Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Editors Choice

  1. How Can a Bird Fly On Only One Wing? Afghan women speak about life under the Islamic Emirate Roxanna Shapour • Rama Mirzada • • Rights and Freedoms • 22 Nov 2022
  2. “We need to breathe too”: Women across Afghanistan navigate the Taleban’s hijab ruling Kate Clark • Sayeda Rahimi • • Rights and Freedoms • 1 Jun 2022
  3. A Pay Cut for Afghan Women Working in the Public Sector: “What can you do with 5,000 afghanis?” Jelena Bjelica • Roxanna Shapour • • Rights and Freedoms • 29 Jul 2024
  4. Creating a Hierarchy of Victims? ICC may drop investigations into US forces to focus on Taleban and ISKP Kate Clark • • Rights and Freedoms • 1 Oct 2021

Spotlight

Podcasts

The Conversation:  Authors discuss a selection of AAN’s best reports

Every month AANCast dives into some of our longer reports, to give you a flavour of our more in-depth reporting, in discussion with a range of authors. This month, we’re looking at the International Criminal Court issuing of arrest warrants for two of the leaders of Islamic Emirate for the international crime of gender persecution, […]

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The Daily Hustle: How to get a national ID card in Afghanistan if you’re a Kuchi

The Daily Hustle is our series of first-person accounts by one Afghan about one aspect of their daily life. On our website, you can find stories such as the girl who was so appalled by madrasa education, she persuaded her family to set one up for girls, the labourer and his wife taking in a […]

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Themed Reports

  • Mhd Assem Mayar • 17 Sep 2025

    Afghanistan’s Urban Water Dilemma: Why are Afghan cities running out of water?

    Water scarcity, once thought to be a problem only for Afghanistan’s driest provinces like Farah and Nimruz, is now gripping Afghan cities. Predictions that Kabul’s groundwater will be exhausted by 2030 have already made international headlines, but Kabul is not alone. In cities across the country, taps are running dry, wells are having to be […]

  • Fabrizio Foschini • 30 Aug 2025

    The Mining Sector in Afghanistan: A picture in black and gold

    The mining sector has become one of the foremost drivers of Afghanistan’s beleaguered national economy in recent years. It offers the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) revenue from taxes, royalties and fees, but also the potential to boost the country’s scant diplomatic relations. However, while waiting for foreign actors to tap the fabled underground riches […]

  • Kate Clark • 27 Jul 2025

    Another Drought Year for Afghanistan… But prospects are not as bad as they could be

    Afghanistan is bracing itself for its fourth drought in five years. For many farmers and herders, the drought is catastrophic: spring rains failed and with them, rainfed wheat and pasture in the rangeland. Even so, agroclimate experts are forecasting a surprisingly positive picture for Afghanistan’s staple crop, wheat. Winter wheat has done well this year, […]

  • Rachel Reid • 15 Jun 2025

    Manoeuvring Through the Cracks: The Afghan human rights movement under the Islamic Emirate

    The end of the Islamic Republic was a catastrophe for Afghanistan’s human rights movement, with nearly all human rights defenders thrown into exile, fearing for their lives. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) combines an austere interpretation of Islam with ultra-conservative social mores, resulting in a highly authoritarian state with strict laws and practices. While […]

  • John Butt • 21 Apr 2025

    A Force for Good, or Source of Coercion? An Islamic scholar reflects on the Emirate’s morality law

    The Islamic Emirate’s law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice lays out the behaviour and actions which it deems obligatory or forbidden for Afghan men and women. It also lays out the powers of the enforcers, who have been given extensive authority to impose penalties on those they deem wrongdoers. Today, we […]

  • Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team • 27 Mar 2025

    Rural Women’s Access to Health in Afghanistan: “Most of the time, we just don’t go”

    Since the return of the Islamic Emirate, Afghanistan’s already fragile healthcare system has deteriorated, with stark inequalities for women and rural populations. The system faces a severe lack of funding, inadequate infrastructure and a critical shortage of qualified professionals, which has been exacerbated by prohibitions targeting women since 2021. These failings are felt most acutely […]

  • Mhd Assem Mayar • 22 Mar 2025

    The Economic Consequences of Climate Change for Afghanistan: Losses, projections … and pathways to mitigation

    Despite contributing minimally to global emissions, Afghanistan faces escalating economic and social crises from climate change. Climate shocks, such as from floods, droughts, landslides, avalanches and extreme temperature events, cause annual economic losses estimated between USD 550 million in a year where precipitation is ‘normal’ and USD three billion in a drought year – equivalent […]

The Daily Hustle

  • Nur Khan Himmat • Roxanna Shapour • 5 Oct 2025

    The Daily Hustle: Muhammad’s last journey – a story of survival, debt and loss

    The Islamic Emirate’s ban on poppy cultivation has reshaped life in many areas across Afghanistan, especially in Helmand province, where poppy was fundamental to the economy and to many farmers’ livelihoods. This is the story of one such farmer, Muhammad, who, having lost his main source of income following the poppy ban and finding that […]

  • Rama Mirzada • Roxanna Shapour • 7 Sep 2025

    The Daily Hustle: How one mother cares for her family through sickness, hunger and debt

    In Afghanistan, years of conflict, economic collapse, and rising poverty have left hundreds of thousands of families struggling to survive. For those already on the brink, a single illness can be life-altering, pushing the household into crisis and making even the most basic necessities, such as bread, cooking oil, or school uniforms, unaffordable. In this […]

  • Hamid Pakteen • Roxanna Shapour • 10 Aug 2025

    The Daily Hustle: Building a business in Kabul one stitch at a time

    In Kabul’s Timur Shahi area, tailoring is serious business. Rows of shopfronts compete for customers. One marvels at how so many tailors, offering basically the same service, stay in business in such close proximity. But they do. Each tailor has his own loyal customers who have been with him for years, even generations. In this instalment […]

  • Nur Khan Himmat • Roxanna Shapour • 30 Jun 2025

    The Daily Hustle: Afghans flee the Iran-Israel war

    As the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated, many Afghans who had been living in Iran opted to return to Afghanistan, fearing for their safety. The Iranian government’s current drive to deport Afghans had already accelerated the pace of ‘returns’. However, for Afghans who had lived through years of conflict in their own country, the […]

  • Nur Khan Himmat • Roxanna Shapour • 28 May 2025

    The Daily Hustle: How to get a national ID card in Afghanistan if you’re a Kuchi 

    Despite claims that obtaining a national identity card (tazkira) has become easier, many Afghans still encounter significant hurdles when they try to get one. The difficulties are particularly pronounced for returnees – those coming back after years in Pakistan or who were born there without ever having lived in Afghanistan – as well as for members of […]

  • Rohullah Sorush • Roxanna Shapour • 18 May 2025

    The Daily Hustle: Getting married, with 49 other couples 

    For many young Afghans, the dream of getting married and starting a family is stymied by a myriad obstacles on the road to their hoped-for nuptials. One of the main barriers is the high cost of weddings and the steep bride price that many fathers ask for in exchange for their daughter’s hand in marriage. […]

  • Hamed Pakteen • Roxanna Shapour • 30 Mar 2025

    The Daily Hustle: At Nawruz and Eid al-Fitr, a shopkeeper reflects on high food prices

    In a rare twist of the calendar, the first day of the Afghan New Year, Nawruz, came in the last ten days of Ramadan. These are both joyous occasions. Yet, in this instalment of the Daily Hustle, Hamed Pakteen has visited Mandawi, the busy central market in the heart of Kabul, which is filled with traders […]

Reports

  • Sharif Akram • 14 Oct 2025

    The Turbaned Traders: The Taliban take over the urban economy

    After the Taliban seized power in 2021, many of the movement’s fighters and supporters migrated from their rural strongholds into Afghanistan’s urban centres to assume control of the government and the cities. This marked a major shift following two decades of insurgency, when the Taliban and many of their supporters were unable to access urban […]

  • Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team • 28 Sep 2025

    Is maternal mortality on the rise in Afghanistan? No official data, but much cause for concern

    Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate was already among the ten highest in the world, but it has come under further pressure. The United States’ decision to entirely cut aid to Afghanistan earlier this year has led to the closure of over 400 health facilities and that is likely to have particularly affected women during the most […]

  • Kate Clark • AAN Team • 21 Aug 2025

    A year of Propagating Virtue and Preventing Vice: Enforcers and ‘enforced’ speak about the Emirate’s morality law

    It is a year since the Islamic Emirate issued a new law to propagate virtue and prevent vice. The goal, of changing Afghans’ dress and behaviour, has been an abiding mission of the Taliban’s since they first emerged as a movement in the 1990s. The law laid out not only the actions that the Emirate […]

  • Sharif Akram • 3 Aug 2025

    Breaking the Cycle of Centuries-old Violence: A decline in blood feuds in Khost province?

    Blood feuds or revenge killings are closely connected to honour and shame, as seen through tribal customs and centuries-old traditions in Afghan society. For many decades, these feuds perpetuated cycles of violence, claimed countless lives and undermined the formal justice system. However, in recent decades, they seem to be in decline, as Afghan society experiences shifts […]

  • Sharif Akram • 20 Jul 2025

    Living a Mullah’s Life (2): The evolution of Islamic knowledge among village clerics

    Over the past four decades much has been written about Afghan mullahs and madrasas. Most commentary has focused on the role they have played in disseminating militancy and jihadism in Afghanistan. This report takes a very different look. It is the second instalment of a two-part mini-series assessing the changing role of rural mullahs, focusing […]

  • Rohullah Sorush • 7 Jul 2025

    Months, Years and Thousands of Afghanis Later… Stories of Afghans battling bureaucracy

    Trying to get important documents from the state can be a maddening and expensive ordeal in Afghanistan. Many complain about the time-consuming and frustrating process of applying for a tazkira (ID card), passport, driving license, or a nikahkhat (marriage certificate). From government offices to courts to legal affairs departments, Afghans can get trapped in paperwork and corruption. If […]

  • Fabrizio Foschini • Jelena Bjelica • 27 Jun 2025

    The Fourth Year of the Opium Ban: An update from two of Afghanistan’s major poppy-growing areas

    The Islamic Emirate’s ban on opium cultivation has entered its fourth year and apart from the first harvest of opium poppies in spring 2022, when farmers were allowed to harvest their standing crop, the authorities have enforced it, with one notable exception – Badakhshan. Farmers there have been better able to avoid the ban, both […]

Publications

Dossiers Special Reports Other Publications

The Turbaned Traders: The Taliban take over the urban economy

Sharif Akram •

After the Taliban seized power in 2021, many of the movement’s fighters and supporters migrated from their rural strongholds into Afghanistan’s urban centres to assume control of the government and the cities. This marked a major shift following two decades of insurgency, when the Taliban and many of their supporters were unable to access urban […]

Reports Read more

Is maternal mortality on the rise in Afghanistan? No official data, but much cause for concern

Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team •

Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate was already among the ten highest in the world, but it has come under further pressure. The United States’ decision to entirely cut aid to Afghanistan earlier this year has led to the closure of over 400 health facilities and that is likely to have particularly affected women during the most […]

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 […]

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Deepening Discrimination: A dossier of reports about Afghan women

AAN Team •

We last published a dossier of reports about women in July 2021, just before that momentous event for Afghanistan, the collapse of the Islamic Republic and re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate. Those reports testified to how Afghan women’s efforts to overcome discrimination are nothing new. However, their struggles have only grown in magnitude as the […]

Dossiers Read more

Still Under Sanctions, Still Unrecognised: A dossier of reports on Afghanistan, international relations and aid ahead of Doha III

AAN Team •

The United Nations is due to host a third meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan in Doha, on 30 June-1 July 2024, to discuss Afghanistan. It is aimed, according to a UN spokesperson, at increasing “international engagement with Afghanistan in a more coherent, coordinated and structured manner.” The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has said […]

Dossiers Read more

The Conversation:  Authors discuss a selection of AAN’s best reports

Every month AANCast dives into some of our longer reports, to give you a flavour of our more in-depth reporting, in discussion with a range of authors. This month, we’re looking at the International Criminal Court issuing of arrest warrants for two of the leaders of Islamic Emirate for the international crime of gender persecution, […]

Other Publications Read more

The Daily Hustle: How to get a national ID card in Afghanistan if you’re a Kuchi

The Daily Hustle is our series of first-person accounts by one Afghan about one aspect of their daily life. On our website, you can find stories such as the girl who was so appalled by madrasa education, she persuaded her family to set one up for girls, the labourer and his wife taking in a […]

Other Publications Read more

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