Mediaboss Marketing

Jeffrey Beri, founder of No Dogs Left Behind, pets Papo, who arrived in Canada on June 24, at his sanctuary in Toronto, on June 29. Papo who was too young to transport earlier this year, was one of 10 mixed-breed street dogs from Afghanistan to have arrived at the sanctuary.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press

A mixed-breed street dog named Papo chased toys and rolled around in the sun on a recent clear day at an east Toronto dog sanctuary.

Its a change of pace for Papo after a long journey from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to Canada, where she arrived last month along with 10 other dogs who were evacuated from the country by the animal welfare group No Dogs Left Behind.

Group spokesman Jeffrey Beri said the organization has brought hundreds of dogs and cats from Kabul to Canada since January, after the animals were left behind when U.S. troops withdrew from the country last summer.

I hope that they get the love and attention that they so well deserve, Mr. Beri said of the Afghan dogs new lives in Canada.

The final 10 dogs to arrive were either too young or not strong enough to travel on the initial flight in January. The organization now aims to get them fostered and adopted to new homes as quickly as possible, once they are rehabilitated and vetted.

When dogs first arrive to the No Dogs Left Behind safehouse, Beri said theyre often traumatized and must begin a process of rehabilitation to trust humans again.

Consistency and routine are important factors for the dogs rehabilitation, he said. Rescue dogs at the sanctuary have very strict schedules for eating, going outside, having their shelters cleaned and socializing with other dogs.

It was a complicated journey for the animals. After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention banned the importation of dogs to the U.S. from countries it considers to be high risk for dog rabies, including Afghanistan, Mr. Beri said it became more difficult for the dogs to be brought to safety.

In January, Mr. Beri said he spent two weeks in Afghanistan assessing dogs in the care of Kabul Small Animal Rescue. He then loaded them into a private cargo plane and accompanied the animals on the trip to begin their new lives in Canada.

At the end, the Afghans gave free passage out for the dogs, I do commend them for that, he said.

Back in Toronto, Mr. Beri recalled an emotional family reunion at the animal sanctuary this week when the father of Papos three puppies arrived days after the three young dogs.

We were all crying, said Mr. Beri. Hes here, hes free, he couldnt be happier to see Papo and Papo couldnt be happier to see him.

Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the days most important headlines. Sign up today.

This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.

Excerpt from:
Rescued Afghanistan dogs arrive at Toronto sanctuary - The Globe and Mail

Mohammad Roshan has lost 18 members of his family.

He said he believes one body is still trapped beneath the bricks and mud of where his home once stood in rural Afghanistan.

Last week a powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake killed at least 1,000 people in eastern Afghanistan and its lasting effect are clear to see when you arrive.

Looking back at the ruins, Mohammad breaks down in front of us - he has no words to describe how it feels to lose everything.

"If we find them then we will bury them. But it's no difference if they're buried in the graveyard or here. That's a graveyard and so is my home now."

It's not an easy journey to get to the province of Paktika, let alone the most isolated and devastated village in the Bermal district.

In Schwegi China, more than 50 people were killed, entire families wiped out, livelihoods totally destroyed - but assistance is in short supply.

Mohammad takes us to his new home, a tent with the most basic facilities. On the bed lies his sister with a broken leg, she still hasn't had a visit from a doctor and is in a lot of pain.

It's a rarity women are allowed to speak to us but she wants people to hear what she endured.

Bibi Hawwa told us: "When the earthquake struck I didn't know what was happening, I was completely unconscious. When I came round I was shouting for my brother and father and asking why they weren't coming to get me out.

"I had no idea what the situation was like outside."

Very little aid is trickling through to this village, its remoteness is the main reason it was one of the last areas to receive any help.

The communication here is poor, there are no health facilities in surrounding areas and above all else the routes to get here are incredibly tough.

Aid agencies haven't yet found a safe landing zone for helicopters and so all survivors can do is watch as vital support flies past.

But what's more poignant here than anything, is the smell. It's one that will stick with you for quite a while, particularly when you know what it's of.

Bodies remain in the rubble, impossible to reach without proper help.

All but a few homes in this village have been flattened. The earthquake has cut off water supplies here which is making basic living even tougher.

We're approached by Habibullah who wants to show us the destructive impact this earthquake has had on his home and on his life. Villagers tell me his house was one of the nicest in the area and that he'd spent a lot of money and time building it. He's now calling for help to rebuild it.

"We can't live in these tents forever. The government should help us financially so we can rebuild our homes. You can see all my belongings are gone and under the rubble.

"They should rebuild our homes for us, if they can't then at least give us the money so we can rebuild it ourselves."

Our interview with Habibullah is disrupted by the arrival of a male doctor. Habibullah himself needs medical attention, as do many others in the village. They rush to get the help they need.

What's worrying though, it's only men and boys who are being treated. A young man races down the hill carrying seven-year-old Mohammad. He broke his leg in the earthquake and needs medical attention.

As he's having his dressing changed and wounds tended to, the doctor tells us Mohammad is an orphan - he lost his whole family in a flash when the quake shook this country. His physical pain will eventually ease, but the grief of losing the rest of his family will live with this boy forever.

Read more:Will this disaster bring the Taliban back to the international table?People call for help amid devastation and trickle of aid

In the neighbouring village of Lawara there is more stable, continued support. International aid agencies have managed to set up bases to assist those who've lost everything.

Medecins Sans Frontieres was one of the first responders on the ground. Dr Taufeeq has been here for almost a week now and is seeing new patients every day.

"You can see in the surrounding areas there are no health facilities in this area. The routes are very difficult and also communication is not very good, they're the reasons why news about this area was very late."

He adds: "Right now there is a need for trauma care so we have set up a trauma unit here. We're seeing more and more infected wounds as well."

Home upon home has been completely wiped out - this is a village now just made up of tents and mounds of rubble.

Some day though the aid agencies will have to pull out - but leaving is no option for those who survived this crushing earthquake. They face many months, perhaps years literally having to rebuild their broken lives.

Continue reading here:
'My home is a graveyard now': The aftermath of Afghanistan's deadly earthquake - Sky News

The first public appearance by Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of Afghanistans Taliban regime, has given no room for hope that those who have taken charge of that benighted country will change for the better. Akhundzada, who was at one time even rumoured to be dead, made his first trip outside Kandahar for a two-day meeting of Taliban clerics in Kabul last week. In recent weeks, the Taliban, faced with factionalism and internal divisions, have responded by going into default mode, and women have been the first target. New restrictions on their movement have been imposed, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for girls who want to go to school. Any expectations that this conference may come up with a way forward were belied. A resolution adopted at the end of the two-day all-male conference had only vague references to respect to the rights of women and to the need for religious and modern education. The meeting was closed to the media, but Akhundzadas speech was publicly broadcast. A hardliner in the Taliban system, he made no concessions to the demands both by Afghans and the international community that the regime must become inclusive of minorities and, more urgently, allow girls to go to school.

The rule by Taliban is not a normal arrangement. The armed group, whose luminaries include several designated terrorists, took power by force, and is determined to impose its extremist views on the people of the country. The overturning of the moderate progress in education and gender rights made over the last two decades is one thing. It has shown no sign of accommodation towards non-Pashtun, non-Sunni minority communities in Afghanistan. And it has given every sign of being in touch with the big transnational terror group, al Qaeda, and cross-border terror groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Yet, this regime in Kabul wants international recognition as a legitimate government of Afghanistan and wants the worlds assistance to tide over its difficulties, including a devastating earthquake that caused large-scale destruction. Akhundzada and the Taliban must realise that just as the world is rushing to help with humanitarian assistance for this natural disaster, it can hardly stand by and watch a Taliban-made disaster unfold.

It is good that India, which re-opened its embassy in Kabul with a small team of security and other officials at the end of June, made a strong pitch for the rights of Afghan women at the Geneva conference even as it called attention to Delhis dispatch of relief material in two special aircraft for survivors of the quake.

JULY 4 SALE!Only for our international readers, monthly pricing starting at just $2.50

Read the original:
Taliban regime in Afghanistan seeks international recognition while continuing to belie all expectations of moderation in power - The Indian Express

Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation on the ground since the Taliban takeover. Here, a young lawyer in Kabul reports on the complications Taliban governance has wrought for young lawyers wishing to regain their rights to practice in the country. For privacy and security reasons, we are withholding our correspondents name. The text has only been lightly edited to respect the authors voice.

The Afghanistan Independent Bar Association was merged with the Talibans Ministry of Justice right after they seized power in August last year. The Taliban merged the bar association into the Ministry of Justices organizational framework as a general directorate, despite efforts by several advocacy groups to protect the bar associations independence.

The organization of the ministry has been expanded to include the bar directorate, and a procedure was later created to govern its daily operations. In accordance to this procedure, in order to practice law in Afghanistan, every licensed attorney is required to pass a new evaluation exam.

To assess the legal and Islamic knowledge of attorneys who are interested in taking the test and obtaining a new license, a new testing mechanism was established.

The exam was divided into two main components that tested applicants legal and Islamic knowledge, respectively. Although the major purpose of the exam was to assess applicants understanding of Islam, the testing committee also posed questions about business laws, the penal code, arbitration, inheritance law, and other topics.

In accordance with the new procedure, a committee comprising five members mainly appointed on the basis of their knowledge of Islamic law is appointed to evaluate an attorney who shows interest in obtaining a new license to practice law. The procedure does not limit gender diversity for obtaining a legal license but unfortunately, no female attorneys have yet been given a license. In addition, the Ministry of Justice has not made any apparent effort to inspire female lawyers to obtain new licenses.

The result of the second round of the evaluation test can be accessed here.

I have interviewed two attorneys who succeeded in the last two exams under the new Taliban protocol, and below are the details they provided regarding the new testing procedures:

Question: Did you have a license to practice law previously?

Answer: Yes, I did.

Question: Did you represent any clients in court proceedings prior to taking and passing the new bar exam?

Answer: No. I was unable to do so. For a short period of time we were given the permit to continue based on our old license but during that period the judicial and prosecution agencies were largely inactive.

Question: How did you apply to obtain the new license?

Answer: I wrote a request letter to the Ministry of Justice. The letter was submitted to the Chief of Staff of the Ministry and once I received the requisite signatures, I received authorization to take the evaluation. The test date was then announced on the ministrys website and applicants were called for the evaluation test.

Question: How was the exam conducted?

Answer: There is a committee of five authorized members in the evaluation room. They have a list of subjects from which they ask prepared questions. The evaluation room is equipped with cameras.

Question: Were you able to identify any female attorneys who came for the evaluation test?

Answer: No. There were no female applicants.

Question: Why do you think no female lawyers were in attendance?

Answer: There are a number of significant reasons why female lawyers are unable to attend the test. In particular, most women fear participating and practicing within the Talibans judicial and prosecution agencies and many are discouraged from working as lawyers in the country. Generally speaking, the Talibans mentality toward gender roles in education and professional life has caused women not to attend the evaluation test.

Question: What sorts of religious questions you were asked?

Answer: The test was on basic Islamic issues such as specific procedures as related court hearings, and issues like praying five times a day. Those with the greatest awareness of Islamic rules and principles seemed to have better opportunities to obtain their new law licenses.

Read this article:
Afghanistan dispatch: new Taliban bar exam procedures and the notable absence of new women attorneys - JURIST

Ole Andreas Lindeman, Norwegian Ambassador to Afghanistan, said that if Afghanistans frozen assets are freed, Afghanistans economy will grow. Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in a meeting with envoys of Japan and Norway in Doha, asked the International community to take part in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Muttaqi said that this is the responsibility of the whole world to help and support the new government of Afghanistan, so that we can rebuild the damage caused by the four decades of war in Afghanistan, tweeted Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, Japans ambassador to Afghanistan Takashi Okada pledged $14M from Japan for Afghan agriculture and development projects in the meeting on Sunday with acring Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Takal tweeted.

It has its own benefits if the Taliban side has a strong agenda, said Aziz Marij, former diplomat.

Ole Andreas Lindeman, Norwegian Ambassador to Afghanistan, said that if Afghanistans frozen assets are freed, Afghanistans economy will grow.

The first thing is to see if the Taliban actually changes its national and international policies or not. The second thing is that based on the demands of the Americans to make contact with the Taliban or even to recognize them, they need to show a move from their side, said Maisam Kazemi, political analyst.

The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and his accompanying delegation met with representatives from more than ten countries during four days in Doha.Tolo News

View original post here:
Acting FM Muttaqi calls on world to cooperate with Afghanistan - Pakistan Observer