Thomas Ruttig

Taliban verordnen noch mehr Scharia

Tageszeitung, 16 November 2022 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports that the Taleban leader has order the countrywide implementation of sharia-based hudud, qisas and other punishments, that at least six women rights activists are held by the Taleban and that, according to reports from Afghanistan, a young women condemned to stoning had committed ‘suicide’ under suspicious circumstances.

16 Nov 2022

Frauenrechte in Afghanistan: Welle der Festnahmen

Tageszeitung, 10 November 2022 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig reports (in German) about the latest arrests of women activists, including males, by Taleban forces at a Kabul press conference convened to announce the start of a new rights movement.

11 Nov 2022

UN in Afghanistan calls for urgent collective climate action in the country

UNAMA, 6 November 2022 Despite emitting only 0.03 per cent (0.28 tons per person) of worldwide greenhouse gases, the Afghanistan “is one of the least prepared against climate shocks [and] is ranked the sixth most affected in the world to climate-related threats. … The Afghan people stand on the precipice of devastating climate projections”, the […]

6 Nov 2022

The Taliban wants to segregate women. So it’s training female doctors.

Washington Post, 5 November 2022 This reportage gives detail on how the Taleban, based on “‘clear instructions from the top level’ to bring policies in line with the Taliban’s strict interpretation of sharia” (e.g. that female health workers should treat women, while male health workers should treat men), try to train female doctors, at several […]

5 Nov 2022

Will They, Won’t They? What do we know about the coming opium poppy season and what both farmers and the Taliban will do? 

Alcis, 31 October 2022 A look at the Taleban leadership’s “hasty decision” to ban of all drugs in the middle of the opium harvest, how it had to be mitigated, and the more seriously implemented crack-down of the often underrated ephedra plant harvest and processing. On poppy, author David Mansfield says, there are signs that […]

31 Oct 2022

Let’s Not Kid Ourselves: Afghanistan’s Taliban Regime Will Not Become More Inclusive

Lawfare (blog), 24 October 2022 In this blog entry, USIP’s Bill Byrd, also occasional AAN guest author, quotes a “recent report from the Afghanistan Analysts Network admit[ting] that the Taliban’s collection of large amounts of revenue is unlikely to translate into some kind of ‘social contract’ whereby much of the money is returned in the form […]

24 Oct 2022

Taliban ban women from many university subjects

BBC, 15 October 2022 The Taleban have imposed “sweeping restrictions” on which courses women can enrol in at public universities, but university professors “who supervised the entrance examination there confirmed to the BBC that boys would be allowed to choose any subject they want.” The choice for female students can vary from university to university. […]

15 Oct 2022

Afghanistan-Debakel: Experte wirft früherer Bundesregierung „Schönfärberei“ vor

RND, 13 October 2022 This German media article quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in German), ahead of a key session of the German parliament’s investigation committee on the country’s part in the US-led Afghanistan mission. saying that the German government had, over many years, consciously and systematically mislead the public by sugarcoating its own ‘successes’. This […]

13 Oct 2022

AP photo reportage: Backbreaking work for kids in Afghan brick kilns

AP, 23 September 2022 Heartbreaking photos about child labour in Afghan brick kilns by Ebrahim Noroozi. There is only the suspicion that, despite deepened humanitarian crisis, the same kind of photos could have been shot under the previous government. Nevertheless, a must-see.

23 Sep 2022

Afghanistan’s War Economy

Thomas Ruttig •

Maldekstra, 22 September 2022 This article was contributed by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig to a special issue of the international affairs journal Maldekstra (no 16, September 2022), published by German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, titled “Economy in War.” His contribution looks at the two categories of profiteurs from the last Afghan war, the international military-industrial complex and […]

22 Sep 2022

„Afghanistan: Das Desaster der westlichen Intervention – Was tun?“

Debatte zu Dritt, 7 September 2022 In this podcast hosted by Swiss ex-diplomat Tim Guldimann, award-winning German journalist Katrin Eigendorf and AAN’s Thomas Ruttig debate the West’s Afghanistan debacle in mid-2021 and what ld to it (in German).

7 Sep 2022

Detonation unter der Weste: Anschlag in Afghanistan

Tageszeitung, 2 September 2022 Article by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the killing, by a suicide bomber, of prominent Herato pro-Taleban cleric, Maulawi Mujib-ul-Rahman Ansari (in German).

2 Sep 2022