Afghanistan: Islamic State claims attack on journalists in Mazar-i-Sharif

The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for an attack that took place in northern Afghanistan over the weekend. The attack killed a security guard and injured journalists and children.

In a statement via the group’s Amaq news outlet on Sunday, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing in Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern Afghan province of Balkh. The bombing killed one security guard and injured five journalists and three children, according to police. The group said its fighters detonated a parcel bomb.

“The blast targeted a rally held inside a Shiite center to reward several journalists working in agencies involved in the war and instigation against IS,” said the group in the statement.

The attack that happened on Saturday came two days after a suicide bomber killed the province’s Taliban governor Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, who is known for fighting Islamic State. The militant group also claimed the attack on Muzammil, which is one of the highest-level attacks in Afghanistan since the insurgent group retook control of the country in August 2021.

Attacks by the Islamic State militant group in Afghanistan have often targeted the country’s Shia and Sufi minority communities as well as foreigners and foreign interests.

Wednesday last week, Afghanistan’s Tolo News agency marked International Women’s Day by airing an all-female studio panel to an all-female audience. The panel of three women and one female moderator discussed the place of women in Islam amidst the Taliban’s increasingly restrictive policies against women despite pledging to uphold women’s rights.

“A woman has rights from an Islamic point of view…it is her right to be able to work, to be educated,” said journalist Asma Khogyani during the broadcast.

“Whether you want it or not, women exist in this society…if it’s not possible to get an education in school, she will learn knowledge at home,” said former university professor Zakira Nakbil.

The insurgent group back in 2022 restricted most girls from high school and barred women from attending universities, as well as barring most Afghan female aid workers. The International Labor Organization said female unemployment in Afghanistan dropped 25 percent last year since mid-2021 due to the increased restrictions by the Taliban and the economic crisis in Afghanistan. The ILO said more women were turning to self-employed work such as tailoring at home.