Afghanistan Is Trying to Save Its Child Bombers
In a room full of loud teenagers, 17-year-old Mohammad Ehsan is the quietest. (The names of the boys in this piece have been changed to protect their identities.) The other boys in this juvenile ...
Afghan musician Shafiq Baksh closes his eyes in reverence as the call to prayer wafts from the loudspeaker of a nearby mosque, marking the end of the day-long Ramadan fast. “The azaan is a kind of music that brings us close to God,” he says. “”But music in itself is a path to God.” Baksh,...
Ezatullah Nizami Ahmadzai, a young Afghan policeman stationed at a small checkpoint on the outskirts of Kabul, was just sitting down with his compatriots, on Saturday, for iftar, the breaking of the fay-long fast that Muslims observe during Ramadan. Hardly had they said their short prayers and taken a morsel, when explosions disrupted their moment...
In a tea-drinking culture, coffee and cupcakes are signs of social change
As the sun set, we hurried through the streets of Dasht-e-Barchi on the western edge of Kabul. Our host, 40-year old Baqir Sangari, had called several times to check the instructions to his house in the largely Hazara Shiite community. Arriving a few minutes after iftar, we were welcomed by Baqir and invited to sit...
The grief of Talib Jan Mangal is insurmountable. His voice quivers with emotion as the 66-year-old Afghan fields calls from around the world. They are all asking after his 26-year-old daughter Mina, who shot dead in broad daylight in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Saturday. Despite his sorrow, Mr Mangal answers every calling journalist,...
The sun was setting over the Afghan capital on the second day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, prayer and good deeds, but municipality cleaners Zabihullah and Fahim were still out on the streets of Kabul, hours after their shifts had ended. “The money we make isn’t enough to survive, which is why after...
It’s hard to imagine a happier face. But it’s a bittersweet story. A joyful video of a 5-year-old Afghan boy, Sayeed Rehman, has gone viral. He had just been fitted with a new prosthetic leg, and he couldn’t stop dancing while flashing a wide smile. He said he was happy to have a leg that...
Five-year-old Sayeed Rehman does not know what resilience means, a word used several times over the last few days to describe him. The young Afghan is just happy that he can dance again with his new prosthetic leg, one of many that he has worn during his short life. “I like to dance, and I...
A car bomb and shooting attack targeting a US-funded NGO in central Kabul on Wednesday left at least five civilians dead, two dozen wounded and Afghan security forces responding to the assault with an hours-long clearance operation. Afghan security forces killed five attackers who stormed the offices of Counterpart International, bringing an end to the...
In a historic first, Forbes magazine featured three young Afghan women social entrepreneurs in their much-talked about ‘30 Under 30’ list for Asia. A total of four Afghans made it to the prestigious list, including the three women — Tamana Asey, 26, director of the Afghanistan Forensic Science Organization (AFSO); Shabana Basij-Rasikh, 29, founder of the School...
