BBC News: A new documentary celebrates Ahmad Zahir, the ‘60s and ‘70s icon who mysteriously died in 1979. Arwa Haider talks to the people making the film, including Zahir’s daughter, about how the singer combined popularity with protest. Click here to read more (external link).
VOA News: Shamsia Hassani is widely recognized as Afghanistan’s first female graffiti artist. Being a graffiti artist anywhere in the world is a challenge and that is especially true for a woman living in war-torn Kabul. Dorian Jones caught up with the 30-year-old Hassani at an international street art festival in Istanbul and has more on
VOA News | October 13, 2018: Afghan women too many times have been seen by some as victims. Victims of domestic violence, cultural limitations, political restrictions and more. Their voices often go unheard, but not in a play produced in Washington called ‘Women of Troy: Voices From Afghanistan.’ It is a story of Afghan women’s bravery
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 22, 2018 ISLAMABAD — The consequences of Afghanistan’s increasingly deadly war are weighing heaviest on the nation’s civilians, with women bearing the brunt of the violence. The Taliban banned music and girls education, and restricted outdoor activities of women when the group was controlling most of Afghanistan. But violence and social
PRI: Today, women’s clothing in Afghanistan is far from the stereotypical blue burqa. Fashion designers are quietly working to give Afghan women more options when it comes to the way they dress. Rahiba Rahimi is one of them. Over freshly brewed tea and soft sponge cake, Rahimi tells me why she thinks war-torn Afghanistan needs fashion. Click here to read more (external
KCRA: Organizers closed Sacramento’s annual mural festival with an event to unveil new work by Shamsia Hassani featured on the wall of the Sacramento News and Review office off Del Paso Boulevard. Hassani began painting walls in December 2010 and became Afghanistan’s first female street artist. Click here to read more (external link).
The Telegraph (UK): The treasure has come to light only because it was dug up illicitly in Afghanistan and smuggled to Britain. It dates from between about 2300 and 2000 BC when Afghanistan was closely connected by trade with the neighbouring Bronze Age civilisations in the Indus valley (Pakistan), eastern Iran and southwest Central Asia. Click here
ABC News: For 200 years, Ghulam Sakhi’s family has been blowing glass in the ancient Afghan city of Herat. He creates azure, indigo and green goblets, cups and vases that have been sold in fancy stores overseas, but like so many Afghans the artisan struggles to make a living and as he tries to keep this
Global Voices: In 2001, the Taliban infamously blew up a giant carved Buddha in Bamiyan, a region defined by its diverse archaeology, coruscating lakes, vivid panoramic valleys and rich-green meadows. If it is possible to muster a response to such devastating cultural loss, then the five-day Dambura Festival, which has now become a regular fixture in
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript: The National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul had once been ranked one of the most important museums in Asia, home to over 100,000 objects excavated in Afghanistan. Over the years, however, stray bombs and looting had depleted about 70-percent of the collection and much of the museum building by the mid-1990s. Click here