Month: November 2024

Excluded and Deprived: The educational crisis for women and girls in Afghanistan

Rawadari, 30 November 2024 This report by the diaspora-based Afghan human rights commission provides an excellent overview of the Taleban’s policies on education and the related systematic bans for women and girls. It also looks in detail at curricula changes, both in the education and the higher education sector.

30 Nov 2024

Know the Enemy, Know Yourself: Lessons learned and not learned from the US’ 20-year war in Afghanistan

Appointed Times, 29 November 2024 A must-read commentary by Barnett R. Rubin , based on remarks that he made on 12 November 2024 at a conference convened by the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida in Tampa, entitled “GNSI Policy Dialogues: Rethinking Afghanistan, Strategic Competition in the Heart of Asia.” He looks […]

29 Nov 2024

Could the Islamic Emirate be the Inspiration for a New Crime Against Humanity? Prospects for the gender apartheid campaign

Rachel Reid •

In the spring of 2023, a campaign was launched to create a new international crime of gender apartheid. Campaigners argue that the oppression of women and girls is so total and severe in Afghanistan and Iran that it is akin to the systematic and hierarchical racist oppression practised by apartheid South Africa. Their hope is […]

29 Nov 2024

Tajikistan’s Afghanistan Conundrum

Foreign Policy Research Institute, 25 November 2024 An interesting look at challenges for Tajikistan’s leadership with regard to Afghanistan. While “Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his government have always viewed the Taliban as a threat, and that position has not changed since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 [,] there is a bigger threat […]

25 Nov 2024

No Climate Change Deniers: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan goes to COP29, as an observer

Thomas Ruttig •

The 29th UN Climate Change Conference, or COP29, which was hosted by the Republic of Azerbaijan, concluded on 24 November 2024 in Baku, with a delegation from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in attendance. This was the first time the Emirate had participated in a UN-organised conference on climate, but only as an observer. The […]

24 Nov 2024

ارزیابی شبکه تحلیلگران افغانستان از تاثیرات منع کشت کوکنار [Afghanistan Analysts Network assesses the effects of the poppy ban]

Sahar TV, 3 Qaus 1403 (23 November 2024) Iranian Sahar TV aired a report using AAN’s analysis of Opium Cultivation in Badakhshan.

23 Nov 2024

“Winter Vacation”: Our Final Lesson in Sixth Grade

Hasht-e Sobh, 20 November 2024 A short but heartbreaking story about how it feels for a 6th class girl in Afghanistan at the end of the year to face the idea that school days are over for her.

20 Nov 2024

Bundesregierung bootet Afghanistans Botschafter aus [German government boots out Afghan ambassador]

Tageszeitung, 19 November 2024 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig describes how the German government, indirectly responding to the Taleban’s de-recognition of a number of IRoA-appointed ambassadors and general consuls by forcing the ambassador in Berlin and general consul in Bonn to resign (and avoid a total closure of the embassy as it happened earlier in the UK […]

19 Nov 2024

„Die Taliban sagen das eine und tun etwas anderes“ [‘The Taliban say one thing and do another’]

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), 16 November 2024 In this interview with the conservative German daily, Saad Mohseni – founder and owner of the Moby media group (which includes Tolo) – speaks about the Vice & Virtue law and media practice under the Taleban, at least at his outlet (in German): “None of these laws have […]

16 Nov 2024

Blutjustiz im Stadion: Hinrichtung in Afghanistan

Tageszeitung, 13 November 2024 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports the latest – sixth – public execution carried out under the Taleban regime since 2021, gives context about the Taleban’s reading of Sharia, hudud and qesas punishments and gives an overview over executions carried out so far (in German).

13 Nov 2024

India’s Leap of Faith in Afghanistan: Tango With the Taliban 

The Diplomat, 13 November 2024 An interesting analysis by Shanthie Mariet D’Souza of the thinking behind India’s “U-turn” in Afghanistan. It did not come “out of compulsion but a matter of strategic choice “is bound to raise concerns in the West and the United States” and is “akin to [India’s] independent and robust trade, strategic, and […]

13 Nov 2024

Opium Cultivation in Badakhshan: The new national leader, according to UNODC

Jelena Bjelica • Fabrizio Foschini •

Although the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) ban on opium cultivation continues largely to hold, the area under poppy did increase in 2024, by almost a fifth, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) annual survey. Even with that increase, however, this year’s cultivation was negligible compared to pre-ban levels. What is […]

13 Nov 2024