Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Context and Culture

This thematic area encompasses the wide array of subjects that illustrate Afghanistan’s rich history, arts, literature and culture, and the many ways Afghan society is changing and evolving.

In Quest of the Arghawan (and the Rhubarb)

Fabrizio Foschini •

Kabul, having been a serious city for some thousands years now, even a capital at different times, and withstood many an invasion – from the Hephtalites to the Hippies, from the Mongols to the Contractors – has a long tradition of urban pleasures. Foremost among them is that of escaping the city’s chaos and noise […]

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Jallywood follows Bollywood

Naqib Ahmad Atal •

In Jalalabad, a vibrant film scene has emerged since the fall of the Taleban. Movies are recorded on mobile phones. Illegally copied DVDs are sold for low prices. Filmmakers are requesting the government to build a cinema. And even governor Sherzai has produced songs for a Hindi movie. But one element is missing: female actors. […]

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Kandahar in Revolt: The Quran demos in the light of history

Felix Kuehn •

The sort of violent demonstrations which took place in Kandahar in the first week of April against the burning of a Qur’an in the United States, with large gatherings of people and clashes with Afghan security forces, have not been seen since the late 1950s and early 1980s. Usually, says our guest blogger, the freelance […]

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White mountains, White City

Thomas Ruttig •

On his first day in Kabul again after some time in Europe, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig finds spring scents and dust on the tongue in the Afghan capital, and the two universes – that of Afghans and that of the expat community – fully intact: one picknicking, the other one in ‘White City’ lock-down. Back to […]

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Museums and Massacres

Kate Clark •

A new exhibition at the Kabul Museum has opened with the display of some exquisitely beautiful exhibits, newly found at the archaeological dig which is preceding the development of the Mes-e Ainak copper mine in Logar. Ambassadors, generals and ministers gathered with curators and archaeologists for the opening and an announcement that a new Afghan […]

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Guest Blog: Why the Buddhas of Bamian were destroyed

Michael Semple •

It would have been possible to save the Bamian Buddhas from destruction. But it was not an important enough issue for the western powers to intervene over. And the outsiders who did consider the Buddhas important were not prepared to contemplate the kind of intervention that might have worked. The Buddhas were abandoned, argues our […]

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The Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas (2)

Thomas Ruttig •

28 February 2000: The Taleban want to destroy all non-Islamic images of human beings in Afghanistan as ‘idols’. With this decision, they threaten the rich cultural heritage of their country. International experts react with horror. A contemporary article by Thomas Ruttig. The Quran bans all displays of human images because Allah – as the God […]

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The Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas (1)

Thomas Ruttig •

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 […]

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Khalil Lula and His Friends or: Bad Dari spoken

Thomas Ruttig •

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 […]

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

Kate Clark •

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 – […]

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Guest Blog: Mining the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’

Thalia Kennedy •

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, […]

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Guest Blog: Afghanistan on stage in Germany

Kathrin Ost •

In our events column, we had announced a new theatre performance in the German town of Potsdam, not far from Berlin, dealing with Afghanistan which opened on 12 January. Now we offer the personal impressions of Kathrin Ost(*), a young and promising German actress, who attended the opening performance. What do I know about Afghanistan? […]

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