Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Fabrizio Foschini

Keep on Moving on the Balkan Route: No quarter for Afghan asylum seekers in Croatia and Serbia

Fabrizio Foschini •

The number of Afghan refugees moving along the Balkan Route has remained very high this summer. A large proportion of those taking the long trip to central, western and northern Europe are in their early twenties and many are under-age. From Turkey, they usually cross Greece and Bulgaria in order to reach Serbia. Once there, […]

Migration Read more

Extensive but not Inclusive: Afghanistan’s growing list of national holidays

Fabrizio Foschini •

August has already seen two days of national public holidays in Afghanistan and will see a third this week, celebrating the anniversary of the departure of the last United States troops on the 31st. That follows the celebration of Taleban forces’ entry into Kabul on 15 August 2021, which sealed the fate of the Islamic […]

Context and Culture Read more

No Food For Hope: Afghanistan’s Child Malnutrition Dilemma in 2023

Fabrizio Foschini • Rohullah Sorush •

The time of the summer harvest has come, bringing with it some temporary relief to millions of Afghan households struggling to feed themselves. Standards of living, which had already worsened well before the Taleban takeover of August 2021, plunged further with their capture of power and the resulting economic collapse. The impact was most keenly […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Taleban Bans on Drugs: What is the Emirate’s counter-narcotics agenda?

Jelena Bjelica • Fabrizio Foschini •

Since they captured power in summer 2021, the Taleban have issued two strict bans on drugs. In April 2022, they banned the cultivation and production of opium and the use, trade and transport of all illegal narcotics. A year later, in March 2023, they issued another ban, specifically on the cultivation of cannabis and the […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Hearts Turned Away from Music: Afghan musicians’ paths to exile

Fabrizio Foschini •

A year and a half after the Taleban takeover, music has completely disappeared from Afghan streets, TV channels, radios, cars and wedding halls. It barely survives in more personal and subdued forms and volumes – inside a house with tightly closed windows or shutters, inside headphones on one’s smartphone. The world, and Afghanistan more so, […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
A Kuchi winter camp in Goshta district, Nangrahar. Photo: Fabrizio Foschini, 2012.

Conflict Management or Retribution? How the Taleban deal with land disputes between Kuchis and local communities

Fabrizio Foschini •

A series of clashes between local villagers and incoming Pashtun groups in the northern province of Takhar brought the issue of conflict over land back into the spotlight. This is an age-long problem, but the collapse of the Republic shifted local power balances and brought different communities onto the winning side. As a result, many […]

Political Landscape Read more

Who Opposes the Taliban? Old Politics, Resistance and the Looming Risk of Civil War

Fabrizio Foschini •

ISPI, 11 August 2022 This article by AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini is a contribution to a dossier published by the Milan-based Italian Institute for International Political Studies and edited by Giuliano Battiston and Nicola Missaglia, titled “Afghanistan, One Year Later.” He looks at three groups in particular, the political that “lack[s] the means to effectively influence Afghan […]

External publications Read more
Construction site in Kucuksu, seen from Yenimahalle, Instanbul. Photo: Fabrizio Foschini

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: No good options for Afghans travelling to and from Turkey

Fabrizio Foschini •

The economic crisis and the country’s hardening stance towards irregular migrants are making Turkey a less hospitable destination for Afghans fleeing persecution or searching for livelihood opportunities abroad. In the first part of this report, Fabrizio Foschini looked at trends in Afghan migration to and through Turkey and how migrants have faced increased bureaucratic obstacles […]

Migration Read more

Refugees or Ghosts? Afghans in Turkey face growing uncertainty  

Fabrizio Foschini •

The number of Afghans in Turkey has been steadily growing, with those already settled or in transit to Europe joined by thousands more fleeing Afghanistan following the Taleban takeover in August 2021. Turkey already had the world’s largest refugee population, and the new arrivals, coming in the midst an unprecedented economic crisis, has only heated […]

Migration Read more

Afghanistan in World Literature (V): Two French portraits

Fabrizio Foschini •

Over the years, AAN has written about how Afghanistan is portrayed in the literature of other countries. Such portrayals have been instrumental in shaping the views and impressions of the country up to the present and given the continuing influence of outsiders on Afghanistan, it seems important to map this literature. In this report, AAN’s […]

Context and Culture Read more

Music Censorship in 2021: The silencing of a nation and its cultural identity

Fabrizio Foschini •

Music and musicians once again face serious threats following Afghanistan’s takeover by the Taleban in August this year. Over the past two decades, the theory and practice of traditional Afghan instruments, as well as other musical forms, has seen a remarkable revival after the destruction of the country’s musical heritage during the 1990s, with skills […]

Context and Culture Read more

The Fall of Nimruz: A symbolic or economic game-changer?

Fabrizio Foschini •

With the fall of five provincial capitals in three days – Zaranj in Nimruz, Sheberghan in Jowzjan, Sarepul, Kunduz and Taloqan in Takhar –, the Taleban switched pace. After an unexpected and highly successful sweep of rural districts in many parts of Afghanistan yielded particularly astounding results in areas considered ‘difficult’ for them, such as […]

War and Peace Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up