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.

The German expedition members also gave medical treatment to the local Nuristani population. Photo from: Herrlich, Land des Lichtes (1938).

The Hunt for the Holy Wheat Grail: A not so ‘botanical’ expedition in 1935

Thomas Ruttig •

AAN has just reported about an area in Central Afghanistan, the Shah Foladi in the Koh-e Baba mountain range, that was recently declared a new conservation area for its botanical diversity. This reminded AAN’s co-director Thomas Ruttig of a first ‘botanical’ expedition – 80 years ago, in 1935 – to another isolated mountainous region of […]

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Happy, Sweet Eid Days To You!

AAN Team •

With the long and hot days of Ramadan fasting over, we hope that the coming Eid Al Fitr holidays will bring some sweet time with family and friends to all of you. The Afghanistan Analysts Network wishes a peaceful Eid Al Fitr to all its friends and readers, to all Muslims and particularly to the […]

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Hamstrung by Translation: How to analyse Afghanistan in an Afghan language?

Borhan Osman •

The most efficient languages to write about Afghan politics and society ought to be the two main languages of the country, Dari and Pashto. No foreign language can capture the various concepts native to Afghanistan as intricately as native speakers’ own languages do, for example in the case of Pashtunwali customs. However, the local languages […]

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Bamyan, First Ever Cultural Capital of South Asia: A big party, but what else?

Qayoom Suroush •

Five months late and almost half-way through its crucial year, Bamyan has finally been inaugurated as the 2015 South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) cultural capital, the organisation’s first ever. Second Vice President Sarwar Danesh, Second Deputy Chief Executive Muhammad Mohaqeq and Minister of Information and Culture Bari Jahani were among the guests who […]

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Post Runners, Aerogrammes and the Big E-Mail Challenge: Scenes from 135 years of Afghan postal service

Thomas Ruttig •

Calling the pre-email postal service (hand-written letters, you remember, and postcards) “snail mail” has been appropriate for Afghanistan for most of the past century, and even before. Established in 1878, it took Afghanistan’s service half a century to become part of the international postal system. After that, it was cut off during long years of […]

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The Kabuliwala of Kolkata: Photo exhibition about a community longing for Afghanistan that once was home

Nazes Afroz •

In the suburbs of Kolkata, India, lives, in seclusion, a little known community of migrants who once came from Afghanistan – the first of them around the year of 1840. Kabuliwala they are called, and the today 5000 people have managed to preserve the way of life they brought from Paktia, Paktika and Ghazni. Inspired […]

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Happy Nawruz! A blessed year 1394 to our readers – and a few poems for the occasion

AAN Team •

Dear readers and friends, the AAN team wishes you a blessed, healthy and hopefully more peaceful Afghan year 1394. Should you be in Afghanistan (and allowed out), try and visit one of the many Nawruz fairs that are happening across the country (see a picture of a merry-go-round for children during a fair in Mazar-e Sharif […]

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Failings of Inclusivity: The Herat uprising of March 1979

Charlie Gammell •

In the spring of 1979, Afghanistan was almost in open rebellion against the government of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA); first uprisings happened around the country. One, that started today 36 years ago in Herat, succeeded in driving out the ‘Khalqi’ government and controlling the city for three days of chaotic independence in […]

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A Perfect (Snow) Storm: What can be done against avalanche damage in Afghanistan

Ikramuddin Bahram •

After an exceptional dry winter, snow finally arrived in Kabul and the northern and central provinces. However, the sheer amounts of what should have been a blessing for farmers, turned into a catastrophe for some communities living in these areas, as the snowfall triggered a series of avalanches, claiming the lives of almost 300 people. […]

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One Day in a Year: Afghan views on International Women’s Day

Naheed Esar Malikzay •

“The celebration of 8 March is a new concept, but Afghan women’s role in society has been respected for thousands of years,” President Ghani said in his speech for International Women’s Day on 5 March 2015, three days before the date. But if that is true, women’s rights activists asked after the event, why is […]

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“An attempt to wipe out history”: The destruction of the Bamian Buddha colossi in 2001

Kate Clark • Thomas Ruttig •

On 26 February 2001, the leader of the Afghan Taleban movement, Mullah Muhammad Omar, ordered from his headquarters in Kandahar that “all statues and non-Islamic shrines in the different areas of the Islamic Emirate must be broken” because they were worshipped by people of non-Islamic religious beliefs and were therefore ‘idols.’ This kind of worship, […]

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Six Days That Shook Kabul: The ‘3 Hut uprising’, first urban protest against the Soviet occupation

Thomas Ruttig •

Today 35 years ago, the first large, urban uprising against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan took place in Kabul. It was eight weeks after Soviet tanks had rolled into the country to save the regime of the PDPA, which had taken over power in a coup d’etat 20 months earlier and quickly run up against […]

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