that it is not clear "what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter's censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role."
How It All Began
Make no mistake, this started long ago, noted Goodman: in fact, the groundwork was laid after September 11, 2001, with the passage of the Patriot Act.
"Prior to that, Americans were protected from undue search and seizure by the fourth amendment of the constitution," the journalist explained. "In the newfound 'war on terror' the Patriot Act was sold to the American public as increased security. But it introduced several unconstitutional new laws and new law enforcement tools that removed our constitutional protection. One such tool was the National Security Letter (NSL)."
Goodman has drawn attention to the fact that prior to the advent of NSLs, investigators needed to get a warrant from a judge and had to have probable cause supported by some kind of evidence before they could lawfully investigate a person or their property, including electronic accounts, like email or Twitter.
However, with the Patriot Act, the FBI could simply write up an NSL under the suspicion that an individual was a national security threat and launch a probe into them, according to the journalist. "No warrant or evidence was required," Goodman added. Moreover, the bureau could also reject the requests of those asking for proof on the basis that the evidence would risk revealing sources and methods and was also a national security threat, according to the journalist.
"These newfound powers were quickly and consistently abused," Goodman continued. "Former FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni was admonished by both the House and the Senate for gross abuses of NSLs and other unconstitutional acts."
However, it appears that the US Congress' attempts to rein in the bureau have not borne any fruit and the FBI has only grown more brazen in the years since.
"By alleging that the FBI was engaged in a counterintelligence investigation, they no longer had to adhere to the same rules or obey the constitutional protections that existed previously," said Goodman. "This is exactly how the FBI began their shambolic investigation into the so-called Russian collusion with Trump."
Hunter's and Hillary's Emails & APT28
Meanwhile, the story of FBI's attempts to shield Hunter Biden evokes strong memories of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hack amid the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. The disclosure of Hunter's bombshell emails was downplayed and smeared as a "hack" and "disinformation" by "Russian APT28" just as the 2016 DNC email leak was.
According to Shellenberger, the bureau took Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" from Mac Isaac, a Delaware repair shop owner, on December 9, 2019. By August 2020, Isaac still had not heard back from the FBI, even though he had found alleged evidence of criminal activity on the device. So Isaac contacted lawyer Rudy Giuliani, "who was under FBI surveillance at the time," and provided him with a copy of the laptop's hard disk. In early October, Guiliani gave the disk to the New York Post.
On October 13, 2020, a day before the Post planned to release its bombshell, "FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sent ten documents to Twitter's then-Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth through Teleporter, a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter," Shellinberger revealed citing internal Twitter documents. On October 14, 2020, the bombshell article saw the light of day but soon was banned and suppressed by major Silicon Valley giants, including Twitter.
But that is not all. According to Yoel Roth's testimony, during all of 2020, the FBI warned him about the forthcoming Russian "hack and leak" operation "involving Hunter Biden" prior to the 2020 election. The bureau particularly referred to APT28, claiming that it's a group of Russian hackers linked to Moscow's intelligence services. In one of his recent interviews, Roth said that when Hunter's emails finally emerged "it set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack-and-leap campaign alarm bells."
The "laptop from hell" posed a challenge to Hunter's father, the Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, as the bombshell suggested that the latter not only knew but also participated in his son's murky financial schemes.
The "laptop from hell" posed a challenge to Hunter's father, the Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, as the bombshell suggested that the latter not only knew but also participated in his son's murky financial schemes.
Similarly, the 2016 DNC leak threatened the Clinton campaign, demonstrating, in particular, that the party's primaries were rigged in favor of Hillary. It was Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann who requested cyber security firm CrowdStrike's help in investigating the alleged DNC hack.
CrowdStrike "detected" and "attributed" the alleged breach of DNC servers to Russia during the 2016 election cycle. The company claimed that the perpetrators were "two Russian espionage groups": Cozy Bear (APT29) and Fancy Bear (APT28), suggesting with a "low" to "medium"-level of confidence that they may be affiliated with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Department (GRU), respectively. Moscow denied the claim as absurd.
For its part, the FBI relied on CrowdStrike's conclusions, although the bureau has never physically examined the DNC servers and has only been provided with their "digital copies" instead.
According to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of former US intelligence officers working within the CIA, the FBI and the NSA, there had been no hack: it was an inside job. Moreover, CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry admitted under oath in 2017 that the company does not have "concrete evidence" that the alleged "Russian hackers" exfiltrated any data from the servers.
The story of the DNC "hack" played a big role in smearing Russia and linking Donald Trump to Moscow. The Dems claimed that Moscow "hacked" the emails to help Trump win the 2016 elections. In summer 2016, the FBI launched Operation Crossfire Hurricane on the pretext of alleged "collusion" between Trump and the Kremlin. However, Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation found no evidence to back the allegations, which were rubbished by Moscow from the very start as nonsensical.
"The true origin of the Russiagate hoax has not yet been revealed but it is becoming increasingly clear that top executives in the FBI have been involved in an ongoing coverup for a very long time," said Goodman. "APT28 is likely a concoction of Dmitri Alperovitch’s Crowdstrike, which itself is an obvious FBI cutout. Crowdstrike co-founder Shawn Henry left the FBI to create the company, then shortly thereafter received $150 million from Google. Sounds fair enough but think about that for a moment. Google cannot easily hand $150 million to the FBI, but they can invest whatever they want in a startup tech company.
It is not clear if the US public understands the legal games the FBI can play, according to the journalist.
"The FBI’s infiltration of Twitter is the tippy top of tip of the upper edge of the tip of the iceberg," Goodman remarked. "We need to understand just how many private companies and non-profit organizations are secretly working with or for the incredibly dangerous and subversive US 'Intelligence' community. This hidden-in-plain-sight network of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private industry is what is spoken of as the 'Deep State'."
Operation Mockingbird and Church Committee
The FBI's attempts to control and infiltrate the work of social media giants resembles nothing so much as the US intelligence Operation Mockingbird which was first mentioned by CIA Director William Colby during his briefing to the Justice Department on December 31, 1974.
Later, the issue was touched upon by Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein in Rolling Stone in 1977. Bernstein revealed how numerous journalists, including Pulitzer-prize winners, wrote fake stories and disseminated propaganda at the CIA's behest during the Cold War. The scale of the CIA's huge international media network was described by one CIA official as ranging from Radio Free Europe to a third‐string guy in Quito who could get something in the local paper. According to the US mainstream press, the program has never been officially discontinued.
"It is essentially an extension of Operation Mockingbird," Goodman said about the US intelligence community's collusion with Big Tech. "The revelations of the Church Committee showed us the CIA’s intention. There is no reason to believe they would change. We see these 'retired' intelligence people on the news all the time. It should be obvious to anyone looking at the evidence if the FBI or any law enforcement or intelligence agency is doing anything other than tracking dangerous criminals on Twitter, they should not be doing it."
The Church Committee was a US Senate select committee that investigated abuses by the CIA, NSA, FBI, and IRS in 1975.
Presently, it's not a matter of the FBI getting away with what it has done (they already have), this is "an inflection point like none other in American history," according to the journalist.
"We are in a dangerous moment," Goodman warned. "The United States has become a neofascist technocratic autocracy. The new Congress must take bold steps to shut this down immediately and begin the journey back to the constitutional republic that was established in 1776 or it will only get worse (…) Another thing the Patriot Act created that most people are not aware of is the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. It is an interagency intelligence-sharing operation overseen by the FBI. Critics say it eliminates the compartmentalization that is in place to prevent the types of abuses that are commonplace today. Without oversight, who knows what these interagency operations are capable of."
The Russian Armed Forces have obliterated about 400 Ukrainian surface-to-air missile systems since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.
"In all, the following targets have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation: 352 warplanes, 192 helicopters, 2,719 unmanned aerial vehicles, 399 surface-to-air missile systems, 7,222 tanks and other combat armored vehicles, 936 multiple rocket launchers, 3,704 field artillery guns and mortars, and also 7,737 special military motor vehicles," the spokesman said.
Russian forces destroy over 40 Ukrainian troops from two brigades in DPR
"In the Krasny Liman area, the strikes by Russian army aviation aircraft and artillery on the positions of the Ukrainian armed forces’ 111th territorial defense brigade near Torskoye and 25th airborne brigade near Terny in the Donetsk People’s Republic eliminated more than 40 Ukrainian servicemen, three combat armored combat vehicles and four motor vehicles," Konashenkov reported.
Russian aircraft down Su-27 warplane, Mi-24, Mi-8 helicopters
"Fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 plane in the area of the settlement of Kamyshevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. In addition, Ukrainian Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters were shot down in areas near the settlements of Selidovo and Gruzskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman added.
Konashenkov continued, that "Russian air defense capabilities shot down a Ukrainian Air Force Mi-8 helicopter in the area of the settlement of Kirovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic."
Russian air defense systems also intercepted 15 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Yegorovka, Yelenovka, Kirillovka, Volodino, Artyomovsk and Olginka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Kolomiychikha in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Novaya Zburyevka in the Kherson Region and Pologi in the Zaporozhye Region, the general added.
Russian forces strike 53 Ukrainian artillery sites in past day
"Russian missile troops and artillery struck the following targets: the command post of the Ukrainian army’s 65th mechanized brigade near the settlement of Lezhino and a missile/artillery armament depot in the area of the settlement of Novosyolovka in the Zaporozhye Region, and also 53 artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 92 areas," Konashenkov reported.
Russian forces strike two Ukrainian army brigades in Kharkov Region
"In the Kupyansk direction, artillery fire struck manpower and military equipment of units of the Ukrainian army’s 14th mechanized brigade in the area of the settlement of Petropavlovka and 92nd mechanized brigade near the community of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkov Region," the spokesman said.
Russian forces eliminated as many as 50 Ukrainian troops, four combat armored vehicles and two pickup trucks, the general specified.
Pentagon heavily censors DTRA report on activities in Ukraine - top brass
Pentagon heavily censors DTRA report on activities in Ukraine - top brass
Chemical and Biological Protection Force Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov also pointed out that an expanded version of this report became available to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The Pentagon has heavily censored a report of the US Defense Department's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) on the Ukraine activities, Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Force Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Saturday.
"Earlier, we cited a DTRA report on activities in Ukraine published by an American nongovernmental organization. The Pentagon heavily censored the document, completely deleting about 80% of the information," Kirillov said.
He also pointed out that an expanded version of this report became available to the Russian Defense Ministry. This version disclosed the names, positions of experts and heads of biological projects, a list of laboratories involved, as well as facts confirming exercises and training with agents of particularly dangerous infections.
"According to the document, the executors of military biological programs are the Ukrainian Mechnikov Anti-Plague Research Institute, the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, and the Lvov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene," Kirillov stressed.
According to the top brass, the report contained information on three Pentagon contractors, personal data on thirty lab employees and seven executives from the US Defense Department. The published documents supplement and confirm information obtained by Russia during the special military operation in Ukraine.
Kiev regime ready to surrender Artyomovsk — Akhmat unit commander
The Kiev regime is getting ready to surrender Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine), the hottest spot on the entire frontline, commander of the Akhmat commando unit and Deputy Commander of the 2nd Army Corps of LPR People’s Militia Apty Alaudinov said on Friday.
"Right now, the hottest spot on our front is Bakhmut where our units are doing very well.... [The Kiev regime] perfectly understands that [its troops] are being pushed out of there and will be definitely thrown out and, naturally, they are getting ready and preparing residents that they will lose this city," he told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.
According to him, the hopeless situation of the Ukrainian units is confirmed by the Kiev regime's rhetoric that Artyomovsk is "meaningless to them." They used the same approach when they surrendered Severodonetsk, Lisichansk, Rubezhnoye and other cities, Alaudinov pointed out.
Earlier, the DPR and LPR repeatedly reported that the Ukrainian army was redeploying supplementary forces to the Artyomovsk front with Ukrainian troops suffering substantial losses there.
The Russian Defense Ministry named new high-ranking participants in the military biological program in Ukraine, including ex-heads of the US Department of Health structures, all of them associated with the US Democratic Party, said Commander of Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov.
"Earlier, we presented materials confirming the participation of Hunter Biden and his Rosemont Seneca Foundation, as well as other structures controlled by the US Democratic Party in financing Pentagon's main contractors operating in Ukraine. It was shown how deeply the son of the current US President [Joe Biden], Hunter Biden, is involved in financing the Metabiota company controlled by the US Ministry of Defense," Kirillov said, following the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.
At the same time, some participants of closed projects still remain in the shadows, although they are key figures in the Ukrainian military biological program, the general explained.
"Among them are former director of Defense Threat Reduction Agency Kenneth Myers, executive vice president of the CIA-controlled In-Q-Tel venture fund Tara O'Toole, former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden, former director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins, former CEO of the Battelle Memorial Institute Jeffrey Wadsworth, chief researcher and president of the Department of International Research, Development and Medicine of Pfizer, and many others," Kirillov revealed.
The Russian official added that all those mentioned are beneficiaries of the Pentagon's biological projects in one way or another and are associated with the US Democratic Party.
According to Kirillov, the Russian Defense Ministry received access to the US Department of Defense report on Biological Threat Reduction Program Activities in Ukraine.
"Earlier we cited the report of Defense Threat Reduction Agency on activities in Ukraine, published by an American non-governmental organization. The Pentagon subjected the document to serious censorship, completely removing about 80% of the information. An expanded version of this report has become available to the Russian Defense Ministry, which reveals the names and posts of specialists and managers of biological projects, a list of laboratories involved, as well as facts confirming the conduct of exercises and training with pathogens of particularly dangerous infections," Kirillov said, following the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.
The general added that according to the document, the participants of military biological programs are several Ukrainian biological research institutes, and three Pentagon contractors. The document also contains personal data of thirty laboratory employees and seven managers from the US Defense Department.
Kirillov also said that the Pentagon has been transferring the unfinished military-biological research in Ukraine to the states of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
"According to the available information, the Pentagon is actively transferring studies that are not completed within the framework of Ukrainian projects to the countries of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Simultaneously, the US Department of Defense is increasing its cooperation with the states of Africa and the Asia-Pacific region – Kenya, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand. States that already have laboratories with a high level of biological isolation are of particular interest to the American military department," Kirillov said, following the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.
Back in March, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed that the US had spent more than $200 million to establish biological laboratories in Ukraine, which participated in the American military program. According to Moscow, Rosemont Seneca, the investment fund of Hunter Biden (the son of US President Joe Biden) took part in the financing of the projects.
Washington vehemently denied the existence of those compounds; however, on March 7, undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland told lawmakers that "biological research facilities" linked to the US were in fact operating in Ukraine.
According to the papers discovered by the Russian military, the said labs were engaged in various research projects, such as the possible proliferation of typhus and hepatitis in the region, and the possible use of wild migratory birds for the transmission of a highly pathogenic form of avian influenza.
Providing Moldova With NATO Arms Would Bring ‘Disaster,’ Russia's Deputy FM Says
Intensified cooperation with NATO undermines Moldova’s security and the supply of western arms would only bring negative consequences, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Sputnik.
"A boost in cooperation between Kishinev and NATO countries in the military and military-technical spheres is a factor that undermines the security of Moldova itself to a greater extent. As experience shows, the reckless pumping of Western weapons to a given country or the deployment of NATO contingents on its territory does not at all add to its security or sovereignty, but, on the contrary, brings it closer to disaster. The sad experience of Ukraine can be seen very clearly from the Moldovan land, I believe," Galuzin said.
He added that Moldova's interactions with the West in the military sphere is more similar to "territory seizure," which is hardly in the interests of the country.
"I would like to once again express doubt that such 'assistance' from the West, more reminiscent of 'territorial seizure', is in the interests of Moldova," Galuzin said.
Since the beginning of the Russian special operation aimed at demilitarizing and de-Nazifying Ukraine, the US and its allies have been allocating financial and military assistance to Kiev worth tens of billions of dollars. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that delivering arms to Ukraine would only prolong the conflict, adding that any foreign military equipment as well as personnel arriving in Ukraine would be considered a legitimate target for the Russian armed forces.
Minggu ini menjadi puncak kesedihan bagi para mahasiswi di Afghanistan. Setelah Taliban mengumumkan pelarangan masuk kampus bagi perempuan, mereka mulai mengosongkan asrama.
Ahmed Zia Hashemi, juru bicara Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi pada hari Jumat, 23/12/2022, membenarkan bahwa proses keluarnya perempuan dari asrama telah dimulai.
Dalam pesan teks ke Radio Azadi, dia mengatakan bahwa kampus telah ditutup (bagi perempuan) jadi tidak ada alasan mereka tetap berada di asrama.
Beberapa mahasiswa nampak pucat karena kecewa ketika Taliban memberitahu mereka harus pulang.
Pada hari Selasa, 20/12/2022, Taliban mengumumkan keputusan untuk melarang perempuan ke kampus dalam sebuah surat dari Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi. Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi Nida Mohammad Nadim mengatakan bahwa larangan itu diperlukan untuk mencegah pencampuran gender di universitas dan karena dia yakin beberapa mata pelajaran yang diajarkan melanggar prinsip-prinsip Islam.
Dia juga mengatakan siswi telah mengabaikan ajaran Islam, termasuk apa yang harus dikenakan, dan tidak didampingi oleh kerabat laki-laki saat bepergian.
Larangan itu diberlakukan sampai pemberitahuan lebih lanjut, katanya.
Keputusan Taliban itu memicu reaksi keras dari komunitas internasional dan Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa.
Larangan bagi perempuan untuk masuk kampus adalah aturan terbaru terhadap perempuan sejak Taliban merebut kendali Afghanistan pada Agustus tahun lalu.
Banyak aturan yang dikeluarkan Taliban untuk membatasi gerak perempuan Afghanistan. Taliban sebelumnya melarang anak perempuan bersekolah setelah kelas enam, membatasi perempuan untuk memegang sebagian besar pekerjaan, dan memerintahkan mereka untuk menutupi kepala hingga ujung kaki saat berada di depan umum. Wanita juga dilarang memasuki taman dan pusat kebugaran.
Moskow Mengekspresikan Kekhawatiran Tentang Larangan Taliban pada Pendidikan Wanita di Universitas
Moskow prihatin dengan Taliban yang melarang wanita menghadiri institusi pendidikan tinggi Afghanistan dan mengharapkan Kabul untuk memastikan keselamatan siswa wanita, kata Kementerian Luar Negeri Rusia pada hari Jumat.
"Kami telah mencatat dengan prihatin laporan pemerintah Taliban di Afghanistan melarang pendidikan perempuan di lembaga pendidikan tinggi. Hak atas pendidikan adalah salah satu hak asasi manusia dan kebebasan. Kami telah mencatat pembenaran oleh otoritas Afghanistan tentang menghubungkan larangan pendidikan tinggi perempuan dengan masalah jaminan keamanan atau kesulitan ekonomi. Kami berharap Kabul akan segera mengambil langkah-langkah yang diperlukan untuk memperbaiki situasi ini," bunyi pernyataan kementerian tersebut.
Pendidikan penduduk tanpa pendekatan diskriminatif adalah kunci keberhasilan pembangunan masyarakat modern, tambah kementerian itu.
Pada hari Selasa, Kementerian Pendidikan Afghanistan dalam pemerintahan Taliban memerintahkan penangguhan pendidikan anak perempuan di lembaga pendidikan tinggi swasta dan negeri. Keputusan otoritas Afghanistan telah dikritik keras oleh sejumlah organisasi internasional dan pemimpin dunia.
Taliban berkuasa di Afghanistan pada Agustus 2021, mengakibatkan krisis ekonomi, kemanusiaan, dan keamanan yang semakin parah di negara tersebut. Pemerintah Taliban tidak melibatkan wanita atau orang yang tidak berafiliasi dengan gerakan Islam. Wanita Afghanistan telah mengorganisir beberapa protes di beberapa kota, menyerukan agar hak-hak mereka dihormati.
Dari negara terkecil kedua di dunia, Monako, hingga negara terpadat, India, perwakilan dari lebih dari 20 pemerintah dan organisasi internasional pada hari Senin mengecam kebijakan Taliban yang menutup sekolah menengah dan menyangkal hak-hak dasar lainnya untuk anak perempuan dan perempuan Afghanistan.
Bahkan Pakistan, yang diklaim sebagai dermawan Taliban, menyuarakan keprihatinan pada dialog PBB tentang hak asasi manusia di Afghanistan tentang penolakan pendidikan bagi anak perempuan Afghanistan. Dialog tersebut merupakan bagian dari U.N. Sidang ke-51 Dewan Hak Asasi Manusia, yang dibuka Senin di Jenewa.
Diplomat Rusia lebih lanjut mengatakan bahwa beberapa sekolah ditutup karena Taliban tidak mampu mendirikan ruang kelas terpisah untuk anak perempuan. Dia menyalahkan Amerika Serikat dan donor Barat lainnya karena membekukan bantuan ke Afghanistan dan menjatuhkan sanksi terhadap Taliban yang, menurut diplomat Rusia, telah berdampak buruk pada sektor pendidikan Afghanistan.
“Kami menyerukan AS dan Inggris dan sekutu mereka, alih-alih mengeluarkan tuntutan baru kepada Taliban, untuk mulai memenuhi kewajiban mereka sendiri untuk konflik masa lalu,” katanya, seraya menambahkan bahwa krisis saat ini di Afghanistan adalah hasil dari dua dekade terakhir perang AS dan intervensi disana.
