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AAN obituary: Ludwig Adamec, the Afghanistan Encyclopedian (1924-2019)

Professor Ludwig W Adamec was the author of “The Who is Who of Afghanistan” – a book every student of Afghanistan will have encountered early in her or his career. Printed in 1975, and updated several times since then, it is nothing less than one of the standard works of Afghan studies. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig […]

30 Jan 2019 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

The 2018 Election Observed (7) in Daikundi: The outstanding role of women

Like other provinces, the 2018 parliamentary election in Daikundi faced some technical, logistical and security challenges, but compared to other places these problems were limited. As a result, both the process and the outcome of the election have been largely uncontested. Women participation, both during voter registration and polling, was high: more women registered and […]

27 Jan 2019 Ehsan Qaane • Political Landscape

Afghanistan’s 2019 elections (1): The countdown to the presidential election has kicked off

Afghanistan has just concluded its candidate nomination period for the presidential election, which has been moved from the initial date, 20 April, to 20 July 2019. The election will now involve four votes at the same time: provincial elections, district council elections, parliamentary elections in Ghazni province, and the presidential poll. With this, the country […]

23 Jan 2019 Ali Yawar Adili • Political Landscape

Khost Protection Force Accused of Fresh Killings: Six men shot dead in Zurmat

There has been a fresh attack on civilians by armed men whom the victims’ family and the Paktia provincial governor’s spokesman have said were from the Khost Protection Force, an irregular militia supported by the CIA. A survivor of the attack carried out in Surkai village in Zurmat district, in Paktia province, described to AAN […]

21 Jan 2019 Kate Clark • War and Peace

The Afghan Territorial Force: Learning from the lessons of the past?

A new local defence force is being mobilised in Afghanistan. The establishment of the Afghan National Army Territorial Force was announced by President Ashraf Ghani in April 2018. Careful consideration has gone into its design, with safeguards built in to try to avoid the pitfalls associated with previous locally-recruited forces, such as the Afghan Local […]

15 Jan 2019 Kate Clark • War and Peace

The Myth of ‘Afghan Black’ (2): The cultural history of hashish consumption in Afghanistan

Hashish or chars is a fairly common substance in Afghanistan. Its use, without ever attaining the levels of mass consumption that characterise other lightly-intoxicating substances in other war-torn countries, like the chewing of qat in Yemen or Somalia, for example, has remained relatively widespread. This does not mean that it is condoned by society: hashish-users, known as […]

10 Jan 2019 Fabrizio Foschini • Jelena Bjelica • Obaid Ali • Context and Culture

The Myth of ‘Afghan Black’ (1): A cultural history of cannabis cultivation and hashish production in Afghanistan

The cannabis plant is indigenous to the region of which Afghanistan is a part. Throughout human history, almost every part of the plant has been used – its fibres to make clothes, its oil-rich seeds as a food, its leaves, flowers, and resin as medicine, and of course, as a psychoactive drug. Hashish, made from […]

7 Jan 2019 Jelena Bjelica • Fabrizio Foschini • Context and Culture

AAN’s most-read dispatches in 2018: So much war… and a little peace and justice

Here at AAN, we have been looking back at what we published in 2018, in English and Dari and Pashto. We have also been considering what you, dear readers, have been most interested in. Compiling the list of our most-read dispatches in 2018 was a sobering task, says AAN Co-Director, Kate Clark (with data from […]

1 Jan 2019 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

Unheeded Warnings (2): Ghazni city as vulnerable to Taleban as before

The Taleban may have been pushed back out of Ghazni city after their five-day siege in August, but they have continued to expand into new territory around the city. They now have full control of eight districts in Ghazni province. They control the Ghazni-Paktika highway and continue to put pressure on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. In […]

30 Dec 2018 Fazl Rahman Muzhary • War and Peace

A Tomb in Kabul: The Fate of the Last Amir of Bukhara and his country’s relations with Afghanistan

In addition to the last Amir of Bukhara’s former garden, on which we reported some days ago, there is another landmark in Kabul that reminds us of this unlucky ruler – his tomb at the Shuhada-ye Salehin cemetery. The Amir, Muhammad Alem Khan, died in Kabul in 1944 and remains buried in Afghanistan despite his […]

27 Dec 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Vladimir N Plastun • Regional Relations