February 28, 2026
In the month of January, we were unable to conduct in-person monitoring of the ten classes in Khost that are implemented by local NGO ODIA. They dismissed the teacher who had been negligent in implementing the teaching principles. During January, heavy snowfall in Afghanistan repeatedly obstructed our colleagues’ travel to Khost Province. However, in the first ten days of February, we traveled to Khost and carried out monitoring of those ten classes. The lessons were progressing well. One newly appointed teacher was not fully familiar with OFARIN’s teaching principles, so our colleagues explained OFARIN’s teaching principles to him and instructed the ODIA’s responsible authority to pay special attention to this teacher. In some classes, the introductory mathematics book (numbers 1–9) had been completed, and it is expected that by the end of February this book will be completed in all classes. It is planned that in the first days of March, our colleagues will present a seminar to all ODIA teachers regarding the upcoming mathematics lessons.
I understand that the conflict between our partner organization OFAI and the Ministry of Education must now be tiring for you as well, but we must continue. Perhaps this may be the goal of certain parties here — that those organizations working in the field of education in Afghanistan become exhausted, lose motivation, and withdraw from their efforts. A process that should have been completed within fifteen working days has now taken nearly four months. However, I am pleased to finally inform you that our partner organization has won it and obtained its operational license. The challenges do not have a complete end. Before our partner organization OFAI could finalize the protocol with the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Anna Maria Schwittek underwent spinal surgery. She was supposed to return to the hospital for a second time and remain hospitalized for three weeks. Before going back to the hospital, she transferred funds to us, but the intermediary bank held the funds for nearly three weeks. They had questions that we were required to answer. however, the funds were eventually released, and after a two-month delay, salaries were paid to our colleagues.
Now the question is whether OFARIN will be able to raise sufficient funds to cover the expenses of 250 classes for two years. At the beginning, when we started working on the protocol for these classes, Mrs. Anna Maria Schwittek appeared somewhat confident. However, when the license for the classes’ activities was obtained four months later and we shared this news with her, she expressed her concerns regarding funding. Our activities are still awaiting her final guidance. She will be discharged from the hospital on March 3. There are two possible scenarios. One is that we begin the work at the same scale as originally planned four months ago. In this case, we would rely heavily on potential future donations from supporters. This would not be new for us. OFARIN has often not had sufficient funds at the outset, but according to the needs, our generous supporters have backed our activities. At times, this has also affected staff salaries — there have been occasions when our colleagues voluntarily agreed to reductions in their salaries. Another option is to reduce the number of classes at the beginning in order to be more conservative, so that we do not face a shortage of funds. However, changing the scale of the project would also require additional administrative procedures. In any case, we now have the license to activate the classes. The exact number of classes we will operate will be decided in the near future. The good news is that we will have classes, and up to 70 percent of the students in these classes will be young girls. We have not lost hope that one-day Afghan girls will again be allowed to attend school. We will prepare these girls to achieve strong academic results when that time comes. It should be mentioned that students who complete OFARIN’s educational program are able to read and write and possess basic mathematical skills. In the month of February, after we finalized the protocol with the Ministry of Education, we held meetings with our local coordinators from different areas. They were informed about the changes in our curriculum and were asked to make the necessary preparations for the reactivation of the classes.
Since we are now implementing this project with the support of a local NGO (OFAI), we must shift all personnel related to the education project from OFARIN to the local NGO OFAI through a legal process. For this purpose, we require a set of documents for each individual. During the month of February, we prepared these documents, and in the near future—after a decision is made regarding the number of classes—the shifting will be carried out officially. In mid-January, rainfall and snowfall occurred in most provinces of Afghanistan, with snowfall in the majority of them. The snow fell in such quantities that many people believed it would compensate for the droughts of the past two years. In Khost Province, in Zazi Maidan District, where we implemented our second forest restoration project last spring, snowfall occurred after decades. The amount of snow was not small — it reached up to thirty centimeters. Although it rains there, because the area is relatively warm, it usually does not snow. Likewise, in the area of Tani, where our first forest restoration project was implemented, more snow fell compared to previous years. In the Salang Pass, the level of snowfall was unprecedented in the past decade. Nangarhar Province, which is one of the warmer provinces of Afghanistan, where residents did not even remember snowfall occurring, also experienced snowfall this time. In my view, this will play a significant role in reducing drought in the coming year. As a test, our provincial colleagues carried out excavation in the project area in Zazi Maidan District of Khost Province, on the part of the hill with the steepest slope. As a result, it was observed that the soil had absorbed water up to a depth of one meter. Winter is still ongoing, and the heaviest precipitation here usually occurs during the spring season.
At the end of February, according to the plan, we were supposed to replace the saplings that had dried out as part of the second forest restoration project. However, on February 26, retaliatory attacks were launched by the Taliban on Pakistani border posts, and the situation has still not returned to normal. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture of Khost Province requested that we postpone our activities until the situation stabilizes. Accordingly, we will carry out the replacement of the saplings at a later time.
These attacks were carried out in retaliation for the Pakistani airstrikes that had taken place a few days earlier in Paktia Province and Nangarhar Province, in which women and children suffered casualties. In one case, as many as 18 members of a single family were killed. On the night of February 26, at the beginning of the night, the Taliban launched attacks along the Durand Line in Khost Province, Paktia Province, Kandahar Province, and some other provinces against Pakistani border guarding posts. According to their claims, they killed more than fifty Pakistani soldiers, wounded many others, and captured numerous posts. By midnight, these attacks had ended, and the Taliban declared their operations complete. However, later that same night, after Pakistani fighter jets once again carried out bombardments in Kabul and Paktia Province, the Taliban resumed fighting in the border areas of Helmand Province and Kandahar Province. These tensions are still ongoing. As I am currently in Khost, while writing this letter, I can hear the sounds of heavy explosions. In the course of these events, the Taliban carried out suicide drone attacks inside Pakistan, and in these attacks Islamabad was also targeted. Pakistan, which until now had conducted strikes in Afghanistan under the pretext of suppressing terrorists, has this time declared open war. So, Pakistan is now directly engaged in combat with the Taliban. The Taliban consider this war as a defense of their territory and their right.
In January, the Taliban published a penal code, or criminal procedure manual, according to which punishments will be given to offenders in the courts based on their crimes. I obtained a copy of this manual in order to study it. Although I have so far read only a small portion of it, one aspect that I found interesting—and which has also provoked reactions from many international and regional analysts—is the classification of offenders. For the purpose of punishment, they have divided the public into four categories: Scholars (first class) – This category includes people with knowledge, specifically those with religious knowledge. Nobility (second class) – This includes businessmen and tribal elders. Middle class (third class) – This includes members of society who are neither wealthy nor tribal leaders, and who are not repeat offenders; in other words, ordinary people. Lower class (fourth class) – This includes members of society who have a prior criminal record. It is worth mentioning that this classification applies only to discretionary (ta’zir) crimes. Ta’zir crimes are those for which no fixed punishment is specified in the Qur’an or authentic Hadith, and the determination of punishment is left to the judge, ruler, or the government of the time. According to the manual, if a person from the first class commits a ta’zir crime, the judge will merely inform him that he has been made aware of the act—nothing more. If a person from the second class commits a similar crime, the judge will summon him to court and advise him not to repeat it. If someone from the third class commits the same offense, the judge will summon and imprison him. However, if a person from the fourth or lower class commits the same offense, their punishment will involve threats and physical beating.
I do not fundamentally oppose this law because, in my view, a person who has never committed a crime before—or who unintentionally commits one—should not receive the same level of punishment as someone for whom crime is a habitual profession and who repeatedly offends. The law also appears to take into account the different psychological states of individuals, because not all people in a society have received the same upbringing. One person may be deterred by a warning, while others might repeat the same act even after witnessing severe punishment. It is similar to how the Taliban justify public elections: they claim that in public elections, every individual in society has an equal right to vote. However, people in society are not the same. One person may be a professor, dedicating much of their life to generating solutions for the country’s problems and contributing positively to national welfare. At the same time, another person may have little or no education, never proven any commitment to the country’s interests, and may even lack mental stability. How can these two individuals have an equal role in determining the nation’s future? In my view, all laws should be evaluated in their implementation. The problem in Afghanistan is not the absence of proper laws, but rather the improper enforcement and misinterpretation of laws. What we should be concerned about here is that judges may classify people based on personal bias, rather than examining the true character of each individual. In Afghanistan, we have a distinct history of organizing society around family, ethnicity, and other connections. It is possible that some judges might categorize people in such a way that family members become “scholars,” relatives “nobility,” members of one’s tribe “middle class,” and those with whom the judge has enmity or conflict “lower class.”
Hewad Khan