Month: October 2024

America Decides: But will who wins the US election make any difference to Afghanistan?

Kate Clark •

Afghanistan has barely featured in next week’s United States presidential elections except in the most minor way, as a political football kicked about by the two candidates seeking to blame the other for the debacle of the 2021 withdrawal and the Taleban’s capture of power. Even so, will who wins the 5 November election – […]

28 Oct 2024

De olho no Brics, Talibã amplia laços com a Rússia em busca de reconhecimento do regime

O Globo, 21 October 2024 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (misspelled) is quoted here in one of the leading Brazilian newspapers, on why Russia’s is interested in the Taleban’s Afghanistan and why the Taleban were interested in participating in the BRICS summit there (their participation did not materialise) and on their bilateral relations: Eu colocaria esse movimento no […]

21 Oct 2024

The Poetry of the Emirate: From insurgent war propaganda to state-sponsored PR

Sabawoon Samim •

Poetry forms a rich and popular strand of Afghan culture that can have real influence on society, and the Taleban, as insurgents, and now as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) have drawn on this. During the insurgency, poetry was an important propaganda tool used to promote jihad, mock the ‘invaders’ and venerate the martyrs. […]

20 Oct 2024

An Engaging Dilemma: The Taliban’s Afghanistan, women’s rights and international diplomacy (podcast)

The New Arab, 18 October 2024 In this podcast, AAN’s co-director Kate Clark is one of a number of experts commenting on the question how the international community should approach the Taleban: Engage or disengage? The other contributors: Zahra Nader (@ZahraYusufi), Afghan journalist and editor-in-chief of Zan Times (@ZanTimes), based in North America, and Shaharzad […]

18 Oct 2024

Search for the Kabul Torah: An inconclusive tale

Appointed Times, 15 October 2024 A story by Barnett R. Rubin that starts as follows: In November 2008 I was contacted by intermediaries of the Kabuli Jewish community in New York. They asked me to find the Torah Scroll that had been missing from the Kabul Synagogue on Chicken Street since 1997. I had heard […]

15 Oct 2024

The Daily Hustle: A young women’s journey home for the summer holidays

Rama Mirzada • Roxanna Shapour •

For decades, Afghanistan has had a huge diaspora who, if they can, travel home to visit family and keep connections to their homeland alive. Since the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate,  many Afghan women are apprehensive about returning to the country for a visit. They worry about the Emirate’s restrictions on women and how this […]

13 Oct 2024

The EU is helping Turkey forcibly deport migrants to Syria and Afghanistan

Politico, 11 October 2024 The Turkish government is using EU-funded infrastructure (€276 million between 2014 and 2020, and another €30 million since) “to reduce the number of asylum-seekers” by often rounding them up and forcibly deporting them, mainly to Syria and Afghanistan, including many facing danger in their home countries. This is the result of […]

11 Oct 2024

Abschieben nach Afghanistan?

Loyal, 11 October 2024 In an article on the website of the publication of the German Reservists’ Association. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted on the Taleban’s possible reaction to German overtures to accept back rejected asylum seekers from their country: … argumentiert Thomas Ruttig, Mitbegründer des „Afghanistan Analyst Network“ und einer der besten Kenner des […]

11 Oct 2024

Double Betrayal: Abuses against Afghan Policewomen, Past and Present

Human Rights Watch, 10 October 2024 The latest Afghanistan-related report by the US-based human rights organisationis based on 24 interviews with women who were police during the previous government. They spoke both about their experiences under the former government and since the Taliban takeover. During the former, Western-backed government, policewomen were facing the stigma attached […]

10 Oct 2024

Afghanistan in Front of the World Court? What can be expected from a legal challenge to the Emirate’s violations of women’s rights

Rachel Reid •

Afghanistan has been warned that its violations of women’s rights will trigger a referral to the United Nation’s highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – unless it changes its policies. The initiative, taken by Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands and supported by 22 other states, centres on alleged violations of the […]

3 Oct 2024

Afghan women defying the Taliban through song

Winipeg Free Press, 2 October 2024 This article in the Canadian daily referes to AAN’s translation of the Taleban’s ‘morality law.’

2 Oct 2024