Month: August 2025

The Mining Sector in Afghanistan: A picture in black and gold

Fabrizio Foschini •

The mining sector has become one of the foremost drivers of Afghanistan’s beleaguered national economy in recent years. It offers the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) revenue from taxes, royalties and fees, but also the potential to boost the country’s scant diplomatic relations. However, while waiting for foreign actors to tap the fabled underground riches […]

30 Aug 2025

Long-awaited pension payments relief for Afghan retirees

AFP, 28 August 2025 In this report about the Taleban’s decision to resume pension payments to former state employees – the result also of sustained public protests by retirees –, AAN research is cited: Public sector pensions support around 150,000 families, or almost a million people, the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) said in a 2024 […]

28 Aug 2025

China-Afghan oil deal ends amid charges of hostage-taking and contract breach

NPR, 27 August 2025 … and this while the Chinese foreign minister was visiting Kabul. A flashlight on – not always easy – Taleban-Beijing relations. Here an even more detailed version.

27 Aug 2025

Taliban ban on images of living beings enforced in 16 provinces, Amu survey finds

Amu TV, 25 August 2025 Afghan exile media platform Amu TV surveyed the countrywide implementation (or not) of the Taleban leader’s August 2024 decree to stop publishing images of living beings: According to Amu’s findings, in 16 provinces — Nuristan, Sar-e-Pul, Bamyan, Laghman, Zabul, Uruzgan, Helmand, Jawzjan, Faryab, Badghis, Farah, Daikundi, Kapisa, Panjshir, Kandahar and […]

25 Aug 2025

Für Mädchen verboten – nun auch Zugang zu religiösen Schulen

Tageszeitung, 22 August 2025 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig article for the Berlin-based daily, reflecting reports of a ban by the Taleban leadership for Afghan girls attending religious schools, after reports reached Kandahar that many of them are teaching not only religious subjects (in German).

22 Aug 2025

A year of Propagating Virtue and Preventing Vice: Enforcers and ‘enforced’ speak about the Emirate’s morality law

Kate Clark • AAN Team •

It is a year since the Islamic Emirate issued a new law to propagate virtue and prevent vice. The goal, of changing Afghans’ dress and behaviour, has been an abiding mission of the Taliban’s since they first emerged as a movement in the 1990s. The law laid out not only the actions that the Emirate […]

21 Aug 2025

Drought, dams and diplomacy: Afghanistan’s water crisis goes regional

AFP, 17 August 2025 In this article about the Taleban’s water policy, AAN research is quoted: The Taliban authorities insist there is not enough water to release more to Iran, blaming the impact of climate pressures on the whole region. They also argue long-term poor water management has meant Afghanistan has not gotten its full […]

17 Aug 2025

Afghanistan is starting its fifth year of Taliban rule. Here are 5 things to know

AP, 15 August 2025 In this overview, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted with an anecdote from the first Taleban regime which possibly can contribute to explain the Taleban’s position on the country’s humanitarian crisis: Thomas Ruttig, from the Afghanistan Analysts Network, recalled meeting a leading Taliban figure in a “completely rundown” office during the late […]

15 Aug 2025

4 Jahre Taliban-Herrschaft: Verbotene Klassenzimmer und eingeschränkte Geschäfte

Tageszeitung, 14 August 2025 In this article for the Berlin-based daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig describes the situation of Afghan working women and entrepreneurs under the Taleban: still opportunities for work, but diminished and often under precarious circumstances; high hurdles and fading hope of businesswomen who initially, after August 2021, had hopes that independent but gender-segregated […]

14 Aug 2025

Die trotzigen Frauen Afghanistans [The defiant women of Afghanistan]

dpa/Die Presse, 14 August 2025 Quotes by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig at the main German news agency, dpa, on tomorrow’s 4th anniversary of the Taleban’s return to power in Afghanistan (in German). He speaks out in favour of the resumption of development cooperation instead of just giving humanitarian aid: “Don’t let the Afghans pay for the […]

14 Aug 2025

Four Years On, UN Says Taliban Close To ‘Erasing’ Afghan Women From Public Life

Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, 14 August 2025 A useful summary of the latest UN reports about Afghanistan, by UN Women und UNAMA. With a very useful and graphically accessible overview over the “complex patchwork of more than 80 edicts, directives and decrees introduced by the Taliban has directly and systematically targeted women’s rights and […]

14 Aug 2025

Four Years Later: Afghanistan’s Fragile Balancing Act Hinges on Economic Recovery and More

Worldaffairs21c at Substack, 13 August 2025 It is time to move beyond the repetitive distribution of sewing machines and toward a more strategic restoration of livelihoods. (…) Some aid organizations have already demonstrated what’s possible. They have responsibly helped women acquire vocational skills and launch small enterprises in culturally accepted sectors such as tailoring, embroidery, livestock […]

13 Aug 2025