Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: September 2025

Land ist offline: Taliban sperren Internet in Afghanistan

Tageszeitung, 30 September 2025 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports the almost total internet blackout imposed by the Taleban on Afghanistan. In an additional commentary, he writes (in German): However, the costs [of the blackout] are distributed very unevenly. The Taleban authorities themselves, banks, airports, anyone who can afford it – including those in the Afghan business […]

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Kabul’s wells run dry, driving children out of class and into water queues

Reuters, 30 September 2025 In a correspondent’s report from Kabul about the water access situation in Afghanistan, a recent AAN report by Mohammad Assem Mayar is quoted: The Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent Kabul-based research group, in a report this month warned the city’s groundwater could run out by 2030, with other Afghan cities also […]

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America’s Vigilantes

New York Times Magazine, 30 September 2025 A smashing five-part series by Matt Aikins about US military atrocities committed in Afghanistan, many of them by instrumentalising “proxy-force” programs. Here one scene from part 1: He told his men to release the detainee from the main gate; he and another Special Forces operator, meanwhile, slipped out […]

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Quarrelling neighbours – the Taliban and Tajikistan

BNE IntelliNews, 30 September 2025 A well-informed and comprehensive rendering of the current status of Tajik-Taleban relations by Bruce Pannier, tackling everything from terrorism/drug trade threats, Tajik electricity delivered to Afghanistan to Tajikistan’s successful opposition so far to the Taleban being invited to Shanghai Cooperation Organisaion’s meetings. He concludes: “This year has brought a change […]

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Internet plat: ‘In Afghanistan kun je niet meer ontkomen aan de surveillancestaat’

NRC, 30 September 2025 Interview in one of the leading Dutch dailies with AAN’s Rachel Reid about the Taleban’s internet blackout (in Dutch)

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Is maternal mortality on the rise in Afghanistan? No official data, but much cause for concern

Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team •

Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate was already among the ten highest in the world, but it has come under further pressure. The United States’ decision to entirely cut aid to Afghanistan earlier this year has led to the closure of over 400 health facilities and that is likely to have particularly affected women during the most […]

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Did restrictions on women workers hamper Afghanistan’s earthquake response?

al-Jazeera, 27 September 2025 Ruchi Kumar takes up an important issue: reports that male rescue workers have let women die under the rubble of the recent earthquake in eastern Afghanistan because of a ‘ban’ for males to touch women. This article paints a much more complicated and more realistic picture.

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Gender-Apartheid der Taliban jetzt auch virtuell

Tageszeitung, 21 September 2025 In the Berlin-based German daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig summarises the Taleban’s next ban: the step-by-step shut down of the internet and how it particularly affects women and the access to education (in German).

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Taliban Internet Blackout Expands Across Fourteen Provinces

Grand Pinnacle Tribune, 19 September 2025 This private global news website, reporting the Taleban’s part shut-down of the internet, quotes from AAN research on the “ripple effects” of this measure for Afghans and humanitarian organisations: “Every switch turned off reduces productivity, cuts household income, wipes out small businesses, and closes the last remaining avenues of […]

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Taliban verbannen von Frauen verfasste Bücher

ORF, 19 September 2025 In this report by Austrian public TV (in German) about the Taleban’s latest ban on books, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted on context, that according to UN and human rights groups’ report, the Taleban have become even more restrictive in the fourth year of their rule and on the humanitarian situation: […]

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Afghanistan’s Urban Water Dilemma: Why are Afghan cities running out of water?

Mhd Assem Mayar •

Water scarcity, once thought to be a problem only for Afghanistan’s driest provinces like Farah and Nimruz, is now gripping Afghan cities. Predictions that Kabul’s groundwater will be exhausted by 2030 have already made international headlines, but Kabul is not alone. In cities across the country, taps are running dry, wells are having to be […]

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The Daily Hustle: How one mother cares for her family through sickness, hunger and debt

Rama Mirzada • Roxanna Shapour •

In Afghanistan, years of conflict, economic collapse, and rising poverty have left hundreds of thousands of families struggling to survive. For those already on the brink, a single illness can be life-altering, pushing the household into crisis and making even the most basic necessities, such as bread, cooking oil, or school uniforms, unaffordable. In this […]

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