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Widespread Violence yet Perpetrators go Unpunished: A new UN report on violence against Afghan women

Violence against women – be it murder, beatings, mutilation, child marriage, the giving away of girls in marriage to resolve disputes (baad) or other harmful practices – remains widespread throughout Afghanistan, despite the government’s efforts to criminalise such practices, the UN has found. Its new report highlights how mediation by government and traditional actors, which […]

29 May 2018 Jelena Bjelica • Thomas Ruttig • Rights and Freedoms

The Afghanistan Election Conundrum (8): Controversies over voter registration

As the Independent Election Commission (IEC) struggles to prepare for parliamentary and district council elections due to be held on 20 October 2018, one key prerequisite – voter registration – is not going well. Registration turnout, so far, has been very low, in part, due to security fears stemming from a new system aimed at […]

27 May 2018 Ali Yawar Adili • Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Uprising, ALP and Taleban in Andar: The arc of government failure  

The Taleban look to be preparing for a new onslaught on Andar district centre. The name ‘Andar’ is still full of political resonance, gained in the summer of 2012 when the Taleban were suddenly and swiftly pushed out of a large part of the district. That counter-insurgency in an insurgent stronghold was styled the ‘Andar […]

22 May 2018 Kate Clark • Fazl Rahman Muzhary • War and Peace

Thematic Dossier XIX: Political Parties in Afghanistan

The years since 2001 constitute the longest period in Afghanistan’s history during which political parties have been able to operate openly. For the first time parties are fully legal. Despite many shortcomings, they have become a reality within the polity of current-day Afghanistan. This political parties dossier compiles all AAN dispatches and reports that deal […]

18 May 2018 AAN Team • Dossiers

The State of Aid and Poverty in 2018: A new look at aid effectiveness in Afghanistan

Two new reports have found that despite improvements in some sectors, aid delivery in Afghanistan is still largely ineffective and poverty has risen. A joint Oxfam and Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) report on aid effectiveness reveals that while development aid has decreased, donor support continues to be fragmented and aid dependency remains high. Meanwhile, […]

17 May 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Jelena Bjelica • Economy, Development, Environment

Still under the IS’s Black Flag: Qari Hekmat’s ISKP island in Jawzjan after his death by drone

In April, Qari Hekmatullah, the self-proclaimed commander of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), was killed in a US airstrike. Under his command, a local affiliate of the Afghan-Pakistani Daesh affiliate, ISKP, had challenged both the government and the Taleban and established almost full control over two remote districts of Jawzjan province, Darzab and Qush […]

15 May 2018 Obaid Ali • War and Peace

Two New Reports on Afghan Civilian Casualties: Gruelling, but important reading

UNAMA and Human Rights Watch have each released blistering reports on the killing and wounding of civilians in the Afghan conflict. UNAMA presents the results of its investigation into the Afghan Air Force’s bombing of an open-air graduation ceremony at a madrassa in Dasht-e Archi in Kunduz province in April. It concludes that, even if […]

9 May 2018 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

Afghanistan’s Paradoxical Political Party System: A new AAN report

The role of political parties in Afghanistan’s highly centralised presidential system, with only limited parliamentary checks and balances, is an important yardstick by which to measure how the country has fared in its attempts to democratise in the post-Taleban era. This new AAN thematic report, in cooperation with the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), looks […]

6 May 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Special Reports

Inside and Outside the System: New AAN report on Afghanistan’s political parties published

The role of political parties in Afghanistan’s highly centralised presidential system, with only limited parliamentary checks and balances, is an important yardstick by which to measure how the country has fared in its attempts to democratise in the post-Taleban era. This new AAN thematic report, in cooperation with the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), looks […]

6 May 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 4: The evolution of the PDPA and its relations with the Soviet Union

After the leftists of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in the Saur Revolution of April 1978, the Soviet Union became Kabul’s key backer, to the extent of invading the country in 1979 to prevent local insurgencies and military rebellions toppling its new ally. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig here explores the relationship between […]

3 May 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

AAN Co-director, Thomas Ruttig on Radio France International – May 2018

AAN’s Co-director Thomas Ruttig on Radio France International discussing Helmand Peace Initiative and the on-going peace protest march.

2 May 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Podcasts

An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 3: The legacy of the Saur Revolution’s war crimes

The coup d’etat that brought the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was a watershed for Afghanistan, driving it into a conflict from which it has yet to recover and ushering in a whole new level of violence by the state against its citizens. Forced disappearances, the routine use of torture for punishment as well […]

30 Apr 2018 P. Gossman • Context and Culture

Thematic Dossier XVIII: The PDPA and the Soviet Intervention

40 years ago today, the Saur Revolution, as it was called – although it was in reality never anything more than a military coup d’etat – threw Afghanistan into upheaval and subsequently, decades of conflict. To mark the event, we have put together a dossier of AAN dispatches and papers. They include four new dispatches which […]

27 Apr 2018 AAN Team • Dossiers

An April Day that Changed Afghanistan 2: Afghans remember the ‘Saur Revolution’

It is forty years, today, since the coup d’etat which brought the leftist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to power. That event has had far-reaching consequences, plunging the country into a conflict from which it has yet to emerge and changing the course of almost every Afghan’s life. AAN has been speaking to a […]

27 Apr 2018 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 1: Four decades after the leftist takeover

Forty years ago, Afghanistan experienced its second military coup d’état within five years. In the first one, authoritarian President Muhammad Daud had seized power in 1973 without much attention abroad and even little notice in Afghanistan – Daud was a sardar (prince) and seen as just another new king, although he proclaimed a republic. It […]

25 Apr 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

28 April 2018, Frankfurt/M: AAN at The (Afghan) Poetry Project

Since their arrival in Europe, 14 to 18 year old refugees from Afghanistan and Iran have started writing poetry and working with a group of mentors around Spiegel journalist (and Afghanistan correspondent) Susanne Koelbl. The compose verses about mortal fear, foreignness and longing, allowing insight into the experience of war, becoming a refuge and meeting […]

24 Apr 2018 Thomas Ruttig • Events

Going Nationwide: The Helmand peace march initiative

Protests in Helmand calling for a ceasefire and talks between insurgents and government are about to enter their second month. The pro-peace demonstrations which began in what are often described as the Taleban’s ‘southern heartlands’, have been spreading: they can now be found in half of Afghanistan’s provinces and for now, at least, they are […]

23 Apr 2018 Ali Mohammad Sabawoon • War and Peace

AAN on panel: discussing state building in Afghanistan in a global context

With its strategic location Afghanistan has been a focus of global politics for many centuries. Despite its fragile nation-state and conflicting ethnic parties, Afghanistan has managed not to formally cede its sovereignty to a colonial power or break up along ethnic lines. How can we explain this historical development? How does the Afghan state function? […]

20 Apr 2018 Sudhansu Verma • Events

The Afghanistan Election Conundrum (7): A deficient polling centre assessment

A fundamental question ahead of any Afghan election is where polling centres are located. In the past, they have been located in ways that deliberately disenfranchised some voters. New regulations designed to prevent this are aimed at making sure locations are ‘balanced’, ie there are now strict criteria which should ensure centres are near voters, […]

16 Apr 2018 Ali Yawar Adili • Political Landscape

Afghanistan Election Conundrum (6): Another new date for elections

The Independent Election Commission has set 20 October 2018 as the new date for Afghanistan’s parliamentary and district council elections. This comes after two earlier dates were missed. The Commission has also announced that it will start to register voters on Saturday, 14 April 2018. As AAN’s Ali Yawar Adili reports, though, the later date […]

12 Apr 2018 Ali Yawar Adili • Political Landscape