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Beyond the Ban: Older girls finding alternative forms of education 

The closure of schools for girls beyond grade six is the most glaring example of the Emirate’s discrimination against women and girls. Without access to secondary and higher education, most teenage girls and young women see little hope for a future beyond family life. But for some, the restrictions are not absolute. Whether through their […]

1 Sep 2026 Rachel Reid • Rights and Freedoms

A Son of Jaghori: Remembering Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ishaq Fayyaz, 1930-2026

For centuries, a steady stream of Afghan students have gone to the great Shia Islamic seminaries of Iran and Iraq in search of religious learning. Few rose as high as Mohammad Ishaq Fayyaz, who died in June 2026 at the age of 96. AAN’s Rohullah Suroush and Roxanna Shapour trace Fayyaz’s journey from a village […]

5 Aug 2026 Rohullah Sorush • Roxanna Shapour • Context and Culture

What went wrong? Two AAN studies for Norway’s Afghanistan Commission

In October 2024, Norway appointed a second Afghanistan Commission to evaluate the country’s efforts in Afghanistan, this time covering the period from 2015 to 2021. As part of its review, it examined Norway’s military contribution, development assistance and its efforts to support peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, as well as the 2021 evacuation operation. As with […]

9 Jul 2026 AAN Team • External publications

Preaching Without a Party: Independent religious figures find space under the Islamic Emirate

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the space for organised religious activism in Afghanistan has narrowed sharply. Islamic parties have been suppressed or gone quiet. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), itself an Islamist movement, has worked steadily to bring religious discourse under state control. And yet, an unusual category of religious […]

9 Jul 2026 Sharif Akram • Political Landscape

Returning to Uncertainty: How Afghan returnees from Pakistan are struggling to rebuild their lives

Some six million Afghans have been forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, almost half of them in 2025, making it one of the largest return movements of any nationality in recent decades. 2.26 million people returned from Pakistan, one million in 2025 alone, amid an intensifying deportation campaign launched in September 2023 […]

24 Jun 2026 Nur Khan Himmat • Jelena Bjelica • Migration

Water, Climate and Survival in Afghanistan: A dossier of reports on the environment 

The pressures on Afghanistan’s environment are increasingly urgent as the climate crisis bites. Our last dossier of reports on this subject was published in November 2022 when Afghanistan – one of the lightest emitters of greenhouse gases and also one of the hardest hit by climate change – had no representation at the international COP27 gathering (because of the […]

3 Jun 2026 AAN Team • Dossiers

What Affordable Means in Today’s Afghanistan: Choosing what to give up and what to hold on to

What happens when a family that once enjoyed a comfortable life can no longer afford the things it once took for granted? This is the situation for many Afghan households still struggling in the wake of the economic collapse of 2021 and 2022 when many lost their jobs and yet prices continue to rise and […]

31 May 2026 Jawed Neshat • Roxanna Shapour • Economy, Development, Environment

Can Afghanistan Feed Itself? Agriculture, trade and food security under pressure

Afghanistan’s food system is under growing strain. Domestic harvests remain insufficient and uneven and trade routes have shifted repeatedly in recent years. This spring’s rainfall has been good enough for a forecast of a bumper wheat crop, but that belies the ruinous longer-term reality of the climate crisis and the more frequent droughts it is […]

24 May 2026 Mhd Assem Mayar • Economy, Development, Environment

Holding the Line in Afghanistan: Women’s health in crisis and one NGO’s response 

AAN has considered women’s health in Afghanistan from several angles in recent years, with bleak conclusions. We found provision for women living in rural areas under particular threat, with clinics closing, shortages of female health professionals and economic pressure making it difficult for families to afford transport to a clinic. In 2024, the Islamic Emirate […]

17 May 2026 Kate Clark • Fabrizio Foschini • Economy, Development, Environment

Are there lessons from Syria for Afghanistan’s new International Accountability Mechanism?

Today, we launch a new type of publication, an Expert Opinion, a short piece of analysis filed by someone from a particular academic discipline or with relevant experience who wants to respond to an AAN report. Our first expert, Vincent Ploton, here responds to a report by Ehsan Qaane on the new Independent Investigative Mechanism […]

6 May 2026 Vincent Ploton • Expert Opinions