Eisa Khan Ayoob Ayoobi via The Globe Post: The National “Unity” Government (NUG) was formed through a power-sharing deal to harmonize and protect the society. But in reality, it has emerged as a tribal monocracy and just a facade, plagued by disunity and ethnonationalism. As the head of NUG, Ashraf Ghani, since his illegitimate rise to power,
Eisa Khan Ayoobi via Al Jazeera: The NUG is struggling with containing the Taliban and addressing internal divisions – [Ghani’s] intra-Pashtun clan politics seems to have made reaching out to the Taliban more difficult. The Taliban leadership are Durrani Pashtun from Kandahar who take pride in being the descendants of “conventional” Afghan rulers like Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 20, 2018 Members of the Shi’ite minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan have commemorated Ashura, the holiest celebration in their religious calendar, amid heightened security measures against possible sectarian attacks. The festival making the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, this year fell on September 20.
PRI: “The Hazara have swelling eyes, moon-type face, and they have a small nose,” explains Dr. Ahmadzai, adding that “many look like Filipinos, Japanese and Chinese.” Dr. Ahmadzai, he says he gets roughly 20 or 30 Hazara patients every month. They are mostly women wanting to enlarge their eyes and noses. And he says he doesn’t
The National Interest: Kabul is a democracy in name only. Many non-Pashtuns see the political integration of the Taliban as an intra-Pashtun reconciliation process—not all-Afghan—that will deepen the Pashtunization of the power structure under Ghani, helping consolidate the ethnic group’s dominance. Under the national unity government agreement , Afghanistan was to have convened a loya jirga
Associated Press: In the past, Khalilzad has called on the U.S. to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, saying it harbors insurgents. The Trump administration has embraced a similar position, recently suspending $300 million in aid to Pakistan, saying it isn’t doing enough to eliminate Taliban safe havens on its territory. Click here to read more (external
Frud Behzan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 17, 2018 Hassan Rahimi recalls the last time he saw Farzana and Atta, his twin daughter and son. He had just ended a grueling shift at a local bakery. It was around noon when he arrived at the family’s cramped, one-room home in Dasht-e Barchi, a poor neighborhood
Tolo News: Assadullah Khalid, former head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), who visited Khost province on Friday, said government is dividing the people by ethnicity and language for its maintenance. Khalid, who recently founded a political movement, Omid-e-Sabah, said election is the only solution for Afghanistan’s crisis, but he added that the people want a
Eisa Ayoobi via The Globe Post: Ashraf Ghani and Zalmay Khalilzad have been the most influential Afghan-Americans to impact U.S.-Afghanistan relations over the decades. Their education and Washington-based experience have earned them rhetoric sway and a vastly influential network of friends. However, their ethnonationalism-aspired Afghanistan “vision” has cost the U.S. thousands of lives and “trillions of
Tolo News: Fawzia Kofi, a candidate from Badakhshan province, who looks set to be disqualified by the IECC, said the commission has no proof that she has ties with illegal armed groups. “In my objection, I told them that if you or any other department proves that I or any of my family members even own an illegal pistol, I will apologize to the Afghan people and will leave politics,” said Kofi. Kofi