8am: Twenty-three years ago, the Taliban destroyed two large Buddha statues in Bamyan province. The taller statue, named Salsaal, standing at 53 meters, and the smaller one, Shahmama, at 35 meters, were carved into the mountains between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD with a distinctive style. Mullah Omar, the former Taliban supreme leader, ordered
BBC: As the world was watching the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, two sisters in Kabul were among millions of women in Afghanistan who could directly feel the new regime tightening its grip on them. They decided they couldn’t just stand back and watch women’s freedoms being restricted, and started secretly using the
BBC News: Dozens of archaeological sites in Afghanistan have been bulldozed to allow systematic looting, according to researchers at the University of Chicago. They say their analysis of satellite photos provides the first definitive photographic evidence that looting patterns that began under the previous government have continued since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
HIR: The Taliban’s dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddha marked just one of many instances of cultural loss in Afghanistan’s history. In the 1960s, French archaeologists caused irreparable damage by using bulldozers to excavate Ai-Khanoum, an ancient Greek city. In 1989, Russia ended its 10-year occupation of Afghanistan. When its forces pulled out, civil war ensued.
By RFE/RL, EPA-EFE: A group of women in Herat have dedicated themselves to continuing a nearly long-lost, centuries-old tradition of woodcarving that is unique to Afghanistan. Click here to view photos (external link).
A 12th-century mosque and minarets from 1417 are visibly cracked, with ornate tiles falling to the ground in Herat, Afghanistan. The ancient monuments had been neglected even before Afghanistan’s severe 6.3-magnitude earthquakes in October, in which more than 1,000 people died. Now the Herat monuments are showing significant signs of damage while the Taliban government
Khaama: Gulalai Farida, known as Ustad Mahwash, is one of Afghanistan’s most beloved musicians, earning titles such as “Ustad” (meaning master) and “Lady of Afghan Music” throughout her illustrious career. After five decades of artistic dedication, she bid farewell to the stage. Click here to read more (external link).
The Art Newspaper: The Zinda Jan and Injil districts sustained the worst of the damage. Arash Boostani, a project manager for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in Afghanistan, who had visited some of the villages in those districts over the years, says many of them contained ancient vernacular architecture structures that dated back
Science.org: Looting of archaeological sites in Afghanistan is continuing, despite vows by the Taliban government to protect the nation’s cultural treasures, a recent analysis finds. Using artificial intelligence (AI) to help comb through a trove of satellite images, researchers at the University of Chicago’s (UC’s) Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation found that looters are still
Ariana: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that 7,500 pregnant women were affected by the recent string of earthquakes in Herat province. The UNFPA wrote on X, that the loss of loved ones has a very bad effect on pregnant women. This United Nations agency said that it has sent psychotherapeutic counselors to the