Why Afghan women are singing to protest Taliban’s ban on women voices
Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Gazing into a mirror framed by a vase of bright flowers, Taiba Sulaimani begins to sing. The lyrics, in Farsi, offer a message of hope — I will fly one day, I will be free one day.
Sulaimani is one of hundreds of Afghan women and allies around the world uploading videos of themselves singing on social media platforms. The videos are meant to protest a law passed by the Taliban last week banning women’s voices in public and mandating that they cover their entire bodies.
Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to show any skin, including their eyes. Before this law was passed, however, it was put forth as a recommendation — not enforced — and many women would show the upper half of their faces in public.
The new law “effectively [attempts] to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows,” a spokesperson for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner said on Tuesday.
In response, women like Sulaimani are demonstrating that they refuse to be silenced.
“I recorded the video because I wanted to tell the Taliban, you can’t tell me what to do,” she told ABC News.
Sulaimani, who fled from Afghanistan to Canada three years ago after the Taliban regained power in 2021, didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her family. But, even though she currently lives more than 10,000 miles away, the Taliban still tried to intimidate her, warning her by phone that they can’t do anything to her, but that she also shouldn’t forget her family is still in Afghanistan.
But, in defiance, this only motivated Sulaimani further.
“It makes me sure that I have to go ahead with power, even more than ever,” she told ABC News.
Elsewhere, an Afghan woman now living in Norway, Hoda Khamosh, echoed the sentiment.
“We came to the conclusion that every voice can become thousands, showing that we women are not just a few individuals who can be erased,” she said.
Khamosh, who founded the Afghan Women’s Justice Movement, posted a video of herself singing a revolutionary poem saying that if you close your doors on us, we will use the windows to make her voices heard.
“We do not go to the field with a gun, but our voice, our image,” she said. “Protest is a war and a struggle.”
Even women inside Afghanistan are now recording videos of themselves singing, sometimes solo and sometimes in pairs or small groups, yet always wearing burqas that conceal their identities.
Zahra, a journalist in Afghanistan who asked only to be identified by her first name for her safety, said the situation on the ground is rapidly changing. Last week, there were many women outside, but since the passage of the law mandating women to veil their bodies, as well as their voices, she said the streets have emptied of women.
The new law now considers a woman’s voice intimate and they are forbidden to sing, recite or read anything in public. This comes in addition to other regulations forbidding women to leave their houses alone or allowing them to look or speak to men who they’re not related to by blood or marriage.
The combination of these restrictions makes leaving the home impractical at best, and even impossible in some cases. If a person violates the rules, they can be punished with a warning or be arrested, with a Taliban spokesperson saying the new law would “be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice.”
Now, many male family members often instruct their female relatives to stay at home since they don’t want trouble, Zahra said.
“Sometimes we have nightmares that [the Taliban] will come and arrest us,” she said, citing common anecdotes of rape and torture in prisons.
Although hope alone may not seem meaningful to many Afghan women, some now feel empowered by the outpouring of global support in response to the videos of women singing. Now — they hope — the international community will step in and tangibly do something to help protect Afghan women.
“Please don’t leave us alone with the Taliban,” Sulaimani said. “We all need your support.”
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, cease-fire discussions are occurring in the Middle East, with officials hoping to bring an end to the conflict.
The United States and its allies continue to plead for a cease-fire deal, with discussions set for this week.
Here’s how the news is developing:
6:26 PM EDT Hospital in central Gaza under evacuation order after nearby explosion
Last Updated: August 25, 6:26 PM EDT
Israeli forces issued an evacuation order in the vicinity of the Al Aqsa Hospital, Deir Al Balah, in central Gaza, urging people to flee, according to a statement from Doctors Without Borders Sunday.
“An explosion approximately 250 meters away triggered panic with many choosing to leave the hospital,” the organization said.
Of the approximately 650 patients in the hospital prior to the explosion, only 100 remain, with seven in the intensive care unit, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Doctors Without Borders is considering suspending wound care for the time being, while trying to maintain lifesaving treatment, according to the statement.
“This situation is unacceptable,” the organization said. “Al Aqsa has been operating well beyond capacity for weeks due to the lack of alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital, as well as patients’ access to medical care.”
Aug 26, 2024, 4:56 PM EDT Sirens sound in Tel Aviv as Hamas fires rocket from Gaza
Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv Sunday night for the first time since January as Hamas launched a single rocket toward central Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said the Hamas rocket fell into an “open area” in Rishon LeTsiyon, south of Tel Aviv.
Israeli emergency services officials said no one was injured by the rocket, but a 26-year-old woman was hurt going to a shelter.
Hamas confirmed it fired an “M90” rocket at Tel Aviv.
-ABC News Victoria Beaule
4:37 PM EDT Hezbollah leader says missile barrage on Israeli base ‘has ended’
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said missile and drone strikes targeting a “base for military intelligence” near Tel Aviv, Israel, “has ended” for now.
Nasrallah said the strikes carried out Sunday constituted the first and second phases of Hezbollah’s response to Israeli missile strikes in Lebanon. He said Hezbollah reserves the right to “respond” if it learns its strikes on Israel are not “sufficient.”
Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s missile and drone strikes targeted the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv, alleging it is a “base for military intelligence.”
“It contains a large number of officers and soldiers and it manages many of the assassination operations that take place in the region, as well as the sedition and deception operations,” Nasrallah alleged.
Hezbollah believes “a number of drones” reached their target. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said most of the Hezbollah missiles and drones were intercepted and denied that the Glilot military base was hit.
Hagari also confirmed that the soldier who was killed in the Hezbollah missile strike was hit by a fragment of an Iron Dome interceptor.
Nasrallah said a total of 340 missiles were fired at the Glilot military base.
A “preemptive strike” by Israel failed to cause any significant damage, according to Nasrallah.
“What happened was aggression, not a preemptive action,” Nasrallah said.
-ABC News Victoria Beaule
3:33 PM EDT Hamas rejects latest cease-fire deal
Hamas leader Osama Hamdan has released a statement indicating Hamas does not accept the latest iteration of the cease-fire proposal as written.
Hamas insists that changes added by Israel since July 2 are non-starters for them, specifically, Israel Defense Forces positions in the Philadelphi corridor, an eight-and-a-half-mile long demilitarized buffer zone running along the border between Egypt and Gaza. Hamas also objected to a proposal for non-Palestinian control of the Rafah border crossing.
Hamdan said Hamas will not return to the cease-fire talks as long as the new conditions stay in the proposal.
“The occupation set new conditions for accepting the agreement and backed away from what it had previously agreed to,” Hamdan said in a statement. “The delegation informed the mediators today of our opinion.”
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
1:16 PM EDT Soldier killed, 2 others injured in ‘combat’ in Northern Israel, says IDF
An Israeli soldier was killed and two others were injured Sunday “in combat in northern Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces announced.
The circumstances of what led to the death and injuries of the soldiers were not immediately disclosed by the IDF.
The soldier who was killed was identified by the IDF as Petty Officer 1st Class David Moshe Ben Shitrit, 21, of Geva Binyamin, Israel. The soldier was a member of the Israeli Navy’s 914th Fleet, according to the IDF.
The two soldiers who suffered light to moderate injuries are also members of the 914th Fleet, according to the IDF. Their names were not immediately released.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd and Jordana Miller
US not involved in Israel’s pre-emptive strike on Lebanon, official says
A U.S. official reaffirmed Sunday that the United States was not involved in Israel’s pre-emptive strike Saturday night on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon but had provided Israel some intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information believed to have been used in the mission.
The U.S. had provided some “ISR support in terms of tracking incoming Lebanese Hezbollah attacks but did not conduct any kinetic operations as they were not required,” the official said.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation and remain well-postured and ready to support the defense of Israel from attacks by Iran and any of its proxies, to include Lebanese Hezbollah,” the official said.
At least three people were killed overnight in the Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Sunday. The casualties included two people who were killed in the village of At Tiri and one in the town of Khiam, the ministry said, adding that two additional people were injured and required hospitalization.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
IDF issues new evacuation order in central Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces announced a new evacuation order Sunday for a small strip of land in a humanitarian area of central Gaza.
The new evacuation order for an area of Deir al-Balah came just days after the IDF ordered the evacuation of two refugee camps in the same area as the Israeli military prepared for a new ground offensive in the humanitarian zone.
The IDF suspects that Hamas terrorists are hiding in the area and using Palestinian refugees as human shields.
Sunday’s evacuation order affected those living in a relatively small area of Deir al-Balah that includes five schools sheltering displaced people and tent camps around them. The area is near the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, one of the largest remaining functional hospitals in Gaza, servicing all of central Gaza.
-ABC News’ Bictoria Beaule
Hezbollah planned to strike Israeli intelligence, sources tell ABC News
Israel believes the Hezbollah targets in central Israel were meant to be a complex of intelligence bases and the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, just north of Tel Aviv, two Israeli security sources told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Bruno Nota
3 killed, 2 injured in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, officials say
At least three people were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Sunday.
Two were killed in the village of At Tiri and one in the town of Khiam, the ministry said, adding that two additional people were injured and required hospitalization.
The United Nations agency in charge of peacekeeping in southern Lebanon called on Sunday for a cease-fire and for all sides to “refrain from further escalatory action.”
“In light of worrying developments across the Blue Line since the early morning, UNSCOL and UNIFIL call on all to cease fire and refrain from further escalatory action,” the agency said in a statement, referring to a demarcation line separating Israel from Lebanon.
There have been no reports of injuries on the Israeli side, according to emergency services in Israel.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz, Jordana Miller and Victoria Beaule
Israel continues strikes in southern Lebanon, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday said the military was targeting Hezbollah with additional strikes in southern Lebanon.
“In the last hour, the IDF struck Hezbollah launchers in several areas in southern Lebanon to remove threats,” the IDF said in a statement. “In addition, the IDF identified a terrorist cell operating in the area of Khiam in southern Lebanon. The IAF swiftly struck the terrorists.”
-ABC News’ Anna Burd and Victoria Beaule
‘Whoever harms us — we will harm them,’ Netanyahu says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday described his country’s preemptive strikes within Lebanon as a “strong action to foil the threats” raised by a potential attack by Hezbollah.
“It has eliminated thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel,” Netanyahu said as he convened his Security Cabinet for a meeting at 7 a.m. local time. “It is thwarting many other threats and is taking very strong action — both defensively and offensively.”
Netanyahu had earlier in the morning been managing the situation with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, his office said. The prime minister’s office released photos of the pair meeting with military officials.
“We are determined to do everything to defend our country, to return the residents of the north securely to their homes and to continue upholding a simple rule: Whoever harms us — we will harm them,” Netanyahu said.
-ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey
‘Thousands’ of Hezbollah rocket launchers destroyed, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday said it had destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers.
“Approximately 100 IAF fighter jets, directed by IDF intelligence, struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels that were located and embedded in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
The statement added, “Most of these launchers were aimed toward northern Israel and some were aimed toward central Israel. More than 40 launches areas in Lebanon were struck during the strikes.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Kevin Shalvey
Israel warns Lebanese citizens of danger as it strikes Hezbollah
The Israeli Air Force launched “dozens” of planes to attack locations throughout southern Lebanon, saying it was continuing “to remove threats, to vigorously attack the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”
“Israel’s air defense systems, navy ships and Air Force planes are on a defense mission above the country’s skies, identifying, intercepting threats and attacking wherever in Lebanon it is required in order to remove threats and harm Hezbollah,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
The aerial strikes within Lebanon were coming as Israeli defenses were dealing with “different types of threats,” including scores of rockets and drones launched into Israeli airspace, he said.
“We have already intercepted a number of rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles that approached the territory of the State of Israel,” Hagari said.He added, “We warn the Lebanese citizens in South Lebanon. We recognize that Hezbollah is firing in a large area near your homes. You are in danger. We attack and remove Hezbollah threats.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Kevin Shalvey
Hezbollah claims hundreds of rockets launched at Israel
Hezbollah claimed early on Sunday to have launched more than 320 rockets toward 11 military locations within Israel and Golan Heights.
The “enemy sites” that had been targeted were detailed in a statement. They included military bases in Meron, Ein Zeytim and Al-Sahl.
Barracks in Naveh Ziv, Ramot Naftali and Zaoura were also among the sites targeted, Hezbollah said.
The group described those launches as a “first stage,” saying they were “targeting Israeli barracks and sites to facilitate the passage of offensive drones towards their desired target deep inside” Israel.
Volunteers fight a wildfire near Penteli, on August 12, 2024. Greece’s civil protection authorities ordered the evacuation of several towns in the north-eastern suburbs of Athens, threatened by a violent fire that started the day before and is spreading. (Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildfires into submission in Greece over two days, a “superhuman effort” that had been paired with a “rapid operational response” to slow fast-moving blazes that threatened Athens, officials said.
There are no active fires at the moment, the Hellenic Fire Service spokesperson said Tuesday evening local time in Greece.
“Firemen are watering the fire-affected areas today and will keep watering them [over the] next days to keep the ground moist and control possible rekindling,” the spokesperson said.
Fire crews will remain vigilant for possible flare-ups, the spokesperson added.
The European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service estimates that 10,409.7 hectares, or more than 25,000 acres, were burned in the affected area in the Attica region of Greece.
Fire crews battled 41 wildfires over the past 24 hours, the Hellenic Fire Service said in an update earlier Tuesday.
The fire danger is expected to continue into Wednesday, with a “very high risk of fire” predicted in several areas in the regions of Central Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia and the North Aegean, according to the Hellenic Fire Service, which said there will be aerial surveillance patrols due to the risk.
The wildfires, which arrived amid extreme heat, had been cropping up throughout the country since at least Saturday, European officials said.
Greek officials, who said an “outbreak” began Sunday, asked the European Commission for help battling the fires on Monday, according to a notice published by the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre.
Greek authorities said Tuesday that two minors were arrested for allegedly setting an intentional fire in a forest area in the country’s Attica region, where some wildfires have been raging.
ABC News on Tuesday visited the scene of a shop that was engulfed in flames in the north Athens suburb of Vrilissia, where local authorities said the burned body of a woman was found late Monday. The circumstances of the death were still unclear, but authorities said it appeared the woman had stayed behind or may have been trapped as others evacuated the building, which was located some 18 miles from where a wildfire erupted in the wider Attica region.
Hundreds of firefighters had been working to stop the fast-moving wildfires Monday near Athens, with tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders in the region, emergency officials said. Those fires burned some 6,600 hectares, or about 25 square miles, in the East Attica region, European officials said.
Government officials warned of heightened risk for fire in several areas, including the Athens peninsula and the region north of it. The fire risk category in those areas had been raised to “extreme,” weather officials said in a statement released Sunday.
Those fires burned in a “rugged” location, where firefighters had to navigate mountains, forests and villages, Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek climate minister, said Tuesday.
“This is the reality: despite the rapid operational response — the new doctrine combined with technological support from drones, which has been applied to hundreds of wildfires throughout the summer — when extreme conditions prevail, the problem becomes insurmountable,” he said.
But calmer winds had helped firefighters near Athens get the upper hand on several fires burning in the suburbs.
European countries were sending assistance, including firefighters and vehicles. Italy was sending two planes, and France was sending a helicopter, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said on Monday. Teams of firefighters were on their way from Czechia and Romania, she said.
Temperatures near Athens were expected to climb on Tuesday to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with daily highs expected to be over 95 degrees for the remainder of the week, according to the Hellenic National Meteorological Center.
Dozens of blazes were burning Monday along the edges of a fire that broke out in Varnavas on Sunday afternoon, Col. Vassilios Vathrakogiannis, of the country’s fire service, said in a statement on Monday.
More than 700 firefighters and nearly 200 vehicles were working with the Civil Protection agencies, he said. Eighteen helicopters and 17 other firefighting aircraft had been in use since the Varnavas blaze began spreading.
Kikilias, the climate minister, said the people in towns north of Athens knew that “the firefighters, the Police, the Local Government, the volunteers, and the Army were there, fighting with superhuman efforts to prevent worse consequences.”
“These same firefighters have been working throughout the summer, extinguishing one fire after another,” he said.
ABC News’ Emma Ogao, Ellie Kaufman, Guy Davies, Britt Clennett and Daphne Tolls contributed to this report.
PHOTO: Prince William, Prince of Wales greets well-wishers on Sept. 10, 2024, in Llanelli, Wales. Prince William, Prince of Wales greets well-wishers while departing from a visit to Swiss Valley Community Primary School to meet pupils who took part in the 2024 Urdd Eisteddfod, a week-long festival celebrating Welsh language and culture, on Sept. 10, 2024, in Llanelli, Wales. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Prince William spoke out for the first time Tuesday after his wife Kate, the princess of Wales, announced in an emotional video message that she had finished chemotherapy after her cancer diagnosis.
William spoke during a solo appearance in Wales, where he greeted well-wishers with cards and messages of support for Kate and shared an update on what’s ahead for his wife.
“It’s good news but there is still a long way to go,” William told fans, according to reporters covering the prince’s visit.
William also expressed appreciation for the support, saying, “thank you very much,” and “very much appreciated.”
Kate, 42, who shares three children with William, also acknowledged in her video message Monday that while she is relieved to have finished chemotherapy, her recovery is not over.
“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus. Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes,” she said. “I am however looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”
Kate has remained mostly out of the public eye for the past year.
In January, she was hospitalized for what Kensington Palace described at the time as “planned abdominal surgery.”
Three months later, in March, Kate announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
She has not revealed publicly what type of cancer she faced, nor exact details of her treatment beyond that she was undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.”
William also took time off from public duties earlier this year to support Kate.
When he visited a food charity in mid-April, in his first royal engagement since Kate announced her cancer diagnosis, William received cards of well-wishes for not only Kate but also his father, King Charles III, who was also diagnosed with cancer this year.
“Thank you very much. That’s very kind,” William told one volunteer who handed him the cards.
