The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-27)

FRIDAY, MAY 27 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

The World

TAIWAN

10 Chinese firms raided

over talent poaching

A uthorities in Taiwan raided 10
Chinese companies suspected of
poaching chip engineers and
other tech talent this week, the
island’s Investigation Bureau said
Thursday in the latest crackdown
on Chinese firms to protect its
chip supremacy.
Home to chipmaker giant
TSMC and accounting for the
majority of the world’s most
advanced semiconductor
manufacturing capacity, Taiwan
has ramped up a campaign to
counter poaching by Chinese
companies in what the island sees
as a threat to its chip expertise.
The Investigation Bureau said
it raided 10 Chinese companies or
their R&D centers, which operate
in Taiwan without approval, this
week. It said nearly 70 people
were summoned for questioning..
The bureau has launched
investigations into about 100
Chinese companies suspected of
poaching technology talent, a
senior official told Reuters last
month.
China’s scramble for chip
engineering talent has intensified
as Beijing looks to achieve self-
reliance in advanced chips,
especially after a trade war with
the a dministration of President
Donald Trump.
Taiwanese law prohibits

Chinese investment in some parts

of the semiconductor supply

chain, including chip design, and

requires reviews for other areas

such as chip packaging, making it

hard for Chinese chip companies

to operate on the island legally.

— Reuters

ZIMBABWE

High court raises to 18

age of consent for sex

Z imbabwe’s Constitutional

Court has ruled that the legal age

of consent for sex should be raised

from 16 to 18, a judgment

welcomed by many in a country

where rights groups say teen

pregnancies are forcing hundreds

of girls out of school.

In a ruling handed down this

week, the country’s highest court

struck down as unconstitutional

provisions in the criminal law

that set the age of consent for sex

at 16. The justice minister and

parliament have 12 months to

“enact a law that protects all

children from sexual exploitation

in accordance with the provisions

of the Constitution,” the ruling

read.

The case was brought by two

women who were married as

children.

The age of consent for sex has

long been controversial in this

southern African country.

Campaigners argued that the 16-

year age for consent was too

young and allowed for the

exploitation of girls.

However, Justice Minister

Ziyambi Ziyambi argued in

parliament last year that “most

children are mature, beyond their

age nowadays and are already

sexually active.” He claimed that

raising the age of consent to 18

“means children below the age of

18 having sexual intercourse will

be criminalized” and have

“unwanted criminal records.”

— Associated Press

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

M23 rebels attack

military base in east

D emocratic Republic of

Congo’s army defended a major

military camp in the country’s

east on Thursday after days of

fighting with M23 rebels making

advances in the region.

Clashes continued at the

Rumangabo base in the Rutshuru

area of North Kivu province

about 25 miles from the

provincial capital, Goma.

More than 20 shells were fired

by the rebels on Tuesday and

Wednesday on the Rumangabo

base, near the Congolese Institute

for the Conservation of Nature,

and the surrounding area,

according to a statement from a

military spokesman.

The M23 is largely an ethnic

Tutsi group opposed to the

Congolese government that

started in 2012 and seized control

of Goma for nearly a month.

United Nations forces and

Congo’s army dislodged the M

from Goma, and many of the

rebels fled to Rwanda and

Uganda before a 2013 peace deal.

The group has recently

resurfaced with increasing

attacks in eastern Congo. It

accuses the government of not

respecting the commitments it

made to integrate rebel fighters

into the national army.

— Associated Press

U.N. votes narrowly to extend

arms embargo on South Sudan:

The United Nations Security

Council voted by a narrow margin

to extend an arms embargo on

South Sudan and a travel ban and

financial sanctions on targeted

individuals for a year. For a

resolution to be approved by the

15-member council, it needs at

least nine “yes” votes and no veto

by a permanent member. The vote

on the U.S.-drafted resolution on

South Sudan sanctions was

1 0 to 0, with China, Russia, India,

Kenya and Gabon abstaining.

Ex-leader of Louvre charged

with money laundering: The

former president of the Louvre

faces preliminary charges over

alleged antiquities trafficking

during his tenure as head of the

Paris museum. Police charged

Jean-Luc Martinez with

“complicity in organized fraud”

and money laundering, according

to the Paris prosecutors’ office. It

said two of his former colleagues

also were taken into custody but

released without charges.

According to the newspaper Le

Canard Enchaine, investigators

were looking into whether

Martinez “turned a blind eye” to

false certificates of provenance for

five Egyptian antiquities.

Grenade reportedly kills 5 in

Yemen: At least five civilians were

killed in Yemen’s southern port

city of Aden when a man dropped

a hand grenade in a fish market,

security officials said. T he blast

also wounded at least 20

shoppers, the officials said. Yemen

is awash with small arms that

have been smuggled into poorly

controlled ports over years of

conflict. The country’s civil war

erupted in 2014 when Iran-backed

Houthi rebels seized the capital,

Sanaa, and much of the north.

— From news services

DIGEST

RAMON ESPINOSA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Loverie Horat, left, sits with her family at a campground housing

the H aitian migrants with whom they are traveling in Cuba’s Villa

Clara province on T hursday. A vessel carrying more than 800

Haitians trying to reach the United States wound up instead on the

coast of C uba, in what appeared to be the largest group yet in a

swelling exodus from Haiti’s humanitarian crisis.

BY SUSANNAH GEORGE

kabul — As Abdullah Obeid and
his team boarded a bus in central
Kabul, female passengers low-
ered their gaze and hurriedly
adjusted headscarves to cover
their faces. Obeid, a member of
the Taliban’s morality police, was
leading a patrol to enforce a
recent ruling requiring Afghan
women to fully cover in public.
“These people are fine,” he told
the driver as he stepped down
onto the street. “But if any other
woman is not wearing the proper
hijab, don’t allow her on!” he
barked, waving the bus away.
Under orders from the Minis-
try for the Promotion of Virtue
and Prevention of Vice, Obeid
has increased patrols since the
decree earlier this month forcing
all Afghan women to cover from
head to toe, including their faces.
But he described his mandate as
much wider than dress code
enforcement.
“The people of Kabul are full of
all kinds of corruption after the
last 20 years, so now it is up to us
to cleanse everyone,” he said.
More than nine months into
Taliban rule, the Ministry of
Virtue and Vice is expanding its
reach into all aspects of Afghan
society. Women have been the
targets of the ministry’s new
laws, but on patrol, its employees
enforce gender segregation, ad-
dress allegations of bribery and
demand that men pray regularly.
“At the beginning, we had
hope the Taliban would be softer,
but now the only safe place for
me is my home,” said Negina Lali,
22, a university student who was
recently barred from attending
class because she wasn’t dressed
entirely in black.
Lali has put her colorful
scarves away, but even when she
follows the Taliban’s new dress
code, her parents worry about
her going out.
“My mother remembers the
previous Taliban government, so
she is very afraid for me. More
and more, she tells me stories
from that time,” she said.
When the Taliban controlled
Afghanistan in the 1990s, the
Ministry of Virtue and Vice was
one of its most feared institu-
tions.
As a young woman, Lali’s
mother said, she was beaten in
the street by the ministry’s en-
forcers because she forgot to
wear socks. Another time, she
was whipped in front of her
young children when the scarf
covering her head and face was
blown off by a gust of wind.
“All this is to erase women,”
Lali said. “They don’t want to see
us outside at all. I only expect the
situation to get worse.”
Days after the ruling requiring
women to cover in public, the
Ministry of Virtue and Vice is-
sued another edict mandating
that women on television also
cover their faces.
Television news outlets in Ka-
bul protested, but during a meet-
ing shortly after the announce-
ment, a team from the ministry
ended the debate before it could
begin.
“The door is closed,” the team
said, according to Khpolwak Sa-
pai, the director of ToloNews,
Afghanistan’s largest independ-

hijab, it prevents bad behavior in

others,” he said, claiming that the

way Afghan women dressed in

cities such as Kabul before the

Taliban takeover encouraged sex-

ual harassment from men.

“This is not a violation of

women’s rights; it gives women

more freedom,” he said.

Since the ruling on head-to-toe

coverings, Akif estimates that

two dozen families have been

summoned to the ministry after

their female relatives violated the

dress code. In all cases, he said,

male relatives agreed to enforce

the ruling.

Akif dismissed the interna-

tional outrage over the Taliban’s

treatment of women.

“No other country should in-

tervene in our domestic affairs,”

he said. “The world must respect

Afghanistan’s decision.”

During another vice and virtue

patrol, a team stopped at a ba-

zaar. They moved from store to

store and asked shopkeepers

whether they break to pray and if

they have witnessed corruption,

and they warned them against

serving women who are not fully

covered.

“Why are you asking about

these things?” asked a man step-

ping out from the crowd. “The

government should be focusing

on other issues like fixing the

economy and providing jobs,” he

said, identifying himself as Abdul

Ahad, a 24-year-old doctor.

The team told him to raise his

concerns with the Ministry of

Labor or other relevant branches

of government.

“But you are the only people

from the government who I see.

No one else comes here,” he said

as the team walked away.

An owner of an amusement

park in Kabul made a similar

observation about the widening

reach of the vice and virtue

teams.

“They are everywhere. In every

part of our lives and every part of

the country,” he said, speaking on

the condition of anonymity for

fear of reprisal. Teams visit his

park regularly, and he blames

them for plummeting attend-

ance, saying gender segregation

makes it almost impossible for a

family to visit together.

“Just watching the news, we

hear more about the Ministry for

the Promotion of Virtue and

Prevention of Vice than any other

ministry. It seems they are re-

sponsible for everything impor-

tant,” he said.

Lali, the university student,

has felt her life shrink with each

new restriction.

“It’s not just about clothing;

they are taking away our freedom

to make our own choices,” she

said. “It is like they don’t accept

women as human beings.”

But the ministry has argued

repeatedly that it is simply imple-

menting Islamic law.

“The criticism in the media is

just propaganda,” said Obeid, as

his team finished its day with a

stop for ice cream. He’s been on

hundreds of patrols in Kabul, he

said, and “no woman ever told

me we are taking away their

rights.”

When pressed, he snapped.

“We are carrying out the order

of God. It doesn’t matter what

women say they want.”

ent news network, who was at

the meeting. Sapai has been in

regular contact with the Ministry

of Virtue and Vice for months

over what he is allowed to broad-

cast.

“At the beginning, it was like

we were having normal conversa-

tions,” Sapai said, referring to the

first time he was called in to

discuss a ban on female actors in

television dramas. “But with

each order, they have become

more and more strict. We used to

see a path forward, but after this

last decision, I can’t imagine it

anymore.”

Khatera Ahmadi, a news pre-

senter at ToloNews, said she had

no choice but to comply with the

ruling. On air now, she wears a

black scarf covering her head and

face below the eyes.

“I don’t really care about hav-

ing to cover my face; our voice is

what matters most,” the 26-year-

old said. “My goal is to raise the

voices of millions of Afghan

women. But what I am worried

about is that next they will ban us

from coming to work complete-

ly.”

Mohammad Sadiq Akif, the

spokesman for the ministry, in-

sists that the restrictions on the

rights and public lives of women

are for the common good.

“Enforcing hijab is an impor-

tant part of cleansing a society.

When women wear the proper

Taliban morality police tighten

their grip on women in Afghanistan

Under a broad mandate, patrols enforce rules governing dress, gender segregation and more

PHOTOS BY SUSANNAH GEORGE/THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: Abdul Ahad, a 24-year-old doctor seen Tuesday in Kabul, pleads with members of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of

Virtue and Prevention of Vice to address the nation’s economic crisis instead of enforcing rules on regular prayer and women’s dress.

ABOVE RIGHT: Taliban morality police enter a bus to enforce a ruling requiring Afghan women to cover from head to toe in public.

ABOVE LEFT: News presenter Khatera Ahmadi prepares to go on air. She fears she and other women will be banned from working.