Pajhwok, 6 July 2015 Interesting article by the Kabul-based news agency, also for its historical content – and the fact that Afghanistan owned (or still owns?) a property in Mecca for Afghan pilgrims which might now – or might not – have fallen victim to the gigantic extensions works at the big Mecca mosque around […]
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Moscow Times, 6 July 2015 Review of a book, photos and interview with the author, Alexei Nikolayev, a Moscow photographer specialising in photo stories about Russia and the former Soviet republics, who went to Afghanistan to document the lives of six former Soviet soldiers who had been captured by mujahedin during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s and never returned home. A reminder to recent history, […]
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RFE/RL, 30 June 2015 Interesting article about an unknown Afghan minority: the Mosulis, a nomadic people of Iraqi origin who migrated to Iran and Afghanistan during the time of the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258 AD). Mosuli people mainly live in the southeast – Khost, Paktia and Paktika, pockets also in the capital Kabul, Kandahar and Balkh as well as across […]
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New York Times, 29 June 2015 After the appointment of Sima Joyenda, Afghanistan’s third-ever female provincial governor (after Habiba Sarobi in Bamian under Karzai and Ghani appointment Masuma Muradi for Daikundi), the debate starts: Can a woman run such a conservative province? Will the (male) commanders listen to her in security meetings? etc
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Washington Post, 28 June 2015 This is about illegal poker rounds, gangsta rap, US flags on basecaps, Heinz barbecue sauce, graffiti art and the “new freedoms.” First question: Is this all really American? Second question: What about Bagram black jail, torture and kill-or-capture? Did this also affect Afghan culture?
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Khaama, 3 June 2015 This is what Afghanistan’s new Mining and Petroleum Minister Daud Shah Saba told the Lower House of the Parliament – and would be a major shift in Afghan politics. “Saba said he will refrain from the signing of the contract with previous terms and conditions. He said there have been no progress […]
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Costs of War project, 22 May 2015 Latest figures from a broad array of sources. Elsewhere on the project’s website: the financial costs of the Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan wars, with over 4 trillion US dollars and almost another 8 trillion expected costs from interests.
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The Guardian, 1 June 2015 A mind-blowing reportage from Uruzgan’s provincial capital, where the only modern clinic for drug addicts had to close as a result of foreign aid cuts and where the only remaining alternative is a local private initiative, open only to men, expensive – and most basic: patients get shackled and are […]
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RFE/RL, 30 May 2015 Abubakar Siddique’s Ganghara blog reports that “insiders at the Arg presidential palace in Kabul have confirmed” that Afghan president Ghani “has demanded that Islamabad end its longstanding support for the Afghan Taliban… in a letter to Pakistani civilian and military leaders… [and] requested specific steps to end the Taliban’s sanctuary in […]
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The Hindu, 30 May 2015 Inspired by Tagore’s Kabuliwala, photo journalists Moska Najib and Nazes Afroz, have captured the stories of the Afghans in Kolkata in a photo exhibition ‘From Kabul to Kolkata: Of Belonging, Memories and Identity’. See also AAN’s dispatch, by Fabrizio Foschini, here. and a guest dispatch by one of the authors […]
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Bloomberg, 21 May 2015 A short but interesting look at the impact of the military withdrawal on the (dropping) exchange rate between the Afghani and the US dollar, and related concerns about the Afghan economy: “The Afghani has dropped about 5 percent this quarter, the fifth-steepest fall among 84 so-called exotic currencies tracked by Bloomberg.” […]
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Financial Times, 13 May 2015 In a long piece, the FT discusses the situation in Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan where two autoritarian, but increasingly aging presidents rule and no visible arrangements for succession have been taken. The article looks at the situation, power constellations and possible implications for the region, including Afghanistan.
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