Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Rohullah Sorush

The Measles Outbreak Cycle: A long road ahead to end epidemics 

Jelena Bjelica • Rohullah Sorush • Rama Mirzada •

Afghanistan has faced recurrent measles outbreaks for more than two decades, with uneven routine immunisation allowing the disease to return even after large vaccination campaigns. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2025 and 2026 with doctors, health workers and parents, AAN’s Jelena Bjelica, Rama Mirzada and Rohullah Sorush hear about the latest major outbreak in 2024-25, […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

A Son of Jaghori: Remembering Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ishaq Fayyaz, 1930-2026

Rohullah Sorush • Roxanna Shapour •

For centuries, a steady stream of Afghan students have gone to the great Shia Islamic seminaries of Iran and Iraq in search of religious learning. Few rose as high as Mohammad Ishaq Fayyaz, who died in June 2026 at the age of 96. AAN’s Rohullah Suroush and Roxanna Shapour trace Fayyaz’s journey from a village […]

Context and Culture Read more

Months, Years and Thousands of Afghanis Later… Stories of Afghans battling bureaucracy

Rohullah Sorush •

Trying to get important documents from the state can be a maddening and expensive ordeal in Afghanistan. Many complain about the time-consuming and frustrating process of applying for a tazkira (ID card), passport, driving license, or a nikahkhat (marriage certificate). From government offices to courts to legal affairs departments, Afghans can get trapped in paperwork and corruption. If […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Treating Drug Users in Afghanistan: How to respond to a massive problem? 

Jelena Bjelica • Rohullah Sorush •

Afghanistan was, until recently, famously, the largest cultivator of illegal opiates in the world. Less well-known is that it is among the countries with the highest prevalence rates of drug use. In April 2022, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) banned poppy cultivation and subsequently, in January 2023, its supreme leader issued an order saying […]

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Repères famine: Afghanistan – le défi de la malnutrition infantile

Fabrizio Foschini • Rohullah Sorush •

Moyen Orient No. 61, Jan-March 2024 This article is the French version of Fabrizio Foschini et Rohullah Sorush’s AAN July 2023 report “No Food For Hope: Afghanistan’s Child Malnutrition Dilemma in 2023.” It appears here in a special issue under the title “Crise alimentaire et géopolitique de la faim”.

External publications 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

The Fourth Wave of Covid-19 Hits Afghanistan: “According to Sharia keeping yourself healthy is a must”

Rohullah Sorush • Thomas Ruttig •

Another wave of Covid-19 struck Afghanistan early in 2022 with doctors throughout the country reporting a rise in cases from January onwards. The devastation suffered by the Afghan health system since the suspension of most foreign aid following the Taleban takeover left it wholly unprepared to deal with the wave. While cases are now tailing […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Covid-19 in Afghanistan (9): Into the third wave

Thomas Ruttig • Rohullah Sorush •

Afghanistan has entered the third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic amid an unprecedented rise in confirmed cases. Doctors in various provinces detected signs of the impending new wave soon after the start of the Afghan new year (21 March), but the government only imposed contact restrictions on 28 May and enlisted religious scholars to urge […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

The Stagnation of Afghanistan’s State Institutions: Case studies of the Supreme Court, Senate, provincial councils and the constitutional oversight commission

Ali Yawar Adili • Rohullah Sorush • Sayed Asadullah Sadat •

This report looks at the legal framework, status and trajectory of four important state institutions, both elected and appointed: the Supreme Court, Senate, provincial councils and the Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of the Constitution (ICOIC). According to the Afghan constitution, these institutions should play significant roles in providing checks and balances, accountability, representation […]

Political Landscape Read more
new cabinet

Afghanistan’s New ­– But Still Incomplete Cabinet: No end yet to acting ministers

Ali Yawar Adili • Rohullah Sorush •

The Lower House of Afghanistan’s parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, has confirmed 20 out of 25 cabinet nominees proposed by the government and rejected the remaining five. The confirmation of the cabinet nominees comes more than a year after the presidential election, almost nine months after President Ashraf Ghani’s inauguration and almost seven months since the […]

Political Landscape Read more
Karbala

Disappointment over Karbala: A pilgrimage off-limits in 2020… and memories of 2019

Rohullah Sorush •

In normal times, millions of people, including tens of thousands of Afghans, would be gathering in Karbala in Iraq today for the Arba’in pilgrimage. It marks the 40th day of mourning after the martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, Imam Hussain and his 72 companions in Karbala more than 1300 years ago. This year, […]

Context and Culture Read more

Covid-19 in Afghanistan (6): A closer look at the MoPH’s official figures

Rohullah Sorush •

When AAN first tried to map the trends in the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in Afghanistan in March 2020, almost three months after the first outbreak in China, we found that the country had only been moderately affected. Since then, the number of confirmed infections and deaths have risen, but numbers remain relatively modest, particularly […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

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