Month: April 2023

The May 2023 Doha meeting: How should the outside world deal with the Taleban?

Kate Clark •

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is due to host a two-day meeting on Afghanistan with foreign envoys, beginning tomorrow, 1 May 2023, in the capital of Qatar, Doha. The Taleban have not been invited. AAN understands from sources from invited countries that the idea for the meeting emerged from visits to Kabul in January by […]

30 Apr 2023

Evacuation and admissions since the Taliban takeover in 2021: Differential treatment of specific nationalities in the procedure

ECRE, 6 April 2023 An evaluation by the EU-wide NGO network.

26 Apr 2023

Kabul’s Mental Health Crisis Spirals Out of Control

NewLines, 25 April 2023 According to the Ministry of Public Health, in August last year, about 200,000 patients affected by mental disorders had been brought to mental health centers across Afghanistan within the preceding month. The ministry did not respond to questions from New Lines on the work carried out by the psychosocial counselors at the mental […]

25 Apr 2023

Hearts Turned Away from Music: Afghan musicians’ paths to exile

Fabrizio Foschini •

A year and a half after the Taleban takeover, music has completely disappeared from Afghan streets, TV channels, radios, cars and wedding halls. It barely survives in more personal and subdued forms and volumes – inside a house with tightly closed windows or shutters, inside headphones on one’s smartphone. The world, and Afghanistan more so, […]

24 Apr 2023

Eid al-Fitr Mubarak from AAN to All Our Readers

AAN Team •

In the Islamic tradition, Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and is celebrated during the first three days of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. For the entire month leading up to the sighting of the new moon and the end of Ramadan, Muslims have been fasting […]

21 Apr 2023

Taliban stoppen auch NGO-Schulen

Tageszeitung, 18 April 2023 Op-ed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the Taleban’s next ban: on NGO-run schools (in German).

18 Apr 2023

Comply or boycott, the choices facing aid agencies in Afghanistan

Kabul Now, 17 April 2023 The English-language affiliate of exiled Afghan online daily, Hasht-e Sobh, is reporting AAN’s recent study about dilemmata in aid delivery under the Taleban regime(s). It highlights the following findings: The AAN report highlights how the current Taliban movement is more experienced and diplomatic than before, with a polished cohort that […]

17 Apr 2023

Taliban Prove to Be Formidable Tax Collectors, Putting Squeeze on Afghans

Wall Street Journal, 16 April 2023 Interesting new figures and detail about the Taleban’s tax policy and other revenues – such as: Taxes collected from small businesses have tripled, he said. Places like bus stations, previously in the grip of criminal gangs, are now paying taxes. Revenues from royalties the mining industry pays for minerals they extract are […]

16 Apr 2023

Bans on Women Working, Then and Now: The dilemmas of delivering humanitarian aid during the first and second Islamic Emirates

Kate Clark •

Anyone who lived in Afghanistan during the first Islamic Emirate will find the current stand-off between the Taleban and NGOs – and now the United Nations – over the issue of women working familiar. There is the same clashing of principles: the Emirate’s position that women must largely be kept inside the home to avoid […]

16 Apr 2023

UNO prüft Afghanistan-Mission

Tageszeitung, 12 April 2023 In the Berlin-based daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports the decision by the Un to have an ‘operational review’ of its complete mission in Afghanistan, following a new Taleban ban on women, this time forbidding them to work for the UN, following a similar ban for NGOs.

12 Apr 2023

What’s Next for the Taliban’s Leadership Amid Rising Dissent?

USIP, 11 April 2023 Useful analysis of the internal Taleban tensions – and a plea not to overrate them and fall into new, too simplistic explanations by Andrew Watkins.

11 Apr 2023

‘Not A Problem But A Disaster’: Afghan Canal A Test For Taliban Ties In Water-Stressed Central Asia

RFE/RL, 5 April 2023 Interesting analysis of a major Taleban development project, the 285km-long Qoshtepe Irrigation Canal in Jowzjan province, “which will divert large volumes of water from the dwindling transboundary Amu Darya River” and might further stress bilateral relations with two of Afghanistan’s northern neighbours, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan

5 Apr 2023