Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Context and Culture

When a Girl Turns Up at the Door: How an Afghan custom helped one young woman refuse a forced marriage

Hamid Pakteen • Roxanna Shapour •

For women – and often not for men either – marriage is rarely a personal choice. It is usually decided by families, most often by fathers. In Panjshir province, some young women try to escape unwanted marriages by taking refuge in the home of a man they do wish to marry – a practice known as shingari. A […]

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Claimed by Gunfire: How a single shot stole an Afghan girl’s future

Hamid Pakteen • Roxanna Shapour •

In parts of southeastern Afghanistan, a boy seeking to force a girl into marriage may fire gunshots outside her home to claim her publicly as his future wife, often after the girl’s family has refused his proposal. The shots are a signal that the girl now belongs to him – regardless of her wishes or […]

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The Daily Hustle: Getting married, with 49 other couples 

Rohullah Sorush • Roxanna Shapour •

For many young Afghans, the dream of getting married and starting a family is stymied by a myriad obstacles on the road to their hoped-for nuptials. One of the main barriers is the high cost of weddings and the steep bride price that many fathers ask for in exchange for their daughter’s hand in marriage. […]

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The Daily Hustle: Eid-e Qurban, a time to reflect and be grateful

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon • Roxanna Shapour •

Today is Eid-e Qurban, also known as Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, which marks the most important religious holiday in Islam. On this day, Afghans, across the country will sacrifice cows or sheep in remembrance of the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael in submission to God’s command and of the […]

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Mother with newborn baby at the Tangi Saidan clinic run by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, in Daymirdad district of Wardak province. Photo: Elise Blanchard/AFP, 6 October 2021

The Daily Hustle: The ancient art of making surma

Sayed Asadullah Sadat • Roxanna Shapour •

In Afghanistan, surma (kohl) has been used since ancient times by both men and women to enhance the eyes, for its healing properties and to protect the wearer against the evil eye. Traditionally made by grinding stibnite rock into a fine power, the use of the black concoction to line the eyes also has a […]

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The Daily Hustle: Selling traditional Afghan clothes on Facebook

Sayed Asadullah Sadat • Roxanna Shapour •

How to support your family when you have just lost your job during hard economic times? That was the question one journalist asked himself after his newspaper laid him off during the calamitous contraction of the economy in 2021 when the amount of international money coming into Afghanistan suddenly diminished. The journalist’s response surprised even […]

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