₦airaland Forum

Clothing shops in Afghanistan’s western Herat province have begun removing the heads of display mannequins, in line with new directives given by the local office of the Taliban’s ministry for Islamic guidance.

Obeidullah Yari, a local business community leader, told VOA on Monday that about 20% of the shops in the provincial capital, also named Herat, have already implemented the order to escape punishment.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention Vice, which is responsible for administering the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam, decreed last week that shop mannequins should have their heads removed for being offensive to Islam, warning that violators would be punished.

City mall owners and garment sellers initially criticized the Taliban directive, telling Afghan media that mannequins were also used to display clothes in other Islamic counties. But Yari said shopkeepers were now removing the heads of the dummies.

Aziz Rahman, the provincial head of the ministry, told local media he ordered shopkeepers to hack the heads off their mannequins because “they are idols.” He went on to explain that Islam prohibits idolatry, or the worshipping of idols.

Taliban authorities reportedly have also increased monitoring of public taxis in the capital, Kabul, to see if drivers are abiding by the ministry’s instructions related to women's right to travel.

The decree requires drivers to carry only those female passengers who wear a headscarf or Islamic hijab and are accompanied by a male relative if they travel more than 72 kilometers. It also instructs cabdrivers to grow beards, stop their vehicles at prayer times and stop playing music while driving.

The ministry reportedly has also banned Afghan women from driving. It has also ordered local channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses, and female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a recent interview to Afghan state television, defended the steps taken by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention Vice, saying they should not be a matter of concern for anyone because “Afghanistan is Muslim nation and no one is opposed to Islamic laws in the country.”

Mujahid said, however, that all government “religious departments” are instructed not to “mistreat people and be polite to them" while giving them guidance about Islam.

The ultraconservative Taliban regained power in August and named an all-male interim Cabinet to govern the conflict-torn country in line with the group’s strict interpretation of Islam, despite pledging not to revert to the harsh polices of their previous regime from 1996 to 2001.

The government has allowed schoolboys to return to classes but girls across many Afghan provinces are still waiting for permission to do so and most women have been prevented from returning to work.

When the Taliban were last in power, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were barred from work as well as education. The then-Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the morals police, had been accused of serious human rights abuses, leading to Afghanistan’s isolation from the world.

Mujahid said that arrangements were being made to allow all Afghan girls to resume their educational activities, noting that schoolgirls across several provinces have already rejoined classes.

Critics, however, are skeptical of the Taliban assurances and say the group is gradually bringing back its repressive policies of the past.

“It was expected; but I would have welcomed every single employee of this ministry to be focused on poverty reduction, aid delivery and lifting the beggars from the street, feeding them & giving them a job as their 1st priority,” tweeted Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official.

The United States and the global community at large have not recognized the new Taliban government and suspended most non-humanitarian financial assistance to the aid-dependent country.

Foreign countries continue to refuse to open direct political engagement with the Islamist group until it ensures respect for human rights, especially those of women, runs the country inclusively and cuts ties with transnational terrorists.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis stemming from years of war, drought and poverty. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that more than half the population in the country are facing starvation, with nearly a million children at risk of dying because of a “severe acute malnutrition.”

Dukio:
Always underrating your country when other countries have it tough.


Stop feeling mediocre

sapientia:
Poorly written script

First case of Covid and flu mix dubbed 'Flurona' found in young pregnant woman

The patient was tested at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva in Israel, with doctors finding the co-presences of both the flu and Covid pathogens.

A young pregnant woman has tested positive for the first case of Flurona, a mixture of coronavirus and influenza, according to reports.

The patient was tested at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva in Israel, with doctors finding the co-presences of both the flu and Covid pathogens.

Local media in the country reported that the woman, who was unvaccinated, was discovered to have both infections during analysis at the hospital.

She has presented with fairly mild symptoms of the disease that "causes difficulty breathing".

The Israeli Health Ministry is evaluating the results, according to the Mirror.

Experts are currently studying the combination of the two infections to detect if it could cause a more serious illness.

Now experts in Israel have said that several other patients have contracted the two viruses but have not been diagnosed.

Professor Arnon Vizhnitser director of the hospitals' Gynecology Department said: "Last year, we did not witness flu cases among pregnant or birthing women.

"Today, we are seeing cases of both coronavirus and the flu that are starting to rear their head.

"We are seeing more and more pregnant women with the flu.

"It is definitely a great challenge dealing with a woman who comes in with a fever at childbirth.


"This is especially when you do not know if it's coronavirus or the flu, so you refer to them the same.

"Most of the illness is respiratory."

Mr Vizhnitser added that the patient did not experience any unusually serious symptoms.

He added: "She was diagnosed with the flu and coronavirus as soon as she arrived.

"Both tests came back positive, even after we checked again.

"The disease is the same disease; they're viral and cause difficulty breathing since both attack the upper respiratory tract."

aboyaji:
It's Nwanimo's threads making rounds on front-page back to back on New year's Eve.

Nekwa...

The late anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is to be aquamated - a process using water that is described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.

It was "what he aspired to as an eco-warrior," said Very Rev Michael Weeder.

Thousands of South Africans have been paying their last respects at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town where Tutu's body has been lying in state.

There has been an outpouring of emotion since his death a week ago aged 90.

One man, Wally Mdluli, hitchhiked more than 1,000km (620 miles) from Bloemfontein to Cape Town - enlisting the help of family and friends to pay for some of the trip and even sleeping at a petrol station on the way.

"I feel fulfilled after I saw the coffin. It's like his spirit is in me," he told the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.

Wally Mdluli travelled more than 1,000km to pay his respects to Archbishop Desmond Tutu
"It's a memory [I will have] for the rest of my life," Mr Mdluli added, saying he hoped that he and all South Africans would live according to Tutu's values.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's burial is expected to take place this weekend. It is not yet known whether his family will opt for a private or public ceremony.

He had insisted there should be "no ostentatiousness or lavish spending" on the ceremony and that he be given "the cheapest available coffin", with the only flowers in the cathedral to be "a bouquet of carnations from his family", according to the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

His ashes are to be interred behind the pulpit at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town - the Anglican diocese he served as Archbishop for 35 years.

What is aquamation?
Aquamation, which uses water, is touted as a greener alternative to cremation, which uses fire. Practitioners say it cuts the amount of environmentally harmful carbon dioxide produced by up to 90%.

The technical name for the process is alkaline hydrolysis - and it involves weighing the body, then heating it to 150C (300F) in a mixture of potassium hydroxide and water for up to 90 minutes.

This dissolves the body tissue, leaving only the bones - which are then rinsed at 120C, dried, and pulverised into a coarse powder using a machine called a cremulator.

Once all these steps are complete, the remains can be buried or scattered in accordance with the deceased's wishes - just as would happen in an ordinary cremation.