Despite initially promising a more moderate rule when they seized back power in Afghanistan last year, the Taliban have rapidly slid back towards harsh and regressive interpretations of Islamic law amid infighting and factionalism. Taliban edicts have banned girls from middle school and high school, restricted women from most employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms. On Tuesday, a letter shared by the spokesman for the higher education ministry, Ziaullah Hashmi, instructed private and public universities to impose a ban on women as soon as possible and to inform the ministry once the ban is in place.

A large package containing around $40 million in cash for "humanitarian aid" was seen on an airport tarmac in Afghanistan, officials there said last week. The money was handed over to the Da Bank of Afghanistan, the Taliban-controlled central bank of Afghanistan, which is headquartered in Kabul. The bank tweeted several images of the cash. One shows packages of U.S. $100 notes bound in plastic, boxed and bagged in an airport. Is the Biden administration quietly releasing seized Afghan national assets as a goodwill gesture, and amid a severe humanitarian crisis? If so, the timing will prove interesting and controversial given the first thing the Taliban has done after receiving the likely Western aid is to bar women from schools. And is it in cash so it can be funneled back to corrupt politicians in USA?

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/60600 > Under Sharia Law, certain types of crimes, such as adultery, alcohol consumption, theft, kidnapping, robbery, apostasy, and rebellion, have punishments that are mandated. Punishments can include public execution, stoning and flogging and amputation.