Month: July 2023

Taleban Perceptions of Aid: Conspiracy, corruption and miscommunication

Sabawoon Samim • Ashley Jackson •

Despite publicly claiming to welcome international aid, the Taleban government has exercised a growing influence over humanitarian operations within Afghanistan at both national and local levels. This includes bans on women working for NGOs and the United Nations and, more recently, an order to hand over all internationally funded education projects to the Ministry of […]

30 Jul 2023

Extremwetter in Afghanistan: Dauerdürre und Fluten

Tageszeitung, 26 July 2023 Op-ed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in the Berlin-based daily, looking at the facts and background of Afghanistan‘s latest flooding (in German).

26 Jul 2023

The fountain of knowledge in the heart of the desert: A library in Ghor province

Rukhshana, 23 July 2023 While Matiullah Weesa, the founder of Pen Path, an education NGO, is still in Taleban custody (he was arrested in March 2023 for criticising the Taleban’s education policy), there arv other initiatives in the country trying to keep access to knowledge open – here an example from Ghor.

23 Jul 2023

The Daily Hustle: Women take to street peddling to feed their families

Sayed Asadullah Sadat • Roxanna Shapour •

After the Taleban came to power in August 2021, the flow of international funds into the country that helped prop up the economy declined precipitously, and a significant number of people lost their jobs. Women, facing new legal restrictions on work from the Islamic Emirate, have been hit disproportionately hard by unemployment. With few options […]

22 Jul 2023

From Land-grabbing to Haircuts: The decrees and edicts of the Taleban supreme leader 

Kate Clark •

The decrees, edicts and instructions of Taleban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, from 2016, when he became leader, to May 2023, have been published. They make fascinating reading, tracing some of what the leadership felt was important to ban, make obligatory, organise or administer during the insurgency and since recapturing power. Some themes are repeated […]

15 Jul 2023

Decrees, orders and Instructions of Taleban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada

AAN Team •

(English translation and original Pashto and Dari) AAN has translated the decrees, edicts and instructions of Taleban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, from 2016, when he became leader, to May 2023, which were published in the Official Gazette on 22 May 2023 in Pashto and Dari.  You can preview the English translation online, after the list […]

15 Jul 2023

No Food For Hope: Afghanistan’s Child Malnutrition Dilemma in 2023

Fabrizio Foschini • Rohullah Sorush •

The time of the summer harvest has come, bringing with it some temporary relief to millions of Afghan households struggling to feed themselves. Standards of living, which had already worsened well before the Taleban takeover of August 2021, plunged further with their capture of power and the resulting economic collapse. The impact was most keenly […]

7 Jul 2023

Understanding the fall in Opium production in Afghanistan

ORF, 5 July 2023 In this analysis by the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation of latest reports on the Taleban’s drug ban, AAN is quoted on Pakistan’s reaction on it (the report also uses an AAN graph): As per Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), while international responses have been few, some commentators in Pakistan have welcomed the […]

5 Jul 2023

Eighty Afghan civilians may have been summarily killed by SAS, inquiry told

The Guardian, 2 July 2023 This report (following on similar – and in some cases proven – allegations of “suspicious deaths”/war crimes against Australian, Danish and other special forces) refers to ” three separate British SAS units operating in the country between 2010 and 2013″ and lawyers of victims saying there was “credible evidence of […]

3 Jul 2023