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The Unity Government’s First Six Months: Where is the governance?

After six months of Afghan Unity Government – what has been achieved? President Ghani, some say, has been ruling with a ‘two-man government’ (him and Hanif Atmar, head of the National Security Council), leading many to feel left out. ‘Strategic silence’ has become a somewhat mocking term for Ghani’s style of government – or is he […]

26 Mar 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Finally Towards a Complete Afghan Cabinet? The next 16 minister nominees and their bios (amended)

Six months after the inauguration of the National Unity Government and two months after the last attempt to introduce cabinet members to the parliament, there is now a new list of nominees. It contains 16 names for almost all remaining cabinet positions. AAN’s Christine Roehrs, Qayoom Suroush, Naheed Esar, Ehsan Qaane and Obaid Ali have gathered […]

24 Mar 2015 AAN Team • Political Landscape

The Kabuliwala of Kolkata: Photo exhibition about a community longing for Afghanistan that once was home

In the suburbs of Kolkata, India, lives, in seclusion, a little known community of migrants who once came from Afghanistan – the first of them around the year of 1840. Kabuliwala they are called, and the today 5000 people have managed to preserve the way of life they brought from Paktia, Paktika and Ghazni. Inspired […]

22 Mar 2015 Nazes Afroz • Context and Culture

Happy Nawruz! A blessed year 1394 to our readers – and a few poems for the occasion

Dear readers and friends, the AAN team wishes you a blessed, healthy and hopefully more peaceful Afghan year 1394. Should you be in Afghanistan (and allowed out), try and visit one of the many Nawruz fairs that are happening across the country (see a picture of a merry-go-round for children during a fair in Mazar-e Sharif […]

21 Mar 2015 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Talks with the Taleban, Again: This time for real?

Over the past weeks, Kabul buzzed with rumours that talks with the Taleban would begin soon, specifically, in the first week of March. That particular week is now past and nothing has happened. But this does not mean that rumours were completely false or that no movement is being made towards new talks with the […]

17 Mar 2015 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

19 March 2015, Basle: OPIUM – an exhibition

OPIUM – that’s the title of an exhibition that opens on 15 March 2015 in the Museum der Kulturen Basel (MKB; Basle Museum of Cultures) in Switzerland. It is curated by Doris Buddenberg, former country director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Kabul and member of the Advisory Board of the Afghanistan […]

15 Mar 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Events

Failings of Inclusivity: The Herat uprising of March 1979

In the spring of 1979, Afghanistan was almost in open rebellion against the government of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA); first uprisings happened around the country. One, that started today 36 years ago in Herat, succeeded in driving out the ‘Khalqi’ government and controlling the city for three days of chaotic independence in […]

15 Mar 2015 Charlie Gammell • Context and Culture

A Perfect (Snow) Storm: What can be done against avalanche damage in Afghanistan

After an exceptional dry winter, snow finally arrived in Kabul and the northern and central provinces. However, the sheer amounts of what should have been a blessing for farmers, turned into a catastrophe for some communities living in these areas, as the snowfall triggered a series of avalanches, claiming the lives of almost 300 people. […]

10 Mar 2015 Ikramuddin Bahram • Context and Culture

The Refugee Dilemma: Afghans in Pakistan between expulsion and failing aid schemes

Nearly 52,000 Afghans living in Pakistan have, within the past ten weeks, packed their belongings and crossed the border back into Afghanistan – more than twice as many as in the whole 12 months of 2014. This started after an attack of Pakistani Taleban on a public army school in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on […]

9 Mar 2015 Christine Roehrs • Migration

One Day in a Year: Afghan views on International Women’s Day

“The celebration of 8 March is a new concept, but Afghan women’s role in society has been respected for thousands of years,” President Ghani said in his speech for International Women’s Day on 5 March 2015, three days before the date. But if that is true, women’s rights activists asked after the event, why is […]

8 Mar 2015 Naheed Esar Malikzay • Context and Culture