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.

Manoeuvring Through the Cracks: The Afghan human rights movement under the Islamic Emirate

Rachel Reid •

The end of the Islamic Republic was a catastrophe for Afghanistan’s human rights movement, with nearly all human rights defenders thrown into exile, fearing for their lives. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) combines an austere interpretation of Islam with ultra-conservative social mores, resulting in a highly authoritarian state with strict laws and practices. While […]

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A Force for Good, or Source of Coercion? An Islamic scholar reflects on the Emirate’s morality law

John Butt •

The Islamic Emirate’s law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice lays out the behaviour and actions which it deems obligatory or forbidden for Afghan men and women. It also lays out the powers of the enforcers, who have been given extensive authority to impose penalties on those they deem wrongdoers. Today, we […]

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Rural Women’s Access to Health in Afghanistan: “Most of the time, we just don’t go”

Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team •

Since the return of the Islamic Emirate, Afghanistan’s already fragile healthcare system has deteriorated, with stark inequalities for women and rural populations. The system faces a severe lack of funding, inadequate infrastructure and a critical shortage of qualified professionals, which has been exacerbated by prohibitions targeting women since 2021. These failings are felt most acutely […]

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The Economic Consequences of Climate Change for Afghanistan: Losses, projections … and pathways to mitigation

Mhd Assem Mayar •

Despite contributing minimally to global emissions, Afghanistan faces escalating economic and social crises from climate change. Climate shocks, such as from floods, droughts, landslides, avalanches and extreme temperature events, cause annual economic losses estimated between USD 550 million in a year where precipitation is ‘normal’ and USD three billion in a drought year – equivalent […]

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Shaking the Sky: Women’s attempts to claim their inheritance rights under the Emirate

Letty Phillips • Rama Mirzada •

Few aspects of Islamic Emirate rule in Afghanistan have received as much criticism as the sweeping restrictions on the lives of women and girls. Yet in response to this condemnation, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) claims that it has actually improved women’s lives by enforcing women’s rights guaranteed by sharia. These include a woman’s […]

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In Pursuit of Virtue: Men’s views on the Islamic Emirate’s restrictions on women

Martine van Bijlert • AAN Team •

Since taking power in August 2021, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has introduced increasingly severe restrictions on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, that have reverberated across families and communities. The new rules have bolstered traditional male roles as women’s ‘gatekeepers’, determining what they can and cannot do. At the same […]

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The Khost Rebellion of 1924: The centenary of an overlooked but significant episode in Afghan history

Thomas Ruttig • David X Noack •

A hundred years ago, tribes led by local mullahs in the area around the town of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan rose up against King Amanullah and his modernisation programme. These events became known as the ‘Khost’ or ‘Mangal’ Rebellion, named after the region where it erupted and the Pashtun tribe that was first to revolt. […]

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Ruling Uncharted Territory: Islamic Emirate governance in northeastern Afghanistan

Fabrizio Foschini •

The relationship between central government and political actors at the periphery has long been studied in Afghanistan in order to understand representation, legitimacy, patronage and conflict. In the years of the insurgency and since the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), the Taleban movement has remained a cohesive force in Afghanistan’s highly fragmented […]

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How Fares the Afghan Private Sector? Trying to run a business in a “stagnant” economy

Kate Clark • AAN Team •

There is a consensus that the private sector is crucial to getting any real growth back into the Afghan economy – described by the World Bank as “persistently stagnant.” Long-term growth, it said, was contingent on a “more resilient, private-sector led economy that capitalizes on the nation’s inherent strengths.” Boosting the private sector is also high […]

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Between Facing Reality and Saving Face: Interim report of the German parliament on the Afghan mission

Thomas Ruttig •

Germany “strategically failed” in Afghanistan. This is the main finding of a scathing interim report commissioned by the country’s parliament to scrutinise Germany’s entire military and civilian mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. Germany has always prided itself on having been the second largest bilateral donor and troop contributor to Afghanistan, but the report […]

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Muttaqi AFP

How The Emirate Wants to be Perceived: A closer look at the Accountability Programme

Martine van Bijlert •

As the third anniversary of its return to power approaches, the Islamic Emirate is presumably readying itself for another round of its Accountability Programme, as it has done in the past two summers. These televised sessions, held by ministers and other senior officials in front of journalists, provide a fairly detailed overview of the Emirate’s […]

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The Fate of the Village Councils: The Emirate’s effort to institute hegemony over rural Afghanistan

Jelena Bjelica • AAN Team •

Afghanistan’s Community Development Councils (CDCs), which were established under the Islamic Republic by the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) and its successor Citizen’s Charter, have been abolished by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). Government bodies have been told to coordinate economic projects with ulema councils instead. Afghanistan, however, has a longstanding tradition of grassroots, collective, […]

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