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The Killing of Farkhunda (2): Mullahs, feminists and a gap in the debate

From ultra-conservative Salafis to secular-minded feminists, an astonishingly diverse range of voices have found their heroine in Farkhunda, the young woman who was lynched by a mob in Kabul on 19 March 2015. She has become the rare victim of violence to be almost unanimously called a shahid, a martyr. The consensus on her status, however, […]

29 Apr 2015 Borhan Osman • Rights and Freedoms

The Killing of Farkhunda (1): The physical environment and the social types party to her murder

40 days after the violent killing of Farkhunda, supporters gathered on Monday, 27 April 2015, to mourn and protest her death. Afghan public opinion has now reached a broad consensus over the unprecedented gravity of this murder. Yet, many questions remain as to what triggered the killing and how it was possible for such a […]

29 Apr 2015 Fabrizio Foschini • Naheed Esar Malikzay • Rights and Freedoms

Hazaras in the Crosshairs? A scrutiny of recent incidents

Eight abductions of groups of people have been reported since late February by officials, activists or media as having targeted ethnic Hazaras. The first was also the biggest: the abduction of 31 bus passengers in Zabul on 23 February 2015. Other crimes ‘against Hazaras’ have been reported from Ghazni, Farah, Daikundi and Balkh. AAN’s Qayoom […]

24 Apr 2015 Qayoom Suroush • War and Peace

First wave of IS attacks? Claim and denial over the Jalalabad bombs

The suicide attack on the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad on 18 April 2015, which killed more than 30 people and injured at least 100 others, was condemned by the Taleban and claimed by the Islamic State (IS), or at least by a Facebook site purporting to represent IS, also known as Daesh. President Ashraf Ghani also […]

22 Apr 2015 Borhan Osman • Kate Clark • War and Peace

Afghanistan (almost) has a cabinet: MPs confirm all candidate ministers

Members of parliament have endorsed all sixteen candidates put forward by Afghanistan’s national unity government. This means that, six months into its term, the country has an almost complete cabinet – only the defence minister is still missing. This is the MPs’ second such vote. The first, on 28 January 2015, saw only a third […]

18 Apr 2015 Kate Clark • Political Landscape

Four next public events with AAN participation

There are four public events in the next two weeks with AAN participation, in Copenhagen (Denmark), Heidelberg and Berlin (both Germany), Basle (Switzerland).   22 April 2015, 8pm at Heidelberg Theatre Podium discussion (in German), “Peace?! Afghanistan after the ISAF mission“ Participants: • Thomas Ruttig, Co-Director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network; • Ahmad Nasir Formuli […]

16 Apr 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Events

‘Peace-for-Power’ versus Participatory Solutions: Lessons of Tajikistan’s civil war – a book review

In a highly relevant 2013 book, Central Asia analysts Kirill Nourzhanov and Christian Bleuer (*) have looked at social relations and the political system in Tajikistan at the end of the 1990s civil war in this Central Asian neighbour of Afghanistan. Our guest author Arne C. Seifert (**) has read the book and argues that […]

13 Apr 2015 Arne C Seifert • Regional Relations

Reading in Kabul: The state of Afghan libraries

With Afghanistan’s educated class growing rapidly over the past decade while education resources remain scarce, there is an increasing need for a functioning public library system, AAN’s Qayoom Suroush argues. However, the only public library of Afghanistan’s capital – at the same time standing in for a non-existent national library – is not even close […]

9 Apr 2015 Qayoom Suroush • Economy, Development, Environment

Fire in the Pashai Hills: A two-district case study from Kapisa

The Taleban are making further headway towards Kabul. In Kapisa province, 80 kilometers northeast of the capital, they have already established an administrative system governing one of the districts, Alasai. An uprising staged against them last summer by local Jamiati commanders failed,  largely due to lack of support from government forces. At the same time, […]

6 Apr 2015 Obaid Ali • War and Peace

Post Runners, Aerogrammes and the Big E-Mail Challenge: Scenes from 135 years of Afghan postal service

Calling the pre-email postal service (hand-written letters, you remember, and postcards) “snail mail” has been appropriate for Afghanistan for most of the past century, and even before. Established in 1878, it took Afghanistan’s service half a century to become part of the international postal system. After that, it was cut off during long years of […]

29 Mar 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture