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A new Afghan Shia Leader: Return to quietism versus political Islam?

A new leader is emerging in Afghanistan’s Shia community, one who so far has chosen to abstain from any presence or involvement in the religious or political affairs of the country. Ayatollah Mohammad Eshaq Fayaz is being supported by Afghan Shia – among them rather influential figures such as Second Vice President Sarwar Danish – […]

2 Nov 2014 Qayoom Suroush • Political Landscape

Elections 2014 (54): Provincial council results creaking under the weight of manipulation

The provincial council vote is finally over. It has been fully overshadowed by the drawn-out and contentious presidential election – as could be expected and has been the case in the past as well. Attention dwindled as election fatigue crept in, which meant that its separate audit and complaints processes were almost exclusively followed by […]

29 Oct 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

On the Road through Beijing (and Kathmandu): The new Afghan leadership’s attempts to engage with Asia

Compelled by widening economic and other challenges, the new Afghan government seems determined to diversify Afghanistan’s foreign relations by slowly forging stronger economic and political ties with countries in the region. For this purpose, it has at least two cards to play: the country’s geographic position as a corridor for regional trade and its natural […]

29 Oct 2014 S Reza Kazemi • Regional Relations

Security in Kunduz Worsening Further: The case of Khanabad

Kunduz has had the worst security environment of any province in the north for the past few years. And within this province there are several districts that are particularly notable for the intractable conflicts raging within them. One notable area in this regard is Khanabad district, where government forces, nominally pro-government militias, illegal armed groups […]

28 Oct 2014 Christian Bleuer • Obaid Ali • War and Peace

The New Gangs of Herat: How young Afghans turn away from their community

In the city of Herat, an increasing number of young people drop out of school, form petty gangs, become drug addicts and generally have problems with their community. Many of these youth are also connected to friends abroad with several of them migrating to Iran, Europe and Australia to escape the local community, and recently […]

24 Oct 2014 S Reza Kazemi • Context and Culture

From ‘Slavers’ to ‘Warlords’: Descriptions of Afghanistan’s Uzbeks in western writing

From the early 1800s to the present day, western writers have explored Afghanistan either in person or from a distance, their publications providing a view of Afghanistan’s governments and people to the wider audience in Europe, the United States and the west. However, this view is distorted in many ways. One noticeable case in this […]

17 Oct 2014 Christian Bleuer • Context and Culture

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (10): Bagram closing: Lawyers worried about ‘ghost detainees’ (an update)

Pakistani lawyers have told AAN they fear that when the United States closes its detention facility at Bagram at the end of the year, there may still be ‘ghost detainees’, men whose names, identities – and fate – remains unknown to the outside world. Since the earliest days of the war, the United States has […]

14 Oct 2014 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

The Start into the Better Governance Marathon: Ghani’s first days

New president Ashraf Ghani has proven himself a man intent on not losing time – after so much of it had been lost in post-electoral counting, auditing and political wrangling since April 2014. As opposed to the habits of the Karzai era, the Afghan government did not go into hibernation over the recent Eid-e Qurban […]

11 Oct 2014 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

To Syria, not Afghanistan: Central Asian jihadis ‘neglect’ their neighbour

Since the American and Northern Alliance defeat of the Taleban and their Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) allies in northern Afghanistan in late 2001, the arrival of would-be fighters from the former Soviet countries of Central Asia to Afghanistan has been a very small trickle. And yet, over the last year, the number of Central […]

8 Oct 2014 Christian Bleuer • Regional Relations

Warlords, Religious Leaders, Insurgents: Three external publications

  For the London-based Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Thomas Ruttig analysed the relationship between Islamic religion and politics in Afghanistan through the phases of internal conflict over modernisation and armed conflict, starting with the 1970s. He starts with the analysis that Afghan society, before the Soviet occupation, was religiously conservative, with liberal urban enclaves and […]

7 Oct 2014 Thomas Ruttig • External publications