Month: June 2023

Einst blühende Mohnlandschaften: Afghanistan bekämpft Opiumanbau

Tageszeitung, 30 June 2023 In this article by Thomas Ruttig, recent AAN research on the Taleban’s drugs policy in quoted: Der „Test für die Antidrogenpolitik der Taliban“ werde erst ab 2024 kommen, schreiben Jelena Bjelica und Fabrizio Foschini vom Thinktank Afghanistan Analysts Network. Vor allem werde die krisenhafte Wirtschaft dadurch weiter schrumpfen. 

30 Jun 2023

Daily Hustle: Running a home school for girls

Roxanna Shapour •

The Taleban made their move against education for older girls about a month after they took over Afghanistan when they ordered secondary schools for boys to re-open, but made no mention of girls. Since then, there have been a few instances of false hope, notably in March 2022 when the government reneged on its promise […]

30 Jun 2023

AAN Wishes our readers, friends and all Afghans a very happy Eid al-Adha

AAN Team •

Eid al-Adha, and the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, marks the Islam’s most important holiday. A joyful four-day festival that is an occasion to visit family and friends, eat fruits of the season and wear brand new clothes bought especially for the occasion, gifts for the children. This year, though, as cash-strapped […]

28 Jun 2023

Civilian Casualties since the Taleban Takeover: New UNAMA report shows sharp drop – but some communities still under threat

Kate Clark •

UNAMA has published its first stand-alone report on conflict-related civilian casualties since the Taleban’s capture of power on 15 August 2021. Casualties have plummeted since the takeover, but the threat remains, especially to some communities, from suicide attacks and roadside and magnetic IEDs. UNAMA has also found that suicide attacks, of which the Islamic State […]

27 Jun 2023

Leben im Dunkeln: Minenarbeit [mining work] in Afghanistan

Tageszeitung, 26 June 2023 Reportage (in (German) and magnificent photographs by Italian journalist Francesca Borri from the coal mines of Dara-ye Suf in Samangan where child labour is abundant and, since the Taleban new takeover, university graduates without perspective are toiling under unbelievably dire security conditions. Many of them, still hoping for support from the […]

26 Jun 2023

Who Are the Taliban Now?

The New York Review of Books, 22 June 2023 In Steve Coll’s review of Hassan Abbas’s book “The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After the Americans Left”, he quotes AAN’s Kate Clark from recent research as saying that “the Taliban see foreign-run organizations as “an even greater threat” (a longer quote hides behind a paywall).

23 Jun 2023

[UN-]Expertenbericht über Taliban: Ein Massengrab für Träume

Tageszeitung, 20 June 2023 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports about the UN experts (Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the UN working group against women’s discrimination) report recommending that the organisation adopts the term ‘gender apartheid’ for the Taleban’s systematic attack on women’s and girls’ rights – and about latest further Taleban measures, such as pressure […]

20 Jun 2023

Taleban Bans on Drugs: What is the Emirate’s counter-narcotics agenda?

Jelena Bjelica • Fabrizio Foschini •

Since they captured power in summer 2021, the Taleban have issued two strict bans on drugs. In April 2022, they banned the cultivation and production of opium and the use, trade and transport of all illegal narcotics. A year later, in March 2023, they issued another ban, specifically on the cultivation of cannabis and the […]

15 Jun 2023

Afghan migrants kidnapped and tortured on Iran-Turkey border

BBC, 14 Jun 2023 A hair-raising reportage about abuse of those fleeing the Taleban regime and mostly shunned by the West.

14 Jun 2023

Driving them towards the Taliban: How Australian war crimes cruelled our Afghan mission

Sydney Morning Herald, 6 June 2023 Occasional AAN author Andrew Quilty reports on his own independent investigation on Australian special forces’ crimes in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, based on cases registered but never published by the now defunct (but operating in exile) Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

6 Jun 2023

Truly Unprecedented: The Taliban Drugs Ban v2.0.

ALCIS, 6 June 2023 Another must-read report by David Mansfield: With the Taliban having exceeded expectations and reduced poppy cultivation to levels not seen since 2001, there is now a real need to understand the potential effects of the drugs ban on Afghanistan, the region, and further downstream.

6 Jun 2023

The Daily Hustle: Being a widow in Afghanistan

Roxanna Shapour •

The word most often used by Afghans to refer to widows is bisarparast (without someone to take care of you). In Afghanistan’s highly patriarchal society, where men are expected to be the breadwinners and opportunities for women to work are relatively few, being a widow is likely to be socially and economically precarious. They are often stigmatised, […]

4 Jun 2023