Afghanistan
Afghanistan (in Pashto, افغانستان, Afġānistān; in Dari, افغانستان, Afġānestān; pronounced /avɣɒnesˈtɒn/), officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (in Pashto, د افغانستان اسلامي امارت, Da Afġānistān Islāmī Imārāt ; in Dari, امارت اسلامی افغانستان, Imârat- i Islâmī-yi Afġânistân), is an Islamic emirate and landlocked mountainous country located in South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the south and east, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the north, and China to the northeast through the Wajan corridor. Kabul is the capital and largest city, with a population estimated 4.6 million made up mostly of Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Turkmen.
Afghanistan's particular geographical situation has made it a meeting place for empires and civilizations, as well as a space for exchange and communication of important cultural and commercial poles; Among them, the Silk Road stands out. This fact, as well as its tribal structure, makes it difficult to define Afghanistan as a State throughout history. In this context, the territory received three main names in its evolution: Ariana (settlement of Aryan tribes in the 2nd millennium BC), Khorasan (medieval) and Afghanistan in the Modern age. The history of the territory that Afghanistan occupies today is vast, there are indications of those who inhabited these lands from the time from Prehistory. From the Ancient Age, through the Middle Ages, the Modern Age and even the Contemporary Age, it has been part of many empires and kingdoms.
Etymology
The name Afghanistan (افغانستان in Dari and Pashto) derives directly from the Arabic form Afġānistan, based on an Iranian form meaning 'land of the Afghans' (afghāni 'Afghan' + Persian stan 'country'). In its modern usage, it derives from the word afghan. The Pashtuns began to use this term to identify them. The suffix -stan means "land", thus Afghanistan means the land of the Afghans; this suffix is also used in other Asian countries.
History
The earliest human traces in Afghanistan date back to the Middle Paleolithic, and the country's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. Historically, the land has been home to several towns and has witnessed numerous military campaigns; including those of Alexander the Great, the Mauryans, the Muslim Arabs, the Mongols, the British, the Soviets, and the United States along with NATO allied countries. For this reason it is known as the "graveyard of empires", although it has been occupied during several different periods of its history. This land also served as the source from which Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Gurids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotakis, Durranis, and others have risen to forge great empires.
Modern Afghanistan began with the Hotaki and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in "The Great Game" between British India and the Empire Russian. After the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, the country freed itself from foreign rule, eventually becoming the Kingdom of Afghanistan in June 1926 under King Amanullah Khan. This kingdom lasted for almost fifty years, until King Mohammed Zahir Shah was overthrown by Mohamed Daud Khan's coup and the Republic of Afghanistan was established in 1973. In 1978, after the Saur Revolution, Afghanistan was established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The intervention of the Soviet Union in support of the communist government, started the war in Afghanistan from 1978 to 1992, against the Islamic guerrillas, which received the support of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other Western and Muslim nations. The Soviets withdrew in 1989, but the civil war continued until in 1996 the Taliban established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan based on their interpretation of Sharia, which ruled most of the country as a totalitarian regime for five years.
In 2001, in reaction to the attacks of September 11, 2001, an international NATO coalition led by the United States entered the country to overthrow the Taliban and placed in power the government that constitutes the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, starting a new Afghan war. In 2014, the United States and NATO formally declared that they were leaving the war, but kept troops in the country in support of the government. In September 2020, the Government and the Taliban – which controlled more than half of the national territory by then – began negotiations considered "historic" in order to achieve peace and establish a new constitutional regime, which can combine both visions of the Islamic State.. The negotiations did not prosper and the parties remained in conflict until 2021. On September 8, 2021, the Taliban group that ruled the country declared Afghanistan an Islamic Emirate and formed a new government.
Antiquity
Excavations of prehistoric sites revealed that humans lived in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that the farming communities in the area were among the first in the world.
The territory was a meeting point, where numerous civilizations interacted and often confronted each other. It has been the home of several peoples through different times, highlighting the Iranians, who played an important role in the development of civilizations in Central Asia. The territory was incorporated into major empires, including the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Mauryan Empire, and the Arab Empire.
Pre-Muslim period
Little is still known about the country's prehistory. However, during French excavation missions, seven levels of civilization were discovered at Mundigak, ranging from the 4th millennium to around 500 BC. C. The Aryans, coming from present-day Iran, arrived from the west, occupied the country at an indeterminate time and established their basic ethnic group. Under the Achaemenid dynasty, Afghanistan, completely conquered by Cyrus, king of Persia, was divided into five satrapies by Darius I. The pax iranica reigned in the country for two centuries, which allowed it to participate in the great splendor of Iran and allow itself to be impregnated by the religious reform of Zarathustra. The conquest of Alexander the Great in the year 331 a. C. caused, more than anywhere else, a symbiosis between Greece, Iran and India.
After Alexander's death, the satrapies continued, waging bloody struggles. Successively, the country was dominated by the Seleucids, the Indian dynasty of the Mauryans, and the kingdom of Bactria. At the end of the 2nd century BC. Further Aryan invasions imposed the dominance of the Kushana tribe, which reached its height under the Kujula Kadphises in the first century CE. C. and under the Kaniska dynasty in the 2nd century. Despite the presence of other religious currents (such as the fire altar in Surj Kotal), the country then surrendered to Buddhism, as shown by architectural manifestations such as the Great Sanctuary of Bamiyan. Its enormous rise was only checked by the new dominance of Iran under the Sassanids in the 3rd century AD. C., and the invasions of the Huns or Heftalis (Mongols), which brought insecurity and oppression.
Islam and the Mongol invasion
In 651, the Sassanids were defeated by Arab armies (the conquest of Harat), who occupied the country. The Arabs faced fierce resistance which prevented a complete Arab conquest and made Islamization very slow: the old Kapici (Kabul region) was not converted until the end of the 9th century, and numerous principalities subsisted until the 13th century, both vassals as independents. In the north, the Samanids, Iranians originating from Saman, near Balkh, achieved hegemony. The Turkish mercenaries they had recruited started a new era. In 962 one of them, Alp Tigin, became independent in the Ghazni region. His successors, above all Mahmud (999-1030) at the head of the Ghaznavid dynasty, extended their rule as far as Isfahan and launched seventeen expeditions against India. They turned Ghazni, Baghdad's rival, into a notable center where artists and writers, including Ferdousi, Iran's national poet, shone. These disappeared under the pressure of Afghan princes, the Gouris, who usurped power. Since then, Afghans and Afghanized Turks have provided princes and commanders to the Indo-Muslim monarchies.
This advanced civilization of the 11th and 12th centuries, comparable to that of the Buddhist Afghanistan of previous centuries, collapsed under the invasion of Genghis Khan, who took particular vengeance on the country (1221-1222). To the Mongol devastation those of Timur Lang (Tamerlane) were added, who had himself crowned in Balkh, in 1370. He was guilty, among other things, of the ruin of the important irrigation system, from which he would never recover. However, it was around Jarat that the Timurid renaissance developed, begun with Shah Ruj Mirza (1405-1447) and brought to its peak by Husayn-i Bayqara (1469-1506), together with his minister Mir 'Ali Sir Nawa'. i. Eastern Afghanistan, closed in on itself, experienced something of a renaissance when the Turk Baber (Babur) settled in Kabul in 1504 and conquered India, where he founded the dynasty of the great Mughals, although it remained for them a remote and forgotten province. At the same time, western Afghanistan passed into the hands of the Safawis of Iran.
Durraní dynasty, foreign imperialism and reforms
The decline of the Mughals and the weakening of the Safavids, in the early 18th century, allowed the restive Afghan tribes to regain their freedoms and allowed the birth of an Afghan state, thanks to the rebellion and the declaration of independence of Mirwais Kan Hotak, chief of the Ghilzai tribe, in 1709. But the Ghilzai had to face the national movement of Nader Shah, who conquered Kandahar and Kabul in 1738. An officer of Nader, Ahmad Khan, from the Abdali tribe, proclaimed himself king in Kandahar, as soon as Nader Shah was assassinated (1747), and founded the Durranid dynasty, the first independent Afghan dynasty. This intervened repeatedly in India, like his predecessors, and constituted a vast but unstable kingdom. His successor, Timur Shah Durrani, who moved his capital to Kabul, kept peace in the kingdom, but, after his death, his sons and tribal chiefs disputed his succession (1793). Finally, Dust Muhammad, whose presence dates back to 1818, was recognized as emir in Kabul (1838) and founded the Barakza'i or Muhammadza'i dynasty. He renounced the Indian provinces and devoted himself entirely to Afghanistan, which had become a buffer state between the British and Russian empires.
Dust Muhammad, sometimes a victim and other times a beneficiary of British intervention, during the first Anglo-Afghan war (1839-1842), was replaced by Suya'al-Malk (1839) and, after an insurrection and the annihilation of Alexander Burnes's British army (1842), he was restored to the throne in exchange for accepting a British protectorate.
Russian pressure on Central Asia led to a second Afghan war against Britain in 1878, and Abd ur-Rahman Khan (1880-1901) had to reconnoitre the borders of the "Durand Line" in 1893. Habib Allah (1901-1919) and Aman Allah Khan (1919-1929) to get their country out of isolation were annulled by the British will to reinforce it. Only the third Afghan war, called independence, established full recognition of the sovereignty of Afghanistan: Rawalpindi armistice (August 8, 1919) and Kabul treaty (November 22, 1921). Aman Allah Khan began the modernization of the country: constitution (1922), administrative code (1923), beginning of female education (1924), new constitution (1928), travels to Europe and is crowned king. The conservative reaction did not take long. The sovereign was overthrown, and an adventurer, Habib Allah Khan, exercised a bloody dictatorship for six months.
Nadir Shah, a relative of Aman Allah Khan, eliminated the usurper and had himself proclaimed king in 1929. Instructed by experience, he prudently resumed the reforms, but was assassinated in 1933. His son Mohammed Zahir Shah of French culture succeeded him and addicted to new ideas, who made his country enter the League of Nations (1934) and progressively opened the country to outside influence. In 1937 he signed the Sa'dabad pact with Turkey, Iran and Iraq, but he did not allow himself to be drawn into World War II.
Diplomatic relations
The division of India raised again the problem of the "Durand Line", in addition to the fact that Zahir claimed the territories of the Afghans who lived in the new State of Pakistan (the problem of Pathanistan). The crisis lasted until 1963, when an agreement with Pakistan was signed; almost at the same time an agreement was signed with China. Once these external problems were resolved, Zahir gave a new proof of will to reform by having a new constitution approved by the Constituent Assembly in 1964 and by encouraging the schooling of women, who in 1959 had been granted the right not to wear veil. International aid, in which the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States and, above all, the USSR (1964 agreements) participated, began to be more important.
Revolution and Soviet invasion
After Zahir's reforms, a modernization crisis shook the country, little prepared for a transformation. In 1965 it was created by a group of intellectuals from the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a split within the ruling party, which ended up splitting, in 1967, into two parties, the Khalq and the Parcham, which clashed violently in protest movements. student unrest (1969), resulting in a Parliament unable to legislate. In addition, in 1970 and 1971, the harvests were catastrophic and famine ravaged the country. This caused a change of government, although the instability continued. On July 16 and 17, 1973, a military coup, led by Sardar Muhammad Daud, the King's cousin and brother-in-law, and supported by both opposition parties, overthrew Zahir Shah, who went into exile in Rome. The republic was proclaimed. But land reform, which won little support, and the president's authoritarianism led to his overthrow in April 1978.
Socialist Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power; but, although communist-inspired, the new regime carefully avoided any allusion to Marxism. However, Soviet dominance, direct or indirect, was increasing. In December 1978, a friendship and cooperation treaty was signed between Kabul and Moscow, which allowed, among other things, the USSR to intervene militarily to "protect the country".
Afghanistan was then in full chaos; some 200,000 Afghans, including the Pamir Kyrgyz community, took refuge in Pakistan; there was talk of 300,000 deaths in 17 months,[citation needed] 12,000 to 15,000 political prisoners, from insurgent provinces, entire regions that escaped central power and violent combats. On September 14, 1979, Nur Muhammad Taraki was assassinated. His replacement, Hafizullah Amin, announced both his fidelity to the Kremlin and the adoption of measures in favor of Islam (repairing mosques). But he in turn was overthrown and executed when the Soviet military intervention of December 1979 took place, which installed Babrak Karmal in power. The prolonged Soviet intervention had the effect of intensifying the internal guerrilla (logistically supported from abroad by Pakistan, the USA and China) and the demonstration, in the Western world and in the Islamic world, of numerous anti-Soviet reactions. It also caused a massive exodus of the population to Iran and Pakistan (three million in 1985).
The new government launched a reform program that eliminated usury, launched a literacy campaign, eliminated opium cultivation, legalized unions, established a minimum wage law, and lowered the prices of opium by 20-30%. necessities. Regarding women's rights, the socialist regime granted permission not to wear a veil, abolished the dowry, promoted the integration of women into work (245,000 workers and 40% of doctors are women) and education (illiteracy female is reduced from 98% to 75%, 60% of the faculty at Kabul University are women, 440,000 more women worked in education and 80,000 participated in the literacy campaign), as well as political life. Decree No. 7 of October 17, 1978 granted women the same rights as men. The period of the Democratic Republic was the one in which there were more professional women in Afghanistan.
These government reforms undermined the traditional tribal order and provoked opposition in rural areas. At the same time, the government brutally suppressed the opposition with thousands of political executions. Up to 27,000 were executed in Pul-e-Charkhi prison.
After the USSR invaded the country in December 1979, 120,000 Soviet soldiers settled in Afghanistan. The Afghan resistance split into seven Sunni political parties based in Peshawar and eight Shia parties based in Iran. The Sunni parties (80% of the Afghan population is Sunni) were supported by Pakistan and received weapons from the United States. The Shiites administered the center of the country (Hazarayat), which they had kept almost entirely liberated since 1979. A ten-year war would pit a heavy and unmotivated Soviet army against each other, and a guerrilla legitimized by Islam and nationalism. The Government and the Soviets controlled the big cities and communication lines, the resistance dominated the countryside. Inside the country, the resistance was divided into hundreds of small fronts, often corresponding to the segmentation by local commanders, in general, intellectuals from the cities, mullahs, or small notables. Between four and five million refugees settled in Pakistan or Iran. Babrak Karmal, at the head of the Communist Party and the Afghan State, from December 1979 to 1986, failed to establish the socialist and revolutionary regime that he dreamed of. The party was undermined by the division between the majority and radical Khalq faction, which recruits mainly from the Pashto ethnic group, and the more moderate Parcham faction. The communists also appeared, as the foreign party.
International implications
The United States sought to oppose the breach opened by the Soviets in third world countries during the 1970s, preparing reprisals against the USSR if the threat that the occupation of Afghanistan posed to control of the Persian Gulf increased. The culminating moment of its financial and military aid was the delivery to the resistance of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles (1986). Saudi Arabia was concerned to prevent any incursion by Iran, then at war with Iraq. He strove to form a front of Sunni fundamentalists, recruited above all from the Pashtun ethnic group, to the detriment of the Shiites and even the Persian-speaking Sunnis (improperly called Tajiks), who in the eyes of the Saudis might prefer Iran. Pakistan, under the aegis of General Zia Ul-Haq, whose policy would continue after his death (1988), had two objectives: to eliminate the Soviet threat in order to avoid being trapped between Afghanistan and India, allies of the USSR, but also establish a kind of protectorate in a future Islamic Afghanistan.
Despite bloody offensives, especially between 1984 and 1986, the Soviets could not win decisive battles against the resistance, not even close the border with Pakistan. The war also prevented any possible truce with the United States. Every year in November, an overwhelming majority of the member countries of the UN general assembly called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Since coming to power in 1985, Gorbachev strove to break the military deadlock and remove the obstacle. which represented the Afghan question for the new détente.
Government of Najibulá and civil war
Karmal, re-elected head of state and general secretary of the party (in January 1986), was displaced from the latter position and from power by Mohammad Najibulá (in May 1986). M. Najibulá, in 1987, launched an appeal for "national reconciliation" and had a constitution adopted in November that did not have communist influences. In April 1988, the Geneva agreements ratified the schedule for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, without reaching a true political agreement. The last Soviet troops left the country in February 1989. Their departure did not allow the Afghan resistance to seize the capital, mired in numerous ethnic and political conflicts. In Peshawar, moderates, largely supporters of the former King Mohammed Zahir Shah and belonging to the tribal elite, opposed fundamentalists who advocated an Islamic state and were supported by the Pakistani army, the Muslim Arab Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia. The head of the fundamentalists, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, took clearly anti-Western positions and launched armed attacks against the other mujahideen groups, led by Mas'ud, from the Panjshir valley. An Afghan interim government formed in Peshawar in February 1989 by the Sunni parties, under pressure from Pakistan, failed to unite the interior mujahideen commanders, accustomed to great autonomy, nor the Shiites. A phase of precarious stability was reached; the big cities came to be controlled by the regime, while the countryside was controlled by the mujahideen. But the war had lost its ideological aspect, as the Kabul regime had renounced its identification with communism: the P.D.P.A. It changed its name in 1990 to Hizb-i Watan, Homeland Party. For their part, many mujahideen were fighting more to retain the local power they had acquired than to create an unlikely Islamic republic. The United States and the Soviet Union, given their desire to put an end to one of the last conflicts of the Cold War, committed in September 1992 to interrupt their deliveries of arms to all sides of the fight in Afghanistan (an agreement that entered into force in January 1992). Losing Soviet support, Najibulá, who also had to face serious dissension within his own party, saw his position weaken in the first months of 1992; his proposal for a unilateral ceasefire did not win the acceptance of the resistance organizations.
While the UN multiplied its interventions trying to establish a political regulation of the conflict, the mujahideen increased their pressure in the north. In April, they seized control of the entire country, forcing Najibullah to step down. direction of Sigbatullah Mojaddedi. Mas'ud was appointed defense minister. In June, Mojaddedi ceded power to a ten-member ruling council, chaired by Burhanuddin Rabbani. However, the old rivalries between mujahideen and ethnic groups were soon reproduced, and in August G. Hekmaktyar launched a major offensive against the capital: clashes between fundamentalist militias and government forces caused more than 2,000 deaths and caused the exodus of more than a third of the population. This second battle of Kabul was accompanied by a multiplication of fighting in the rest of the country. A council of 1,335 delegates elected B. Rabbani head of state for a term of 18 months (December 1992) and appointed fifty of its members to form a parliament with constituent powers (January 1993). In March the different factions reached a consensus for Gulbuddin Hekmatiar, leader of Hezbi Islami, to occupy the post of prime minister, while ratifying the election of B. Rabbani.
Islamic State of Afghanistan
After the fall of the previous government in 1992, the Islamic State of Afghanistan was created through the Peshawar Accords.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
In 1996 the Taliban movement seized power in Kabul and installed a Sharia-based government. In 2001, a US-led coalition invaded the country, overthrowing its ruler Mohammad Omar and installing a new regime.
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
In December 2001, after the Taliban government was overthrown and the new Afghan government was formed, Hamid Karzai, the president, established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) established by the United Nations Security Council United to assist the Karzai administration and provide basic security. Taliban forces, meanwhile, began to regroup inside Pakistan. More international coalition troops entered Afghanistan and began rebuilding the war-torn country.
After losing power to an international coalition (ISAF), the Taliban began an insurgent movement to regain control of Afghanistan. Over the next decade, ISAF and Afghan troops carried out numerous offensives against the Taliban, with no clear results. Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world, due to a lack of foreign investment, government corruption, and the Taliban insurgency.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government was able to build democratic structures, and the country changed its name to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Attempts were made, often with the support of foreign donor countries, to improve the country's economy, health, education, transportation, and agriculture. ISAF forces also began training Afghan security forces. In the decade after 2002, more than five million Afghans were repatriated, including some who were deported by Western countries.
By 2009, a Taliban shadow government began to form in certain parts of the country. In 2010, President Karzai attempted to hold peace negotiations with Taliban leaders, but the rebel group refused to attend until mid- 2015, when the Supreme Leader of the Taliban finally decided to back off the peace talks.
After the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 in Pakistan, many prominent Afghan figures were killed. Skirmishes on the Afghan-Pakistan border intensified and many large-scale attacks by the Haqqani-based in Pakistan they were also carried out through Afghanistan. The United States blamed criminal elements within the Pakistani government for the increased attacks. The US government spent tens of billions of dollars in development aid over 15 years and more than a billion dollars. dollars in military spending during the same period. Corruption of associated Western and Afghan defense and development contractors reached unprecedented levels in a country where national GDP is often only a small fraction of the US Government's annual budget for conflict.
Following the 2014 Afghan presidential election, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai became president in September 2014. The US war in Afghanistan (the longest war waged by the US to date) officially ended on December 28, 2014. However, thousands of NATO troops, led by the United States, remained in the country to train and advise Afghan government forces. Until 2016, the 2001-2021 war resulted in in more than 90,000 deaths directly related to that conflict, a figure that includes casualties of insurgents, Afghan civilians and government forces. More than 100,000 people were injured.
Return to power of the Taliban
Under the control of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 2021Under the control of the Government of Afghanistan in 2021
On April 14, 2021, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance agreed to start withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan by May 1. Shortly after the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan began NATO, the Taliban launched an offensive against the Afghan government, advancing rapidly in the face of collapsing Afghan government forces. According to a United States intelligence report, the Afghan government was likely to collapse within six months of the NATO to complete its withdrawal from the country. On 15 August 2021, with the Taliban once again in control of the vast majority of Afghan territory, the Taliban began to capture the capital city of Kabul, with large-scale evacuations of civilians, government officials and foreign diplomats through the US-controlled Kabul International Airport. Taliban fighters were reportedly ordered not to interfere in evacuating civilians and letting whoever they wanted out of the city. Later that day, news reports claimed that Ashraf Ghani had left Afghanistan.
Government and politics
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Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban organization has taken de facto control of the country, forming a provisional government. Paramilitaries and former officials of the extinct Islamic Republic are staying in the Panshir valley, not recognizing the new government taliban.
Human Rights
In terms of human rights, regarding membership of the seven bodies of the International Bill of Human Rights, which include the Human Rights Committee (HRC), Afghanistan has signed or ratified:
 Afghanistan | International treaties | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CESCR | CCPR | CERD | CED | CEDAW | CAT | CRC | MWC | CRPD | |||||||||
| CESCR | CESCR-OP | CCPR | CCPR-OP1 | CCPR-OP2-DP | CEDAW | CEDAW-OP | CAT | CAT-OP | CRC | CRC-OP-AC | CRC-OP-SC | CRPD | CRPD-OP | ||||
| Pertenence |   |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
 Signed and ratified,  signed, but not ratified,  neither signed nor ratified,  without information,  it has agreed to sign and ratify the body concerned, but also recognizes the competence to receive and process individual communications from the competent bodies. | |||||||||||||||||
Status of major international human rights instruments
Afghanistan is considered the most dangerous country in the world for women. In addition to poverty and corruption, Afghanistan is the most dangerous country for a woman to live in when factors such as health, sexual and non-sexual violence, domestic violence and economic discrimination are taken into account. The maternal mortality rate is 1 in 11 deliveries, 87% of women are illiterate and up to 80% suffer from forced marriages. Women do not have access to basic health services or financial resources and lack the freedom to choose a partner. According to a survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2011 and the International Rescue Committee, women are more at risk from lack of access to medical services and violence from their peers than from bombs and continued hostilities. Rape is not punishable by law.
During the Taliban rule, women had to cover their faces to see a man who is not their husband or son. To do this, they cover themselves with the full burqa (piece of cloth that covers the head and leaves only a mesh of cloth to see). They can't leave the house alone. Being publicly spanked is the punishment for showing your ankles, wearing high heels, doing laundry in public, standing on your balcony, or riding in a taxi without your legal guardian (father, brother, or husband). They are also punished for public appearances, whether in magazines, books, television, radio, or even public baths, going to gatherings where there are strange men, or shaking hands or touching a man other than her husband. Women were prohibited from studying (except religion), working, doing business, wearing make-up, painting their nails, laughing out loud, dressing in colors, being photographed or filmed. Women's constitutional rights are continually violated and women women who want to dedicate themselves to public service or politics are persecuted and harassed. Despite the fact that the new Afghan Constitution of 2004 prohibits any type of discrimination and distinction between the citizens of Afghanistan, there are unconstitutional laws against women, such as the one that forces them to obey the sexual demands of their husbands and grants them the right to withdraw basic support, including alimony, if she refuses, or the one that gives custody of the children exclusively to the men. 80% of women suffer domestic violence, conduct that is not penalized in Afghanistan. In practice, the changes were limited, since they were not fully accepted, and consequently many women continued to suffer from the same problems. Forced marriage, marriage of underage girls and domestic violence remain widespread practices. Women victims of sexual violence are imprisoned accused of crimes against morality. Women who run away from their homes due to mistreatment are also imprisoned.
Territorial organization
Afghanistan is administratively divided into 34 provinces (vilayats). Each province has a capital and a governor in charge. The provinces are divided into 364 districts, each of which typically covers a city or a number of villages. Each provincial district is represented by a district governor. The country does not have a regional administration entity. However, the country is traditionally divided into five quadrants, north, south, east, west plus the central one where the province and capital of the country Kabul is located.
Provincial governors, as well as district governors, are elected to office during the nation's presidential elections, which take place every five years. Provincial Governors are the representatives of the central Kabul Government and are responsible for all administrative and formal matters within their provinces. The provincial police chief is appointed by the Ministry of Interior in Kabul and works alongside the provincial governor, in compliance with the law for all districts in the province. There is an exception in the capital (Kabul), where the mayor is directly elected by the president, and is completely independent from the governor of Kabul.
Geography
Afghanistan has an area of 652,230 square kilometres, of which approximately 75% is mountainous. In fact, the sparsely populated central highlands make up most of the Hindu Kush, the country's main mountain range and the second highest in the world, with several peaks over 6,400 meters at its eastern end. The highest point in this Middle Eastern country is the top of Nowshak Mountain, at 7485m. s. no. m.
There is significant seismic activity in the northeast region, often causing hundreds of deaths. The climate can be classified as extreme continental, with little rainfall. A good part of the territory is desert or semi-desert, except for a few highly populated fertile valleys, such as Herat, to the northwest. The fluvial network is of the endorheic type, the most important rivers being the Amu Daria (which is the quasi-mythical Oxus), the Helmand and the Kabul.
Economy
Afghanistan is an extremely poor country, with a high dependence on agriculture, since most of the population (90%) works in the agricultural sector growing cereals, fruit trees, nuts, cotton and papaya. Most agriculture takes place in the northern plains, near the borders with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. There are also significant herds of karakul sheep, as well as carpet crafts. It has important natural gas reserves exploited on a small scale by companies with US capital and an industry (textiles, food) of incipient development. In general, the Afghan economy is very underdeveloped due to the permanent war situation, the lack of an effective central government, and the fragmentation of society into tribal groups.
Agriculture is the main source of income for this country, since wheat, corn, rice, barley, vegetables, various types of dried fruits, nuts, tobacco, cotton, beets and poppy are grown mainly, the latter cultivated for the manufacture of opium and its derivatives such as heroin,[citation needed] being the first opium producer in the world, according to data from the United Nations Office against on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Afghanistan's main export products are opium, dried fruits, carpets, wool, cotton, furs and skins, precious and semi-precious stones. It is also cultivated and used, in the inputs, castor beans and blonde. In livestock, sheep farming stands out, which produces a large amount of meat, as well as wool and skins, for export. Camels, donkeys, cows, and goats are also raised. Afghanistan's main import products are machinery and capital goods, food, textiles, and oil and its derivatives.
The economy has suffered greatly due to political and military upheavals, as well as a severe drought that has added difficulties to the country between 1998 and 2001. The majority of the population suffers from insufficient food, clothing, shelter, medical attention and other problems, all of this made worse by military operations and political uncertainty. Inflation is a serious problem. After the war against the US-led coalition, which led to the overthrow of the Taliban regime in November 2001, many of the farmers have switched their crops for cash payments, instead of growing food for domestic consumption, giving rise to crops drugs such as opium poppy to produce opium,[citation needed] which has increased greatly in the 2010s; so much so that Afghanistan became the first illegal supplier of opium in the world.
Despite the efforts of the international community and the Karzai government to eradicate illicit opium poppy crops, the country's economy's dependency on opium poppy continues to grow. According to UNODC, in 2006 poppy cultivation grew by 59% and opium production grew by 49%. In an article in the Washington Quarterly, Peter van Ham and Jorrit Kamminga elaborate on the illicit opium economy in Afghanistan and possible solutions.
International efforts to rebuild Afghanistan led to the creation of the Afghanistan Interim Authority, as a result of the 2001 Bonn Agreement. In January 2002, at the Afghanistan Reconstruction Donor Conference in Tokyo, they collected about US$4.5 billion, to be administered by the World Bank. Priority areas for reconstruction include sanitary facilities for education and health, improvement of the agricultural sector, as well as roads, energy and telecommunications. Two thirds of the population live on less than two dollars a day.
Mining
The economic riches have not yet been exploited on a large scale in mining. There are ruins 30 kilometers from Kabul, the product of attempts to extract the wealth from mining, which was carried out in the Soviet era, emeralds, chrome, zinc, uranium and hydrocarbons. Although these are estimated figures and are subject to change with respect to oil, in the Amu Daria basin alone, 322 wells are in operation, where it is estimated that there are between 500 and 2 billion barrels of crude oil. Although the Western press speaks euphorically about the sudden discovery of Afghan "black gold", untying it from the invasion and occupation of the country, since 1938 - when the British built the first refineries in Iran and Arabia - there was knowledge about the Angut oil fields., north of Afghanistan, which in 1959 were exploited by the Soviets, who built the country's first gas pipeline that ended in Uzbekistan. Who would be managing the future mining project is the Chinese state company China Metallurgical Group Corporation; In addition, the World Bank has invested resources to manage the project.
Gold, silver, copper, beryllium, and lapis lazuli have been mined in small quantities in mountainous areas. Coal and natural gas deposits are also exploited (the latter in the north of the country, which were developed during the Soviet occupation).
On June 13, 2010, the discovery of lithium among the country's deposits was published, a mineral necessary for the manufacture of batteries for different devices.
Exports and imports
Exports
In 2016, Afghanistan exported $482,000,000, making it the 104th largest exporter in the world. In the last five years, the export rate fell by 15.48%, being $531,000,000 in 2011 and $482,000,000 today. The most recent exports are led by grapes, which account for 20% of the country's total exports, followed by vegetable juices, which account for 17.8%. The main export destinations are India with 46% ($220,000,000), Pakistan with 41% ($200,000,000), Iran with 3.1% ($15,100,000), Iraq with 2.1 % ($10,100,000) and Turkey with 1.9% ($9,150,000). [citation required]
Imports
In 2016, Afghanistan imported $3,770,000,000, making it the 93rd largest importer in the world. In the last five years, the import tax fell by 51.12%, being $12,500,000,000 in 2011 and $3,770,000,000 today. The most recent imports are led by wheat, which accounts for 17.6% of the country's total imports, followed by peat, which accounts for 15.9%. The main origins of imports are Iran with 22% ($840,000,000), Pakistan with 17% ($653,000,000), China with 14% ($526,000,000), Kazakhstan with 13% ($499,000,000) and Turkmenistan with 7.7% ($289,000,000).[citation needed]
Infrastructure
Communications and technology
Afghanistan advanced rapidly in communications technology and during the pre-2021 regime had wireless communication companies, the Internet, radio broadcasting and television channels. Afghan telecommunications companies Afghan Telecom, Afghan Wireless, Roshan (which is partly owned by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV), MTN Group and Etisalat have all achieved a rapid increase in the use of cell phones. In 2011 there were 16.8 million mobile lines.
Fixed telephony has been managed since 2006 by Afghan Telecom, created that year with the mission of rebuilding a network destroyed by two decades of war. In 2011 there were only 72,700 fixed lines. In 2006, the Afghan Ministry of Communications signed a $64.5 million contract with ZTE Corporation for the creation of a national fiber optic cable network.
Postal and package delivery services (such as FedEx, DHL, and others) exist in major cities and towns. As of 2008, the country has 460,000 telephone lines, and around 500,000 people (1.5% of the population) have Internet access.
Transportation
The airline Ariana Afghan Airlines dispatched flights to Frankfurt am Main, Dubai and Istanbul, from Kabul and Herat. The country had domestic and international flight services available with locally owned companies such as Air Kam, Pamir Airways and Safi Airways. As of August 15, 2021, civilian flights at Kabul airport were suspended, following the military occupation of the facilities by the US occupation forces in order to facilitate the evacuation of foreign and Afghan citizens who needed to leave the country after the seizure of Kabul by the forces that overthrew the government of Ashraf Ghani. As of September 13, commercial activity began to resume with charter flights to Pakistan and Iran.
Cars became more affordable after the 2002 foreign occupation, with Toyota, Land Rover, BMW and Hyundai being the most common dealers. Most of the citizens who travel long distances use the bus services. New automobiles have become more widely available after the reconstruction of roads and highways. The vehicles are imported from the United Arab Emirates via Pakistan and Iran.
The country has limited rail service with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the north. There are two more railway projects currently underway with neighboring countries; one intends to connect Herat and Iran, while the other wants to connect with Pakistani railways.
Media
The media was tightly controlled by the Taliban, so much so that television was shut down in 1996 and the press was prohibited from publishing comments, photos, or letters from readers. Radio Kabul only broadcast religious and propaganda programs, and it aired without music. After the new government took office in 2001, restrictions on the press have been gradually eased and private media diversified. Freedom of expression and of the press are promoted in the 2004 constitution and censorship was prohibited, even though slandering people or producing material contrary to the principles of Islam is prohibited. In 2008, Reporters Without Borders ranked the country 156 out of 173, being the first most free. 400 publications are registered, at least 15 local Afghan TV channels and 60 radio stations. Foreign radio stations such as the BBC World Service also broadcast in the country.
Some daily newspapers from Afghanistan are Arman e milli, Hasht e subh, Mandegar and Outlook.
Demographics
In 2007, Afghanistan had a population of 31,889,000. Life expectancy in 2018 was estimated at 49 years. World Bank estimates for 2019 raised life expectancy to 65 years. By 2020, 43% of the population was literate. The average number of children per woman is 6.64, one of the highest rates on the planet, which is causing a demographic increase never seen in the history of the country.
Afghanistan is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country, and is also at a crossroads between the East (China), the South (South Asia, including Pakistan), the West (Middle East, including Iran) and the North (Asia from countries of the former USSR). It was also an old meeting point for trade and migration. Throughout history, the region of modern Afghanistan was invaded by various peoples, including the Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, British, Soviets, and by the US-led coalition in 2001.
The population of Afghanistan is divided into a large number of ethnic groups. As no systematic census has been carried out in the country in recent times, exact figures on the size and composition of the various ethnic groups are not available. Therefore, most of the figures are only approximations. According to the CIA World Factbook (updated on November 23, 2012), the distribution of ethnic groups is as follows:
- Pastunes: 42 %
- Tayikos: 27%
- Hazaras: 9 %
- Uzbekos: 9 %
- Aimak: 4 %
- Turkmen: 3 %
- Baluchi: 2 %
- Other: 4 %
The official languages of Afghanistan are Afghan Persian or Dari (Persian), spoken by 50% of the population, and Pashto, spoken by 35% of the population. Other languages include Turkic languages, including, Uzbek and Turkmen or Turkmen (the latter spoken by 10% of the inhabitants), as well as 30 minor languages. Bilingualism is common, and this is one of the reasons why the percentages are variable.
Religiously, Afghans are predominantly Muslim (of whom approximately 80-89% are Sunni and 10-19% are Shia). There are also Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh minorities. An ancient Jewish minority has shrunk in recent years. Many of the Jews fled in the 1990s (during the civil war and during the radical Islamist regime of the Taliban) to neighboring countries, Europe and the American continent. With the fall of the Taliban, some Sikhs and Jews have returned to the Afghan province of Ġaznī.
For the last few years, Afghanistan has been kept off the list of countries ranked according to its Human Development Index by the UN, because it is not possible to collect enough data for a correct classification. In any case, it would be expected that Afghanistan would be last in the ranking,[citation needed] given its poor economic and social development.
Afghanistan is very poor; in fact, in 1995 it was ranked 192nd (last) in the ranking of countries according to the calorie consumption of its population.[citation needed] Thousands of people They lack food, shelter and health care. Between 1979 and 2000, a third part of its population left the territory, fleeing the war, estimating that there are close to six million Afghan refugees established in Pakistan and Iran, who little by little have returned to Afghanistan.[citation required]
Some of the main cities are:
| City | Population |
|---|---|
| Kabul | 3.289,000 |
| Kandahar | 491,500 |
| Herāt | 436.300 |
| Mazār-e Šarīf | 368.100 |
| Kunduz | 304.600 |
| Jalalabad | 206.500 |
| Ba ' | 203.600 |
| latitudeaznī | 157.600 |
| Balh | 116.300 |
| Bamiyán | 80,900 |
Education
For the year 2017, it was estimated that education expenses reached 4.1% of GDP.
As of 2006, more than four million students of both sexes were enrolled nationwide.
Following the establishment of the Islamic Emirate, there are several significant obstacles to education in the country, due to lack of funding, unsafe school buildings, and cultural rules. The lack of teachers is another obstacle.
The literacy rate according to an estimate of 1999 is 36%: 51% of men and 21% of women. There are currently some 9,500 schools in the country.
The best universities in Afghanistan are the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), followed by Kabul University (KU), both located in Kabul. The Afghan National Military Academy was a four-year military development institution dedicated to graduating officers of the Afghan Armed Forces. The Afghan Defense University was built near Qargha in Kabul. Major universities outside of Kabul include Kandahar University in the south, Herat University in the north-west, Balkh University and Kunduz University in the north, Nangarhar University and Khost University (SZU) in the East. The United States planned to build six colleges of education and five provincial teacher training colleges across the country, two large secondary schools in Kabul, and one school in Jalalabad, during the invasion years.
Religion
The culture of Afghanistan has been greatly influenced by Islam, but also to a lesser extent by Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. The country has been a crossroads throughout history for India, Iran and Central Asia, which has had an impact on their civilization.
The majority of Afghans (about 99%) are Muslim, of whom 80% are Sunni and only 19% are Shia. An important figure in Muslim life in Afghanistan is the mullah (religious leader or instructor). Any man who can recite the Qur'an by heart can be a mullah.
The Hazara people are predominantly Shia, mainly from the Twelve branch with some smaller groups practicing the Isma'il branch, although there is also a small Sunni minority. The Qizilbash tizks of Afghanistan have traditionally been Shia.
Thousands of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are also in the major cities. There was a small Jewish community in Afghanistan that had immigrated to Israel and the United States in the late 20th century; at least one Jew, Zablon Simintov, remained. There are between 500 and 8,000 Christians in Afghanistan, who practice their faith clandestinely due to the great social opposition that exists.
Culture
Afghanistan has a complex history, which is reflected in its current civilization, languages and monuments. Afghans are proud of their country, their lineage and sovereignty. Being at the crossroads of multiple trade routes and empires, Afghan culture is rich and multilingual, with heritages from all ethnicities and peoples who arrived in its territory, where Islam is predominant, but there are Buddhist and nomadic influences.. Afghan literature is basically made up of poems in the Persian and Pashto languages. Their music is made up of traditional stringed instruments such as the dotar lute or the tanbur lute, due to Arab and Persian influences, and the tabla drum, Indian influence..
Sports
Buzkashi or kokpar is an equestrian activity practiced in Afghanistan, and is considered the national sport.
While his soccer team has never qualified for the Asian Cup, let alone the Soccer World Cup, since it was always considered one of the weakest in the AFC, but in recent years it has made important progress, where great achievements stand out, such as the 2013 SAFF Championship title. At the club level, there is the Afghan Premier League, founded in 2012 and whose most successful team is Shaheen Asmayee, with 5 victories. In addition, it was the first Afghan team to participate in an international tournament, it was in the 2017 AFC Cup, losing in the first phase against Khosilot Farkhor from Tajikistan.