The Guardian, 19 August 2021 Laila Haidari, the owner of Taj Begum restaurant, wrote on her social media page: “The world changed for us for ever. Taj Begum is no more.” She, along with many businesswomen, closed her restaurant after the fall of Kabul. Another popular restaurant a few hundred metres away, also run by […]
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The Economist, 13 August 2021 Over the past few days the Taliban have reached ever deeper into Kandahar; late on Thursday night, they took control of it. The fighting has been devastating. Mosques have been boarded up. People are stockpiling beans and rice. Some have abandoned their homes to move in with relatives in parts […]
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al-Monitor, 13 July 2021 Local news reports are now linking an alleged spike in border crossings to the ongoing US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and territorial gains by the Taliban in the country, prompting rumors of a looming migration wave to Turkey.“It is too early to talk about a mass influx, but there is an increase in the number of arrivals and there are unconfirmed news stories about an accumulation of people […]
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ToloNews, 12 July 2021 A revealing interview with the Taleban spokesman, including a “no” to elections and women singing 8and much more).
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SIGA, 8 July 2021 Franz J. Marty’s analysis of the recent Taleban advances in Afghanistan, an excellent addendum to AAN’s recent analyses – with plenty of complementary detail, for the Swiss Institute on Global Affairs.
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The Observer, 4 July 2021 An interesting reportage from Herat, giving first insight into Taleban behaviour in newly conquered districts, here Obe in Herat: On 14 June, the last government forces in the district were helicoptered out of a besieged outpost. The militants are confident enough of their control that last week they called a […]
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Just Security, 30 June 2021 Guest article by AIHRC chairwoman Shaharzad Akbar: While for Western governments the departure of international troops from Afghanistan represents an end to war, civilians harmed by these incidents live with the often-permanent consequences of lives lost and rights violated to this day. Without committing to concrete actions to address these […]
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Stars and Stripes, 7 June 2021 U.S. and NATO forces are expected to hand over Bagram Airfield to the Afghan military in about 20 days, or by the end of this month. Local officials have also been told to help the military find recruits to defend Bagram, he said. The base’s transition to the Afghan military […]
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New York Magazine, May 2021 While the US and other troops are leaving Afghanistan on the basis of a US-Taleban agreement that also covers contractors, at least some companies deploying contractors to the country seem to continue operating and even expecting to remain in the country, as they are “under private payroll.” For instance, the […]
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RFE/RL, 15 May 2021 Ron Synowitz’s must-read about a rapidly disappearing trade in Afghanistan: “Now, with photography digitized, the karma-e-faoree has disappeared” and also spare parts and the right type of photo paper are nowhere to be found anymore. An edict in the 1950s by Afghanistan’s king, Zahir Shah, to introduce a black-and-white photo ID […]
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Pajhwok News Agency, 10 May 2021 A table of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) shows that of 748 mining areas in different parts of Afghanistan, about 283 are controlled by the Taliban, 281 by government and the remaining by power full individuals. The ministry collected information on nationwide mining sites. A source in […]
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New York Times, 3 May 2021 “The scenes over the weekend were almost as if a multitrillion-dollar war machine had morphed into a garage sale. At the airfield’s peak in 2010 and 2011, its famous and much derided boardwalk housed snack shops, chain restaurants, a hockey rink and trinket stores. Tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO […]
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