Month: June 2024

The Fate of the Village Councils: The Emirate’s effort to institute hegemony over rural Afghanistan

Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team •

Afghanistan’s Community Development Councils (CDCs), which were established under the Islamic Republic by the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) and its successor Citizen’s Charter, have been abolished by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). Government bodies have been told to coordinate economic projects with ulema councils instead. Afghanistan, however, has a longstanding tradition of grassroots, collective, […]

27 Jun 2024

Cholera Outbreak Hits Afghanistan Amid Natural Disasters, Crumbling Health Care

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 25 June 2024 … nearly 47,000 Afghans who have contracted cholera so far this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). (…) At least 25 people have died of the disease so far in 2024 in Afghanistan, which has the highest number of cases in the world, according to a […]

25 Jun 2024

Reden mit den Taliban? “Abschiebungen nach Afghanistan wären ein Drahtseilakt”

n-tv, 21 June 2024 Interview (in German) with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the ongoing German discussion about establishing contacts with the Taleban in order to enable the country to deport criminal Afghan asylum seekers.

21 Jun 2024

Sicherheitslage in Afghanistan

ARD-Tagesschau, 19 June 2024 In this background story on the current situation in Afghanistan (video), before the backdrop of Germany’s current discussion about the resumption of deportations of Afghan criminal offenders, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted twice. He argues that the Taleban would welcome such contact as ‘a gift’, as it would boost their international […]

19 Jun 2024

The Daily Hustle: Eid-e Qurban, a time to reflect and be grateful

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon • Roxanna Shapour •

Today is Eid-e Qurban, also known as Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, which marks the most important religious holiday in Islam. On this day, Afghans, across the country will sacrifice cows or sheep in remembrance of the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael in submission to God’s command and of the […]

17 Jun 2024

1,000 days of education – equivalent to three billion learning hours – lost for Afghan girls

UNICEF, 13 June 2024 In this statement, UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, summarises the effects of the IEA’s effective ban of girls’ education beyond class 6.

13 Jun 2024

The Last Safe Spaces: Who will fund Afghanistan’s remaining shelters?

Elle, 12 June 2024 Another gripping reportage by Lynzy Billing, about Afghanistan’s remaining shelters for abuses women. It starts with this story: When the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, a Taliban member asked Razia’s father for her hand in marriage. Her family, former government workers, felt the marriage was the only way to […]

12 Jun 2024

Still Under Sanctions, Still Unrecognised: A dossier of reports on Afghanistan, international relations and aid ahead of Doha III

AAN Team •

The United Nations is due to host a third meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan in Doha, on 30 June-1 July 2024, to discuss Afghanistan. It is aimed, according to a UN spokesperson, at increasing “international engagement with Afghanistan in a more coherent, coordinated and structured manner.” The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has said […]

9 Jun 2024

»Et lille gennembrud«: Første land har fjernet Taleban fra terrorliste (“A small breakthrough”: First country has removed the Taliban from the terrorist list)

Politiken, 8 June 2024 The Danish daily quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig here: Thomas Ruttig, co-founder of the independent Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), tells Politiken that most Central Asian countries do not consider the Taliban a threat. “Regional dynamics are at play here. Paradoxically, cooperation with the Taleban regime and trade routes through Afghanistan can make […]

8 Jun 2024

Afghanistan-Experte zu Abschiebungen: “Taliban würden das propagandistisch ausschlachten”

ARD, 5 June 2024 Interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on Germany’s main public broadcaster’s prime time news programme’s website, in the context of the country’s discussions on the resumption of deportations of Afghan criminals to Taleban-run Afghanistan und talks with the Taleban to accept such deportees, following a knife attack of an Afghan man that […]

5 Jun 2024

Taliban Poets Sing Praise Of New Afghan Order

AFP, 20 May 2024 AAN’s Roxanna Shapour is quoted in this news item: Roxanna Shapour of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said that by organising events such as poetry readings, the Taliban government is attempting to “create cultural cohesion” to match their pronouncements that “Afghanistan is for all Afghans” now that foreign forces have left. “It […]

5 Jun 2024

Angriff in Mannheim löst neue Debatte über Abschiebungen aus

dpa/Süddeutsche Zeitung, 4 June 2024 In this article about the debate of deportations of Afghan criminals, following the deadly knife attack of an Afghan on anti-Islam activists in Mannheim, during which he killed a policemen, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig warns that this would be a ‘fatal signal’ to a regime which would be interested in showing […]

4 Jun 2024