30. November 2025
On November 15, 2025, OFARIN’s board held its annual meeting, and among other decisions, one important decision was the appointment of Mrs. Anna Maria as the first Chairperson. In my opinion, this is a very appropriate decision because Mrs. Anna Maria is the person in the OFARIN group who knows the most about Afghanistan. She has spent a large part of her life in Afghanistan and has always stayed informed about the situation there. She has studied psychology, which enhances her ability to interact effectively with people from different backgrounds. She maintains close relations with both types of OFARIN colleagues in Germany and in Afghanistan. I believe she will find very good solutions to any challenges, both in Germany and in Afghanistan.
Here in Kabul, it hasn’t rained for a long time. With the arrival of winter and people turning on heaters to warm their homes, the air has become very polluted. In the beginning of November, the first person in our office who got sick was Aaziz (the cook). Although we gave him leave, he had already passed the illness to others. One after another, everyone got sick. Ajmal was even bedridden for several days. The last people affected by the illness were Naqib and me. Naqib has just recently fallen ill, but I was sick a week ago, and now the symptoms are fading. This cold and cough brought body pain similar to that of COVID.
Our colleagues traveled to Khost and visited the ten classes that are being implemented by our partner organization, ODIA. According to OFARIN’s curriculum, when the lessons in Pashto reading and writing reach the letter “Ya”, mathematics should then begin. Since the classes in Khost had already completed the lesson on “Ya”, mathematics should have started, and for that, our colleagues conducted a seminar for the teachers. One of our teachers in Khost is a woman, but the current government did not allow her to participate in the seminar together with men. And sending our female colleagues from Kabul for just one teacher seemed a bit unreasonable. Fortunately, the husband of this female teacher is also working with us as a teacher. So, our colleagues asked him to record the entire seminar on video, and he promised to share the key points of the seminar related to teaching math lessons with his wife at home and show her the video he recorded from the seminar.
The head of education of Tani district in Khost also participated in the seminar. He was very pleased with our teaching method and even stated that it would be very beneficial if similar seminars were held for teachers of public schools, so they could learn how to work effectively with students.
The dispute between our new NGO (OFAI) and the Ministry of Education is getting more complicated day by day. Here, the laws are not applied equally to everyone. For example, the Ministry of Education was supposed to either grant us work permission within fifteen working days or reject our project with clear reasons. But it’s been nearly two months now, and they still haven’t given us any clear response. At the Ministry of Education, a department called „Foreign Relations,“ which handles donor-related matters, has formed a committee that reviews each project proposal before it is submitted to the ministry leadership for approval. These are the same people who had a criticism about our project, saying that the project is large and the implementing organization is new. The head of this committee, Hashimi, was on a trip for two weeks, and his staff told us that once he returns, they will send our project to the ministry leadership for approval. When his trip got extended, our colleagues went to the head of the Foreign Relations Department and requested that the project either be approved or a rejection response be given. The head said that, using his own authority, he would send our project proposal to the ministry leadership for approval without waiting for the committee’s review. Then, for nearly three weeks, our colleagues went there every day and were told that our project proposal was on the minister’s desk and that it could be approved and moved to the next stage any day. But after a long delay, when our colleagues strongly objected, it was discovered that our project proposal had been kept in the drawer of an employee’s desk someone who is also a member of the committee and he had not sent it anywhere. This is the same employee who, from the beginning, insisted that our colleagues must coordinate with Hashimi, the head of the committee. In this way, they wasted nearly four weeks of our time. On November 25, Hamed, Tahir, Ajmal, and Baharudin attended a meeting organized by the evaluation committee, so that our colleagues could defend their project by responding to the committee’s objections. Our colleagues provided satisfactory responses to all the concerns they had regarding our project and the new NGO. At the end of the meeting, they raised a new issue regarding the curriculum that the curriculum we teach to the students must be approved by the Ministry of Education. Actually, this task belongs to a department called Secondary Education, and we will present our curriculum to them after our project is approved by the Ministry of Education’s Foreign Relations Department. However, they say that we must either select the official Ministry of Education curriculum for teaching, because the Taliban government has recently made many changes to the curriculum, or we must submit our own curriculum to them for review, they will give their opinion and then send it to the Amir’s office in Kandahar for certification, a process that takes about one year. According to the law, the current committee does not have the authority to approve our curriculum or reject our project based on the curriculum, but here everyone tries to be involved and works should be banded to him. Our colleagues explained to them that the curriculum issue falls under the Secondary Education Department, from which we will obtain approval for our curriculum in due time, or we will accept the Ministry of Education’s curriculum. They were asked to make a decision on their part and move our project forward to the next stages. At the end of the meeting, they dismissed our colleagues and said that whenever the committee makes a decision regarding our project, they will share it with us. Until now, our colleagues go there every day, but no decision has been made by the committee yet, and our colleagues hope that the project proposal will be approved in the near future.
In the second decade of November, in Khost province, the trenches of our second forest restoration project KH02 were repaired, and the laborers were paid their wages. Since last spring, rainfall has been low across Afghanistan; in Kabul, it was almost non-existent, while in Khost province, it was also less than in previous years. Therefore, the water storage areas for the trees were not significantly damaged.
The Training Department of the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, with which OFARIN previously collaborated in the field of education, ended its cooperation due to some unreasonable demands from their side. Now, the head of that department has changed, and some of its officials contacted Hamid expressing hope to work together again. We responded by saying that OFARIN is currently focusing on signing a protocol with the Ministry of Education and cannot collaborate with two Ministries simultaneously. However, if in the future we do not reach an agreement with the Ministry of Education, we will consider working with the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs.
Since Pakistan always ties trade to politics and closes its trade routes whenever political tensions arise with Afghanistan, it did the same again after recent tensions. However, this time, the Taliban also decided to halt trade with Pakistan. They gave Afghan traders a three-month deadline to wind down their trade with Pakistan and seek alternative routes. For medicine imports, the ban was enforced immediately from the first day. In my opinion, Pakistan suffers more from this situation because Afghanistan was a significant consumer market for Pakistani products. But now, no trader is allowed to import goods from Pakistan under any circumstances. After the ban, the Taliban seized smuggled fish meat that had been brought from Pakistan into Nangarhar and later buried it underground. One of the major reasons for the lack of manufacturing factories in Afghanistan has been Pakistan, whose products directly competed with Afghan-made goods in local markets. Often, when Afghan farmers’ harvests were ready, Pakistan would close its trade routes, causing heavy losses to farmers and discouraging investment in agriculture. Recently, Pakistan has shown interest in resuming trade through various channels, but the Taliban have refused to reopen trade routes without an international guarantee. The Taliban demand a firm assurance from Pakistan that trade routes will never be closed again under any circumstance. The Afghan public’s role in this issue is noteworthy. Although the decision to stop trade with Pakistan was made by the Taliban, it was warmly welcomed by the general population. In Pakistan, people are pressuring their government due to the economic losses from closed routes, whereas in Afghanistan, people support a complete ban on all trade with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has informed universities that students without beards should not be allowed to participate in exams. Although students had already been advised to grow beards, many had not followed the instruction. Now, as final exams approach and every student hopes to advance, the authorities are using this pressure to enforce the beard rule.
Hewad Khan