Before the Taliban came to power on August 15, around 1,000 to 2,000 people crossed to Iran through the Zaranj border station in the southwestern province of Nimroz every month.

But the border commander for Nimroz province, Mohammad Hashem Hanzaleh, told AFP this week that the number of people attempting to cross has since soared to between 3,000 and 4,000 every day.

The hike comes as devastating economic and humanitarian crises lash Afghanistan, with the UN warning that a third of the population faces the threat of famine.

But Hanzaleh said that very few had the papers required to cross.

Traders and people holding residence visas, as well as those with visas to seek medical treatment, “are not prevented by Iranian forces,” he said, adding that about 5-600 people were allowed across each day.

For those without their papers attempting to cross, the experience can be harrowing.

Hayatullah, wearing a towel-like turban and a grey beard, showed off his injured hand, with dark blood seeping through the bandage.

“Iranian soldiers took our money. They hit our hands, they tore our hands,” he said.

Mohammad Nasim said he had been thwarted three times after trying to scale over the border wall.

Two nights earlier, he said Iranian border guards had opened fire and killed two people trying to get across, including one of his friends.

That did not stop him from returning the next night, only to find himself “captured” and “beaten”, as the guards asked why he was trying to cross without documents.

He said he had answered: “If you saw the poverty, hunger and misery of our nation, then you would go to the other side of the border too.”

“We don’t have any other solution.”

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But since the Taliban swept to power in mid-August, Afghans have little cash to spare and fear being punished for sporting short or fashionable cuts.

“Before, people came and asked for different hairstyles, but it’s simply not like that anymore,” 24-year-old Shah said at his barber’s shop, with mirrors covering every wall. “Now they are heartbroken.”

During the Taliban’s first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, the hardliners banned flamboyant hairstyles and insisted men grow beards.

After they were ousted, being clean-shaven was often considered a sign of modernity, including in the relatively cosmopolitan western city of Herat.

“Now people come here and they only ask for simple cuts,” Shah said. “They also don’t shave their beards, so it’s a problem now.”

The barber, who has been in the business for 15 years after starting as a young apprentice, said the downturn has caused his daily earnings to plummet from $15 to between $5 and $7.

In the next neighbourhood, Mohammad Yousefi, 32, said he has had to dramatically lower his prices — from $6 a cut to just $1 — to keep his shop running.

“Because of the Taliban situation, customers have less income and they pay us less,” he said.

Yousefi said that after the Islamist hardliners took control of the country, “suddenly people like to make themselves look like the Taliban”.

“It’s not like the Taliban are fashionable, but people don’t shave their beards because the Taliban will stop and ask them about it,” he said. “They say it’s not in sharia law, and that men should have beards and long hair.”

Fleeing Clients 

Taliban fighters stand guard on the backdrop of shops selling antiques and decorative merchandise at Chicken Street in Kabul on September 26, 2021. WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP

At 36-year-old Ali Reza’s barber shop, pink spotlights shone down on customers and shelves were crammed with hairspray cans, gels, mousses, cologne and face masks.

The barber deftly chopped his scissors over a customer’s beard as waiting clients discussed Afghan politics.

His two apprentices — Reza’s 11-year-old nephew Sobhan and Mohsan, 14 — watched his every move, tidying away brushes, combs and electric clippers, and helping unwrap razor blades.

Reza completed the experience with a flourish, drumming his fingers over the customer’s head, massaging his temples and eyebrows, before scrunching the unsuspecting client’s ears for several seconds.

“In the past, young people would come every one or two weeks to cut their hair or beards, and they were happy,” Reza told AFP, adding many of his clients had fled.

“Those young people who are still here are not interested in cutting their hair or beards anymore because the economy is really poor,” he said.

Since the Taliban takeover, Afghans say job opportunities have dried up.

“Before my income was excellent, and now it’s not,” he said.

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The Taliban have promised a softer rule than during their first stint in power from 1996-2001, when women’s freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed and they were banned from higher education.

This time, the hardline Islamist group have said women will be allowed to go to private universities under the new regime, but they face tough restrictions on their clothing and movement.

Women can only attend class if they wear an abaya — a flowing robe — and a niqab — a face veil with a small window to see through — and are separated from men, the Taliban said.

“Our students don’t accept this and we will have to close the university,” said Noor Ali Rahmani, the director of Gharjistan University in Kabul, on an almost empty campus on Monday.

“Our students wear the hijab, not the niqab,” he added, referring to a headscarf.

The Taliban education authority issued a lengthy document on Sunday outlining their measures for the classroom, which also ruled that men and women should be segregated — or at least divided by a curtain if there are 15 students or less.

“We said we didn’t accept it because it will be difficult to do,” Rahmani told AFP.

“We also said that it is not real Islam, it is not what the Koran says.”

From now on at private colleges and universities, which have mushroomed since the Taliban’s first rule ended, women must only be taught by other women, or “old men”, and use a women-only entrance.

They must also end their lessons five minutes earlier than men to stop them from mingling outside.

So far, the Taliban has said nothing about public universities.

– ‘Let’s engage’ –

For some students, however, it was a relief that women would still be able to attend university at all under a new Taliban regime.

Zuhra Bahman, who runs a scholarship programme for women in Afghanistan, said on social media she had spoken to some of the students.

“They are happy to go back to university, albeit in hijab,” she said.

“Taliban opening universities for women is a key progress. Let’s continue to engage to agree on other rights and freedoms.”

Jalil Tadjlil, a spokesman for Ibn-e Sina University in the capital, said separate entrances had already been created for men and women.

“We didn’t have the authority to accept or reject the decisions that have been imposed,” he told AFP, blaming the “ongoing uncertainty” for the lack of students.

The university posted a picture online of male and female students separated by a curtain.

Images shared on Facebook by its department of economics and management showed six women wearing the hijab and ten male students with a grey curtain running between them, as a male teacher wrote on a whiteboard.

– ‘Everything changed’ –

Usually, campus corridors on the first day of the term would be packed with students catching up after the summer.

But on Monday, there was a strikingly low turnout at Kabul’s universities, leaving education leaders wondering just how many young, talented people have fled the country as part of the “brain drain”.

Rahmani said only 10 to 20 percent of the 1,000 students who enrolled last year came to Gharjistan University on Monday, although there were no classes scheduled.

He estimated up to 30 percent of the students left Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control in the middle of August.

“We have to see first if students come,” he said.

Reza Ramazan, a computer science teacher at the university said women students were particularly at risk when travelling to campus.

“It can be dangerous at checkpoints,” he said. “The Taliban can check their phones and computers.”

For 28-year-old computer science student Amir Hussein, “everything changed completely” after the Taliban takeover.

“Many students are not interested anymore in studying because they don’t know what their future will be,” he said.

“Most of them want to leave Afghanistan.”

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Following their lightning-fast victory in mid-August over the former Afghan government’s security forces and the withdrawal of US troops after 20 years of war, the Taliban turned to fighting the forces defending the mountainous Panjshir Valley.

As the Islamist hardliners claimed victory, their chief spokesman warned against any further attempts to rise up against their rule while urging former members of the security forces to join their regime’s ranks.

“With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

“Anyone who tries to start an insurgency will be hit hard. We will not allow another,” he later added at a press conference in Kabul.

The Taliban published a video of their flag being raised over the governor’s house in Panjshir — underscoring a historic win that has seen the anti-Taliban bastion defeated for the first time during 40 years of conflict.

It remained in the hands of resistance fighters during Soviet rule, a subsequent civil war, and the Taliban’s first regime of the late 1990s.

The National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir — made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces — on Sunday acknowledged suffering major battlefield losses and called for a ceasefire.

But on Monday the group said in a tweet that its fighters were still present in “strategic positions” in the valley.

The NRF includes local fighters loyal to Ahmad Massoud — the son of the famous anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud — as well as remnants of the Afghan military that retreated to the Panjshir Valley.

As Taliban fighters amassed in the valley, Massoud on Monday called on Afghans in and out of the country to “rise up in resistance”.

Taliban government

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 23, 2021, Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising force personnel patrol at an outpost in Kotal-e Anjuman of Paryan district in Panjshir province. “. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP

The Taliban are yet to finalise their new regime after rolling into the capital Kabul three weeks ago at a speed that analysts say likely surprised even the hardline Islamists themselves.

As they undertake a mammoth transition into overseeing key institutions and cities of hundreds of thousands of people, Mujahid said an interim government would first be announced, allowing for later changes.

“Final decisions have been taken, we are now working on the technical issues,” he said at a press conference.

Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be more “inclusive” than during their first stint in power, with a government that represents Afghanistan’s complex ethnic makeup — though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.

Women’s freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule.

This time, women will be allowed to attend university as long as classes are segregated by sex or at least divided by a curtain, the Taliban’s education authority said in a lengthy document issued on Sunday.

But female students must wear an abaya (robe) and niqab (face-veil), as opposed to the even more conservative burqa mandatory under the previous Taliban regime.

However, some universities in Kabul remained closed on Monday and those that did open saw a drastic fall in the number of students — some who complied with the new rules, and others who resisted.

Afghans are also facing a host of other challenges, including looming financial and humanitarian crises.

“The authorities pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff, and humanitarian access to people in need, will be guaranteed and that humanitarian workers — both men and women — will be guaranteed freedom of movement,” a statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Taliban spokesman said the group had assured a visiting UN team of cooperation.

Flurry of diplomacy

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about Afghanistan during a media briefing at the State Department, on September 3, 2021, in Washington, DC. Olivier DOULIERY / POOL / AFP

The international community is coming to terms with the new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due Monday in Qatar, a key player in the Afghan saga.

Qatar, which hosts a major US military base, has been the gateway for 55,000 people airlifted out of Afghanistan, nearly half the total evacuated by US-led forces after the Taliban takeover on August 15.

Blinken will also speak to the Qataris about efforts alongside Turkey to reopen Kabul’s airport, which is necessary for flying in badly needed humanitarian aid and evacuating remaining Afghans.

Blinken will then head Wednesday to the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, a temporary home for thousands of Afghans moving to the United States, from which he will hold a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on the crisis alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

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The government said it had been approached “to consider receiving a number of Afghanistan refugees who have sought refuge in Pakistan.”

“The request is that they be accommodated in South Africa en route to their final destinations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.

“The South African Government is unfortunately not in a position to accommodate such a request.”

It said the country “is already home to a substantial number of refugees and is seized with addressing their needs.

“Most of them already benefit from the Social Assistance and free medical health programmes offered by our country.”

The most industrialised nation on the continent, South Africa is a major destination for economic migrants from neighbouring countries and beyond.

The country also boasts one of the world’s most progressive refugee policies, which helped attract more than a million asylum-seekers between 2007 and 2015.

But the processing of their paperwork was backlogged even before the pandemic and most find themselves stuck in limbo after applications are rejected, according to rights groups.

The Taliban celebrated Tuesday after the last US troops left the country, ending 20 years of war.

The Islamists’ return to power forced Western countries to evacuate their citizens and Afghans likely to face reprisals from the Taliban for having worked for the foreign forces in the country.

“In terms of international law, the well-being of the refugees is best served by remaining in the first country arrival – Pakistan – pending their final destinations,” the South African statement said.

Uganda last week accommodated 51 Afghan evacuees.

The east African country said it would provide them with temporary refuge following a request from the US government to temporarily host “at-risk” Afghan nationals and others who are in transit to other destinations.

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US forces overseeing the evacuation have been forced into closer security cooperation with the Taliban to prevent any repeat of the suicide bombing that killed scores of civilians crowded around one of the airport’s main access gates and 13 American troops.

The attack was claimed by a regional Islamic State chapter (ISIS-K), and the Pentagon said it had killed two “high profile” targets and wounded another from the jihadist group with a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan.

No civilians were hurt in the attack Major General Hank Taylor told a news conference in Washington.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby they were “ISIS-K planners and facilitators”, adding: “The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that’s a good thing.”

With the airlift window narrowing sharply ahead of an August 31 deadline, more than 5,000 people remained inside Kabul airport awaiting evacuation on Saturday.

Gone are the crowds of thousands around the airport’s perimeter, hoping to be let through and allowed onto a plane.

Now, the Taliban have sealed off roads leading to the airport and are only letting sanctioned buses pass.

“We have lists from the Americans… if your name is on the list, you can come through,” one Taliban official told AFP near the civilian passenger terminal.

The carnage of Thursday’s suicide attack injected further stress and tension into a situation already fraught with panic and despair for those wanting to leave and high risk for the US forces tasked with securing the operation.

On Saturday, two senior health officials from the former Afghan administration told AFP the death toll from the blast had topped 100, including the 13 Americans.

Some media have put the toll as high as 170.

The bombing followed a chorus of warnings about an imminent threat and, as people gathered outside the airport Saturday, the United States issued a fresh alert for its citizens to leave areas around the main gates “immediately”.

In recent years, the Islamic State’s Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries — massacring civilians at mosques, shrines, public squares and even hospitals.

‘Future attempts’

At the White House, President Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said US national security experts consider another attack is “likely” and the next few days will be “the most dangerous period to date”.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi tweeted that the group’s fighters had already moved into parts of the military side of Kabul airport, but the Pentagon stressed that US forces retained control over the gates and airlift operations.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters were seen throughout the grounds and auxiliary buildings of the airport complex on Saturday, while US marines peered at them from the passenger terminal roof.

After a 20-year war, the foes were within open sight of each other, separated by just 30 metres (yards), and holding fire.

Racing to meet the Tuesday withdrawal deadline has required close cooperation with the Taliban on evacuee movements and the IS threat.

The head of US forces at Hamid Karzai International, Rear Admiral Peter Vasely, is in constant contact with the Taliban official overseeing security around the airport.

And with the Taliban poised to take over when the last US plane leaves, discussions have begun on resuming normal flight operations.

Turkish officials have held initial talks with the Taliban in Kabul about helping get the airport back up and running.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Taliban offer was for them to oversee security at the airport, while Ankara runs logistical operations.

Refugee exodus

Under enormous criticism at home and abroad for his handling of the Afghan crisis and the US military withdrawal, Biden has pledged to stick to the airlift deadline and punish those responsible for the suicide blast.

About 112,000 people have been flown out of the country since August 14, the day before the Taliban swept to power, according to the US government.

On Saturday Taliban fighters escorted a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US troops for evacuation.

Many Western allies have announced an end to their airlifts, with some admitting that at-risk Afghans eligible for evacuation had been left behind.

The United Nations said it was bracing for a “worst-case scenario” of up to half a million more refugees from Afghanistan by the end of 2021.

The Taliban have promised a softer brand of rule compared with their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, which ended when the United States invaded Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But many Afghans fear a repeat of their brutal interpretation of Islamic law, as well as reprisals against those working with foreign militaries, Western missions or the previous US-backed government.

Women’s role in society has been one of the biggest concerns, after they were banned from work and education and confined to their homes during the group’s previous rule.

Taliban official Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the former deputy chief negotiator of peace talks in Doha, said Friday that women have “an innate right” to work.

“They can work, they can study, they can take part in politics and they can do business,” he told a press conference.

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“To those who carried out this attack as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said.

In a solemn address from the White House, he praised the slain US servicemen as “heroes” and said the evacuation mission from Kabul will continue until the planned US withdrawal date of August 31.

“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” Biden said.

He reaffirmed the August 31 deadline for all US troops to leave Afghanistan and said the US forces would fly out as many people as possible before that date.

There remains an “opportunity for the next several days, between now and the 31st, to be able to get them out,” he said.

“Knowing the threat, knowing that we may very well have another attack, the military has concluded that that’s what we should do. I think they are right.”

Biden also said he has seen no evidence that the Taliban colluded with Islamic State militants in carrying out the deadly attacks in Kabul.

“There is no evidence thus far that I’ve been given as a consequence by any of the commanders in the field that there has been collusion between the Taliban and ISIS in carrying out what happened today,” he said.

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“We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can,” said Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby.

US and allied officials have said they had intelligence that suicide bombers were threatening to attack the airport.

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The US Air Mobility Command posted photos of the woman on its social media platforms early Sunday.

She gave birth in the cargo bay of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft moments after landing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany on Saturday.

“During an evacuation flight from an Intermediate Staging Base in the Middle East, the mother went into labor and began experiencing complications due to low blood pressure,” the Air Mobility Command said.

“The aircraft commander made the decision to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft, which helped stabilize and save the mother’s life. Upon landing, Airmen from the 86th MDG came aboard and delivered the child in the cargo bay of the aircraft. The baby girl and mother were transported to a nearby medical facility and are in good condition.”

The flight was carrying Afghans from an intermediate staging base in the Middle East.

Afghans Mob Airplane

Photo: US Air Force.

Since the Taliban took over the Middle East nation last week, thousands of Afghans have fled the country, fearing for their safety.

On Monday, thousands of Afghans crowded onto the tarmac   in the hope of catching any flight out.

Dramatic footage posted on social media showed a scene of chaos on the runway, with civilians frantically clambering up an already overcrowded and buckling set of airstairs.

It was a desperate bid to board a parked passenger plane and escape the city a day after the government’s collapse.

As a crowd of hundreds watched on, those who successfully climbed the stairs helped others up, while some hung from the stair railings with their hands.

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The United States and its allies have been struggling to cope with the thousands of foreign nationals and Afghans trying to flee Afghanistan in the week since the Taliban retook power.

“Our sincere thoughts are with the families of the seven Afghan civilians who have sadly died in crowds in Kabul,” a defence ministry spokesman said without giving the circumstances.

Britain’s Sky News had on Saturday aired footage of at least three dead bodies covered in white tarpaulins outside the airport.

Sky reporter Stuart Ramsay, who was at the airport, said that people at the front of one part of the crowd were being “crushed”, while others were “dehydrated and terrified”.

The defence ministry spokesman said: “Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible.”

The ministry said separately that the UK had now evacuated nearly 4,000 people from Afghanistan since August 13.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace issued what could be read as a plea to Washington for more flexibility over US President Joe Biden’s August 31 target date to complete the rescue missions.

“If the US timetable remains, we have no time to lose to get the majority of the people waiting out,” he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

“Perhaps the Americans will be permitted to stay longer, and they will have our complete support if they do.”

US President Joe Biden has said the deadline could be extended for the airlifts. “I think we can get it done by then, but we’re going to make that judgment as we go,” he said Friday

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is seeking to speak to his US counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss extending the August 31 deadline, according to the Sunday Times.

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