AFP: Women often arrive in extremis at the maternity hospital in southeastern Afghanistan, one of the most active in the world, with more than 60 babies born daily. The Taliban are active in the region and roads are often dangerous after dark, so when 25-year-old Asmad Fahri felt her contractions begin at night she knew she would
New York Times: The bay windows in the Bost Hotel’s dining room looked out across the Helmand River. For all the river’s immensity, the current, borne hundreds of miles from up in the Hindu Kush, spoke only in whispers. The air hummed with mosquitoes. Beyond the river, on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of
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
Sofrep: A series of pictures depicting the Afghanistan not often shown in the headlines, not soaked in blood or rife with shell casings. Rarely is it an easy life, but it’s still not one you often see. Click here to view photos.
The Atlantic: When makiz nasirahmad, a 24-year-old Afghan American who recently lived in Afghanistan, received a Facebook friend request from a woman with an unfamiliar name, she didn’t think twice about accepting it. The woman’s profile picture had clearly been copied off the internet, but Nasirahmad figured that the woman could be a relative of
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
Marta Pascual Juanola via WAToday (Australia): I could never have imagined that five years later my partner and I would be trekking along the country’s Karakoram, Pamir and Hindu Kush ranges, searching for one of the last nomadic cultures in the world: the Pamiri Kyrgyz. Afghanistan’s Kyrgyz nomads live in the high-altitude flats of the
South China Morning Post: Ishkashim is a bright spot in Afghanistan’s long-suffering tourism industry as it attracts those seeking superb selfies. And it’s perfectly safe – just ask the locals. Ishkashim is a small district in Afghanistan’s far northeast Badakhshan province that serves as the gateway to the famed Wakhan Valley – home to some of
BBC News: People in Helmand Province might be exhausted and desperate after many years of war and violence. But every Friday night, they still gather in dimly-lit rooms for a laugh and card games – right under the Taliban’s nose. Click here for more (external link).