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A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 30 March 2022
Afghan women traveling alone boarding flights despite ban

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan among them — including
women unaccompanied many from the younger
by a male guardian have generation of Taliban —
been allowed to board air- see the need to engage
craft in the capital of Kabul with the world. That group
since Saturday, airport offi- sees women and girls in
cials said Tuesday, despite schools and in the work-
a Taliban order banning place as still being in line
them from flying. with their interpretation of
There has been no official Islam.
reversal of the order by the Akhunzada reportedly was
hard-liners in the Taliban the one to veto a return
leadership, who have been to school last week of girls
crafting increasingly repres- beyond the sixth grade,
sive edicts. shocking the world and
A senior airport official told many Afghans. It was not
The Associated Press on immediately clear how
Tuesday that it is business these repressive moves will
as usual for women travel- impact a virtual donor sum-
ing alone, a sign that at mit being co-hosted by
least some of the orders Britain this week where the
coming from a conflicted U.N. is seeking $4.4 billion to
Taliban leadership are be- provide humanitarian aid
ing ignored. Taliban flags flutter at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. to Afghanistan.
The official spoke on condi- Associated Press Among the regressive
tion of anonymity because edicts that emerged fol-
he was not authorized to of Vice and Virtue ordering that followed a three-day nation suffers a devastat- lowing the Kandahar meet-
speak to the media and all government workers to meeting more than a week ing humanitarian crisis and ing was a ban on women
he feared retaliation from have beards and wear the ago of Taliban leaders in an economy that is in free traveling alone on both
the Taliban leadership. A traditional turban. Beards their southern heartland of fall. Taliban officials and Af- domestic and international
second senior Taliban offi- are seen as a sign of piety. Kandahar. ghans familiar with the Tal- flights and restricting wom-
cial also confirmed that the Khan tweeted that it is a The edicts have taken iban leadership say there en to public parks on sepa-
order was being ignored. "strange system" that effec- many Afghans and a wary are deep divisions about rate days from men. While
That official also spoke on tively shuts down a police international community the way to govern Afghani- stopping short of ordering
condition of anonymity for or government department by surprise as hard-liners stan. them to wear the all-en-
the same reasons. for three months until its of- appear to be pushing for Hard-liners, led by move- compassing burqa, orders
In a separate show of dis- ficers can grow beards. dominance. ment leader Haibatullah over loudspeakers warned
sent from within the Taliban The edict demanding the Since sweeping into power Akhunzada, would seem women on the streets
ranks, police official Gen. wearing of beards and tur- in August, the Taliban have to want to return to the against showing their hair
Mobin Khan criticized a bans was just the latest in struggled to transition from harsh rule of the late 1990s. and telling them to wear
new order from the Ministry a flurry of repressive edicts war to governing as their But the more pragmatic large, heavy shawls.q

Gunman kills 4 in mass shooting spree in central Israel

lim holy month of Rama- A police official speaking to people in a car ramming
dan. Israeli media said the reporters at the scene cor- and stabbing attack in the
attacker was a Palestinian rected initial reports of five southern city of Beersheba.
from the West Bank. The killed, clarifying that the Earlier Tuesday, Israeli se-
previous two attacks, car- gunman and four victims curity services raided the
ried out by Arab citizens of were pronounced dead in homes of at least 12 Arab
Israel inspired by the Islam- the incident. citizens and arrested two
ic State extremists group, Israeli media reported that suspected of having ties to
have raised concerns of the suspected gunman the Islamic State group in a
further violence. was a 27-year-old Palestin- crackdown sparked by re-
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali ian man from the northern cent deadly attacks.
Bennett called an emer- West Bank town of Yabad. Hours before the raid, Ben-
gency meeting of top se- Police did not immediately nett said the recent as-
curity officials later Tues- provide information about saults inside Israel marked
day. the suspect. a "new situation" that re-
Israeli police work near the covered body of a shooting victim Tuesday's shootings oc- Amateur video footage quired stepped-up security
in Bnei Brak, Israel, Tuesday, March 29, 2022. curred at two locations in aired on Israeli television measures.
Associated Press Bnei Brak, an ultra-Ortho- appeared to show a gun- Law enforcement officials
dox city just east of Tel Aviv. man in a black shirt armed said 31 homes and sites
By ILAN BEN ZION this week. The shooter was Police said in a statement with an assault rifle shoot- were searched overnight
JERUSALEM (AP) — A gun- killed by police. that a preliminary investi- ing into a moving vehicle. in northern Israel, an area
man on a motorcycle While circumstances were gation found that the gun- On Sunday, a pair of gun- that was home to the gun-
opened fire in a crowded not immediately clear, the man was armed with an men killed two young po- men who carried out the
city in central Israel late shooting appeared to be assault rifle and opened lice officers during a shoot- Hadera attack.
Tuesday, killing at least the latest in a string of at- fire on passersby before he ing spree in the central city The Islamic State group has
four people in the second tacks by Arab assailants was shot by officers at the of Hadera, and last week, claimed responsibility for
mass shooting rampage ahead of the volatile Mus- scene. a lone assailant killed four the two previous attacks.q