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The Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas (1)

Together with the systematic exclusion of women from almost all spheres of social life, public executions in stadiums and massacres of minority groups that had resisted their takeover of certain parts of the country, it was the iconoclastic destruction of the two ancient Buddhist statues in early March 2001 which shaped the world’s image of […]

28 Feb 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Watching the government and waiting for the fighting season

While the Washington Whispers asks where the news on Afghanistan has gone (it’s not there because it is all good* in case you were wondering), and Parliament suddenly elects a speaker after weeks of intrigue, and the Special Court continues to reopen ballot boxes to see what they might find, and diplomats shake their heads […]

27 Feb 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

The Wolesi Jirga has a Speaker (amended)

After a seemingly unending process, almost unexpectedly, the Wolesi jirga has a speaker, with today’s election of Haji Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, an Uzbek as desired. AAN’s Gran Hewad and coleagues try to shed light on his background and the way he has been (s)elected. The Wolesi Jirga has finally found its speaker, one month and […]

27 Feb 2011 Gran Hewad • Political Landscape

Khalil Lula and His Friends or: Bad Dari spoken

It has been a while that I have been collecting examples of how Afghan names and toponyms are often not only misspelled but almost violated in the media. For me, this reflects an utter superficiality because many journalists do not seem to care much about whom or what they speak about (and have no clue […]

25 Feb 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Willing, able and Uzbek: the Wolesi Jirga looks for a minority speaker

Yesterday’s parliament session did not just add to an already long list of failures to solve the impasse over the speaker’s election, it additionally cast a gloomy communitarian shadow on the Lower House. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini reports about the (non)outcome of a parliamentary morning abruptly ended by an ethnically-polarized, politically-motivated strife. It had not started […]

24 Feb 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • Political Landscape

A Taleban ‘Shock and Awe’ Campaign

The recent string of attacks, seemingly aimed at hitting in the heart of Afghan cities in a spectacular and murderous manner, continues. Starting from the battle at the Kandahar central police station on 12 February, in a ten-day span four more attacks – unlike the former aimed at soft, largely civilian targets – hit population […]

22 Feb 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Even the Upper House does not listen to the President

In an unusual development in present-day Afghanistan, the Meshrano Jirga (also called Senate, the upper house of the Parliament) achieved a fully operative status. The recent introduction of the appointed senators by President Karzai, although delayed, has made it one of the few state institutions with no missing, expired or unapproved (acting) members. It even […]

22 Feb 2011 Obaid Ali • Political Landscape

The Start of Impunity: the killing of Dr Abdul Rahman

[Photo: Dr Abdul Rahman (with dark glasses) standing behind German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (left) and later Afghan Minister of Economy Amin Farhang (r.) at the Bonn conference in 2001.] Everyone has their watershed moments when alarm bells started ringing over the post-2001 political settlement in Afghanistan. For AAN’s senior analyst, Kate Clark, one pivotal […]

21 Feb 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Carla Grissman, Defender of the Kabul Museum Remembered (amended)

Carla Grissman, one of the great defenders of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage, has died in her eighties at her home in London. From 1969 she was involved in supporting the National Museum in Kabul. From its pre-war glory days as one of the best ‘small’ museums in the world(*), through to the worst of times – […]

20 Feb 2011 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

19 February: AAN Briefing Paper ‘Untangling the 2010 Vote’

A new briefing paper by Martine van Bijlert provides a backdrop to the controversies surrounding the 2010 parliamentary vote. It presents an overview of the main publicly available electoral data and maps what information has been provided, what conclusions can be drawn and what information is still missing – either because it was not shared […]

19 Feb 2011 AAN • admin • Events

Untangling Afghanistan’s 2010 Vote: Analysing the electoral data

This new briefing paper by Martine van Bijlert provides a backdrop to the controversies surrounding the 2010 parliamentary vote. It presents an overview of the main publicly available electoral data and maps what information has been provided, what conclusions can be drawn and what information is still missing – either because it was not shared […]

19 Feb 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Special Reports

Shelters in the Storm: The Controversy over Women’s Safehouses

The Afghan government accuses women’s shelters of corruption, while women’s rights advocates criticize the government for believing rumors rather than facts and succumbing to the pressure of conservatives. Whatever the outcome of this controversy, the victims are likely to be the women who have sought refuge in the shelters – most of them fleeing situations […]

18 Feb 2011 Sari Kouvo • Rights and Freedoms

Baseless Words – or: A Little Coaching for Christopher Hitchens

A reply to Chistopher Hitchens’ under-researched rant against what he calls the human rights ‘activists’ community that ‘finally notices the Taliban’s war crimes’. AAN’s senior analyst Thomas Ruttig points to some reports that show how far this is from truth. There we get it: ‘The human rights community finally notices the Taliban’s war crimes. […] […]

16 Feb 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Rights and Freedoms

Guest Blog: Mining the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’

The big Logar copper mine of Mes-e Aynak, with its Buddhist finds, epitomizes a dilemma many countries are facing: excavate your natural resources or protect your cultural heritage (and natural environment). In Afghanistan, after three decades of violent conflict, the latter is threatened to lose out in this competition. But as the country’s archeological sites, […]

16 Feb 2011 Thalia Kennedy • Context and Culture

15 February 2011: AAN Briefing Paper analysing Jihadi language in a Taleban video

Inciting the Believers to Fight: A closer look at the rhetoric of the Afghan jihad While AAN in a series of recent papers has recently been looking at features of the Taleban movement in general, now it takes a look on one of its specifics: their propaganda. Our author Florian Broschk has dissected a rare […]

15 Feb 2011 AAN • admin • Events

MPs unite and split, while Special Court raids the IEC

The Lower House of the Afghan parliament is still trying to overcome the difficult hurdle of electing its speaker. Different groups of MPs are arranging for alternative, if not conflicting, solutions. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini listened to different opinions on the best way to get out of the impasse, and discusses their pro and cons. What […]

15 Feb 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • Political Landscape

Inciting the Believers to Fight: A closer look at the rhetoric of the Afghan jihad

While AAN in a series of recent papers has recently been looking at features of the Taleban movement in general, now it takes a look on one of its specifics: their propaganda. Our author Florian Broschk has dissected a rare Dari-language propaganda video and the language used in it, a Salafi-influenced narrative of ‘oppression’ and […]

15 Feb 2011 Florian Broschk • Special Reports

A Tahrir Effect in Kabul?

Tunis, Cairo. Mass demonstrations in Sanaa, Amman and Algiers, smaller ones in Damascus, Nouakschott and Khartum. Even in Azerbaijan people started protesting after they realized that they had a Mubarak statue in the Azeri-Egyptian Friendship Park in their capital Baku. Many people have been asking: Is this the fifth wave of democratization now? And some […]

14 Feb 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Political Theatre around PRTs

President Hamed Karzai wants to close down the PRTs and some other unspecified ‘unnecessary international institutions’ the presence of which he sees as ‘major barriers against our efforts for state building'(*). This is what he said when opening the newly elected Afghan parliament on 26 January. He repeated this at his 6 February speech at […]

12 Feb 2011 Barbara Stapleton • Political Landscape

AAN Reads: The Great Talqaida Myth

Al-Qaida and the Taleban are basically the same, they are fanatical Islamist extremists who hate the West and are an imminent danger for all of us. This, at least, is what one influential school of terrorism experts says – which informs the latest US policy on Afghanistan which, on paper, concentrates on ‘disrupting’ al-Qaida while, […]

7 Feb 2011 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace