Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: March 2019

Afghans recruited to fight in Syrian war struggle back home

AAN •

AP/Miami Herald and Asharq al-Awsat, 31 March 2019 AAN’s Reza Kazemi is quoted in this article about Afghan returnees from the Iranian sponsored, pro-Assad Fatemiyun brigade in Syria with some cautionary tones: Most of those who joined the Fatimiyoun Brigade were driven by hopelessness and poverty, not loyalty to Iran, said Reza Kasimi, a researcher […]

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Sudais is in his father, Baktullah's, fruit and vegetable store in Shadal Bazaar village of Achin district. Life is slowly returning to normal after government and US forces pushed ISKP out of most of the district in 2017 and 2018. Public services – education, healthcare and electricity supply – are still patchy, barely-functioning or non-existent. Photo: Andrew Quilty, 2017

One Land, Two Rules (4): Delivering public services in embattled Achin district in Nangrahar province

Rohullah Sorush • S Reza Kazemi •

Achin district in the south of Afghanistan’s key eastern province of Nangrahar has been heavily fought over by the Taleban, ISKP and government and United States forces. The delivery of public services has been hampered, helped or abolished depending on who has been in charge at any given time; ISKP banned almost all public services […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

The Making of a Refugee Part 1: A map of arriving

Thomas Ruttig •

Himal, 22 March 2019 In part 1 of a series –on Afghan refugees in Germany, the Kathmandu-based online magazine AAN research on refugees arriving in Germany in quoted.

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Man selling fish in Pul-e Surkh, Kabul. Demand rises sharply ahead of Nawruz as many engaged boys send fish to their fiancées. (Photo: Ali Sina Sorush, 19 March 2019)

Happy Nawruz: May every day be Nawruz for AAN readers

AAN Team •

AAN wishes a happy new year and joyful Nawruz to all its readers. Afghans and many others across the region will be celebrating the first day of 1398, also the first day of spring, with family visits, special food and picnics. In Kabul, some will go to the Sakhi Shrine, while many others will congregate […]

Context and Culture Read more

Interview zur Lage in Afghanistan: Thomas Ruttig, Afghanistan Analysts Network

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutschlandfunk, 21 March 2019 Listen to an interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig with the German public broadcaster about the current security situation and the peace talks in Afghanistan, on the day of the extension of the Bundeswehr mandate for Mission Resolute Support in Afghanistan (in German).

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In A First, Tehran Honors Beleaguered Afghan Community

AAN •

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 21 March 2019 After a few TV serials on Iranian TV seen as discriminatory against Afghans, with Tehran Mayor Piroz Hanachi for the first time a high-ranking Iranian official has publicly appreciated the role of Afghan migrant labourers to his city, saying that Tehran owed much of its beauty to Afghans. […]

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Is Germany reassessing its role in Afghanistan?

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutsche Welle, 20 March 2019 A very short quote from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on Germany’s offer to host a third Afghanistan conference: Without an agreement on […] crucial issues, experts say, it would be difficult for Germany to host a third Bonn conference. “We are not there yet,” Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts […]

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Life inside Kabul’s fortified green zone for foreigners: ‘don’t expect a blossoming social life’

Thomas Ruttig •

Reuters, 19 March 2019 A quote from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, on the so-called Green Zone in Kabul, besides a few euphemistic remarks by diplomats: The development of the green zone, including Nato’s military base, in the middle of a crowded city showed “sheer disrespect” for the security of local people, said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of […]

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Afghanistan: Was nach dem Krieg kommt

Thomas Ruttig •

Die Zeit, 14 March 2019 An op-ed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig for the website of a leading German weekly newspaper, discussing what impact a peace and power sharing agreement with the Taleban would have for Afghans – and also how far the current government is really an alternative (in German). This includes a podcast.

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Dr Muhammad Sharif Fayez (1944-2019), first post-Taleban Minister of Higher education and higher education reformer

AAN Obituary: Muhammad Sharif Fayez (1944-2019) – a higher education reformer, come too early or maybe too late

Michael Daxner •

With Muhammad Sharif Fayez, another member of the first post-Taleban Afghan cabinet has passed away. In this cabinet, Fayez served as Minister of Higher Education from 2001 to 2004. In 2004, he became the founding president of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), which he chaired until 2006. As president emeritus until his passing, he […]

Context and Culture Read more

Demob unhappy: Afghans worry about the return of Shia fighters from Syria’s civil war

AAN •

The Economist, 14 March 2019 AAN’s S Reza Kazemi is quoted in this article (with its unnecessarily dramatising first part of the headline) – as an “academic” – as saying: Yet Iran would struggle to mobilise the Fatemiyoun inside Afghanistan, says Said Reza Kazemi, an academic. There would also be great resistance among Afghan Shias […]

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Bette Dam: The Secret Life of Mullah Omar

AAN •

ZOMIA, February 2019 Acquaint yourself with Bette Dam’s much discussed and much attacked findings about late Taleban founder and leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, here in an extensive English summary of her book which is so far only available in Dutch.

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