Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Bamyan

Elections 2014 (29): The second round election day in snapshots from the provinces

AAN Team •

How did the second round election day go? After our collection of voices from the provinces on the day before the vote (read here) as well as on the first round election day (see here), we continued to listen to our Afghan friends, analysts and acquaintances across the country. We asked them if they had been as eager to vote as […]

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Elections 2014 (27): Snapshots from the provinces before the second round vote

AAN Team •

How do Afghans feel about the second round of the presidential election ahead tomorrow, Saturday, 14 June? How do they perceive the security situation, the campaigning of the two contenders, the election authorities’ performance – and are they still as ready to go and cast a vote as many of them were in the first round? Like […]

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Elections 2014 (11): How the Hazaras voted in Bamyan

Qayoom Suroush •

Initial observations appear to show that Dr Abdullah has won the majority of the vote in Bamyan – with Ashraf Ghani so far second by a large margin. Bamyan is important – a province which is generally secure and has a highly motivated electorate. It is also the one province with an overwhelmingly ethnic Hazara […]

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Elections 2014 (4): The election day in snapshots from the provinces

AAN Team •

How did election day go? After a first collection of voices from the provinces on the day before the vote (read here), we continued to hear from our friends and from journalists, civil society activists and government officials across the country. We asked them to describe what they saw in terms of voter turnout, atmosphere, fraud – […]

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Election 2014 (3): Snapshots from the provinces before the vote

AAN Team •

While the countdown to the vote is nearly finished, the situation ahead of it differs widely in the various parts of the country. Reports from the provinces can convey enthusiasm, insecurity, suspicions of fraud or just resignation. Depending on the person talking to you, they can become extremely detailed mappings of the security situation and […]

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Rallies, Debate, Rain and Snow: The 2014 presidential election campaign starts

Kate Clark •

The Afghan presidential election campaign has kicked off – two months before polling day. Candidates are showing a range of attitudes, from launching big, brash public rallies to a rather desultory ‘we start tomorrow’ attitude. With no evident frontrunner, it seems the campaign will involve a real attempt to win over voters and will be […]

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A Giant Arch, a Secret Garden, a Dragon and Myriads of Mud-Coloured Frogs: Our summer travel tips for Bamyan Province

Fabrizio Foschini •

Bamyan is one of the most famous places in Afghanistan and has, in the last 12 years, probably received a greater share of visitors than aid. Travelling Bamyan is a treat and a must for everyone, Afghan or foreigner, who is able to arrange transport there – which is not always easy. The start of […]

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Arts in a War Zone: Afghanistan at the Documenta

Martin Gerner •

The Documenta in the German city of Kassel is said to be the world biggest exhibition on contemporary art. Taking place every five years, it is curated each time by a single foreign curator and his team of international agents and aides. This year, for its 13th edition, for the first time Afghanistan is a […]

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The Enteqal Seven (1): A Nowruz chakar to Bamian

Fabrizio Foschini •

Spring is here again. With the first warmth, AAN staff starts its occasional migration to higher pastures, Bamian in this case. The Nowruz holidays offer a much appreciated opportunity (and the announcement of Bamian as one of the first seven areas where Afghan security forces will take over from July onwards) to do so without […]

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Guest Blog: Why the Buddhas of Bamian were destroyed

Michael Semple •

It would have been possible to save the Bamian Buddhas from destruction. But it was not an important enough issue for the western powers to intervene over. And the outsiders who did consider the Buddhas important were not prepared to contemplate the kind of intervention that might have worked. The Buddhas were abandoned, argues our […]

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The Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas (2)

Thomas Ruttig •

28 February 2000: The Taleban want to destroy all non-Islamic images of human beings in Afghanistan as ‘idols’. With this decision, they threaten the rich cultural heritage of their country. International experts react with horror. A contemporary article by Thomas Ruttig. The Quran bans all displays of human images because Allah – as the God […]

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The Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas (1)

Thomas Ruttig •

Together with the systematic exclusion of women from almost all spheres of social life, public executions in stadiums and massacres of minority groups that had resisted their takeover of certain parts of the country, it was the iconoclastic destruction of the two ancient Buddhist statues in early March 2001 which shaped the world’s image of […]

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