Month: October 2025

Global, national figures differ; Afghanistan’s exact population remains unclear

Pajhwok News Agency, 31 October 2025 An interesting combination of figures of population data used by Afghan authorities and UN agencies: Some international organizations estimated Afghanistan’s population at 42.6 million people in 2024, but the National Statistics and Information Authority (ASIA) declares these figures as inaccurate, saying that it has estimated Afghanistan’s population at 36.4 […]

31 Oct 2025

Das Ende des Taliban-Tabus

Jungle World, 30 October 2025 In a themed Afghanistan edition of the leftist German weekly, Jungle World, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at how Germany’s current right-centre government prioritises a deportation deal with the Taleban over its official position not to recognise the regime, edging closer to the latter by practical cooperation (in German). The Taleban? […]

30 Oct 2025

Afghanistan: Can its private sector step up?

BBC, 29 October 2025 In this episode of the BBC’s Business Daily, AAN’s Kate Clark is quoted.

29 Oct 2025

One Serve at a Time: A volleyball player’s journey from Kabul to Toronto 

Rohullah Sorush • Roxanna Shapour •

In Afghanistan, women face challenges in nearly every aspect of their lives. At times, those obstacles seem insurmountable, especially for women who engage in activities outside the home in fields still considered to be the exclusive domain of men. The idea of women in sports, for example, is particularly taboo. This is true not only […]

27 Oct 2025

Human Rights Watch Bericht: Keine Pressefreiheit mit den Taliban

Tageszeitung, 23 October 2025 In this article for the Berlin-based daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at HRW’s most recent reports about the Taleban’s crack-down on Afghan media and journalists.

23 Oct 2025

Taliban Tramples Media Freedom

Human Rights Watch, 23 October 2025 Media freedom has further declined throughout Afghanistan over the past four years under Taleban rule, HRW states in a new report based on interviews with Afghan journalists within the country and in exile. They have subjected the remaining news outlets to surveillance and censorship. The journalists interviewed report that […]

23 Oct 2025

A country of crises

Asia Democracy Chronicles, 20 October 2025 This article, looking at the multiple crises Afghanistan is facing under the Taleban, quotes AAN’s Kate Clark: Kate Clark, co-director of the research organization Afghan [sic] Analyst Network (AAN), explains that under the Republic, Afghanistan’s economy had relied heavily on foreign money — not just aid, but also military […]

20 Oct 2025

„Facebook down, Instagram down, TikTok down“: Internetsperre in Afghanistan

Tageszeitung, 18 October 2025 In his article for the Berlin-based German daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks back at the roller coaster ride Afghans went through after the first province-by-province, than total internet blackout in late September, the Taleban’s surprising about face, after protests from the business community and their own ranks, turning it on again, […]

18 Oct 2025

The Turbaned Traders: The Taliban take over the urban economy

Sharif Akram •

After the Taliban seized power in 2021, many of the movement’s fighters and supporters migrated from their rural strongholds into Afghanistan’s urban centres to assume control of the government and the cities. This marked a major shift following two decades of insurgency, when the Taliban and many of their supporters were unable to access urban […]

14 Oct 2025

Afghan earthquake triggers contradictory Taliban tactics on rescuing women

National Public Radio, 14 October 2025 In this article, AAN is variously quoted on the context of Taleban (anti-)women politics, including on the junking of a nursing and midwifery course for Afghan women, apparently on the orders of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada: The move highlighted how “the most ultraconservative bit of the movement […]

14 Oct 2025

When a Taliban minister invokes Tagore’s ‘Kabuliwala’: An Afghan imagines the poet’s quiet response

Scroll India, 13 October 2025 A reply by India-based Afghan journalist Muska Najibullah to Taleban foreign minister’s reference to Tagore’s novel ‘Kabuliwala’, on Afghans in Bengal, during his recent trip to India.

13 Oct 2025

Kämpfe zwischen Afghanistan und Pakistan: Gefechte nach Luftschlag in Kabul

Tageszeitung, 12 October 2025 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig summarises the latest Afghan-Pakistan border fighting and looks at the context: mutual allegations of support of terrorist groups (TTP and ISKP) and the Taleban’s India visit and upgrading of bilateral diplomatic relations (in German).

12 Oct 2025