June 30th, 2026
I hope all friends and supporters of OFARIN are doing well and are be happy. As I mentioned last time, we asked the Ministry of Education’s inspectors to give us some time. During the first days of May, they visited almost all of our classes in Kabul, and after evaluating the condition of the classrooms, they expressed their satisfaction. I should also mention that our classes in Logar and Khost were inspected by the respective Provincial Departments of Education. Overall, the representatives of the Ministry of Education considered the start of our project to be a good beginning.
One issue we have with the government concerns the distribution of the classes. They have the idea that if we have 40 classes in one district, such as in Logar, we should first divide them equally among the sub-districts of that district, and then distribute each sub-district’s share among its villages. In this way, our classes could end up being several kilometers apart from one another. This would not only make it more difficult for them to supervise the classes, but it would also greatly increase our operational costs. We had anticipated this issue from the beginning, so in our agreement with the Ministry of Education we stated that we would reactivate the same classes that OFARIN had previously operated. However, since OFARIN had only a few classes in Khost in the past, we established mostly new ones there. As a result, our classes in Khost are farther apart from one another compared to those in Logar and Kabul.
Their approach is like wanting to provide food to 50 hungry people, but after giving food to one person, leaving the ten hungry people standing next to that person and going somewhere else to feed another individual instead. In Logar, the head of education for Baraki Barak District argued with us over this issue to the point that the matter reached the Ministry.
However, because according to the agreement we were required to rehire our former teachers, our classes in Logar were not redistributed. Our teachers had not received a salary from OFARIN for nearly fifteen months, because when our education program stopped at the beginning of 2025, it took a long time before we reached the agreement under which we restarted our work in April 2026. Even then, we were unable to pay them on time due to a shortage of funds, because we used the money we had to purchase the classroom materials without which the teaching process could not continue. Now, after the middle of June, we were finally able to pay the teachers one month’s salary, even though June is already the third month they have been working. This means that we still owe them two months‘ salary.
Another issue that was discussed extensively during the past few meetings was the increasing absenteeism of students. In the end, we identified two reasons that are causing students to be absent. The first is that at this time of year the nights are very short, so children cannot go to bed early enough. As a result, the classes that begin very early in the morning have a high rate of student absenteeism these days. The second reason is the heat. Now that the weather has become very hot, students in the classes that are held around the middle of the day are often absent because of the heat. During our most recent meeting with our field staff, which was held on Sunday, we agreed that, as far as possible, we should adjust the classes‘ schedules. Classes that start very early in the morning should begin a little later, while those that are held around midday should either be moved to an earlier or a later time, because the heat is at its highest in the middle of the day.
In Khost, some of the saplings in our KH01 and KH02 projects have started to bear fruit. Yes, the amount of fruit is still very small and can only be seen on some of the saplings, but it is good news because walnut trees begin producing fruit in this way. At first they produce only a small amount, and then with each new spring they bear more fruit than in the previous spring. Despite such encouraging news, we have not yet carried out one of the planned activities of these projects, namely cleaning the water basins around the trees. For some time, the Department of Agriculture did not allow us to continue our work there because of the unstable situation. However, for nearly the past month and a half, they have been repeatedly asking us to carry out our planned activities. Recently, they have even been putting pressure on us, saying that the scheduled time for these activities has already passed and that they should be completed. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, the delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture that had traveled to Khost inspected our projects. They praised our projects, and their only criticism was that the water basins around the trees had not yet been cleaned.
This is the same delegation that has been presenting our projects as a model for other organizations. After the Department of Agriculture in Khost Province gave us permission to resume the activities, we did not have the necessary funds. We thought that the reason was simply that the money had not yet been transferred from Germany. However, during our online meeting with Mrs. Anna Maria Schwittek, we learned that we also did not have sufficient funds available in Germany. Mrs. Schwittek explained that many of our donors in Germany are currently on their summer holidays, and she expressed hope that once they return from their vacations, they will continue their support.
No government employee is now allowed to use a smartphone. Although similar rumors had circulated before that government employees would be banned from using smartphones, the ban has now been imposed across the board. Some people, in an effort to demonstrate their full acceptance of the Amir’s order, even broke their own phones. They destroyed phones worth as much as two thousand dollars. As with many of their previous policies, the Taliban introduced this measure gradually. They spread rumors several times and enforced the ban in some places without taking it very seriously, in order to prepare people and government employees for the possibility that such a decree could eventually be implemented. Now, however, the ban has been strictly enforced. This decision may also have some positive aspects, as government employees will no longer spend working hours on social media and official work may be completed more efficiently. Overall, however, it is a major blow to personal freedom, and in this day and age living without a smartphone has become difficult.
Amir Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered that the graves of Taliban members who died during the past twenty years should be rebuilt, that beautiful mausoleums should be constructed for them, and that books and booklets should be written to collect their stories, memories, and acts of bravery so that they would be remembered in history. In my opinion, participating in jihad is an act of worship whose reward can be received after death, and at a time when many ordinary people are suffering from poverty, spending money on graves is not appropriate. Another possible negative consequence is that it may encourage people to resist the government, because they may believe that if they succeed in war and survive they will receive privileges, and if they die they will also be honored and remembered.
In Helmand Province, a cricket stadium belonging to the Cricket Board, which had previously been built at great expense, was demolished on the Amir’s orders, and construction of a mosque has begun on the site. On June 10, Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Khost, Paktika, and Kunar Provinces, killing 13 civilians, including children, one woman, and one elderly man, and injuring another 14 people. Pakistan claimed that they had targeted its armed opponents. One day earlier, on the night of June 28, Pakistan once again carried out air and ground attacks in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar Provinces. These attacks killed 38 people and injured more than 160 others. The airstrikes hit residential homes. One thing that is striking is that the conflict is presented as a war between the Taliban and Pakistan, yet Pakistan consistently targets the homes of civilians. Although it would be just as possible for Pakistan to strike military positions as it is to strike civilian homes, it does not bomb Taliban positions.
Hewad Khan