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“Atta for President” Again? The struggle for the Afghan presidency and Jamiat’s leadership

This year’s Nawruz, the Persian New Year on 21 March 2017, also heralded the beginning of the positioning for Afghanistan’s next presidential election, although due only in two years’ time. Atta Muhammad Nur, the powerful governor of Balkh province, used the popular holiday to announce that he will run in 2019. He kept open, however, […]

10 Apr 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Harassment of Women in Afghanistan: A hidden phenomenon addressed in too many laws

Afghan women and girls often quietly endure harassment, including sexual harassment. Speaking out brings with it the possibility of their honour being called into question, and could lead to further restrictions being placed on their lives. Over the past few years, several legal initiatives have sought to address the issue of harassment. This has led […]

2 Apr 2017 Ehsan Qaane • Rights and Freedoms

The Great Game: The rise of Afghan cricket from exodus and war

Afghanistan continues to make inroads into the world of cricket. The men’s team has progressed from being a disorganised band of reckless hitters of the ball in the early 2000s to a well-balanced team. Two Afghans recently got contracts to play in the biggest cricket league in the world, the Indian Premier League, with deals […]

28 Mar 2017 Kate Clark • Sudhansu Verma • Economy, Development, Environment

How much do I need to pay? Changes to Afghanistan’s Tax Law cause chaos and confusion

What are the tax obligations of citizens, residents and investors in Afghanistan? This question is much harder to answer today than it was 18 months ago. Then, the 2009 Income Tax Law, a remarkably well-written and detailed piece of legislation, had gone a long way in establishing a path towards clarity, stability and integrity for […]

23 Mar 2017 Chantal Grut • Economy, Development, Environment

Happy Nawruz! Wishing peace and happiness to AAN readers in 1396

After a long, cold, hard winter, Nawruz is finally here. Spring itself seems a little late this year. By 1 Hamal 1395, the trees were already in full bloom in Kabul. Not this year. Still, we are sure that balmier days will soon be here and, as the gardens awaken, the fragrance of flowers will fill the air. Here at AAN, […]

21 Mar 2017 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Non-Pashtun Taleban of the North (2): Case studies of Uzbek Taleban in Faryab and Sar-e Pul

The Taleban have spent many years ‘localising’ their fight in the north, recruiting local fighters and commanders and keying in to Afghan Uzbek madrassa networks in Pakistan and the north. That drive has paid off; in the Uzbek-majority provinces of Faryab and Sar-e Pul, the Taleban have gained significant ground against the government. In this […]

17 Mar 2017 Obaid Ali • War and Peace

AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on „How safe is Afghanistan (for deportations)?“

Here are AAN co-director Thomas Ruttig’s next speaking appointments: four public events in four German cities (Mainz, Hamburg, Geesthacht near Hamburg, Berlin), all before the end of March, each time about the Afghan issue that dominates Germany’s domestic debate: whether the country is ‘safe’ enough that the German government (at the start of an election campaign […]

14 Mar 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Events

A Success Story Marred by Ghost Numbers: Afghanistan’s inconsistent education statistics

For years, the Afghan government and donors have cited the growing number of children going to school in Afghanistan as an important post-Taleban success, despite closer scrutiny showing that numbers may have been inflated. The issue came to a head when the newly appointed education minister in the National Unity Government, Asadullah Hanif Balkhi, said […]

13 Mar 2017 Ali Yawar Adili • Economy, Development, Environment

The Leahy Law and Human Rights Accountability in Afghanistan: Too little, too late or a model for the future?

The Leahy Amendment, or Leahy law, is a little known piece of United States legislation that bans US assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information that a member has committed gross violations of human rights. The Leahy law has accomplished far less than its champions hoped for, but far more […]

5 Mar 2017 Erica Gaston • International Engagement

Drone Warfare 2: Targeted Killings – a future model for Afghanistan?

Armed drones came of age, by chance, at the onset of the United State’s ‘war on terror’. Washington has used them ever since to provide close air support to troops on the ground and to carry out targeted killings. In Afghanistan, they have been relatively uncontroversial, but in other countries, their legality, effectiveness and potential […]

1 Mar 2017 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Drone warfare 1: Afghanistan, birthplace of the armed drone

Using drones to carry out targeted killings has become an integral part of the United States’ ‘war on terror’. Afghanistan in the late 1990s was the laboratory where the US developed armed drones as it searched for a way to deal with Osama bin Laden who was then ordering attacks on American targets from his […]

27 Feb 2017 Kate Clark • International Engagement

How Neglect and Remoteness Bred Insurgency and a Poppy Boom: The story of Badghis

Badghis, a far-flung province in the west of the country, was the bad surprise in the 2016 Afghanistan Opium Survey of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The poppy cultivation area in Badghis increased almost by 200 percent compared to 2015, contributing significantly to the overall countrywide increase of ten per cent. AAN’s Jelena […]

22 Feb 2017 Jelena Bjelica • Economy, Development, Environment

Thematic Dossier XIV: Afghan migration to Europe

Recent images of migrants freezing in the cold in Greece and Serbia have made disturbing world headlines. Many of those stranded are part of the wave of Afghan migration to Europe, which gained a momentum in early 2015 and has resulted in about 250,000 Afghans arriving in Europe since then. In the past two years, […]

17 Feb 2017 AAN Team • Dossiers

Afghan Exodus: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe (3) – case study Germany

Germany led in Europe in almost all categories of incoming refugees and asylum applications in 2015 and 2016, both in absolute and relative figures. Roughly six out of ten migrants who came to Europe ended up in Germany. Afghans were strongly represented in all those categories. This prompted the German government to change its 2015 […]

17 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Afghan Exodus: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe (2) – the north-south divide

The situation and number of Afghan migrants in Europe differed from country to country in 2016. The division lay, roughly, along the Alps. To the south, the number of incoming migrants, though still high, dropped but requests for asylum continued to rise in some countries. Living conditions, meanwhile, deteriorated sharply. To the north, much fewer […]

15 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Afghan Exodus: Afghan asylum seekers in Europe (1) – the changing situation

In 2016, Afghans remained the second-largest group both of migrants seeking protection in Europe and of those formally applying for asylum. Meanwhile, numbers of arrivals – both in general and in terms of Afghans – have dropped significantly, compared with the peak in late 2015, as European countries have since made getting, staying and integrating […]

13 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Hekmatyar taken off UN sanctions list: Paving the way for his return – and Hezb-e Islami’s reunification?

The United Nations has lifted the sanctions against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan. This was the next step in the implementation of the peace agreement signed by the Afghan government and Hezb in September 2016. It paves the way for the return of the former mujahedin leader, one of the […]

11 Feb 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

More Horrific Records Set: UNAMA documents another peak year of civilian casualties

More than eleven thousand civilians were killed or injured in the conflict in Afghanistan last year, setting a grisly new record – the highest number of civilian casualties recorded by UNAMA in any year since it started systematic documentation in 2009. In its 2016 annual report on the protection of civilians in the conflict, UNAMA […]

6 Feb 2017 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Rallying Around the White Flag: Taleban embrace an assertive identity

The Taleban appear to have woken up to the importance of organisational symbols and their political meaning. Compared to how little they cared about their image during the 1990s and the initial years of the insurgency, the Taleban now project an increasing consciousness of their ‘brand’. This is seen in both their media and the […]

1 Feb 2017 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

Backgrounder: Literature Review of Local, Community or Sub-State Forces in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s history has long been dominated and shaped by the interaction of militias with the state. In the post-2001 era, international actors, sometimes with Afghan state cooperation, have tried to use militias to fill perceived gaps in security. Since 2002, a range of foreign-backed local, hybrid or non-state security forces (LHSFs) have emerged. They include […]

31 Jan 2017 Kate Clark • Erica Gaston • Special Reports