Month: January 2026

Why [the Taleban Emirate’s] Development Strategy Will Miss its Aspirations

UNDP blog, 30 January 2026 In August 2025, the Emirate passed its five-year development strategy, the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS, 2025-2030). Muhammad Nassim Attahi, UNDP Afghanistan’s chief economist, look at it in a short analysis and finds its main goals – an annual export growth of 10%, attracting at least $5 billion in foreign direct […]

30 Jan 2026

As Airstrikes Loom, Hundreds of Afghan Refugees Still Stranded at U.S. Base in Qatar

Drop Site News, 28 January 2026 The news website interviewed AAN’s Thomas Ruttig for its report about the hundreds of Afghan refugees stranded at a US-run military base in Qatar, after America suspended its resettlement programme. As tensions rise in the Middle East, there are concerns that they could fall victim to the conflict between Iran and the US. The story was picked […]

28 Jan 2026

When a Girl Turns Up at the Door: How an Afghan custom helped one young woman refuse a forced marriage

Hamid Pakteen • Roxanna Shapour •

For women – and often not for men either – marriage is rarely a personal choice. It is usually decided by families, most often by fathers. In Panjshir province, some young women try to escape unwanted marriages by taking refuge in the home of a man they do wish to marry – a practice known as shingari. A […]

27 Jan 2026

From Insurgency to Government: How the Islamic Emirate polices Afghanistan

Antonio Giustozzi •

Much has been written about Afghanistan’s police force during the Islamic Republic, but so far almost nothing about policing under the Islamic Emirate. In August 2021, when the Taliban took over the Ministry of Interior and more than 500 police stations spread across the country, the Emirate’s ability to police the country became a key test […]

18 Jan 2026

What Afghanistan reveals about America’s unfinished wars

TRT World, 14 January 2026 Interesting article by Sheereena Qazi, including statements from an interview with a former SIGAR staff rendering how the SIGAR’s final report was heavily redacted and lessons learned watered down – something you probably won’t get in the US media anymore. The culture “to write in plain language” … began to […]

14 Jan 2026

What We Wrote, What You Read in 2025: Reflections on AAN coverage last year and the year to come

Kate Clark •

In 2025, AAN followed many major developments in Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate continued to consolidate its rule, implementing its ‘vice and virtue’ law and making efforts to control the narrative about its rise to power in books, films and on TV. We examined the consequences of the United States stopping all aid and the […]

14 Jan 2026

Afghan Women Spoke: A People’s Tribunal listened

Rachel Reid •

Afghan women may have been silenced in their own country, but in December 2025, they were given a very public platform to tell the world about life under the Taliban – The People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan. The tribunal took place in Europe, but Afghans were able to watch the hearings via satellite […]

9 Jan 2026

Governance and female higher education in Afghanistan

PRIO, December 2025 This new report of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, authored by old Afghan hands Arne Strand and Kristian Berg Harpviken together with (for good reasons) unnamed Afghan researchers, explores the challenges and opportunities for girls’ higher education caused by the Taleban administration’s restrictive policies and bans on secondary and university education for […]

9 Jan 2026

The US must address the National Guard shooting suspect’s CIA training

The Hill, 7 January 2026 In this opinion piece, HRW’s associate Asia director Patti Gossman points to the background of the controversial Afghan Zero Units, in one of which the Washington shooter of two National Guard members served in the past, writing “some have used the term ‘death squad‘” for them for their repeated targeting of civilians […]

7 Jan 2026

Reviewing a Unique Mystical Novel Set in 1920s Afghanistan: Shabnam, a pathway to the sun 

Shirazuddin Siddiqi •

The recently published English translation of the Bengali novel Shabnam, written by Syed Mujtaba Ali and drawing on his experiences of Kabul during the 1920s, deserves a closer look from anyone interested in Afghanistan’s history and its literary and cultural heritage. Mujtaba Ali set Shabnam in the momentous historical period of King Amanullah’s attempts at social reform and to open up his country, […]

6 Jan 2026

[Afghan] Analysts Say Islamic Emirate’s Economic Foreign Policy Falls Short

Tolonews, 6 January A rare example of a critical article getting through Taleban censorship. It follows on the Taleban’s own assessment, reported here and a first Tolo review here. Here quotes from this article: University professor Alireza Kargar said: “When we say our diplomacy is economy-focused and we’ve followed this policy for a year, we […]

6 Jan 2026