Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Editors Choice

  1. One Day in a Year: Afghan views on International Women’s Day Naheed Esar Malikzay • • Context and Culture • 8 Mar 2015
  2. ISKP’s Battle for Minds: What are its main messages and who do they attract? Borhan Osman • • War and Peace • 12 Dec 2016
  3. “We need to breathe too”: Women across Afghanistan navigate the Taleban’s hijab ruling Kate Clark • Sayeda Rahimi • • Rights and Freedoms • 1 Jun 2022
  4. Regime Change, Economic Decline and No Legal Protection: What has happened to the Afghan media? Ehsan Qaane • • Rights and Freedoms • 7 Mar 2022

Spotlight

Nawruz
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War and Peace Political Landscape Rights and Freedoms Migration Economy, Development, Environment Regional Relations Context and Culture International Engagement
  • Nawruz

    S Reza Kazemi • Sayed Asadullah Sadat • 21 Mar 2023

    Simple Pleasures Amidst Great Frustrations: An essentially outlawed Nawruz in Taleban-ruled Afghanistan

    The second Nawruz, the first day of the spring and the new solar hejri year, after the Taleban’s return to power comes in an overwhelmingly frustrating atmosphere and appears even more lacklustre than the previous one. The Taleban have effectively banned it as a holiday and public celebration. A host of other crippling challenges such as severe […]

  • Jelena Bjelica • Roxanna Shapour • 19 Mar 2023

    Two Security Council Resolutions and a Humanitarian Appeal: UN grapples with its role in Afghanistan

    Recent complex negotiations surrounding UNAMA’s mandate in Taleban-run Afghanistan have shone a light on longstanding divisions among UN Security Council members concerning key issues, such as human rights, women’s rights, peace and security and governance. This year, on 16 March 2023, member states agreed to resolve their differences by passing two Afghanistan-related resolutions; one that […]

  • Kate Clark • Roxanna Shapour • 16 Mar 2023

    What Do The Taleban Spend Afghanistan’s Money On? Government expenditure under the Islamic Emirate

    When the Taleban captured power in 2021, they moved swiftly to take over domestic revenue collection, adopting Ministry of Finance systems for taxes and customs. As insurgents, they had been diligent tax collectors and brought a wealth of experience in collecting money from people, but little in spending it – outside the war effort. Since […]

  • Kate Clark • 6 Mar 2023

    A Worsening “Human Rights Crisis”: New hard-hitting report from UN Special Rapporteur

    The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has said the Islamic Emirate is increasingly flouting “fundamental freedoms, including the rights of peaceful assembly and association, expression and the rights to life and protection against ill-treatment” and is “ruling Afghanistan through fear and repressive policies.” He also said […]

  • Roxanna Shapour • 28 Feb 2023

    The Daily Hustle: How to survive a winter in Kabul

    Winters in Kabul are always difficult, and this year was no exception – with temperatures dropping well below zero and heavy snowfall. The snow turns the unpaved secondary roads where most Kabulis live into rivers of mud, making it difficult for people to get around. But if there’s little snow – increasingly the case because […]

  • Ali Yawar Adili • 9 Feb 2023

    The Politics of Survival in the Face of Exclusion: Hazara and Shia actors under the Taleban

    Since the Taleban’s return to power, an array of Hazara and Shia Muslim groups and individuals have tried to position themselves vis-à-vis the new order in an effort to protect a community that feels particularly vulnerable. The struggle over who gets to speak for the community has revived old intra-communal rivalries and factionalism, weakened their […]

  • Sabawoon Samim • 2 Feb 2023

    New Lives in the City: How Taleban have experienced life in Kabul

    A large number of Taleban fighters have moved to Afghanistan’s cities since the movement’s capture of power, many of them seeing life in the city for the first time in their lifetime. These fighters, many of whom are from villages, had lived modest lives, entirely focused on the war. Their circumstances have changed entirely since […]

AAN ON TWITTER Follow

AANafgh
aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
59m

#Nawruz, the Taleban don’t recognise it and have dropped it as an occasion for celebration from the Emirate’s official calendar; in a new AAN report, we talk to people from across #Afghanistan about how they plan to mark this ancient rite. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
4h

People from all over Afghanistan used to travel to Mazar for the age-old #Nawruz flag hoisting ceremony at the shrine, but the Taleban cancelled it last year, a few months after they came to power. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj #Afghanistan

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
6h

How do Afghans plan to celebrate #Nawruz now that the Emirate has banned public celebrations? People across the country tell guest author Said Reza Kazemi and AAN’s @saidasadullah1 about Nawruz’s past and present. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj #Afghanistan

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
11h

Moving interviews by guest author Said Reza Kazemi and AAN’s @saidasadullah1 from across #Afghanistan about little joys intermingled with great frustrations and a lacklustre Nawruz. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj

aandaripashto AAN Dari Pashto @aandaripashto ·
21 Mar

ما در شبکه تحلیل‌گران افغانستان، نوروز، سال نو ۱۴۰۲ و ماه مبارک رمضان را تبریک می‌گوییم و برای افغانستان عزیز، آرزوی صلح و سعادت داریم.https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/dari-pashto/reports/context-culture/%d8%ae%d9%88%d8%b4%db%8c%d9%87%d8%a7%db%8c-%da%a9%d9%88%da%86%da%a9-%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%a8%db%8c%d9%86-%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%ae%d9%88%d8%b1%d8%af%da%af%db%8c%d9%87%d8%a7%db%8c-%d8%a8%d8%b2/

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
21 Mar

#Nawruz, the Taleban don’t recognise it and have dropped it as an occasion for celebration from the Emirate’s official calendar; in a new AAN report, we talk to people from across #Afghanistan about how they plan to mark this ancient rite. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
21 Mar

People from all over Afghanistan used to travel to Mazar for the age-old #Nawruz flag hoisting ceremony at the shrine, but the Taleban cancelled it last year, a few months after they came to power. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj #Afghanistan

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
21 Mar

How do Afghans plan to celebrate #Nawruz now that the Emirate has banned public celebrations? People across the country tell guest author Said Reza Kazemi and AAN’s @saidasadullah1 about Nawruz’s past and present. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj #Afghanistan

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
21 Mar

Moving interviews by guest author Said Reza Kazemi and AAN’s @saidasadullah1 from across #Afghanistan about little joys intermingled with great frustrations and a lacklustre Nawruz. http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj

aanafgh AAN Afghanistan @aanafgh ·
21 Mar

We at AAN wish everyone celebrating this ancient holiday a happy Nawruz, a generous Ramadan and peace and prosperity for all Afghans in the new year, 1402. #Afghanistan http://bit.ly/3ls1aIj

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Publications

Reports Special Reports Dossiers Other Publications
Nawruz

Simple Pleasures Amidst Great Frustrations: An essentially outlawed Nawruz in Taleban-ruled Afghanistan

S Reza Kazemi • Sayed Asadullah Sadat •

The second Nawruz, the first day of the spring and the new solar hejri year, after the Taleban’s return to power comes in an overwhelmingly frustrating atmosphere and appears even more lacklustre than the previous one. The Taleban have effectively banned it as a holiday and public celebration. A host of other crippling challenges such as severe […]

Reports Read more

Two Security Council Resolutions and a Humanitarian Appeal: UN grapples with its role in Afghanistan

Jelena Bjelica • Roxanna Shapour •

Recent complex negotiations surrounding UNAMA’s mandate in Taleban-run Afghanistan have shone a light on longstanding divisions among UN Security Council members concerning key issues, such as human rights, women’s rights, peace and security and governance. This year, on 16 March 2023, member states agreed to resolve their differences by passing two Afghanistan-related resolutions; one that […]

Reports Read more

What Do The Taleban Spend Afghanistan’s Money On? Government expenditure under the Islamic Emirate

Kate Clark • Roxanna Shapour •

When the Taleban captured power in 2021, they moved swiftly to take over domestic revenue collection, adopting Ministry of Finance systems for taxes and customs. As insurgents, they had been diligent tax collectors and brought a wealth of experience in collecting money from people, but little in spending it – outside the war effort. Since […]

Reports Read more

A Worsening “Human Rights Crisis”: New hard-hitting report from UN Special Rapporteur

Kate Clark •

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has said the Islamic Emirate is increasingly flouting “fundamental freedoms, including the rights of peaceful assembly and association, expression and the rights to life and protection against ill-treatment” and is “ruling Afghanistan through fear and repressive policies.” He also said […]

Reports Read more
Head of customs for the Hairatan border crossing in Balkh province, Abdul Sattar Rashid (second left), with other Taleban on the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge.
The Taleban moved swiftly to organise and regularise the collection of customs and taxes as they took power in 2021. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP, 27 October 2021

New AAN Special Report: “Taxing the Afghan Nation: What the Taleban’s pursuit of domestic revenues means for citizens, the economy and the state”

Kate Clark •

As insurgents, the Taleban taxed farmers, businesses and NGOs in areas under their control, using the money to fund their war effort. On taking power in August 2021, they swiftly moved to collect taxes in the whole of the country. That serious-minded pursuit of domestic revenue collection is both a practice carried over from the […]

Special Reports Read more

New special report: ‘Between Hope and Fear. Rural Afghan women talk about peace and war’

Martine van Bijlert • AAN Team •

As the United States pushes ahead with the rapid and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, an unrelenting Taleban offensive has driven the Afghan government out of scores of districts across the country. Many Afghans are seeing their fears about the fallout from the ill-considered US-driven peace process come true. Against this backdrop, AAN’s […]

Special Reports Read more

New Special Report from AAN: “Kafka in Cuba, a Follow-Up Report: Afghans Still in Detention Limbo as Biden Decides What to do with Guantanamo”

Kate Clark •

As newly-elected United States President Joe Biden considers what to do with the almost two-decades-old ‘war on terror’ detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, we publish a special report on the last Afghans held there. Two Nangraharis, Asadullah Harun Gul and Mohammad Rahim, have both been detained since 2007. We also trace the fates […]

Special Reports Read more

New special report on Afghanistan’s newest local defence force: Were “all the mistakes of the ALP” turned into ANA-TF safeguards?

Kate Clark •

Today, AAN publishes a special report looking at Afghanistan’s newest local defence force, the Afghan National Army Territorial Force (ANA-TF). Set up by presidential decree in February 2018 and funded and supported by NATO’s United States-led Resolute Support mission, it was intended to be a lightly-armed, low-cost, local arm of the ANA which could hold […]

Special Reports Read more

Not at COP27, but Already in Crisis: A dossier on Afghanistan and the climate emergency

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghanistan is projected to be the sixth most badly affected country by climate change but is also among the lightest emitters of greenhouse gasses. Yet, it is not represented at the COP27 conference, a meeting of the member countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change now underway in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Afghanistan signed […]

Dossiers Read more

Creating the ‘Idea’ of a Country: The ‘Afghanistan in World Literature’ dossier

Fabrizio Foschini •

How do foreign literary works shape attitudes towards Afghanistan and Afghans? That is the subject of this dossier which brings together AAN reports from its ‘Afghanistan in World Literature’ series. Over the years, we have written many pieces on this subject, spurred not only by a passion for everything related to Afghanistan, but also by […]

Dossiers Read more

Dossier XXX: Afghan Women’s Rights and the New Phase of the Conflict

AAN Team •

Afghan women are generally more talked about than heard from. From 1978 and the start of Afghanistan’s conflict onwards, the argument over women’s rights and roles has been an ideological fault line running through multiple phases of the war. Girls education, women in the workplace, women’s rights in marriage and the household, and in the […]

Dossiers Read more

AAN Dossier XXIX: Living with the Taleban

AAN Team •

With the Taleban rapidly gaining ground in Afghanistan, it seemed useful to turn to AAN’s past research on what life under the Taleban has looked like for those living in insurgency-affected areas over the last few years. From December 2018 to January 2021, AAN conducted research first into how public services were delivered in a […]

Dossiers Read more

Afghanistan’s War Economy

Thomas Ruttig •

Maldekstra, 22 September 2022 This article was contributed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig to a special issue of the international affairs journal Maldekstra (no 16, September 2022), published by German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, titled “Economy in War.” His contribution looks at the two categories of profiteurs from the last Afghan war, the international military-industrial complex and […]

Other Publications Read more

Who Opposes the Taliban? Old Politics, Resistance and the Looming Risk of Civil War

Fabrizio Foschini •

ISPI, 11 August 2022 This article by AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini is a contribution to a dossier published by the Milan-based Italian Institute for International Political Studies and edited by Giuliano Battiston and Nicola Missaglia, titled “Afghanistan, One Year Later.” He looks at three groups in particular, the political that “lack[s] the means to effectively influence Afghan […]

Other Publications Read more

Afghanistan After the US Withdrawal: An Elusive Peace – Three Questions to Thomas Ruttig

Thomas Ruttig •

Institut Montaigne, 30 April 2021 The Paris-based nonprofit, independent think tank did an interview for its blog with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig to map out possible scenarios after the US and allied troop withdrawal from Afghanistan (in English).

Other Publications Read more

Have the Taliban Changed?

Thomas Ruttig •

CTC Sentinel, March 2021 This is a guest article by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig for the March 2021 issue of the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC’s) monthly Sentinel, at the Department of Social Sciences of the US’s West Point military academy. It is based on Thomas’s experience from working with the UN during and after the Taleban’s rule […]

Other Publications Read more

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