FSNN | Free Speech News Network https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html Homepage Trump Wants The DOJ To Go After Olympian David Hearn Again In Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case Professors’ Speech in Class Has Not Been Regulated; It Has Been Hired Bullish (BLSH), Coinbase (COIN), Circle (CRCL) slide as SEC delay weighs on tokenization trade UK Authorities Continue Probe into Nigel Farage’s Crypto ‘Gifts’ after By-Election Win Coldcard Bitcoin Thefts Slow, But Losses Could Top $150 Million: Galaxy Fifth Circuit Cites A Ruling Calling Mail-In Ballots “Vital” To Falsely Claim They “Jeopardize Democracy Itself” The DSA’s Agenda Could Cost More Than $200 Trillion—and You’ll Be Picking Up the Tab Brazilian Supreme Court breaks source confidentiality over judge’s ‘stalking’ claims against journalist Bitcoin ETFs Rebound as Crypto Miners Extend AI Pivot Another Bitcoin Miner Sells Off BTC to Fund AI Data Center Pivot I Played a Game Simulating the Aftermath of the 2028 Election. Here’s How It Went. Cameroon journalist held incommunicado for photo of Anglophone unrest Bank Leumi taps Galaxy (GLXY) to offer crypto trading in Israel Bank Leumi to Offer BTC, ETH and SOL Trading with Galaxy Fake LinkedIn Crypto Job Scams Have Cost $11.8M: Singapore The End of Oak Street Is a Nasty, Effective Exercise in Dino Terror CPJ, partners sound alarm over pre-election media crackdown in Kazakhstan Strategy responds to MSCI’s proposed index exclusion rules Bitcoin Slips From Weekly Close Target In Drop To $62,500 “Fascist” Menachem Begin was a Champion of Individual Rights and the Rule of Law Reporters Committee condemns Louisiana courtroom closure, handcuffing of journalist during grand jury indictment Bitcoin (BTC) price slips as U.S. PPI fails to spark gains, ETFs see August’s first two-day drawdown Binance to Restrict Transactions Involving HTX, 10 Other Crypto Platforms Morning Minute: Tether Finally Gets An Audit Paramount Promises Meaningless CNN ‘Oversight Board’ To Try And Gain Merger Approval Plaintiffs Contesting Tren de Aragua Membership Claims / Alien Enemies Act Application Can’t Sue Pseudonymously Trump family ‘s World Liberty Financial (WLFI) delay plans to sell Maldives resort token Gemini posts $108M Q2 net loss despite 37% revenue growth Ireland’s New AML Strategy Brings ‘Enhanced Checks’ on Private Crypto Wallets Sixth Circuit Reverses Pretrial Release for Antifa Member Accused of ICE-Related Threats Volatility exits crypto, TradFi markets even as U.S.-Iran risks linger, sovereign debt rises: Crypto Daily Shinhan Partners With Plume on Tokenized Fund Pilot SEC Shelves Crypto Rule Meeting Days After Senate Punted Clarity Act Socialists Claim Public Libraries Are Examples of Their Policies. Don’t Believe Them. Stablecoin issuer RedotPay said to put U.S. IPO plan on hold: Bloomberg RedotPay US IPO Faces Delay Amid Regulatory, Legal Hurdles: Report Kalshi Ordered to Block Washington Bets Days After CFTC Backed It BTC price slips below $63,000 as oil and yields climb JPMorgan cut Polymarket banking ties over regulatory concerns: Report Brickbat: Liberté d’Expression Women in burqa with their children in Herat, Afghanistan. Photo: Marius Arnesen/CC BY-SA 2.0 A grim milestone this Saturday – five years since the fall of Kabul. That’s 1,826 days of Taliban rule. In that time the pillars sustaining a free and pluralistic society have crumbled. Press freedom has been dismantled and political opposition made obsolete. Women and girls have borne the brunt of the Taliban’s repressive regime. Removed from public life – not even allowed to be seen at windows – they now have fewer rights than people in closed societies like North Korea. While enforcement of the Taliban’s seemingly endless edicts has been patchy, even under more moderate officials life is relentlessly tough, with women’s freedoms nothing on what they were before the Taliban’s return. “Gender apartheid” is the phrase most commonly used to describe this dreadful state of affairs. As part of our Letters from Afghan Women project, which was inspired by our Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners, we’ve called Afghanistan “a domestic prison”. It has also been referred to as a lockdown, only one with no end in sight. Five years ago, people in the UK were on the other side of the last and longest pandemic lockdown. Five years on, Afghan women are still trapped in one. This June, a group of women protested the arrest of other women for alleged violations of dress-code rules. Taliban authorities responded with brute force, shooting at them and killing at least two. But the episode, rare as it was, at least revealed one positive – parts of Afghan society remain willing to challenge the authority of the Taliban. The Taliban know there are chinks in their armour. This probably explains why officials and government employees were recently ordered to stop using smartphones. Videos making the rounds online showed Taliban members destroying their phones in compliance. Many fear that these restrictions may yet be extended to everyone, thus severing an essential lifeline. So much has been lost but not everything: we must continue fighting to ensure that when the Taliban does eventually fall, some infrastructure for freedom of expression remains. That has been a motivator over the last five years when it has all felt bleak, and it fits into Index’s broader theory of change: one voice amplified helps many. Since 2021 we’ve arranged fundraisers for Afghan journalists, we’ve given an award to a brave educator with a mobile school, we’ve created the aforementioned letters project and we’ve published the words of Afghan women (and others) many times. We have provided an essential platform for them to speak, because in the words of Rahmati, a 24-year-old from Kabul: “I realised that I wanted to scream. Not just a sound, something deeper. I wanted to scream that I exist. That I am a human being. That I have thoughts and a heart and a voice.” Index became her place to scream. We offered her momentary respite from an otherwise grim reality. We won’t stop, for Rahmati and the millions of others like her, human beings with thoughts, hearts and voices. If you want to help, read their words, share them, donate to us, become an Index member. Just please don’t look away. 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