Strat Comms ace talking Afghanistan, Iran, UK, the Middle East international aid; BBC World Service & UN alum; news junkie, Usual caveats.
London-Nicosia
Joined March 2009
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- Followers1.9K
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Roxanna Shapour retweeted
Mounting #debts forced him to sell #inherited land — and cost him the trust of those who once helped him prosper. A cautionary tale on credit. New #DailyHustle by @AANafgh's @HamidPakte69477 & @roxbox2
bit.ly/4ywrYHS
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
A bitter-sweet account of her life by a young woman forced to live it online. My goodness, #Afghan women can be formidable...
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
A poem by Wendell Berry, who died yesterday at age 92. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/vV…
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
There will never be a more iconic entrance. Tim Curry, you will never be forgotten. 💔
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
The way Kenny Rogers’ whole face lights up the moment he hears Dolly Parton’s voice coming from offstage.
I have always loved this performance so much.
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
Remembering the late, great Dolly, who brought joy, comfort and inspiration to so many - including the millions of children given free books through her Imagination Library. We will always ❤️ you.
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
One of the all-time great Rock Hall moments: Dolly’s “Jolene” with Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Pat Benatar, Annie Lennox, Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Pink, and Sheryl Crow. Zac Brown Band held it down as the house band.
Rest easy, Dolly 🤘
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
Together, we continue!
Human Rights Defenders Plus (HRD+) is pleased to announce the appointment of @Neginayari as the new Chairperson of the Steering Committee.
We (Steering Committee of HRD+ and the Secretariat) warmly congratulate @Neginayari on her appointment and wish her every success in her new role. Her leadership comes at an important time for the Afghan human rights movement, and we are confident that her experience, commitment, and vision will further strengthen HRD+ and its collective efforts to advance human rights, justice, accountability, and the protection of human rights defenders.
For many years, @Neginayari has been a dedicated civil society and human rights advocate. She has supported thousands of girls in accessing education, worked extensively on human rights and education, advocated for peace, and consistently raised the voices and concerns of Afghan human rights defenders on national and international platforms.
We also extend our deepest appreciation to @DrSitez the outgoing Chairperson of the Steering Committee and one of the founders of HRD+. Mr Setiz has played an important role in shaping the vision and foundations of HRD+, and his leadership and contributions have been instrumental in the establishment and development of the organisation.
Congratulations, @Neginayari , on your new responsibility. We wish you strength, confidence, and success in leading HRD+ and advancing our shared mission.
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
A year ago, we warned against the normalisation of Taliban rule. We repeat that warning today with greater urgency, because the temptation to normalise has grown while the grounds to justify it have not. Normalising a regime that systematically persecutes more than half of its population does not promote change; it legitimises oppression.
ohchr.org/en/statements-and-…
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
The guy who delightedly claimed to bring down Jason Arday, Nathan Cofnas, had his own work demolished as “unintelligible, wrong-headed …nonsensical” by nine more senior academics two years before Cambridge appointed him. He has argued that universities like Cambridge would have virtually zero Black professors if appointed solely on merit (which, funnily enough, is more or less what the supposedly ‘woke” Cambridge in fact has). He argues that Black people can only excel in sport and entertainment. A strangely under-covered aspect of this sad story prospectmagazine.co.uk/polit…
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
On the morning of 15 August 2021, on my way to the office seeing the telltale signs of the collapse. Five years later, the heartbreak is recurring, and the memory of that meltdown continues to haunt. #Kabul
#kabul chaotic, worried, disturbed and crowded. People in front of a bank from early morning.
Others ask: which side is winning and which is losing.
But it looks like we witness a meltdown with heartbreak.
#Afghanistan
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
Breaking news: Keir Starmer has announced that he will step down as prime minister amid a collapse in his popularity less than two years after he swept the Labour Party back to power with a promise to rebuild Britain. ft.trib.al/l3if6yh
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
I was thirty-something years old when Iranian students dragged me into a room and told me I wasn't going anywhere. Four hundred and forty-four days later, I walked out. I've spent the decades since trying to make sense of what happened — and what keeps happening — between our two countries.
So don't talk to me about Iran like it's an abstraction. I lived inside that confrontation. I felt it.
Which is why I'm not ready to write off this ceasefire, even though everything about it is maddening.
Negotiations in Pakistan may produce nothing. The talks could collapse before they get started. I've seen American diplomacy with Iran fail more times than I can count, and usually for the same reasons — too much pride, too little patience, and Israel holding a match in the corner of the room.
But here's what I know in my bones: another war won't break Iran. We just tried. It didn't work. Iran doesn't break — it absorbs, it adapts, and it waits. I watched that stubbornness up close for 444 days.
What bothers me most isn't that Iran is winning this moment — it's that we handed it to them. Tehran's framework is running these negotiations. Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz. Still collecting tolls. Trump looked at their proposal and called it workable. I never thought I'd see the day, but here we are.
Iran wants everything on the table — sanctions, enrichment rights, American troops out, and a deal that covers what's happening in Lebanon and Gaza too. That's a lot to swallow. And Israel, which wasn't invited to this conversation, is already making clear it has no intention of being constrained by it.
That's the part that worries me the most. Because if Israel keeps bombing and Washington can't or won't stop it, none of this holds.
And yet — and I say this as someone who has every reason to distrust Tehran — I don't think we go back to all-out war. Not because anyone has suddenly gotten wise, but because the math doesn't work. A second round ends the same way. Iran still controls the Strait. The global economy still flinches when Tehran flexes.
What we're heading toward isn't peace. It's something smaller and more precarious — two countries silently agreeing not to destroy each other today, with no paperwork and no guarantees.
I know what it's like to survive on something that fragile. For 444 days, that's all I had.
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
I warmly welcome the sagacious gesture and extend deepest gratitude to the leadership of both the countries and invite their delegations to Islamabad on Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes.
Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability. We earnestly hope, that the ‘Islamabad Talks’ succeed in achieving sustainable peace and wish to share more good news in coming days!
@realDonaldTrump
@JDVance
@SecRubio
@SteveWitkoff
@SEPeaceMissions
@drpezeshkian
@mb_ghalibaf
@araghchi
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
Madman Theory?
Trump got summits with “little rocket man” Kim Jong Un last time around, but never in all my years reporting America at war have I heard anything like this: an American president threatens to destroy a “whole civilization” and says it’ll take 100 years to rebuild.
Striking Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, Israel warning people to avoid trains and stations, Trump threatening whole power grids, desalination plants, the nation’s bridges…
Is this war still against the Iranian regime or now against a whole people?
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
If you have read Javad Zarif’s recent Foreign Affairs article, you may be interested in this leaked message, which he sent to an insider circle of Iranian analysts in the early days of the war, just a few days after it began.
parpanchi.com/p/what-javad-z…
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
لطفا این پتیشن را امضا کنید:
آپارتاید جنسیتی در افغانستان را به رسمیت بشناسید و طالبان را گروه تروریستی اعلام کنید
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امروز بیش از ۱۶۵۵ روز میگذرد از زمانی که دختران افغانستان از رفتن به مکتب محروم شدهاند.
در این مدت، وضعیت حقوق بشر در افغانستان بهگونهای بیسابقه وخیم شده است.
بر اساس گزارش سازمان جهانی مهاجرت، از زمان بازگشت طالبان به قدرت، بیش از ۵۰۰۰ نفر در مسیرهای مهاجرتی، در تلاش برای فرار از این گروه، جان خود را از دست دادهاند.
با گذشت بیش از چهار سال از اعلام «عفو عمومی»، نیروهای پیشین امنیتی افغانستان همچنان در معرض بازداشت، شکنجه و قتل قرار دارند.
در حال حاضر، حدود ۲۴٬۵۰۰ نفر در زندانهای طالبان نگهداری میشوند؛
از جمله ۱٬۸۲۵ زن که بدون محاکمه، بدون دسترسی به وکیل و بدون حق دفاع، بازداشت شدهاند.
مجازاتهای بدنی بهصورت علنی اجرا میشوند.
در بیش از چهار سال گذشته، بیش از ۱۸۴۸ نفر — بهشمول ۲۵۰ زن — شلاق زده شدهاند.
تنها در سال ۲۰۲۵، ۱۰۴۸ نفر — از جمله ۱۵۰ زن — در ملأ عام شلاق خوردهاند.
همچنین طالبان احکام سنگینی صادر کردهاند، از جمله:
• ۱۷۸ مورد حکم قصاص
• ۳۷ مورد حکم سنگسار
• ۴ مورد حکم آوار کردن دیوار
طالبان یک نظام نهادینهشدهٔ سرکوب ایجاد کردهاند.
آپارتاید جنسیتی به سیاست رسمی آنها تبدیل شده است.
زنان و دختران از آموزش، کار و مشارکت در زندگی عمومی محروم شدهاند و کرامت انسانی آنان بهطور سیستماتیک نقض میشود.
در کنار آن:
• آزار و پیگردهای قومی و زبانی افزایش یافته است
• مذهب فقه جعفری از ساختار رسمی حذف شده و مراسم مذهبی شیعیان محدود یا ممنوع گردیده است
طالبان با صدور دستکم ۱۱۹ فرمان محدودکننده، عملاً نیمی از جمعیت کشور را از جامعه حذف کردهاند.
روابط این گروه با شبکههای تروریستی بینالمللی همچنان پابرجاست و گزارشهایی از پناه دادن به رهبران القاعده منتشر شده است.
آزادی بیان بهشدت سرکوب شده است:
• هرگونه انتقاد از طالبان ممنوع است
• رسانهها تحت سانسور کامل قرار دارند
بر اساس گزارش یونیسف، ۳۹ درصد زنان پیش از ۱۸ سالگی ازدواج میکنند.
همچنین، گزارش وزارت خارجه ایالات متحده نشان میدهد که کودکان در ساختارهای نظامی طالبان استخدام شدهاند و در معرض سوءاستفاده قرار دارند.
فرهنگ و هنر نیز هدف قرار گرفتهاند:
• موسیقی، سینما و بسیاری از فعالیتهای هنری ممنوع شدهاند
• آثار فرهنگی سانسور یا نابود میشوند
• هنرمندان مجبور به ترک حرفهٔ خود شدهاند
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خواست ما:
ما از اتحادیهٔ اروپا میخواهیم که در دفاع از حقوق بشر، موضعی روشن و قاطع اتخاذ کند:
• به رسمیت شناختن آپارتاید جنسیتی در افغانستان
• خودداری از عادیسازی روابط با طالبان
• به رسمیت شناختن رسمی طالبان بهعنوان یک سازمان تروریستی
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به دبلاستانداردها پایان دهید و سکوت را بشکنید؛
زیرا در برابر این وضعیت، سکوت بیطرفی نیست، بلکه همدستی با گروه طالبان است.
Gender Apartheid Recognition & Taliban Terrorist Designation - Sign the Petition! c.org/SmvPYKC9YN via @Change
Roxanna Shapour retweeted
BREAKING: Israel says it killed the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy, Commodore Alireza Tangsiri. apnews.com/live/iran-war-isr…
