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What to Watch? Key issues to follow in Afghanistan in 2017

As in most years, the feeling in January 2017 is that this will be another crucial year for Afghanistan. The AAN team has identified several key themes that we think it important to follow this year. They range from crises in the Afghan government and how changes in global politics, particularly the change of administration […]

27 Jan 2017 AAN Team • Political Landscape

Afghanistan’s Incomplete New Electoral Law: Changes and controversies

Afghanistan’s new electoral law has come into force, which means that the requirement of electoral reform ahead of the next elections has – at least nominally – been met. AAN’s Ali Yawar Adili and Martine van Bijlert discuss the main features of the new law and note that the most controversial and complicated changes have been passed on […]

22 Jan 2017 Ali Yawar Adili • Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Farewell to an Afghan legend: A tribute to radio actor Mehrali Watandost

Mehrali Watandost, one of Afghanistan’s most popular actors, has died. For 23 years, he played the role of the iconic character, Nazir, in the Afghan radio drama, “New Home, New Life” which is broadcast in Pashto and Dari on the BBC. Since launching in 1994, the show has never been off the air and Watandost’s […]

18 Jan 2017 Shirazuddin Siddiqi • Context and Culture

AAN Co-director, Thomas Ruttig on Swiss Radio, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen – January 2017

AAN’s Co-director Thomas Ruttig on SRF Radio discussing about the ‘return’ of the rejected Afghan asylum seekers from Germany.

16 Jan 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Podcasts

Waiting for Release: Will Afghans cleared to leave Guantanamo get out before Trump gets in?

American president-elect Donald Trump has said that no more detainees should be transferred out of America’s war on terror detention camp in Guantanamo Bay. He takes office on 20 January 2017, which leaves the Obama administration just a few days to get men cleared for transfer out of Cuba. Among those waiting to see if […]

14 Jan 2017 Kate Clark • International Engagement

AAN Co-director, Thomas Ruttig on Swiss Radio, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen – January 2017

More than 12,000 asylum seekers from Afghanistan would have to leave Germany. AAN’s Co-director Thomas Ruttig on SRF Radio discussing about the deported Afghan refugees from Germany.

14 Jan 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Podcasts

The Battle between Law and Force: Scattered political power and deteriorating security test Herat’s dynamism

Herat – the affluent and vibrant city in western Afghanistan – is going through a ‘scattering’ of political power and a deterioration in security. While Ismail Khan, the self-styled ‘amir of the west’, is still the preeminent figure, political power is no longer concentrated only in his hands, and the new actors are behaving differently […]

11 Jan 2017 S Reza Kazemi • Political Landscape

AAN’s Kate Clark on her new report “Kafka in Cuba: New AAN report on the Afghan experience in Guantánamo” – December 2016

AAN’s Kate Clark discusses her new report “Kafka in Cuba: New AAN report on the Afghan experience in Guantánamo”.  

10 Jan 2017 Kate Clark • Podcasts

AAN at Public Seminar in Wiesbaden (Germany: 19 January 2017)

„Afghanistan: A country between world policy, ethnic conflict and religious radicalism“ (Ein Land im Spannungsfeld von (Welt-)politik, ethnischen Konflikten und religiösem Radikalismus) AAN’s Thomas Ruttig will be one of the presenters at this evening of lectures and discussion (in German), organised by Hesse State Centre for Political Education (HSCPE). Other participants: Ambassador Dr. Gunter Mulack […]

10 Jan 2017 Thomas Ruttig • Events

Assadullah Sarwari Freed from Prison: What chances of war crimes trials in Afghanistan?

Assadullah Sarwari, one of a handful of convicted Afghan war criminals, has been released from prison in Kabul. As head of the intelligence service immediately after the 1978 communist coup d’état, he was responsible for the torture and arbitrary execution of thousands of detainees. Yet, the lack of transparency and the irregular and illegal aspects […]

6 Jan 2017 Ehsan Qaane • Sari Kouvo • Rights and Freedoms

The Non-Pashtun Taleban of the North (1): A case study from Badakhshan

The Taleban movement is winning ground in the northern province of Badakhshan, a province that was never conquered when the Taleban were in power in the 1990s. Over the past two years, a new generation of largely Tajik Taleban has come to pose a serious challenge for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) : a […]

3 Jan 2017 Obaid Ali • War and Peace

AAN’s 50 Most-Read Dispatches: War, headgear, politics…

AAN researchers, individually, each follow the topics that interest us – although we also keep an eye on overall output to make sure we keep our coverage broad and our topics various. But what about you, our readers: what are you interested in? Three years after re-vamping the AAN website in 2014, we took a […]

1 Jan 2017 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

Over Half a Million Afghans Flee Conflict in 2016: A look at the IDP statistics

In 2016, more than half a million Afghans fled conflict to places of safety inside Afghanistan’s borders. Over a third of the yearly total fled in just one month – October. This mass movement was caused by heavy fighting between government and insurgent forces. At the year’s end, AAN’s Jelena Bjelica looks at the statistics of Afghanistan’s […]

28 Dec 2016 Jelena Bjelica • Migration

What Links Sarajevo to Kabul? Impressions from the western end of the Persianate world

Sarajevo and Kabul lie over 4,000 kilometres apart. One feature that connects the two cities, however, is that both were destroyed during civil wars in the last decade of the twentieth century. Earlier this year, when AAN’s co-director Thomas Ruttig visited Sarajevo and other parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia during a vacation, he came across […]

25 Dec 2016 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Caught Up in Regional Tensions? The mass return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan

More than half a million Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan since July 2016, a huge number, on a scale not seen for a decade. United Nations agencies and human rights organisations have blamed fear of harassment and oppression by the Pakistani authorities, or in the case of undocumented refugees, fear of expulsion for the […]

22 Dec 2016 Jelena Bjelica • Migration

Update on Afghanistan’s Electoral Process: Electoral deadlock broken – for now

Afghanistan’s electoral reform process, a major part of the National Unity Government’s programme, has been slow and painful with its high stakes and divided government positions. But over the last few months two significant hurdles have been taken: the new electoral law has finally been passed, and the new electoral commissions have been appointed. Although […]

18 Dec 2016 Ali Yawar Adili • Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Afghan War Criminal Zardad Freed: No protection for witnesses

One of the few Afghans convicted of war crimes has been released from a British jail and deported to Afghanistan. Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, a Hezb-e Islami commander, was convicted in 2005 of hostage-taking and torture. He preyed on people fleeing the civil war in Kabul in the mid-1990s, infamously keeping a ‘human dog’, a man […]

14 Dec 2016 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

ISKP’s Battle for Minds: What are its main messages and who do they attract?

The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) uses propaganda to carve out new space in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s already crowded jihadi landscape. It uses popular media and promotes a distinct narrative of Salafi-jihadism tailored to local preferences and focused on specific themes. In the first part of this dispatch, AAN’s Borhan Osman analyses the propaganda messages […]

12 Dec 2016 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

Reality Check: No justice for women in Ghor province

Ghor province, in western Afghanistan, has been in the headlines in the past few years. Not only was the appointment of its first female provincial governor overturned, there has also been a series of extreme cases of violence against its women. In this unsettling provincial case study, AAN’s Salima Ahmadi takes a closer look at […]

4 Dec 2016 Salima Ahmadi • Rights and Freedoms

AAN’s Thomas Ruttig at the Lower Saxony Refugees Council (3 December 2016)

“Afghanistan. Exodus. Perspectives?” Podium discussion (in German) with Bernd Mesovic (PRO ASYL), Thomas Ruttig (Co-Director of Afghanistan Analysts Networks) and young refugees from Afghanistan When: 3 December 2016, 11am Where: Office (Geschäftsstelle) of Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony Refugees Council) Röpkestraße 12 30173 Hannover Google Maps On the agenda: the current situation and developments in Afghanistan; the treatment of […]

2 Dec 2016 Thomas Ruttig • Events