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Posts tagged: Taliban

Taliban

The Daily Hustle: “Helping the dreams of girls come true”

Rohullah Sorush • Roxanna Shapour •

After the Islamic Emirate banned older girls from education, many girls found alternative avenues to continue their studies, find intellectual stimulation – and even, as this Daily Hustle found out, make a living in the private education sector. AAN’s Rohullah Sorush hears from one young Afghan woman about how, even in the face of overwhelming […]

Context and Culture Read more

The Long Winding River: Unravelling the water dispute between Afghanistan and Iran

Mhd Assem Mayar • Roxanna Shapour •

Afghanistan and Iran have been at loggerheads for much of this year over the Helmand River and its water. As the region grappled with a punishing drought for the third year running, the two neighbouring countries have been locked in a tense melee over shared transboundary rivers. While Iran seeks to assert its rights over […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Nature’s Fury: The Herat earthquakes of 2023

Roxanna Shapour •

The earth has continued to shudder in Herat province ever since the first of a series of deadly earthquakes hit the province on Saturday 7 October around 11am local time. They have destroyed entire villages and killed and injured thousands of people. Since then, dozens more tremors, including three powerful earthquakes have caused additional havoc […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Aid Diversion in Afghanistan: Is it time for a candid conversation?

Ashley Jackson •

Diversion of aid in Afghanistan is in the news again, this time with allegations by the United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko, that the Islamic Emirate or its officials are diverting humanitarian aid. Language in a draft US appropriations bill would prohibit any US assistance going “directly or indirectly” to […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Chinese Investments in Afghanistan: Strategic economic move or incentive for the Emirate?

Thomas Ruttig •

When the West withdrew from Afghanistan, many assumed its acquisitive neighbour, China, would reap the economic benefits of the change of government in Kabul. Afghanistan has immense, but largely untouched mineral and hydrocarbon wealth, including strategically valuable metals, such as lithium. That assumption was fed in the first half of 2023 by a flurry of […]

Regional Relations Read more

A Taleban Theory of State: A review of the Chief Justice’s book of jurisprudence

John Butt •

In the second of our mini-series on Taleban publications, this report examines what may be the fullest and most authoritative account yet of what the Taleban believe an Islamic state should look like. In his book, ‘Al-Emarat al-Islamiya wa Nidhamuha’ (The Islamic Emirate and its System of Governance), the Islamic Emirate’s Chief Justice, Abdul Hakim […]

Political Landscape 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

The Emergent Taleban-Defined University: Enforcing a top-down reorientation and unquestioning obedience under ‘a war of thoughts’

S Reza Kazemi •

Since the takeover around two years ago in August 2021, the Taleban have sought to overhaul and reinvent Afghanistan’s higher education. They have put their affiliates in charge at the ministry and many public universities, created new bodies to promote religious institutions and incorporate them into the higher education system and reshaped curricula with a […]

Political Landscape Read more

Taleban Perceptions of Aid: Conspiracy, corruption and miscommunication

Sabawoon Samim • Ashley Jackson •

Despite publicly claiming to welcome international aid, the Taleban government has exercised a growing influence over humanitarian operations within Afghanistan at both national and local levels. This includes bans on women working for NGOs and the United Nations and, more recently, an order to hand over all internationally funded education projects to the Ministry of […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

The Daily Hustle: Women take to street peddling to feed their families

Sayed Asadullah Sadat • Roxanna Shapour •

After the Taleban came to power in August 2021, the flow of international funds into the country that helped prop up the economy declined precipitously, and a significant number of people lost their jobs. Women, facing new legal restrictions on work from the Islamic Emirate, have been hit disproportionately hard by unemployment. With few options […]

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

Gender Persecution in Afghanistan: Could it come under the ICC’s Afghanistan investigation?

Ehsan Qaane •

Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taleban have enacted successive laws and orders which apply to women and girls, but not to men and boys. Earlier this month, United Nations experts reported their assessment that these measures violated women and girls’ rights to education, work, freedom of movement, health, bodily autonomy and […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

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