Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Reports

Reports – previously known as dispatches – are the flagship of the AAN website and our main type of publication. AAN reports are based on extensive desk and field research and provide timely and in-depth information and analysis.

Afghan women prisoners listen to their teacher in a class in the women's section of the Herat prison on August 16, 2009. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI (Photo by BEHROUZ MEHRI / AFP)

Mothers behind Bars: What about the Children?

Sari Kouvo •

Growing up with few evident opportunities and with conflict constantly lurking at the door is the reality for most Afghan children and youth. A group that gets more than its fair share of brick walls and violence are the children that grow up with their mothers in prison. AAN’s Sari Kouvo and Naheed Esar Malikzay […]

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Death of Rabbani (5): Where is the evidence?

Kate Clark •

Three weeks after the killing of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Afghan authorities appear to have found out astonishingly little about who ordered and carried out this plot. As part of a new tranche of documents and testimony from the investigation, the Afghan intelligence agency, the NDS, has released videoed testimony from Hamidullah, the go-between who introduced […]

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Nuristan in Fall

Fabrizio Foschini •

After a tough start, Nuristan province has passed the summer without further serious traumas. Still, all the pre-existing concerns about an insurgent takeover of the whole province are still there, just probably postponed to next year depending on the early onset of winter. In order to prevent this from happening, it is high time to […]

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NDS Torture: UN Report Makes Bleak Reading

Kate Clark •

UNAMA has released a major report on torture in National Directorate of Security (NDS) and police detention. For those of us who have worked on war crimes investigations post-1978, it makes desolate reading. The places of torture and many of the methods are familiar from testimony from victims of previous governments, including the Taleban’s. What […]

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Law Support Coalition rejoins Parliament but fights on, Semin Barakzai still on hunger strike

Gran Hewad •

While the Law Support Coalition (LSC) was discussing whether to end its boycott of the parliament sessions, excluded MP from Herat Semin Barakzai went on a hunger strike starting on 2 October 2011, demanding that her exclusion be reviewed and overturned. On 8 October 2011 the LSC returned to the house session to announce its […]

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The first Human Rights Film Festival in Afghanistan; a collection of inhuman true stories

Naheed Esar Malikzay •

‘There are about 33 human rights film festivals around the world, however, none of them taking place in the very Middle Eastern or Central Asian Countries which are gravely affected by human right violations’, the director of AHRF (Autumn Human Rights Film Festival) Malek Shafi’i told reporters. For the first time, from 1-7 of October, […]

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Women and Reconciliation (3): One Step Forward and a Running Match Backwards

Sari Kouvo •

This week three major reports about women’s participation in a possible peace process and their stake in the future of Afghanistan were released. The key messages of the reports are that women’s achievements are fragile, and that they are now eroding. AAN’s Sari Kouvo had a look at the Afghanistan Women’s Network’s, ActionAid’s and OXFAM’s […]

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Thinking out loud about peace, talks and tensions

Martine van Bijlert •

In the weeks after Rabbani’s death by deceit and in the days after President Karzai’s oblique announcement of a new peace strategy, Afghans are trying to make sense of a complicated and murky situation. They are thinking out loud and what they say illustrates the complexity and the confusion, the diverging view points and the […]

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Nobel Peace Prize: Not Sima, Again

Thomas Ruttig •

Congratulations to Tawakul Karman from Yemen and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia for this year’s Nobel Peace Price. The citation given by the Swedish committee that awards the prize is also to the point: it was given for the three laureats’ ‘non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights […]

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Ten Years After – or: My Former Cleaner’s Beard

Thomas Ruttig •

Ten years ago today, the first bombs were dropped over Afghanistan. Most Kabulis welcomed them and even applauded when houses of certain Taleban ‘guests’ were hit. They were really tired of living as international pariahs and under a leader who’s face was unknown and who only recommended prayer to overcome social problems, leaving the real […]

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The slow winding down of the Parliamentary crisis

Gran Hewad • Martine van Bijlert •

Over the last few days the number of MPs attending the plenary session has been slowly growing, while the Law Support Coalition has struggled to maintain coherence. Individual members are being peeled off, while even those determined to make a stand are questioning whether they should remain outside the session. A compromise seems to be […]

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Women’s Rights after 2001: Progress, but much of it on paper only

Thomas Ruttig •

Ten years ago on 7 October, the first US bombs fell on Afghanistan – the ouverture to the US-led international intervention on Afghanistan. Thomas Ruttig, an AAN Senior Analyst, interviewed AIHRC commissioner Dr Soraya Rahim Sobhrang* to get her view on the balance of this intervention, with a particular focus on women’s rights. AAN: When […]

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