Month: September 2023

Keep on Moving on the Balkan Route: No quarter for Afghan asylum seekers in Croatia and Serbia

Fabrizio Foschini •

The number of Afghan refugees moving along the Balkan Route has remained very high this summer. A large proportion of those taking the long trip to central, western and northern Europe are in their early twenties and many are under-age. From Turkey, they usually cross Greece and Bulgaria in order to reach Serbia. Once there, […]

26 Sep 2023

New UN Report Charts the Emirate’s Treatment of Detainees: Allegations of torture and ill-treatment

Kate Clark •

UNAMA has released its first report dedicated to the treatment of detainees since the Taleban takeover and alleges that the use of torture by the police and General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) is “systemic.” The report details methods of torture familiar to earlier generations of detainees – electric shocks, beating and suspension – but also […]

20 Sep 2023

Before the Taliban, Afghans lacked security, now they are losing hope

dpa, 18 September 2023 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted in this news item published by Germany’s leading news agency dpa about the changed situation in Afghanistan under the Taleban and the perspectives for the country and its people: Despite the disastrous situation, Afghanistan specialist Thomas Ruttig is not expecting a change of power any time […]

18 Sep 2023

Chinese Investments in Afghanistan: Strategic ecnomic move or incentive for the Emirate?

Thomas Ruttig •

When the West withdrew from Afghanistan, many assumed its acquisitive neighbour, China, would reap the economic benefits of the change of government in Kabul. Afghanistan has immense, but largely untouched mineral and hydrocarbon wealth, including strategically valuable metals, such as lithium. That assumption was fed in the first half of 2023 by a flurry of […]

16 Sep 2023

The Daily Hustle: Crossing the Durand Line to visit family in Pakistan

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon • Roxanna Shapour •

The story of Afghan families is often one of loved ones separated by long distances and national borders. Every year, many Afghans who have family living in neighbouring countries make the hours and sometimes days-long journey overland from Afghanistan, braving long bus rides, hours waiting to cross borders and the demands for payment by border […]

11 Sep 2023

Women’s lives under the Islamic Emirate

In a report for Scotland’s Daily Herald newspaper on 3 September 2023, Foreign Editor David Pratt, quotes AAN research on women’s lives: Education, employment and travel curtailed, barred from parks, gyms, and other public spaces, torture for those that disobey, the oppression of women in Afghanistan grows daily and amounts to “gender apartheid.” Their observations are both […]

3 Sep 2023

‘Gender apartheid’ – What is it like to live in a country at war with its own women?

Yahoo News, 3 September 2023 In this news item, the author quotes from recent AAN research and calls it ‘invaluable’ and that it has never ‘been more important’ (he incorrectly writes ‘ANN’, though): “Day by day, the walls close in”. “Suffocated”. “Without hope”. These are just some of the descriptions by Afghan women of the […]

3 Sep 2023

A Taleban Theory of State: A review of the Chief Justice’s book of jurisprudence

John Butt •

In the second of our mini-series on Taleban publications, this report examines what may be the fullest and most authoritative account yet of what the Taleban believe an Islamic state should look like. In his book, ‘Al-Emarat al-Islamiya wa Nidhamuha’ (The Islamic Emirate and its System of Governance), the Islamic Emirate’s Chief Justice, Abdul Hakim […]

3 Sep 2023