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.

Taleban arriving in West Kabul on the first day of the Eid ceasefire. Not everyone was so delighted. Such scenes sparked a variety of emotions in onlookers,from hope to bewilderment and joy to fear. (Photo Andrew Quilty 16 June 2018)

The Eid Ceasefire: What did (some of the) people think?

AAN Team •

Coverage of the Eid ceasefire mainly focussed on the most spectacular consequence, the mass fraternisation between combatants. AAN researchers wanted to try to understand what civilians thought about the truce and what sort of Eid holiday they had enjoyed – or not. We interviewed ten Afghans, four women and six men, to try to find […]

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Fruit Sellers in Kabul before Eid. Photo: Obaid Ali 2018

Eid Mubarak from AAN to All Our Readers

AAN Team •

The AAN team would like to wish a joyful and peaceful Eid al Fitr to friends and readers, to all Muslims around the world and particularly to the people of Afghanistan. This year, as the Eid ceasefire in Afghanistan begins, there will be more space for festivities around the country. As AAN has reported before, Afghans celebrate the […]

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An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 4: The evolution of the PDPA and its relations with the Soviet Union

Thomas Ruttig •

After the leftists of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in the Saur Revolution of April 1978, the Soviet Union became Kabul’s key backer, to the extent of invading the country in 1979 to prevent local insurgencies and military rebellions toppling its new ally. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig here explores the relationship between […]

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Photographs of those who disappeared in AGSA custody, placed by family members in the Puligun (Polygon) area of Pul-e Charkhi, where mass graves have been found. Families hold a ceremony every year on 10 December to remember their lost relatives (Photo: Victims’ Families Association, with permission, 2016)

An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 3: The legacy of the Saur Revolution’s war crimes

P. Gossman •

The coup d’etat that brought the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was a watershed for Afghanistan, driving it into a conflict from which it has yet to recover and ushering in a whole new level of violence by the state against its citizens. Forced disappearances, the routine use of torture for punishment as well […]

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A day after the PDPA took power, soldiers guard the Arg where Nur Muhammad Taraki is the new president (1978). Photo: Cleric77, Wikipedia - Creative Commons 3.0

An April Day that Changed Afghanistan 2: Afghans remember the ‘Saur Revolution’

Kate Clark •

It is forty years, today, since the coup d’etat which brought the leftist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to power. That event has had far-reaching consequences, plunging the country into a conflict from which it has yet to emerge and changing the course of almost every Afghan’s life. AAN has been speaking to a […]

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Coming Home to Kabul: A Mughal art exhibition opens in the cradle of King Babur’s Empire

Jelena Bjelica • Kate Clark •

The display of 72 paintings from the mid-sixteenth century Mughal period in Kabul as well as late sixteenth and seventeenth century Indian Mughal paintings opened in the Queen’s Pavilion of Babur’s Garden in Kabul on 31 March 2018. This, as well as an earlier exhibition in Herat’s Citadel in December 2017 showcasing fifteenth century Tîmûrid […]

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Nurullah, a farmer selling spring flowers ahead of Nawruz in Kabul. Photo: Obaid Ali 2018

Happy Nawruz: Wishing peace and happiness to AAN readers

AAN Team •

After a cold winter, spring has finally arrived. By 1 Hamal 1397, in every corner of Kabul city, greenhouses are being reopened with a variety of trees and flowers on sale. AAN team would link to wish all our readers and friends a blessed and peaceful year. We wanted to brighten up your day (further) […]

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Unrelenting on Human Rights and Democracy: An obituary for Pakistan’s Asma Jahangir

Thomas Ruttig •

“‘Speaking truth to power’ is a phrase we often use,” wrote Raza Rumi, one of Pakistan’s leading liberal journalists, about Asma Jahangir, one of Pakistan’s most outstanding human rights and pro-democracy activists, who has died today in her home city of Lahore after heart failure. “She lived, practiced it till her last breath.” Pakistan’s Human […]

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Cover of Afghan Info. Issue no 79, October 2016.

“The Rédactrice Says Farewell”: A goodbye to the Afghanistan Info (1980-2017)

Thomas Ruttig •

It is already December and time to look back at the year almost just passed. Before we come to the macro issues of Afghanistan’s political, security and socio-economic situation in 2017, we want to say “thank you” to Micheline Centlivres-Demont and Pierre Centlivres, and wish a “goodbye” to the Afghanistan Info, a bulletin of news […]

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The Soul of Herat’s Citadel Comes Home: Reflections on an exhibition of miniatures

Kate Clark •

A historic exhibition of reproductions of miniatures has opened in the Citadel in Herat where many of the pictures were painted in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At that time, Herat was a centre of Islamic art and culture. In the decades that followed, as dynasties fell or moved, the miniatures were scattered, eventually ending […]

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A Son of Nangrahar Paints the Sea: Afghan artwork from Guantanamo

Kate Clark •

As an art exhibition featuring the works of eight current and former Guantanamo detainees, Yemeni, Algerian, Pakistani and Kuwaiti, is now showing in New York, we thought we would look at the paintings and sculptures of an Afghan who is still in the prison camp, who is not featured in the exhibition. Assad (known in […]

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Remembering Nancy Hatch Dupree 2: Nancy in the words of others

AAN Team •

It is 40 days since the historian, archivist and activist on behalf of Afghans, Nancy Hatch Dupree, died, aged 89. She had spent decades of her life in Afghanistan or, like many Afghans, in exile in neighbouring Pakistan. She was the author of guidebooks on Afghanistan and a publisher of books. Then, first with her […]

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