Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: February 2025

Migrating Poppy Cultivation: Afghan poppy farmers in Balochistan

Jelena Bjelica • Nur Khan Himmat •

After the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) banned opium poppy cultivation in April 2022, there was a movement of some farmers from southern Afghanistan into neighbouring regions of Pakistan to grow poppy there. The same migration to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces followed the first Taliban ban on opium in 2000-01. AAN’s Jelena Bjelica, together […]

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Afghanistan Widows: The Silent Struggle of Women-Headed Households

Wilson Center blog, 19 February 2025 This article written by Canadian Red Cross authors compiles information on the situation of Afghan widows under the Taleban’s second regime, drawing from various sources, including reporting by the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

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US-China Standoff on Who Runs the Afghanistan File at UN Signals Greater Tensions Ahead 

Just Security, 14 February 2025 A diplomatic row is underway between the US and Chinaiover who should act as Security Council “penholder” for resolutions on Afghanistan and “has escalated in recent weeks since the Trump administration took over.” In 2024, Japan took on the role (having held it jointly with the United Arab Emirates in […]

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Afghanistan: IS-Dschihadisten fordern Taliban heraus

Deutsche Welle, 17 February 2025 Before the backdrop of the two latest IS-claimed suicide attacks in Kunduz and Kabul, this article on the website of Germany’s international broadcaster looks at the activity of ISKP and it potential as a threat to the Taleban regime. Among others, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted here (original in German): […]

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The Little-Known Story of Afghanistan’s Last Jew [a woman]

NewLines Magazine, 8 March 2024 The heartbreaking story of Tova Moradi – from Moradkhana in Kabul –, “born to a modest and well-respected Jewish family”, her father “an observant Jew who sold secondhand clothes”, married off to (or even “abducted”) by an Afghan Muslim family but secretly holding on to her faith and even passing […]

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Global isolation of Taliban gradually disappearing with more countries willing to establish ties with Afghanistan

India Tomorrow, 16 February 2025 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted here, indirectly, and not clear from where exactly (also correctly, if put briefly, apart from: the rapprochement has already happened to a large extent): For the Taliban, rapprochement with their neighbours would be a major victory, according to Thomas Ruttig, co-founder of the independent think […]

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The Daily Hustle: A home school for girls is shut down 

Hamid Pakteen • Roxanna Shapour •

 Today’s Daily Hustle features a young woman who we last heard from in June 2023 when she was running a home school for girls in her village. Now, a year and half later, she has been ordered to close it. Even before the fall of the Islamic Republic, many Afghan girls had no access to education – whether […]

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Herrschaft der Taliban: Afghanistan ohne Hoffnung

ARD-Tagesschau, 15 August 2025 In this article that looks at the general situation in Afghanistan, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted extensively: The effects of this decision [by Trump to dismantle USAID and stop many aid programmes worldwide] are dramatic, says Afghanistan expert Thomas Ruttig. The co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network (…) confirms that local […]

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Men wait to receive cash being distributed as an aid by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Pul-e Alam, the provincial capital of Logar province, Afghanistan, on 7 January 2024. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP

‘Stop Work!’ Aid and the Afghan economy after the halt to US aid

Kate Clark •

United States President Donald Trump’s executive order halting all US aid is reverberating through Afghanistan. Dozens of NGOs that depend on US funding are reported to have already closed. United Nations agencies are scrutinising their funding to see what it means for programmes and partners and whether they can apply for a waiver for lifesaving […]

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Afghanistan: What the US aid freeze means for the country

ACAPS, 7 February 2025 This ACAPS Briefing note provides an excellent summary of what the Trump administration has decided on dismantling USAID and halting development aid – and what that means for Afghanistan: Here the organisation’s summary for the second part: The US is a major humanitarian aid donor; in 2024, according to OCHA’s financial […]

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Taliban suspends the country’s only women’s radio station

Monocle Radio, 5 February 2025 AAN senior analyst Kate Clark reviewed the news for the digital radio station, Monocle Radio, on 5 February 2025: Trump eyes Gaza and Putin relaunches Soviet-era song contest We unpack the latest following Donald Trump’s meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu and ask how seriously we can take the former’s bold claims […]

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Taliban’s ban on door-to-door polio vaccinations linked to surge in cases: AAN

Amu TV, 2 February 2025 The exile Afghan news platform briefly reports AAN’s latest publication on the current state of polio vaccination in Afghanistan, also highlighting that parents stated in interviews that the Emirate’s “new vaccination approach—limited to public gathering places—has made it harder to ensure all children receive the vaccine.”

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