Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Religion

Religion

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 […]

Political Landscape Read more

Living a Mullah’s Life (2): The evolution of Islamic knowledge among village clerics

Sharif Akram •

Over the past four decades much has been written about Afghan mullahs and madrasas. Most commentary has focused on the role they have played in disseminating militancy and jihadism in Afghanistan. This report takes a very different look. It is the second instalment of a two-part mini-series assessing the changing role of rural mullahs, focusing […]

Political Landscape Read more

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 […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

The Daily Hustle: Why one Afghan girl decided to open her own madrasa

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon • Roxanna Shapour •

After the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan closed girls’ high schools, thousands of older Afghan girls were left behind from education. With not much to do except help with the household chores, many families decided to enrol their girls in a madrasa so that they could pursue their religious education. Many older girls, who had already […]

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Beyond Jihad and Traditionalism: Afghanistan’s new generation of Islamic activists

Borhan Osman •

Not all Afghan youth who are politically active and who want to change the status quo fit into the often simplified categories of being either progressive and educated, or uneducated and subversive. There is an often-overlooked segment of Afghanistan’s youth that is educated and engages in modern political debates and activities, while at the same […]

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Can madrassas help developing countries?

AAN •

al-Jazeera, 13 March 2014 Discussing the role of religious schools, AAN's Borhan Osman and AAN author Claudio Franco are quoted on the situation in Afghanistan: Borhan Osman, of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said there was a dichotomy between "modern" and more traditional schools that needed to be addressed. "There is a serious need for reforming the […]

AAN in the Media Read more

End of a Peace Process? Pressure on Islamist party undermines Tajik post-civil war consensus

Thomas Ruttig •

Tajikistan’s government is cracking down on the main opposition party, the Islamist IRPT. Some say this is just part of a pre-election campaign (the country is to elect its president in November); others see longer-term implications that could jeopardise the 1997 peace agreement that still shapes the country’s political reality. The IRPT – the only […]

Regional Relations Read more

The Easter Egg Question in the Light of Orientalism

Thomas Ruttig •

This (Easter Sunday) morning I was listening to my local German radio station where an expert on religion was explaining how certain ‘European’ Easter traditions – like painting and hiding eggs for children – were increasingly adopted elsewhere. He linked this to the spread of television and children’s books and opined that ‘a majority of […]

Context and Culture Read more

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