Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: November 2011

Traditional Loya Jirga 2: Not Sellers of the nation – but lions! (amended)

Kate Clark •

President Hamed Karzai flew in by helicopter the few kilometres from his palace to the site of the ‘Traditional Loya Jirga’. He said later in his speech that he had been impressed to see just how much Kabul had grown and developed. He arrived to give the opening speech of the jirga to the two […]

Political Landscape Read more

Innovative Jirga-ism 2 or: The rule of bending the law

Thomas Ruttig •

The 2030 jirga delegates have come into town now, and their sessions are to start today (Wednesday). Interestingly enough, it had been unclear until recently, at least to some people, how exactly the event was called they are to attend. This has repercussions to which authorities the meeting will have exactly – an issue still […]

Political Landscape Read more

Traditional Loya Jirga 1: Why the Jirga?

Kate Clark •

More than two thousand delegates have gathered in Kabul for the ‘Traditional Loya Jirga’. Business in the Afghan capital has stopped, the major east-west arteries have been blocked, check points set up all over and at least some of those living near the site itself are in lock-down. The jirga is to discuss two items: […]

Political Landscape Read more

Guest Blog: The Recovery of Afghanistan’s Regional Music

John Baily •

For some years, the Afghan music scene has been dominated by a new fast dance style which uses keyboards and other western instruments and developed in the Afghan diaspora at a time when music in Afghanistan itself was under extreme pressure. It looked like the new pop music was flourishing at the expense of the […]

Context and Culture Read more

Berlin, 23 November 2011: Boell Foundation Afghanistan conference with AAN participation

AAN • admin •

‘Zehn Jahre nach Petersberg: Wo steht Afghanistan heute?’ (Ten Years after Petersberg: Where does Afghanistan stand today?) is the title of a one-day conference of the German Heinrich Boell Foundation, part of the run-up to the international Bonn 2 conference on 5 December. AAN’s Advisory Board Chairman Francesc Vendrell and AAN’s Thomas Ruttig will be […]

Events Read more

2001 Ten Years On (2): Getting Home to Kabul

Shoaib Sharifi •

While Kabul was falling to the Northern Alliance ten years ago, a young Kabuli journalist found himself in the Taleban heartland of Kandahar trying to get home. He had to head against the tide of Taleban fighters who were all streaming southwards. Our guest blogger, Shoaib Sharifi, said that everyone feared for their lives as […]

War and Peace Read more

2001 Ten Years On (1): How the Taleban fled Kabul (amended)

Kate Clark •

It is ten years since Taleban-controlled Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance after just five weeks of US bombing. AAN’s Kate Clark, then the BBC correspondent, had been expelled from Kabul in March 2001 over reporting on the Taleban’s destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamyan and had spent eight months based in Islamabad. She […]

War and Peace Read more

Pakistan: There Is Also Good News

Ann Wilkens •

Disturbing news is coming out of Pakistan at such a pace that one item tends to crowd out the other. For example, how much of a mark have the millions of flood-stricken, homeless people in the Indus delta left on the international media scene? Even in Pakistan itself, their fate is not prominent any more. […]

Regional Relations Read more

EU censors own film on Afghan women prisoners

admin •

BBC, 10 November 2011 The EU has blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women who are in jail for so-called “moral crimes”, which it commissioned and paid for, because of “very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed”. Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch: ‘It would be reassuring to think that […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Guest Blog: ‘I have read about it…’ A day of Afghan concerns in Germany

Michael Daxner •

In the run-up to the Bonn 2 conference, the debate on Afghanistan is flaring up again in Germany. But not only in Germany, there seem to be two Afghanistans that are discussed. Our guest author Michael Daxner* has looked at one day of this debate, with a conference and radio programme on 4 November, points […]

International Engagement Read more

Guest Blog: Right and Justice Party – possible trail-blazer for an Afghan centrism (AMENDED)

Ahmad Shuja •

We have already reported about the latest addition to the Afghan political party landscape, Hezb-e Haq wa Edalat (Right and Justice Party), which had been launched in Kabul on 3 November. This is an Afghan take on the new party, by our guest blogger Ahmad Shuja* who argues that it is stepping into new territory […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

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