Month: October 2022

Will They, Won’t They? What do we know about the coming opium poppy season and what both farmers and the Taliban will do? 

Alcis, 31 October 2022 A look at the Taleban leadership’s “hasty decision” to ban of all drugs in the middle of the opium harvest, how it had to be mitigated, and the more seriously implemented crack-down of the often underrated ephedra plant harvest and processing. On poppy, author David Mansfield says, there are signs that […]

31 Oct 2022

Let’s Not Kid Ourselves: Afghanistan’s Taliban Regime Will Not Become More Inclusive

Lawfare (blog), 24 October 2022 In this blog entry, USIP’s Bill Byrd, also occasional AAN guest author, quotes a “recent report from the Afghanistan Analysts Network admit[ting] that the Taliban’s collection of large amounts of revenue is unlikely to translate into some kind of ‘social contract’ whereby much of the money is returned in the form […]

24 Oct 2022

Living in a Collapsed Economy (4): The desperation and guilt of giving a young daughter in marriage 

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

The collapse of the economy has led families across Afghanistan to make desperate decisions, including giving young daughters in marriage in exchange for a bride price. AAN interviewed four fathers who spoke about the pressures of debt and the emotional turmoil and guilt that surrounded the decision.

20 Oct 2022

Taliban ban women from many university subjects

BBC, 15 October 2022 The Taleban have imposed “sweeping restrictions” on which courses women can enrol in at public universities, but university professors “who supervised the entrance examination there confirmed to the BBC that boys would be allowed to choose any subject they want.” The choice for female students can vary from university to university. […]

15 Oct 2022

The Daily Hustle: One young woman’s journey to an English course in Kabul

Rama Mirzada •

For many Afghans the first year of Taleban rule was marked by uncertainty and anxiety over the country’s sudden change in fortunes. Virtually every area of daily life, from banking and shopping to travelling around the country to marriage celebrations has been affected. We wanted to find out from a variety of people how an […]

15 Oct 2022

AP photo reportage: Backbreaking work for kids in Afghan brick kilns

AP, 23 September 2022 Heartbreaking photos about child labour in Afghan brick kilns by Ebrahim Noroozi. There is only the suspicion that, despite deepened humanitarian crisis, the same kind of photos could have been shot under the previous government. Nevertheless, a must-see.

14 Oct 2022

Afghanistan-Debakel: Experte wirft früherer Bundesregierung „Schönfärberei“ vor

RND, 13 October 2022 This German media article quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in German), ahead of a key session of the German parliament’s investigation committee on the country’s part in the US-led Afghanistan mission. saying that the German government had, over many years, consciously and systematically mislead the public by sugarcoating its own ‘successes’. This […]

13 Oct 2022