Afghanistan

Explore our coverage of Afghanistan’s politics, economics, business and culture


Christmas Specials

The incredible story of Afghanistan's exiled women’s cricket team

The Taliban would kill them for daring to play “the gentlemen’s game”

Asia

The Taliban is removing every shred of freedom from women

Three years after America’s withdrawal, the situation is grim

Asia

Afghans are suffering. Don’t expect any tears from the Taliban

Three years on from America’s humiliating departure, the country is ignored

Asia

The Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan is at war with the world

The group which claimed responsibility for the Crocus City Hall attack is increasingly worrying

Asia

Pakistan expels undocumented Afghans. But at what price?

Strains between Pakistan and the Taliban in Kabul will only grow

Asia

Afghanistan’s terrible earthquakes

Over 2,000 have died in the country’s latest calamity

Asia

The Taliban have launched an impressive new war on drugs

After two decades of lawlessness, Afghanistan has a government able to enforce its writ

Asia

The Taliban go big on animal welfare

The Islamist fanatics also castrate dogs

Asia

Life under the rule of the Taliban 2.0

For half of Afghans the mullahs’ regime is less bad than feared 

Culture

The tragic timeliness of “A Thousand Splendid Suns”

An opera adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel arrives almost two years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan

Asia

The Taliban are digging an enormous canal

A mega-project in northern Afghanistan risks raising regional tensions

Culture

Banned at home, Afghan music is thriving in the diaspora

Musicians who fled the Taliban are forging new sounds abroad 

Asia

A murder in Afghanistan highlights the misery of women

Stopping women from working at NGOs will cost lives

Culture

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan echoes in today’s war

Many of the stories in Svetlana Alexievich’s “Zinky Boys” could have come from Ukraine

Asia

“I’m from the Taliban and I’m here to help”

Former fighters and religious clerics are filling Afghanistan’s civil service

Middle East & Africa

How al-Qaeda and Islamic State are digging into Africa

The terrorist group’s African franchises are now punchier than those in the Middle East

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