By Moksha Grover

Ever since the Taliban has taken control over Afghanistan there is a big threat to the rights of afghan women & girls. Three Afghan women who worked at a media company were gunned down in Jalalabad in early March[1]. In January, unidentified gunmen killed two female Supreme Court judges in Kabul[2]. These are just some of the victims of the long list of assassinations of female activists and political leaders in Afghanistan. These assassinations have increased since the government of Afghanistan established connections with the Taliban.

The period of 1996-2001 when the Taliban ruled the country was the darkest time for afghan women. after Independence from the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan had grown up a lot in terms of supporting women, educating them, and making them stand up for their feet. We have the famous women activists Sima Samar, Aryana Sayeed, and Roqia Abubakr all of who contributed a lot to the growth of Afghanistan. Today women compose around 27% of the Afghan Parliament, one of the highest rates of women’s political representation in the region[3].

Presently, as the Taliban have taken control over the country once again these women are at a worry for their safety and peace accord with the Taliban extremists. The oppressive rules of the Taliban for women make it their darkest times. Women are not being allowed to appear in the streets without a blood relative or without wearing a burqa, not allowing women’s to wear heels, not allowing women’s to speak or make any sound from their footsteps, depriving the right to education for women, these rules under the Sheria law are just too tyrannical. The fight with the Taliban is not just about women’s rights but about the basic rights that every human being needs which the afghan women are being disadvantaged under the rule of the Taliban.  It is a platitude to say that, as the Taliban were expanding their territory in Afghanistan on 15th August 2021 afghan women were facing an uncertain future. On 16th August 2021, this uncertainty was replaced by fear and despair as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, leaving the country in control of the Taliban[4]. Taliban, coming into power once again would lead to Afghanistan being 200 years back.

Afghan women now find themselves in the untenable position of looking for help from the international community. Today, the whole world is following the turbulent scenario in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead. There is a need for the global call on this issue. Now is the time to stand as one, it is a call on all the international communities to use all available tools to uphold human rights in Afghanistan.

[1] Mona Tajall and Homa hoodfar, ‘Women in Afghanistan worry peace accord with Taliban extremists could cost them hard-won rights’, The Conversation (6 March,2021) <https://theconversation.com/women-in-afghanistan-worry-peace-accord-with-taliban-extremists-could-cost-them-hard-won-rights-154149 > accessed 23^rd August, 2021

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Heather Barr, ‘The Fragility of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan’, Inkstick Media (17 August,2021)< https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/17/fragility-womens-rights-afghanistan> accessed 23^rd August, 2021.

Another much needed and the topic to be discussed -the power of meditation. To lead a stable and peaceful life mediation is important. Meditation enhances our ability to understand and think deeper. Meditation involves focusing. It can be anything a thought or an activity but the main aim is to focus on to focus on yourself.

Meditation is a boon for us and is practiced since old times. A tradition which was present yet lost. Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind of a particular object, thought or activity- to train attention and awareness ,to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. It can also be called as “healing process ” which relaxes and calms the soul of an individual.

These days, with greater need to reduce stress in the midst of our busy schedules and demanding lives, meditation is increasing in popularity. Although there isn’t a right or wrong way to meditate, it’s important to find a practice that meets your needs and complements your personality. There are several types of meditation. Some of them are – Mindfulness meditation, spiritual meditation, focused meditation, mantra meditation, visualized meditation and movement meditation.

Meditation is proved to be a stress buster in our complicated lives. Where there is pressure everywhere, by the practice of meditation we can achieve inner peace and relaxation of mind. This practice increases our ability to think, understand and remember things for future. It also lowers blood pressure, reduces anxiety, decreases pain, ease of symptoms of depression and improve sleep. It is scientifically proven that meditation is beneficial to an individual.

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Today’s article discusses about the evils of terrorism. Terrorism is a world wide problem. A terrorist is a person who tries to create fear and panic among the people to gain his own ends. Their aim is to frighten the people and the government. In order to create panic they explode bombs and spread rumours. Terrorists change their hideouts. Sometimes the hard-core terrorists commit suicide or kill their associates when arrested.

Terrorists are usually young and the old behind them. They coordinate and guide the terrorists activities. Terrorists are extremists who act with great zeal. But they are misguided people who sometimes do not know what they are really acting for. Sometimes terrorists are helped by some foreign agencies in order to create disorder inside the country. In such cases, they are trained in the use of sophisticated weapons. They are also supplied with money and arms by agencies.

Terrorism is threatening peace and security all over the world. Many countries in the world have been hit by the cult of violence. As terrorism is an international problem, we can solve it by with the help of international cooperation. The countries of the world should not allow terrorists activity against another country. Terrorists have no religion and no faith in human values. Their only philosophy is bloodshed for political gains.

The genuine grievance of the people must be redressed and justice should be done to all. Terrorism has crossed borders and he developed into a global issue. We hope we could fight the evils and come back with peace and harmony in the near future. Today’s generation don’t want such sort of fear in their minds and want to lead a stable and happy life. It’s the responsibility of the organizations of WHO, UNSC to maintain peace all over the world.

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The surging technologies and digital era has paved the way for many leading developments over several domains like healthcare, agriculture, business, communication, networking, medicine, aviation etc and particularly in education. Gently we were perceiving many evolutions occurring in the educational environment like practical learning with the help of digital platforms, for a better learning experience for students. With the advancement in technologies and digital media many schools & colleges over the world implemented the idea of Educomp (smart classes) in every classroom to make learning effective for students and to enhance their understanding capability and cognition. When everybody of us were gradually moving towards a modern stratum in education to make things easily accessible and feasible for a finer learning environment, the pandemic has pushed us to a devastating state where education has taken a back seat and made learning intricate for students through online classes. The impingement of online learning has made the education dreadful/unpleasant at times. It is a mere exhaustion for students rather than imparting knowledge.

Students became bewildered with the circumstances revolving around them because it was entirely new for everyone, which nobody would have even dreamt of. Yes, indeed the e-learning ie. the online classes was like a silver lining to the dark cloud, because the covid-19 has resulted the schools and universities to shut down all over the world, whereby education has changed drastically and the teaching is undertaken virtually on a digital platform. With students shattered across various domain the online learning has been a key to make sure that the students are engaged with the syllabus. However , the online learning plays a pivotal role in the contemporary situation, its consequences cannot be neglected or ignored . A home cannot provide the ambience that a school creates.

Education is more than a black board and ahead of the school text books as there is much more fascinating activities and qualities associated with the school environment that a student acquires. It is a place where young inventive minds gather together and gain knowledge form one and another as peer learning is very vital in the educational domain. The digital medium can’t make a replica of the interpersonal interactions that the school facilitates by having the young generation together from diverse backgrounds and culture. It has refrained students from gaining practical knowledge. The peer group interaction in an education sphere is very prominent as it promotes very strong soft skills, but unfortunately the retention of all these factors was a great challenge and posed as a bane in the online classes. At home children are not bound to have the classroom professionalism.

In addition the students are exposed to many health issues, which are attributed due to the prolonged screen time, like eyesight problems with constant headaches, mental illness, uneven sleeping, stress due to the home confinement and rising level of anxiety. Classes at home have become like a pass time for students and curtails the concentration on the curriculum. At school, students would have more exploration towards the extra-curricular activities like sports, art which kindles their interests towards various fields. While speaking about the cons of the online classes that students experience, on the other hand the students in the rural area face many obstacles even in accessing the online classes due to the unavailability of smartphones, laptops and some distortions in the mobile network, so they are on a more frightful side.

To a larger extent we always raise opinions from a student’s point of view, the effects of e-learning that impacted a student. But the fact is, the teachers are affected by the same with parity, even they live a similar life as we do. Moreover we could derive to a phrase that, they are the ones who face so many challenges more than students. Initially many of them weren’t aware of how to make use of the digital platform and struggled with it. In fact they become skeptical whether the content delivered had reached all the students or were there any network interruptions midway. It becomes strenuous for the teachers to cope up with the academics in this pandemic. Teachers are also exposed to all the mental pressures and health issues as the students do. Thus the e-learning has impacted both the students and teachers on an equal proportion. People frame this as the new normal but the education system cannot be taken over like the same for many days. So it is very certain that online classes could be a substitute until the situation lets us get to the educational place but could never be a replacement. So let us hope that the pandemic ceases soon utterly and revive back to the classrooms for a better learning experience.