Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Themed Reports

Themed reports are grounded in in-depth research, deal with complex subjects and have a long shelf-life. They are presented as graphically-designed PDFs with the aim of making them easier and more enjoyable to read.

Pushed to the Limits: The struggle to survive deepening poverty in Afghanistan

Gulhan Durzai •

Much has been written about the Afghan economy since the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate in 2021: the data show a calamitous economic contraction, a fragile recovery where per capita GDP is actually falling, a labour market struggling to provide jobs and livelihoods, women and children taking on home-based work for a pittance, a large number […]

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Inside Afghanistan’s Unequal Economic Recovery: How households have fared since 2021

Martine van Bijlert • AAN Team •

Since the crash following the collapse of the Republic in August 2021, Afghanistan’s economy has witnessed a modest recovery, although many households have not. In a new longitudinal study, AAN has followed a number of families across Afghanistan and over time, to better understand how the country’s economic trajectory has played out for individual households. When we first […]

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Preaching Without a Party: Independent religious figures find space under the Islamic Emirate

Sharif Akram •

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the space for organised religious activism in Afghanistan has narrowed sharply. Islamic parties have been suppressed or gone quiet. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), itself an Islamist movement, has worked steadily to bring religious discourse under state control. And yet, an unusual category of religious […]

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Bridging the Divide? Radio learning and girls’ education in rural Afghanistan

Sharif Akram •

When classrooms fell silent for older Afghan girls in 2021, millions were cut off from formal schooling, deepening long-standing inequalities between girls and boys. Yet learning did not stop – it adapted. Across the country, alternative avenues have emerged to try to help fill the gap. Among them, radio-based education has taken on particular significance, […]

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Pollution in Afghanistan: Air, water, waste and noise under weak governance

Mhd Assem Mayar •

Kabul’s winters bring a suffocating haze, as residents burn coal, wood and even plastic to heat their homes and use outdated vehicles, releasing toxic fumes into the city’s dry air. However,  perhaps surprisingly, the worst air quality in Afghanistan is found not in the capital, but in the southwest and north, where dust storms, made worse […]

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From Insurgency to Government: How the Islamic Emirate polices Afghanistan

Antonio Giustozzi •

Much has been written about Afghanistan’s police force during the Islamic Republic, but so far almost nothing about policing under the Islamic Emirate. In August 2021, when the Taliban took over the Ministry of Interior and more than 500 police stations spread across the country, the Emirate’s ability to police the country became a key test […]

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Law, Control, Fear – and some Defiance: Citizens and enforcers talk about the ‘promotion of virtue and prevention of vice’

Kate Clark • AAN Team •

It has been more than a year since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan introduced a new vice and virtue law. This law lays out what behaviour and actions the Islamic Emirate deems obligatory or forbidden for Afghan men and women. It gives its enforcers wide-ranging powers to both police and punish ‘wrongdoers,’ who have no […]

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Who Dares, Kills? Alleged war crimes and cover-ups by Britain’s special forces

Rachel Reid •

British special forces are being investigated for war crimes allegedly committed between 2010 and 2013 in Afghanistan. A public inquiry is looking into the deaths of Afghans who were killed in suspicious circumstances, mostly involving detention operations that showed hallmarks of summary executions. The killings came to light because of whistle-blowers inside the military, combined […]

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The Islamic Emirate and the (Other) Authoritarians: Afghanistan-Central Asian relations since 2021

Letty Phillips •

Since the Taliban’s return to power, they have invested heavily in building diplomatic relationships with the five states of Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Under Republic-era governments, Central Asian governments – avowedly secular in outlook since they became independent nations – frequently sounded warnings over the threat that Islamic extremism posed […]

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Afghanistan’s Urban Water Dilemma: Why are Afghan cities running out of water?

Mhd Assem Mayar •

Water scarcity, once thought to be a problem only for Afghanistan’s driest provinces like Farah and Nimruz, is now gripping Afghan cities. Predictions that Kabul’s groundwater will be exhausted by 2030 have already made international headlines, but Kabul is not alone. In cities across the country, taps are running dry, wells are having to be […]

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The Mining Sector in Afghanistan: A picture in black and gold

Fabrizio Foschini •

The mining sector has become one of the foremost drivers of Afghanistan’s beleaguered national economy in recent years. It offers the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) revenue from taxes, royalties and fees, but also the potential to boost the country’s scant diplomatic relations. However, while waiting for foreign actors to tap the fabled underground riches […]

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Another Drought Year for Afghanistan… But prospects are not as bad as they could be

Kate Clark •

Afghanistan is bracing itself for its fourth drought in five years. For many farmers and herders, the drought is catastrophic: spring rains failed and with them, rainfed wheat and pasture in the rangeland. Even so, agroclimate experts are forecasting a surprisingly positive picture for Afghanistan’s staple crop, wheat. Winter wheat has done well this year, […]

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