Afghanistan - Wikipedia

Afghanistan - Wikipedia
Jump to content
Coordinates
34°31′N
69°11′E
 / 
34.517°N 69.183°E
 /
34.517; 69.183
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Country in Central and South Asia
This article is about the country. For other uses, see
Afghanistan (disambiguation)
"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" redirects here. For the group, see
Taliban
. For the state that existed from 1996 to 2001, see
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
د افغانستان اسلامي امارت
Pashto
Də Afğānistān Islāmi Imārat
امارت اسلامی افغانستان
Dari
Imārat-i Islāmī-yi Afğānistān
Flag
Emblem
Motto:
لَا إِلهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ
Arabic
Lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh, Muhammadun rasūlu llāh
"There is no god but
God
Muhammad
is the
messenger
of God." (
Shahada
Anthem:
دا د باتورانو کور
Pashto
Dā Də Bātorāno Kor
This is the Home of the Brave
Show globe
Show map of Afghanistan
Capital
and largest city
Kabul
34°31′N
69°11′E
 / 
34.517°N 69.183°E
 /
34.517; 69.183
Official languages
Pashto
Dari
Ethnic groups
(2010, unofficial estimates)
42%
Pashtun
27%
Tajik
9%
Hazara
9%
Uzbek
4%
Aimaq
3%
Turkmen
2%
Baloch
4%
other
Religion
(2020)
99.9%
Islam
89.1%
Sunni
official
10
10.8%
Shia
0.1%
other
Demonym
Afghan
13
14
Government
Unitary
totalitarian
15
theocratic
Islamic
emirate
16
Supreme Leader
Hibatullah Akhundzada
Prime Minister
Hasan Akhund
Chief Justice
Abdul Hakim Haqqani
Legislature
None
Formation
Hotak Emirate
21 April 1709
Durrani Empire
June 1747
Barakzai Emirate
1823
Unification
27 May 1863
Independence
19 August 1919
Kingdom
9 June 1926
Republic
17 July 1973
Democratic Republic
30 April 1978
Islamic State
28 April 1992
Islamic Emirate
27 September 1996
Islamic Republic
26 January 2004
Restoration of Islamic Emirate
15 August 2021
Area
• Total
652,864
19
km
(252,072 sq mi) (
40th
• Water (%)
negligible
Population
• mid-2024/2025 estimate
35–50 million
36th
• Density
64/km
(165.8/sq mi)
GDP
PPP
2023 estimate
• Total
$91.668 billion
20
• Per capita
$2,174
20
179th
GDP
(nominal)
2023 estimate
• Total
$17.329 billion
20
• Per capita
$411
20
190th
HDI
(2023)
0.496
21
low
181st
Currency
Afghani
افغانى
) (
AFN
Time zone
UTC
+4:30
22
Afghanistan Time
ISO 3166 code
AF
Internet TLD
.af
Afghanistan
officially the
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
is a
landlocked country
located at the crossroads of
Central
and
South Asia
. It is bordered by
Pakistan
to the
east and south
Iran
to the
west
Turkmenistan
to the
northwest
Uzbekistan
to the
north
Tajikistan
to the
northeast
, and
China
to the
northeast and east
. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi) of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains
in the north
and
the southwest
, which are separated by the
Hindu Kush
mountain range.
Kabul
is the country's capital and largest city.
Afghanistan's population
is estimated to be between 35 and 50 million.
Human habitation in Afghanistan
dates to the
Middle Paleolithic
era. Popularly referred to as the
graveyard of empires
32
the land
has witnessed numerous military campaigns
, including those by the
Persians
Alexander the Great
, the
Maurya Empire
Arab Muslims
, the
Mongols
, the
British
, the
Soviet Union
, and
a US-led coalition
. Afghanistan also served as the source from which the
Greco-Bactrians
and the
Mughals
, among others, rose to form major empires.
33
Because of the various conquests and periods in both the
Iranian
and
Indian
cultural spheres,
34
35
the area was a center for
Zoroastrianism
Buddhism
Hinduism
, and later
Islam
36
The modern state of Afghanistan began with the
Durrani Empire
in the 18th century under
Ahmad Shah Durrani
37
although
Dost Mohammad Khan
is sometimes considered to be the founder of the first
modern Afghan state
38
Afghanistan became a
buffer state
in the
Great Game
between the
British Empire
and the
Russian Empire
. From
India
, the British attempted to subjugate Afghanistan but were repelled in the
First Anglo-Afghan War
; the
Second Anglo-Afghan War
saw a British victory. Following the
Third Anglo-Afghan War
in 1919, Afghanistan became free of foreign political hegemony, and emerged as the independent
Kingdom of Afghanistan
in 1926. This monarchy lasted almost half a century, until
Zahir Shah
was
overthrown in 1973
, following which the
Republic of Afghanistan
was established.
Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan's history has been dominated by extensive warfare, including
coups, invasions, insurgencies, and civil wars
. The conflict began in 1978 when
a communist revolution
established a
socialist state
(itself a response to the dictatorship established following a
coup d'état in 1973
), and subsequent infighting prompted the
Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan
in 1979. The
mujahideen
won against the Soviets in the
Soviet–Afghan War
, leading to the
Soviets' withdrawal in 1989
. The ensuing
civil war
overthrew the socialist republic and established the
Islamic State of Afghanistan
through the
Peshawar Accord
, which could not remain in force and resulted in a
second civil war
between
mujahideen
factions in 1992. The
Taliban
controlled most of the country by 1996, but their
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
received little international recognition before its overthrow in the 2001
US invasion of Afghanistan
. The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after
capturing Kabul
, ending the
2001–2021 war
. The Taliban government is
widely unrecognized
by the international community due to reported violations of
human rights in Afghanistan
, particularly regarding the
treatment of women by the Taliban
Afghanistan is rich in natural resources, including
lithium
, iron,
zinc
, and copper. It is the second-largest producer of
cannabis resin
40
obsolete source
and third largest of both
saffron
41
and
cashmere
42
The country is a member of the
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
and a founding member of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation
. Due to the effects of war in recent decades, the country has dealt with high levels of terrorism,
poverty
, and child malnutrition. Afghanistan remains among the world's
least developed countries
, ranking 182nd on the
Human Development Index
. Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) is $81 billion by
purchasing power parity
and $20.1 billion by nominal values. Per capita, its GDP is among the lowest of any country as of 2020
[update]
Etymology
Main article:
Name of Afghanistan
Some scholars suggest that the
root
name
Afghān
is derived from the
Sanskrit
word
Aśvakan
, which was the name used for ancient inhabitants of the
Hindu Kush
43
Aśvakan
literally means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "
cavalrymen
" (from
aśva
, the
Sanskrit
and
Avestan
words for "horse").
44
Historically, the ethnonym
Afghān
was used to refer to ethnic
Pashtuns
45
The Arabic and Persian form of the name,
Afġān
, was first attested in the 10th-century geography book
Hudud al-'Alam
46
The last part of the name, "
-stan
", is a Persian suffix meaning "place of". Therefore, "Afghanistan" translates to "land of the Afghans", or "land of the Pashtuns" in a historical sense. According to the third edition of the
Encyclopaedia of Islam
47
The name Afghanistan (Afghānistān, land of the Afghans / Pashtuns,
afāghina
, sing.
afghān
) can be traced to the early eighth/fourteenth century, when it designated the easternmost part of the
Kartid
realm. This name was later used for certain regions in the
Ṣafavid
and
Mughal
empires that were inhabited by Afghans. While based on a state-supporting elite of
Abdālī / Durrānī
Afghans, the
Sadūzāʾī Durrānī polity
that came into being in 1160 / 1747 was not called Afghanistan in its own day. The name became a state designation only during the colonial intervention of the nineteenth century.
The term "Afghanistan" was officially used in 1855, when the British recognized
Dost Mohammad Khan
as king of
Afghanistan
48
History
Main article:
History of Afghanistan
Prehistory and antiquity
Main article:
Ancient history of Afghanistan
See also:
Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan
Tents of Afghan
nomads
in the northern
Badghis Province
. Early peasant farming villages came into existence about 7,000 years ago.
Excavations of prehistoric sites suggest that humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities in the area were among the earliest in the world. An important site of early historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to
Egypt
in the historical value of its archaeological sites.
49
50
Artifacts typical of the
Paleolithic
Mesolithic
Neolithic
Bronze
, and
Iron Ages
have been found in Afghanistan. Urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of
Mundigak
(near
Kandahar
in the south of the country) was a center of the
Helmand culture
. More recent findings established that the
Indus Valley Civilization
stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has been found on the
Oxus River
at
Shortugai
in northern Afghanistan.
51
52
53
After 2000 BCE successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan; among them were many
Indo-European
-speaking
Indo-Iranians
. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, and toward Europe via the area north of the
Caspian Sea
. The region at the time was referred to as
Ariana
49
54
By the middle of the 6th century BCE, the Achaemenids overthrew the
Medes
and incorporated
Arachosia
Aria
, and
Bactria
within its eastern boundaries. An
inscription
on the tombstone of
Darius I of Persia
mentions the
Kabul Valley
in a list of the 29 countries that he had conquered.
55
The region of
Arachosia
, around Kandahar in modern-day southern Afghanistan, used to be primarily Zoroastrian and played a key role in the transfer of the Avesta to
Persia
and is thus considered by some to be the "second homeland of Zoroastrianism".
56
57
58
A "Bactrian gold"
Scythian
belt depicting
Dionysus
, from
Tillya Tepe
in the ancient region of
Bactria
Alexander the Great
and his Macedonian forces arrived in Afghanistan in 330 BCE after defeating
Darius III of Persia
a year earlier in the
Battle of Gaugamela
. Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the
Seleucid Empire
controlled the region until 305 BCE, when they gave much of it to the
Maurya Empire
as part of an alliance treaty. The Mauryans controlled the area south of the
Hindu Kush
until they were overthrown in about 185 BCE. Their decline began 60 years after
Ashoka
's rule ended, leading to the
Hellenistic
reconquest by the
Greco-Bactrians
. Much of it soon broke away and became part of the
Indo-Greek Kingdom
. They were defeated and expelled by the
Indo-Scythians
in the late 2nd century BCE.
59
60
The
Silk Road
appeared during the first century BCE, and Afghanistan flourished with trade, with routes to China, India, Persia, and north to the cities of
Bukhara
Samarkand
, and
Khiva
in present-day Uzbekistan.
61
Goods and ideas were exchanged at this center point, such as Chinese silk, Persian silver and Roman gold, while the region of present Afghanistan was mining and trading
lapis lazuli
stones
62
mainly from the
Badakhshan
region.
During the first century BCE, the
Parthian Empire
subjugated the region but lost it to their
Indo-Parthian
vassals. In the mid-to-late first century CE the vast
Kushan Empire
, centered in Afghanistan, became great patrons of Buddhist culture, making
Buddhism
flourish throughout the region. The Kushans were overthrown by the
Sassanids
in the 3rd century CE, though the
Indo-Sassanids
continued to rule at least parts of the region. They were followed by the
Kidarites
who, in turn, was replaced by the
Hephthalites
. They were replaced by the
Turk Shahi
in the 7th century. The Buddhist Turk Shahi of Kabul was replaced by a Hindu dynasty before the Saffarids conquered the area in 870; this Hindu dynasty was called
Hindu Shahi
63
Much of the northeastern and southern areas of the country remained dominated by
Buddhist
culture.
64
65
Medieval period
Main articles:
Muslim conquests of Afghanistan
Mongol campaigns in Central Asia
, and
Ghaznavid campaigns in India
The
Ghurids
originated from
Ghor Province
in central Afghanistan.
Arab
Muslims
brought Islam to
Herat
and
Zaranj
in 642 CE and began spreading eastward; some of the native inhabitants they encountered accepted it while others revolted. Before the
arrival of Islam
, the region used to be home to various beliefs and cults, often resulting in
Syncretism
between the dominant religions
66
67
such as
Zoroastrianism
56
57
58
Buddhism or
Greco-Buddhism
Ancient Iranian religions
68
Hinduism
, Christianity,
69
70
and Judaism.
71
72
An exemplification of the syncretism in the region would be that people were patrons of Buddhism but still worshipped local Iranian gods such as
Ahura Mazda
Lady Nana
Anahita
or
Mihr (Mithra)
and portrayed
Greek gods
as protectors of Buddha.
73
68
74
The
Zunbils
and Kabul Shahi were first conquered in 870 CE by the
Saffarid
Muslims of Zaranj. Later, the
Samanids
extended their Islamic influence south of the Hindu Kush. The
Ghaznavids
rose to power in the 10th century.
75
76
77
By the 11th century,
Mahmud of Ghazni
had defeated the remaining Hindu rulers and effectively
Islamized
the wider region,
78
with the exception of
Kafiristan
79
Mahmud made
Ghazni
into an important city and patronized intellectuals such as the historian
al-Biruni
and the poet
Ferdowsi
80
The
Ghaznavid dynasty
was
overthrown by the Ghurids in 1186
, whose architectural achievements included the remote
Minaret of Jam
. The Ghurids controlled Afghanistan for less than a century before being conquered by the
Khwarazmian dynasty
in 1215.
81
Mongol invasions and conquests
In 1219 CE,
Genghis Khan
and his
Mongol army overran the region
. His troops are said to have annihilated the Khwarazmian cities of Herat and
Balkh
as well as
Bamyan
82
The destruction caused by the Mongols forced many locals to return to an agrarian rural society.
83
Mongol rule continued with the
Ilkhanate
in the northwest while the
Khalji dynasty
administered the Afghan tribal areas south of the Hindu Kush until the invasion of
Timur
(aka Tamerlane), who established the
Timurid Empire
in 1370. Under the rule of
Shah Rukh
, the city of Herat
84
served as the focal point of the
Timurid Renaissance
, whose glory matched
Florence
of the
Italian Renaissance
as the center of a cultural rebirth.
85
86
In the early 16th century
Babur
arrived from
Ferghana
and captured Kabul from the
Arghun dynasty
87
Babur would go on to conquer the Afghan
Lodi dynasty
who had ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the
First Battle of Panipat
88
Between the 16th and 18th century, the Uzbek
Khanate of Bukhara
, Iranian
Safavids
, and Indian
Mughals
ruled parts of the territory.
89
During the medieval period, the northwestern area of Afghanistan was referred to by the regional name
Khorasan
, which was commonly used up to the 19th century among natives to describe their country.
90
91
92
93
Hotak dynasty
Main article:
Hotak dynasty
Map of the Hotak Empire at its height in 1728, disputed between
Hussain Hotak
(centered in Kandahar) and
Ashraf Hotak
(centered in Isfahan)
In 1709,
Mirwais Hotak
, a local
Ghilzai
tribal leader, successfully rebelled against the Safavids. He defeated
Gurgin Khan
, the Georgian governor of Kandahar under the Safavids, and established his own kingdom.
94
Mirwais died in 1715, and was succeeded by his brother
Abdul Aziz
, who was soon killed by Mirwais's son
Mahmud
for possibly planning to sign a peace with the Safavids. Mahmud led the Afghan army in 1722 to the Persian capital of
Isfahan
, and captured the city after the
Battle of Gulnabad
and proclaimed himself King of Persia.
94
The Afghan dynasty was ousted from Persia by
Nader Shah
after the 1729
Battle of Damghan
In 1738, Nader Shah and his
forces
captured Kandahar in the
siege of Kandahar
, the last Hotak stronghold, from Shah
Hussain Hotak
. Soon after, the Persian and Afghan forces
invaded India
, Nader Shah had plundered Delhi, alongside his 16-year-old commander,
Ahmad Shah Durrani
who had assisted him on these campaigns. Nader Shah was assassinated in 1747.
95
96
Durrani Empire
Main article:
Durrani Empire
See also:
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Ahmad Shah had launched two campaigns into Khorasan, 1750–1751 and 1754–1755.
97
Portrait of
Ahmad Shah Durrani
c.
1757
Barakzai dynasty and British wars
Further information:
Dost Mohammad Khan
Herat (1793–1863)
Maimana Khanate
Principality of Kandahar
European influence in Afghanistan
Anglo-Afghan Wars
Durand Line
, and
Afghan Civil War (1928–1929)
Map of Afghanistan (
Emirate
) and surrounding nations in 1839, during the
First Anglo-Afghan War
Dost Mohammad Khan
's realm can be seen as the Emirate of Kabul, with the
Principality of Qandahar
and the
Emirate of Herat
seen as well.
By the early 19th century, the Afghan empire was under threat from the
Persians
in the west and the
Sikh Empire
in the east.
Fateh Khan
, leader of the
Barakzai tribe
, installed many of his brothers in positions of power throughout the empire. Fateh Khan was
brutally murdered
in 1818 by
Mahmud Shah
. As a result, the brothers of Fateh Khan and the
Barakzai
tribe rebelled, and a civil war brewed. During this turbulent period, Afghanistan fractured into many states, including the
Principality of Qandahar
Emirate of Herat
Khanate of Qunduz
Maimana Khanate
, and numerous other warring polities. The most prominent state was the
Emirate of Kabul
, ruled by
Dost Mohammad Khan
98
99
Akbar Khan
and the Afghan army failed to capture the
Jamrud Fort
from the
Sikh Khalsa Army
, but killed Sikh commander
Hari Singh Nalwa
, thus ending the
Afghan-Sikh Wars
100
Afghan tribesmen
in 1841, painted by British officer
James Rattray
In 1893, Abdur Rahman signed an agreement in which the ethnic Pashtun and
Baloch
territories were divided by the
Durand Line
, which forms the modern-day border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Shia
-dominated
Hazarajat
and pagan
Kafiristan
remained politically independent until being
conquered
by Abdur Rahman Khan in 1891–1896. He was known as the "Iron Amir" for his features and his ruthless methods against tribes.
101
He died in 1901, succeeded by his son,
Habibullah Khan
How can a small power like Afghanistan, which is like a goat between these lions [Britain and Russia] or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill, stand in the midway of the stones without being ground to dust?
Abdur Rahman Khan
, the "Iron Amir", in 1900
102
103
During the
First World War
, when Afghanistan was neutral, Habibullah Khan was met by officials of the
Central Powers
in the
Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition
. They called on Afghanistan to declare full independence from the United Kingdom, join them and attack British India, as part of the
Hindu–German Conspiracy
. The effort to bring Afghanistan into the Central Powers failed, but it sparked discontent among the population about maintaining neutrality with the British. Habibullah was assassinated in February 1919, and
Amanullah Khan
eventually assumed power. A staunch supporter of the 1915–1916 expeditions, Amanullah Khan invaded British India, beginning the
Third Anglo-Afghan War
, and entering British India via the
Khyber Pass
104
Amanullah Khan
proclaimed himself
King of Afghanistan
in June 1926.
Following the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War and the signing of the
Treaty of Rawalpindi
on 19 August 1919,
Emir
Amanullah Khan declared the
Emirate of Afghanistan
sovereign
and fully
independent state
. He moved to end his country's traditional isolation by establishing diplomatic relations with the international community, particularly with the
Soviet Union
and the
Weimar Republic
105
106
He proclaimed himself
King of Afghanistan
on 9 June 1926, forming the
Kingdom of Afghanistan
. He introduced several reforms intended to modernize his nation. A key force behind these reforms was
Mahmud Tarzi
, an ardent supporter of the education of women. He fought for Article 68 of Afghanistan's 1923
constitution
, which implemented compulsory elementary education.
Slavery
was abolished in 1923.
107
King Amanullah's wife,
Queen Soraya
, was an important figure during this period in the fight for women's education and against their oppression.
108
Some of the reforms, such as the abolition of the traditional
burqa
for women and the opening of co-educational schools, alienated many tribal and religious leaders, leading to the
Afghan Civil War (1928–1929)
. King Amanullah abdicated in January 1929, and soon after Kabul fell to
Saqqawist
forces led by
Habibullah Kalakani
109
Mohammad Nadir Shah
, Amanullah's cousin, defeated and killed Kalakani in October 1929, and was declared King Nadir Shah.
110
He abandoned the reforms of King Amanullah in favor of a more gradual approach to modernization, but was assassinated in 1933 by
Abdul Khaliq
111
Mohammed Zahir Shah succeeded to the throne and reigned as king from 1933 to 1973. During the
tribal revolts of 1944–1947
, King Zahir's reign was challenged by
Zadran
Safi
Mangal
, and
Wazir
tribesmen led by
Mazrak Zadran
Salemai
, and
Faqir of Ipi
, among others – many of whom were
Amanullah loyalists
. Afghanistan joined the
League of Nations
in 1934. In the 1930s, the country experienced significant development of roads, infrastructure, the founding of a
national bank
, and increased education. Road links in the north played a large part in a growing cotton and textile industry.
112
The country built close relationships with the
Axis powers
, with
Nazi Germany
having the largest share in Afghan development at the time.
113
King Zahir
, the last reigning monarch of Afghanistan, who reigned from 1933 until 1973
Until 1946, King Zahir ruled with the assistance of his uncle, who held the post of
prime minister
and continued the policies of Nadir Shah. Another uncle,
Shah Mahmud Khan
, became prime minister in 1946 and experimented with allowing greater political freedom. He was replaced in 1953 by
Mohammed Daoud Khan
, a Pashtun nationalist who sought the creation of a
Pashtunistan
, leading to highly tense relations with Pakistan.
114
Daoud Khan pressed for social modernization reforms and sought a closer relationship with the Soviet Union. Afterward, the
1964 constitution
was formed, and the first non-royal prime minister was sworn in.
112
Zahir Shah, like his father Nadir Shah, had a policy of maintaining national independence while pursuing gradual modernization, creating nationalist feeling, and improving relations with the United Kingdom. Afghanistan was neither a participant in
World War II
nor aligned with either power bloc in the
Cold War
. However, it was a beneficiary of the latter rivalry as both the Soviet Union and the United States vied for influence by building Afghanistan's main highways, airports, and other vital infrastructure. On a per capita basis, Afghanistan received more Soviet
development aid
than any other country. In 1973, while the King was in Italy, Daoud Khan launched a
bloodless coup
and became the first
president of Afghanistan
, abolishing the monarchy.
Democratic Republic and Soviet War
Main articles:
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Soviet–Afghan War
, and
Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)
Further information:
History of Afghanistan (1978–1992)
Soviet troops in
Gardez
, Afghanistan, in 1987
In April 1978, the communist
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
(PDPA) seized power in a bloody coup d'état against then-President
Mohammed Daoud Khan
, in what is called the
Saur Revolution
. The PDPA declared the establishment of the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
, with its first leader named as
People's Democratic Party
General Secretary
Nur Muhammad Taraki
115
This would trigger a series of events that would dramatically turn Afghanistan from a peaceful (albeit poor and secluded) country to a hotbed of conflict and terrorism.
116
The PDPA initiated various social, symbolic, and land distribution reforms that provoked strong opposition, while also brutally oppressing political dissidents. This caused unrest and quickly expanded into a state of
civil war
by 1979, waged by guerrilla
mujahideen
(and smaller
Maoist
guerrillas) against regime forces countrywide. It quickly turned into a
proxy war
as the Pakistani government provided these rebels with covert training centers, the United States
supported
them through Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI),
117
and the Soviet Union sent thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA regime.
118
Meanwhile, there was increasingly hostile friction between the competing factions of the PDPA – the dominant
Khalq
and the more moderate
Parcham
119
In October 1979, PDPA General Secretary Taraki was assassinated in an internal coup orchestrated by then-prime minister
Hafizullah Amin
, who became the new general secretary of the PDPA. The situation in the country deteriorated under Amin, and thousands of people went missing.
120
Displeased with Amin's government, the
Soviet Army
invaded the country in December 1979, heading for Kabul and killing Amin.
121
A Soviet-organized regime, led by Parcham's
Babrak Karmal
but inclusive of both factions (Parcham and Khalq), filled the vacuum. Soviet troops in more substantial numbers were deployed to stabilize Afghanistan under Karmal, marking the beginning of the
Soviet–Afghan War
122
Lasting nine years, the war caused the deaths of between 562,000
123
and 2 million Afghans,
and displaced about 6 million people who subsequently fled Afghanistan, mainly to Pakistan and Iran.
131
Heavy air bombardment destroyed many countryside villages, millions of
landmines
were planted,
132
and some cities such as Herat and Kandahar were also damaged from bombardment. After the
Soviet withdrawal
, another
civil war ensued
until the communist regime under PDPA leader
Mohammad Najibullah
collapsed in 1992.
133
134
135
The Soviet–Afghan War had drastic social effects on Afghanistan. The militarization of society led to heavily armed police, private bodyguards, openly armed civil defense groups, and the like becoming the norm in Afghanistan for decades thereafter.
136
The traditional power structure had shifted from the clergy, community elders, intelligentsia, and military in favor of powerful
warlords
137
Post–Cold War conflict
See also:
Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)
Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)
, and
Northern Alliance
Development of the civil war from 1992 to late 2001
Another civil war broke out after the
creation
of a dysfunctional coalition
government
between leaders of various
mujahideen
factions. Amid a state of anarchy and factional infighting,
138
139
140
various
mujahideen
factions committed widespread rape, murder, and extortion,
139
141
142
while Kabul was heavily bombarded and partially destroyed by the fighting.
142
Several failed reconciliations and alliances occurred between different leaders.
143
The
Taliban
emerged in September 1994 as a movement and militia of students (
talib
) from Islamic
madrassas (schools) in Pakistan
142
144
who soon had military support from Pakistan.
145
Taking control of Kandahar city that year,
142
they conquered more territories until finally driving out the government of
Rabbani
from Kabul in 1996,
146
147
where they established an
emirate
148
The Taliban were condemned internationally for the harsh enforcement of their interpretation of Islamic
sharia
law, which resulted in the brutal treatment of many Afghans, especially
women
149
150
During their rule, the Taliban and their allies committed massacres against Afghan civilians, denied UN food supplies to starving civilians, and conducted a policy of
scorched earth
, burning vast areas of fertile land and destroying tens of thousands of homes.
After the fall of Kabul
to the Taliban,
Ahmad Shah Massoud
and
Abdul Rashid Dostum
formed the
Northern Alliance
, later joined by others, to resist the Taliban. Dostum's forces were defeated by the Taliban during the
Battles of Mazar-i-Sharif
in 1997 and 1998; Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff,
Pervez Musharraf
, began sending thousands of Pakistani militants to help the Taliban defeat the Northern Alliance.
By 2000, the Northern Alliance only controlled 10% of the territory, cornered in the northeast. On 9 September 2001, Massoud was assassinated by two Arab
suicide attackers
in
Panjshir Valley
. Around 400,000 Afghans died in internal conflicts between 1990 and 2001.
161
US invasion and the Islamic Republic
Further information:
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Taliban insurgency
, and
Fall of Kabul (2021)
In October 2001, the
United States invaded Afghanistan
to remove the Taliban from power after they refused to hand over
Osama bin Laden
, the prime suspect of the
September 11 attacks
, who was a "guest" of the Taliban and was operating his
al-Qaeda
network in Afghanistan.
162
163
164
The majority of Afghans supported the American invasion.
165
166
During the initial invasion, US and UK forces bombed al-Qaeda training camps, and later, in cooperation with the Northern Alliance, the Taliban regime came to an end.
167
US troops and
Chinooks
in Afghanistan, 2008
In December 2001, after the Taliban government was overthrown, the
Afghan Interim Administration
under
Hamid Karzai
was formed. The
International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) was established by the
United Nations Security Council
to assist the
Karzai administration
and provide basic security.
168
169
By this time, after two decades of war as well as an acute
famine
at the time, Afghanistan had one of the highest
infant
and child mortality rates in the world, the lowest life expectancy, much of the population suffered from hunger and malnutrition,
170
171
172
and infrastructure was in ruins.
173
Many foreign donors started providing aid and assistance to rebuild the war-torn country.
174
175
As coalition troops entered Afghanistan to help the
rebuilding process
176
177
the
Taliban began an insurgency
to regain control. Afghanistan remained one of the poorest countries in the world because of a lack of foreign investment,
government corruption
, and the Taliban insurgency.
178
179
The Afghan government was able to establish some democratic structures, adopting a constitution in 2004 with the name
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
. Attempts were made, often with the support of foreign donor countries, to improve the country's economy, healthcare, education, transport, and agriculture. ISAF forces also began to train the
Afghan National Security Forces
. Following 2002, nearly five million
Afghans
were repatriated.
180
The number of NATO troops present in Afghanistan peaked at 140,000 in 2011,
181
dropping to approximately 16,000 in 2018.
182
In September 2014,
Ashraf Ghani
became president after the
2014 Afghan presidential election
, in which, for the first time in Afghanistan's history, power was democratically transferred.
183
184
185
On 28 December 2014, NATO formally ended ISAF combat operations and transferred full security responsibility to the Afghan government. The NATO-led
Operation Resolute Support
was formed the same day as a successor to ISAF.
186
187
Thousands of NATO troops remained in the country to train and advise Afghan government forces
188
and continue their fight against the Taliban.
189
A report titled
Body Count
concluded that 106,000–170,000 civilians had been killed as a result of the fighting in Afghanistan at the hands of all parties to the conflict.
190
A map of Afghanistan showing the
2021 Taliban offensive
On 19 February 2020, the
United States–Taliban deal
was made in Qatar. The deal was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF);
191
following the signing of the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the
Taliban insurgency
, leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
192
Second Taliban era
Further information:
Aftermath of the Afghanistan War (2001–2021)
NATO Secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg
announced on 14 April 2021 that the alliance had agreed to start
withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan
by 1 May.
193
Soon after NATO troops began withdrawing, the Taliban launched an
offensive against the Afghan government
and quickly advanced in front of collapsing Afghan government forces.
194
195
The Taliban
captured the capital city of Kabul
on 15 August 2021, after regaining control over a vast majority of Afghanistan.
196
Several foreign diplomats and Afghan government officials, including President Ashraf Ghani,
197
were evacuated from the country, with many Afghan civilians attempting to flee along with them.
198
On 17 August, first vice president
Amrullah Saleh
proclaimed himself caretaker president and announced the formation of an
anti-Taliban front
with a reported 6,000+ troops
199
200
in the
Panjshir Valley
, along with
Ahmad Massoud
201
202
However, by 6 September, the Taliban had taken control of most of
Panjshir Province
, with resistance fighters retreating to the mountains.
203
Clashes in the valley ceased in mid-September.
204
According to the
Costs of War Project
, 176,000 people were killed in the conflict, including 46,319 civilians, between 2001 and 2021.
205
According to the
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
, at least 212,191 people were killed in the conflict.
206
Though the state of war in the country ended in 2021, armed conflict persists in some regions
207
208
209
amid
fighting between the Taliban and the local branch of the Islamic State
, as well as an anti-Taliban
Republican insurgency
210
Taliban fighters in Kabul on a captured
Humvee
following the
2021 fall of Kabul
The Taliban government is led by
supreme leader
Hibatullah Akhundzada
211
and acting prime minister
Hasan Akhund
, who took office on 7 September 2021.
212
213
Akhund is one of the four founders of the Taliban
214
and was a deputy prime minister of the previous emirate; his appointment was seen as a compromise between moderates and hardliners.
215
new, all-male cabinet
was formed, which included
Abdul Hakim Haqqani
as minister of justice.
216
217
On 20 September 2021,
United Nations Secretary-General
António Guterres
received a letter from acting
minister of foreign affairs
Amir Khan Muttaqi
to formally claim Afghanistan's seat as a member state for their official spokesman in
Doha
Suhail Shaheen
. The United Nations did not recognize the previous Taliban government and chose to work with the then government-in-exile instead.
218
Western nations suspended most of their humanitarian aid to Afghanistan following the Taliban's August 2021 takeover of the country; the
World Bank
and
International Monetary Fund
also halted their payments.
219
220
More than half of Afghanistan's 39 million people faced an acute
food shortage
in October 2021.
221
Human Rights Watch reported on 11 November 2021 that Afghanistan was facing widespread
famine
due to an economic and banking crisis.
222
The Taliban initially significantly tackled corruption, improving on the
corruption perceptions index
from 174th to 150th out of 180 countries from 2021 to 2022,
223
but dropping to 162nd in 2023.
224
The Taliban have also reportedly reduced bribery and extortion in public service areas.
223
A Taliban official with Iranian Foreign Minister
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
in 2023
At the same time, the human rights situation in the country has deteriorated.
225
Following the 2001 invasion, more than 5.7 million refugees returned to Afghanistan;
226
however, in 2021, 2.6 million Afghans remained refugees, primarily in Iran and Pakistan, and another 4 million were internally displaced.
227
In October 2023, the Pakistani government ordered the
expulsion of Afghans from Pakistan
228
Iran also decided to deport
Afghan
nationals back to Afghanistan.
229
Taliban authorities condemned the deportations of Afghans as an "inhuman act".
230
Afghanistan faced a humanitarian crisis in late 2023.
231
On 10 November 2024, Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Taliban representatives would attend the
2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference
, marking the first time the country participated since the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Afghanistan had been barred from previous summits due to the lack of global recognition of the Taliban regime.
232
In May 2025, Iran ordered the
mass deportation of an estimated 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees
233
The
2025–2026 hunger crisis in Afghanistan
is one of the world's most severe, with over 17 million people—one-third of the population—requiring urgent food assistance. Driven by persistent
drought
, economic collapse, and massive refugee returns, the crisis has left over 4.9 million children and women needing malnutrition treatment.
234
Geography
Main article:
Geography of Afghanistan
Iran
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
China
India
Pakistan
Kabul
Kandahar
Herat
Mazar-i-Sharif
Jalalabad
Kunduz
Amu Darya
Indus
Helmand
Pamirs
Karakoram
Spin Ghar
Hindu Kush
Sistan
Noshaq
Afghanistan is located in Southern-Central Asia.
235
236
237
238
239
The region centered in Afghanistan is considered the "crossroads of Asia",
240
and the country has had the nickname Heart of Asia.
241
The renowned
Urdu
poet
Allama Iqbal
once wrote about the country:
Asia is a body of water and earth, of which the Afghan nation is the heart. From its discord, the discord of Asia; and from its accord, the accord of Asia.
At over 652,864 km
(252,072 sq mi),
242
Afghanistan is the world's
41st largest country
243
It is slightly bigger than France and smaller than Myanmar, and about the size of Texas in the United States. There is no coastline, as Afghanistan is
landlocked
. Afghanistan shares its longest land border (the
Durand Line
) with Pakistan to the east and south, followed by borders with Tajikistan to the northeast, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the north-west, Uzbekistan to the north, and China to the far northeast; India claims a border with Afghanistan through Pakistani-administered
Kashmir
244
Clockwise from south-west, Afghanistan shares borders with the
Sistan and Baluchestan Province
, South Khorasan Province, and
Razavi Khorasan Province
of Iran;
Ahal Region
Mary Region
, and
Lebap Region
of Turkmenistan;
Surxondaryo Region
of Uzbekistan;
Khatlon Region
and
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region
of Tajikistan;
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
of China; and the
Gilgit-Baltistan territory
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
, and
Balochistan province
of Pakistan.
245
Floodplain cultivation in the
Wakhan Corridor
Pamir Mountains
The geography in Afghanistan is varied, but is mostly mountainous and rugged, with some unusual mountain ridges accompanied by plateaus and river basins.
246
It is dominated by the
Hindu Kush
range, the western extension of the
Himalayas
that stretches to eastern
Tibet
via the
Pamir Mountains
and
Karakoram
Mountains in Afghanistan's far north-east. Most of the highest points are in the east, consisting of fertile mountain valleys, often considered part of the "
Roof of the World
". The Hindu Kush ends at the west-central highlands, creating plains in the north and southwest, namely the
Turkestan
Plains and the
Sistan Basin
; these two regions consist of rolling grasslands and semi-deserts, as well as hot, windy deserts, respectively.
247
Forests exist in the corridor between the provinces of
Nuristan
and
Paktika
(see
East Afghan montane conifer forests
),
248
and
tundra
in the northeast. The country's highest point is
Noshaq
, at 7,492 m (24,580 ft) above sea level.
249
The lowest point is located in
Jowzjan Province
along the Amu River bank, at 258 m (846 ft) above sea level.
The mountainous
topography
of Afghanistan
Despite having numerous rivers and
reservoirs
, large parts of the country are dry. The
endorheic
Sistan Basin is one of the world's driest regions.
250
The
Amu Darya
rises in the north of the Hindu Kush, while the nearby
Hari River
flows west towards
Herat
, and the
Arghandab River
flows from the central region southwards. To the south and west of the Hindu Kush flow a number of streams that are tributaries of the
Indus River
246
such as the
Helmand River
. The
Kabul River
flows in an easterly direction to the Indus, ending at the Indian Ocean.
251
Afghanistan receives heavy snow during the winter in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains, and the melting snow in the spring season enters the
rivers, lakes, and streams
252
253
However, two-thirds of the country's water flows into the neighboring countries of Iran, Pakistan, and
Turkmenistan
. As reported in 2010, the state needs more than US$2 billion to rehabilitate its irrigation systems so that the water is properly managed.
254
In Afghanistan,
forest cover
accounts for approximately 2% of the total land area, equivalent to 1,208,440 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, which remained unchanged since 1990. Of the naturally regenerating forest, 0% was reported to be
primary forest
(consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity), and around 0% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For the year 2015, 100% of the forest area was reported to be under
public ownership
255
256
The northeastern Hindu Kush
mountain range
, located in and around the
Badakhshan Province
of Afghanistan, is situated in a
geologically active
area where earthquakes occur almost every year.
257
They can be deadly and destructive, causing
landslides
in some parts or
avalanches
during the winter.
258
In June 2022, a
destructive 5.9 earthquake
struck near the border with Pakistan, killing at least 1,150 people and sparking fears of a major humanitarian crisis.
259
On 7 October 2023, a
6.3 magnitude earthquake
struck northwest of Herat, killing over 1,400 people.
260
Climate
Köppen climate map
of Afghanistan
261
Afghanistan has a
continental climate
with harsh winters in the
central highlands
, the glaciated northeast (around
Nuristan
), and the
Wakhan Corridor
, where the average temperature in January is below −15 °C (5 °F) and can reach −26 °C (−15 °F),
246
and hot summers in the low-lying areas of the
Sistan Basin
of the southwest, the
Jalalabad
basin in the east, and the
Turkestan
plains along the
Amu River
in the north, where temperatures average over 35 °C (95 °F) in July
249
262
and can go over 43 °C (109 °F).
246
The country is generally
arid
in the summers, with most rainfall falling between December and April. The lower areas of northern and western Afghanistan are the driest, with precipitation more common in the east. Although proximate to India, Afghanistan is mostly outside the
monsoon
zone,
246
except the
Nuristan Province
, which occasionally receives summer monsoon rain.
263
Although Afghanistan has contributed minimally to global
greenhouse gas emissions
, it is one of the most vulnerable countries to
climate change
and least prepared to cope with its impacts.
264
Climate change in Afghanistan
is causing more frequent and severe droughts.
265
266
Severe drought conditions affect 25 of the country's 34 provinces, impacting over half the population.
267
These droughts cause
desertification
267
268
reduce
food
269
and
water security
270
disrupt agriculture, and cause
internal displacement
271
Extreme rainfall over short periods is also more likely, increasing the risk of
floods
and
landslides
272
Due to rising temperatures, almost 14% of Afghanistan's glacier coverage was lost between 1990 and 2015,
273
increasing the risk of
glacial lake outburst floods
274
By 2050, climate change could displace an additional 5 million people within Afghanistan.
271
275
Biodiversity
Main article:
Wildlife of Afghanistan
The
snow leopard
is the official national animal of Afghanistan.
Several types of mammals exist throughout Afghanistan.
Snow leopards
and
brown bears
live in the high elevation
alpine tundra
regions. The
Marco Polo sheep
exclusively live in the Wakhan Corridor region of north-east Afghanistan. Foxes,
wolves
otters
deer
wild sheep
lynx
and other big cats populate the mountain forest region of the east. In the semi-desert northern plains, wildlife include a variety of birds,
hedgehogs
gophers
, and large carnivores such as
jackals
and
hyenas
276
Gazelles
wild pigs
and jackals populate the
steppe
plains of the south and west, while
mongoose
and cheetahs exist in the semi-desert south.
276
Marmots
and
ibex
also live in the high mountains of Afghanistan, and
pheasants
exist in some parts of the country.
277
The
Afghan hound
is a native breed of dog known for its fast speed and its long hair; it is relatively known in the west.
278
Endemic
fauna of Afghanistan includes the
Afghan flying squirrel
Afghan snowfinch
Paradactylodon
(or the "
Paghman
mountain salamander"),
Stigmella kasyi
Vulcaniella kabulensis
Afghan leopard gecko
Wheeleria parviflorellus
, among others. Endemic flora include
Iris afghanica
. Afghanistan has a wide variety of birds despite its relatively arid climate – an estimated 460 species of which 235 breed within.
278
The forest region of Afghanistan has vegetation such as
pine trees
spruce trees
fir trees
and
larches
, whereas the steppe grassland regions consist of
broadleaf trees
, short grass,
perennial plants
and
shrublands
. The colder high elevation regions are composed of hardy grasses and small flowering plants.
276
Several regions are designated
protected areas
; there are three
national parks
Band-e Amir
Wakhan
and
Nuristan
. Afghanistan had a 2018
Forest Landscape Integrity Index
mean score of 8.85/10, ranking it 15th globally out of 172 countries.
279
Government and politics
Main articles:
Government of Afghanistan
and
Politics of Afghanistan
The Arg
(the Presidential palace) in Kabul, photographed in 2020
Following the effective collapse of the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
during the
2021 Taliban offensive
, the Taliban declared the country an Islamic Emirate. A new caretaker government was announced on 7 September.
280
As of July 2025
[update]
, only the
Russian Federation
has
recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
as the
de jure
government of Afghanistan.
281
According to the
V-Dem Democracy indices
Afghanistan in 2023 was the third least
electoral democratic country in Asia
282
Afghanistan operates on a centralised
unitary form of government
283
A traditional instrument of governance in Afghanistan is the
loya jirga
(grand assembly), a Pashtun consultative meeting that was mainly organized for choosing a new
head of state
, adopting a new constitution, or to settle national or regional issue such as war.
284
Loya jirgas have been held since at least 1747,
285
with
the most recent one
occurring from June to July 2022.
286
287
288
Development of Taliban government
See also:
Akhund cabinet
Hasan Akhund
Prime Minister
Sirajuddin Haqqani
First
Deputy Leader
and
Interior Minister
Mullah Yaqoob
Second Deputy Leader and
Defense Minister
Abdul Ghani Baradar
Third Deputy Leader and First
Deputy Prime Minister
On 17 August 2021, the leader of the Taliban-affiliated
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
party,
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
, met with both
Hamid Karzai
, the former
President of Afghanistan
, and
Abdullah Abdullah
, the former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and former
Chief Executive
, in
Doha
, Qatar, with the aim of forming a
national unity government
289
290
President Ashraf Ghani, having fled the country during the Taliban advance to either Tajikistan or
Uzbekistan
, emerged in the United Arab Emirates and said that he supported such negotiations and was in talks to return to Afghanistan.
291
292
Many figures within the Taliban generally agreed that continuation of the
2004 Constitution of Afghanistan
may, if correctly applied, be workable as the basis for the new religious state as their objections to the former government were political, and not religious.
293
Hours after the final flight of American troops left Kabul on 30 August, a Taliban official interviewed said that a new government would likely be announced as early as Friday 3 September after
Jumu'ah
. It was added that Hibatullah Akhundzada would be officially named
Emir
, with cabinet ministers being revealed at the
Arg
in an official ceremony. Abdul Ghani Baradar would be named
head of government
as
Prime Minister
, while other important positions would go to
Sirajuddin Haqqani
and
Mullah Yaqoob
. Beneath the supreme leader, day-to-day governance will be entrusted to the
cabinet
294
In a report by CNN-News18, sources said the new government was going to be governed similarly to Iran with Hibatullah Akhundzada as supreme leader similar to the role of
Saayid Ali Khamenei
, and would be based out of
Kandahar
. Baradar or Yaqoob would be head of government as Prime minister. The government's ministries and agencies will be under a cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister. The Supreme Leader would preside over an
executive body
known as the Supreme Council with anywhere from 11 to 72 members.
Abdul Hakim Haqqani
is likely to be promoted to
Chief justice
. According to the report, the new government will take place within the framework of an amended
1964 Constitution of Afghanistan
295
Government formation was delayed due to concerns about forming a broad-based government acceptable to the international community.
296
It was later added however that the Taliban's Rahbari Shura, the group's leadership council was divided between the hardline Haqqani Network and moderate Abdul Ghani Baradar over appointments needed to form an "inclusive" government. Reports claimed that this culminated in a skirmish which led to Baradar being injured and treated in Pakistan, however this was denied by Baradar himself.
297
298
As of early September 2021 the Taliban were planning the cabinet to be men-only. Journalists and other human rights activists, mostly women,
protested
in Herat and Kabul, calling for women to be included.
299
The
acting Cabinet
announced on 7 September was men-only, and the
Ministry of Women's Affairs
was abolished.
280
As of July 2025, only
Russia
has recognized the Taliban government as the legitimate authorities of Afghanistan.
281
The U.N has stated that recognition was impossible so long as restrictions on female education and employment remained.
300
301
On 16 September 2024, the Taliban suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, as reported by the United Nations, posing a significant risk to global polio eradication efforts.
302
In a decree by Hibatullah Akhundzada on 15 August, the description of the government as interim was dropped, with all ministers remaining in their posts, but on a permanent rather than acting basis.
303
304
Administrative divisions
Main articles:
Provinces of Afghanistan
and
Districts of Afghanistan
Afghanistan is administratively divided into 34 provinces (
wilayat
).
305
Each province has a governor and a capital. The country is further divided into nearly 400 provincial
districts
, each of which normally covers a city or several villages. Each district is represented by a district governor.
The
provincial governors
are now appointed by the
Prime Minister of Afghanistan
, and the district governors are selected by the provincial governors.
306
The provincial governors are representatives of the central government in Kabul and are responsible for all administrative and formal issues within their provinces. There are also provincial councils that are elected through direct and general elections for four years.
307
The functions of provincial councils are to take part in provincial development planning and to participate in the monitoring and appraisal of other provincial governance institutions.
According to article 140 of the constitution and the presidential decree on electoral law, mayors of cities should be elected through free and direct elections for a four-year term. In practice however, mayors are appointed by the government.
308
Afghanistan is divided into
34 provinces
, which are further divided into a
number of districts
The 34 provinces in alphabetical order are:
Badakhshan
Badghis
Baghlan
Balkh
Bamyan
Daykundi
Farah
Faryab
Ghazni
Ghor
Helmand
Herat
Jowzjan
Kabul
Kandahar
Kapisa
Khost
Kunar
Kunduz
Laghman
Logar
Nangarhar
Nimruz
Nuristan
Oruzgan
Paktia
Paktika
Panjshir
Parwan
Samangan
Sar-e Pol
Takhar
Wardak
Zabul
Foreign relations
Main article:
Foreign relations of Afghanistan
See also:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Afghanistan)
Afghanistan became a member of the United Nations in 1946.
309
Historically, Afghanistan had strong relations with Germany, one of the first countries to recognize Afghanistan's independence in 1919; the Soviet Union, which provided much aid and military training for Afghanistan's forces and includes the signing of a Treaty of Friendship in 1921 and 1978; and India, with which a friendship treaty was signed in 1950.
310
Relations with Pakistan have often been tense for various reasons such as the Durand Line border issue and alleged Pakistani involvement in Afghan insurgent groups.
The present Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is currently
partially recognized
, but has had notable unofficial ties with China, Pakistan, and Qatar.
311
312
Under the previous Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, it enjoyed cordial relations with a number of
NATO
and allied nations, particularly the
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Germany
, Australia, and
Turkey
. In 2012, the United States and the then-republic in Afghanistan signed their
Strategic Partnership Agreement
in which Afghanistan became a
major non-NATO ally
313
Such qualification was rescinded by US President
Joe Biden
in July 2022.
314
Military
Main article:
Afghan Armed Forces
The
Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
captured a large amount of weapons, hardware, vehicles, aerocrafts, and equipment from the Afghan National Security Forces following the
2021 Taliban offensive
and the
Fall of Kabul
. The total value of the captured equipment has been estimated at US$83 billion.
315
316
Human rights
Main article:
Human rights in Afghanistan
Further information:
Women in Afghanistan
LGBT rights in Afghanistan
Treatment of women by the Taliban
, and
Afghan refugees
Homosexuality is
taboo
in Afghan society;
317
according to the Penal Code, homosexual intimacy is punished by up to a year in prison.
318
Under
Sharia law
offenders can be
punished by death
319
320
However, an ancient tradition involving male homosexual acts between children and older men (typically wealthy warlords or elite people) called
bacha bazi
persists.
Religious minorities such as Sikhs,
321
Hindus,
322
and Christians have reportedly faced persecution.
323
324
Since May 2022, all women in Afghanistan have been required by law to wear full-body coverings when in public (either a
burqa
or an
abaya
paired with a
niqāb
, which leaves only the eyes uncovered).
325
326
First
Deputy Leader
Sirajuddin Haqqani
claimed the decree is only advisory and no form of
hijab
is compulsory in Afghanistan,
327
though this contradicts the reality.
328
It has been speculated that there is a genuine internal policy division over women's rights between hardliners, including leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, and pragmatists, though they publicly present a united front.
329
Another decree was issued shortly after the first, requiring female TV presenters to cover their faces during broadcasts.
330
Since the Taliban takeover, suicides among women have become more common, and the country could now be one of the few where the rate of suicide among women surpasses that among men.
331
332
333
In May 2022, the Taliban dissolved Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission along with four other government departments, citing the country's budget deficit.
334
In January 2025, the
International Criminal Court
issued two warrants against the
Taliban supreme leader
Haibatullah Akhundzada and the
Chief judge
, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for committing
crimes against humanity
with the oppression and persecution of Afghan women and girls, and deprived of their freedom of movement, the rights to control their bodies, to education, and to a private and family life, while the alleged resistance and opposition were brutally suppressed with murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, since 2021. ICC member states are obliged to arrest wanted persons if they are on their territory.
335
Economy
Main article:
Economy of Afghanistan
Workers processing
pomegranates
anaar
), for which Afghanistan is famous in Asia
Afghanistan's nominal GDP was $20.1 billion in 2020, or $81 billion by
purchasing power parity
(PPP).
336
Its
GDP per capita
is $2,459 (PPP) and $611 by nominal.
336
Despite having $1 trillion or more in mineral deposits,
337
it remains one of the world's
least developed countries
. Afghanistan's rough physical geography and its landlocked status has been cited as reasons why the country has always been among the least developed in the modern era – a factor where progress is also slowed by contemporary conflict and political instability.
246
The country imports over $7 billion worth of goods but exports only $784 million, mainly fruits and
nuts
. It has $2.8 billion in
external debt
249
The service sector contributed the most to the GDP (55.9%) followed by agriculture (23%) and industry (21.1%).
338
Da Afghanistan Bank
serves as the central bank of the nation
339
and the
Afghani
(AFN) is the national currency, with an exchange rate of about 75 Afghanis to 1 US dollar.
340
A number of local and foreign banks operate in the country, including the
Afghanistan International Bank
New Kabul Bank
Azizi Bank
Pashtany Bank
Standard Chartered Bank
, and the
First Micro Finance Bank
Afghan rugs
are one of Afghanistan's main exports.
In 2010, one of the main drivers for the economic recovery was the return of over 5 million
expatriates
, who brought with them entrepreneurship and wealth-creating skills as well as much needed funds to start up businesses. Many Afghans got involved in construction, which was one of the largest industries in the country at the time.
341
Some of the major national construction projects include the $35 billion New Kabul City next to the capital, the Aino Mena project in Kandahar, and the
Ghazi Amanullah Khan Town
near Jalalabad.
342
343
344
Similar development projects have also begun in
Herat
Mazar-e-Sharif
, and other cities.
345
An estimated 400,000 people enter the labor market each year.
346
Several small companies and factories began operating in different parts of the country, which not only provide revenues to the government but also create new jobs. Improvements to the business environment have resulted in more than $1.5 billion in
telecom
investment and created more than 100,000 jobs since 2003.
347
Afghan rugs
are becoming popular again, allowing many carpet dealers around the country to hire more workers; in 2016–17 it was the fourth most exported group of items.
348
Afghanistan is a member of
WTO
SAARC
ECO
, and
OIC
. It holds an observer status in
SCO
. In 2018, a majority of imports come from either Iran, China, Pakistan and Kazakhstan, while 84% of exports are to Pakistan and India.
349
Since the Taliban's takeover of the country in August 2021, the United States has
frozen about $9 billion
in assets belonging to the
Afghan central bank
350
blocking the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in US bank accounts.
351
352
The GDP of Afghanistan is estimated to have dropped by 20% following the Taliban return to power. Following this, after months of free-fall, the Afghan economy began stabilizing, as a result of the Taliban's restrictions on smuggled imports, limits on banking transactions, and
UN aid
. In 2023, the Afghan economy began seeing signs of revival. This has also been followed by stable exchange rates, low inflation, stable revenue collection, and the rise of trade in exports.
353
In the third quarter of 2023, the
Afghani
rose to be the best performing currency in the world, climbing over 9% against the
US dollar
354
Agriculture
Afghan
saffron
Agricultural production is the backbone of Afghanistan's economy
355
and has traditionally dominated the economy, employing about 40% of the workforce as of 2018.
356
The country is known for producing
pomegranates
, grapes, apricots, melons, and several other fresh and dry fruits. Afghanistan also became the world's top producer of
cannabis
in 2010.
357
In March 2023, however, cannabis production was banned by a decree from Hibatullah Akhundzada.
358
Saffron
, the most expensive spice, grows in Afghanistan, particularly
Herat Province
. In recent years, there has been an uptick in saffron production, which authorities and farmers are using to try to replace poppy cultivation. Between 2012 and 2019, the saffron cultivated and produced in Afghanistan was consecutively ranked the world's best by the International Taste and Quality Institute.
359
360
Production hit record high in 2019 (19,469 kg of saffron), and one kilogram is sold domestically between $634 and $1147.
361
The availability of cheap diesel-powered water pumps imported from China and Pakistan, and in the 2010s, of cheap solar power to pump water, resulted in expansion of agriculture and population in the southwestern deserts of Afghanistan in
Kandahar
Helmand
and
Nimruz
provinces in the 2010s. Wells have gradually been deepened, but water resources are limited. Opium is the major crop, but as of 2022, was under attack by the new Taliban government which, to suppress opium production, was systematically suppressing water pumping.
362
363
In a 2023 report, poppy cultivation in southern Afghanistan was reduced by over 80% as a result of Taliban campaigns to stop its use toward opium. This included a 99% reduction of opium growth in the Helmand Province.
364
In November 2023, a U.N report showed that in the entirety of Afghanistan, poppy cultivation dropped by over 95%, removing it from its place as being the world's largest opium producer.
365
366
Mining
Main article:
Mining in Afghanistan
Lapis lazuli
stones
The country's natural resources include: coal, copper, iron ore,
lithium
uranium
rare earth elements
chromite
, gold,
zinc
talc
barite
sulfur
, lead,
marble
, precious and
semi-precious stones
, natural gas, and petroleum.
367
368
In 2010, US and Afghan government officials estimated that untapped mineral deposits located in 2007 by the
US Geological Survey
are worth at least
$1 trillion
369
Michael E. O'Hanlon
of the
Brookings Institution
estimated that if Afghanistan generates about $10 billion per year from its
mineral deposits
, its
gross national product
would double and provide long-term funding for critical needs.
370
The
United States Geological Survey
(USGS) estimated in 2006 that northern Afghanistan has an average 460 million m
(2.9 billion bbl) of
crude oil
, 440 billion m
(15.7 trillion cu ft) of natural gas, and 67 billion L (562 million US bbl) of
natural gas liquids
371
In 2011, Afghanistan signed an oil exploration contract with
China National Petroleum Corporation
(CNPC) for the development of three oil fields along the Amu Darya river in the north.
372
The country has significant amounts of
lithium
, copper, gold, coal, iron ore, and other
minerals
367
368
373
The
Khanashin
carbonatite
in Helmand Province contains 1,000,000 tonnes (980,000
long tons
; 1,100,000
short tons
) of
rare earth elements
374
In 2007, a 30-year lease was granted for the
Aynak
copper mine to the
China Metallurgical Group
for $3 billion,
375
making it the biggest foreign investment and private business venture in Afghanistan's history.
376
The state-run
Steel Authority of India
won the mining rights to develop the huge
Hajigak
iron ore deposit in central Afghanistan.
377
Government officials estimate that 30% of the country's untapped mineral deposits are worth at least
$1 trillion
369
One official asserted that "this will become the backbone of the Afghan economy" and a Pentagon memo stated that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium".
378
The lithium reserves of 21 Mio. tons could amount to the ones of
Bolivia
, which is currently viewed as the country with the largest lithium reserves.
379
Other larger deposits are the ones of
bauxite
and
cobalt
379
Access to
biocapacity
in Afghanistan is lower than world average. In 2016, Afghanistan had 0.43 global hectares
380
of biocapacity per person within its territory, much less than the world average of 1.6 global hectares per person.
381
In 2016 Afghanistan used 0.73 global hectares of biocapacity per person—their
ecological footprint
of consumption. This means they use just under double as much biocapacity as Afghanistan contains. As a result, Afghanistan is running a biocapacity deficit.
380
In September 2023, the
Taliban
signed mining contracts worth
$6.5 billion
, with extractions based on gold, iron, lead, and zinc in the provinces of Herat, Ghor, Logar, and Takhar.
382
Energy
Main article:
Energy in Afghanistan
See also:
Renewable energy in Afghanistan
Afghanistan electricity supply (1980–2019)
According to the
World Bank
, 98% of the rural population have access to electricity in 2018, up from 28% in 2008.
383
Overall the figure stands at 98.7%.
384
As of 2016, Afghanistan produces 1,400
megawatts
of power, but still imports the majority of electricity via transmission lines from Iran and the Central Asian states.
385
The majority of electricity production is via
hydropower
, helped by the amount of rivers and streams that flow from the mountains.
386
However electricity is not always reliable and blackouts happen, including in Kabul.
387
In recent years an increasing number of
solar
biomass
and wind power plants have been constructed.
388
Currently under development are the
CASA-1000
project which will transmit electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
(TAPI) gas pipeline.
387
Power is managed by the
Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat
(DABS, Afghanistan Electricity Company).
Important dams include the
Kajaki Dam
Dahla Dam
, and the
Sardeh Band Dam
251
Tourism
Main article:
Tourism in Afghanistan
Band-e Amir National Park
Tourism is a small industry in Afghanistan due to security issues. Nevertheless, some 20,000 foreign tourists visit the country annually as of 2016.
389
In particular an important region for domestic and international tourism is the picturesque
Bamyan
Valley, which includes lakes, canyons and historical sites, helped by the fact it is in a safe area away from insurgent activity.
390
391
Smaller numbers visit and trek in regions such as the
Wakhan
Valley, which is also one of the world's most remote communities.
392
From the late 1960s onwards, Afghanistan was a popular stop on the famous
hippie trail
, attracting many Europeans and Americans. Coming from Iran, the trail traveled through various Afghan provinces and cities including
Herat
Kandahar
and
Kabul
before crossing to northern Pakistan, northern India, and
Nepal
393
394
Tourism peaked in 1977, the year before the start of political instability and armed conflict.
395
The
Minaret of Jam
, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
The city of
Ghazni
has significant history and historical sites, and together with
Bamyan
city have in recent years been voted Islamic Cultural Capital and South Asia Cultural Capital respectively.
396
The cities of
Herat
Kandahar
Balkh
, and
Zaranj
are also very historic. The
Minaret of Jam
in the
Hari River
valley is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
. A cloak reputedly worn by Islam's prophet
Muhammad
is kept in the
Shrine of the Cloak
in Kandahar, a city founded by
Alexander the Great
and the first capital of Afghanistan. The
citadel of Alexander
in the western city of Herat has been renovated in recent years and is a popular attraction. In the north of the country is the
Shrine of Ali
, believed by many to be the location where
Ali
was buried.
397
The
National Museum of Afghanistan
in Kabul hosts a large number of Buddhist,
Bactrian
Greek and early Islamic antiquities; the museum suffered greatly by civil war but has been slowly restoring since the early 2000s.
398
Unexpectedly, tourism has seen improvement in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover. Active efforts by the Taliban encouraged tourism to increase from 691 tourists in 2021, to 2,300 in 2022, to 5,200 in 2023, with some estimates of between 7,000 and 10,000.
399
400
401
This is, however, threatened by the
Islamic State – Khorasan Province
, who took responsibility for attacks on tourists, such as the
2024 Bamyan shooting
402
Communication
Main article:
Communications in Afghanistan
Telecommunication services in Afghanistan are provided by
Afghan Telecom
Afghan Wireless
Etisalat
MTN Group
, and
Roshan
. The country uses its own space
satellite
called
Afghansat 1
, which provides services to millions of phone, internet, and television subscribers. By 2001 following years of civil war, telecommunications was virtually a non-existent sector, but by 2016 it had grown to a $2 billion industry, with 22 million mobile phone subscribers and 5 million internet users. The sector employs at least 120,000 people nationwide.
403
Transportation
Main article:
Transport in Afghanistan
See also:
List of airports in Afghanistan
and
Rail transport in Afghanistan
The
Salang Tunnel
Due to Afghanistan's geography, transport between various parts of the country has historically been difficult. The backbone of Afghanistan's road network is
Highway 1
, often called the "Ring Road", which extends for 2,210 kilometres (1,370 mi) and connects five major cities: Kabul, Ghazni, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif,
404
with spurs to Kunduz and Jalalabad and various border crossings, while skirting around the mountains of the Hindu Kush.
405
The Ring Road is crucially important for domestic and international trade and the economy.
406
A key portion of the Ring Road is the
Salang Tunnel
, completed in 1964, which facilitates travel through the Hindu Kush mountain range and connects northern and southern Afghanistan.
407
It is the only land route that connects Central Asia to the
Indian subcontinent
408
Several mountain passes allow travel between the Hindu Kush in other areas. Serious traffic accidents are common on Afghan roads and highways, particularly on the
Kabul–Kandahar
and the
Kabul–Jalalabad Road
409
Traveling by bus in Afghanistan remains dangerous due to militant activities.
410
An
Ariana Afghan Airlines
Airbus A310
in 2006
Air transport in Afghanistan is provided by the national carrier,
Ariana Afghan Airlines
411
and by the private company
Kam Air
. Airlines from a number of countries also provide flights in and out of the country. These include
Air India
Emirates
Gulf Air
Iran Aseman Airlines
Pakistan International Airlines
, and
Turkish Airlines
. The country has four international airports:
Kabul International Airport
(formerly Hamid Karzai International Airport),
Kandahar International Airport
Herat International Airport
, and
Mazar-e Sharif International Airport
. Including domestic airports, there are 43.
249
Bagram Air Base
is a major military airfield.
The country has three rail links: one, a 75-kilometre (47 mi) line from
Mazar-i-Sharif
to the
Uzbekistan border
412
a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) long line from
Toraghundi
to the
Turkmenistan
border (where it continues as part of
Turkmen Railways
); and a short link from
Aqina
across the Turkmen border to
Kerki
, which is planned to be extended further across Afghanistan.
413
These lines are used for freight only and there is no passenger service. A rail line between
Khaf
, Iran and
Herat
, western Afghanistan, intended for both freight and passengers, was under construction as of 2019.
414
415
About 125 kilometres (78 mi) of the line will lie on the Afghan side.
416
417
Private vehicle ownership has increased substantially since the early 2000s. Taxis are yellow and consist of both cars and
auto rickshaws
418
In rural Afghanistan, villagers often use donkeys,
mules
or horses to transport or carry goods. Camels are primarily used by the Kochi nomads.
278
Bicycles are popular throughout Afghanistan.
419
Demographics
Main article:
Demographics of Afghanistan
Further information:
Afghans
and
Afghan diaspora
A Cold War-era CIA map showing traditional Afghan tribal territories.
Pashtun tribes
form the world's largest tribal society.
420
Population
The population of Afghanistan was estimated at 35.7
million as of 2024 by the Afghanistan
National Statistics and Information Authority
24
whereas the UN estimates over 42.0
million.
29
In 1979 the total population was reported to be about 15.5
million.
421
About 25.3% are
urbanite
, 70.4% live in rural areas, and the remaining 4.3% are nomadic.
24
An additional 3
million or so Afghans are temporarily housed in neighboring
Pakistan
and
Iran
, most of whom were born and raised in those two countries. As of 2013, Afghanistan was the largest refugee-producing country in the world, a title held for 32 years.
The current population growth rate is 2.37%,
249
one of the highest in the world outside of Africa. This population is expected to reach 82 million by 2050 if current population trends continue.
422
The population of Afghanistan increased steadily until the 1980s, when civil war caused millions to flee to other countries such as Pakistan.
423
Millions have since returned and the war conditions contribute to the country having the highest fertility rate outside Africa.
424
Afghanistan's healthcare has recovered since the turn of the century, causing falls in infant mortality and increases in life expectancy, although it has the lowest life expectance of any country outside Africa. This (along with other factors such as returning refugees) caused rapid population growth in the 2000s that has only recently started to slow down.
citation needed
The
Gini coefficient
in 2008 was 27.8.
425
Fertility rate
Afghanistan 2024
total fertility rate
has been estimated at 4.4.
426
In 2022 it was 4.5, about twice the world average rate.
427
The rate has fallen since the early 1980s.
428
Urbanization
Main article:
List of cities in Afghanistan
As estimated by the CIA World Factbook, 26% of the population was urbanized as of 2020. This is one of the lowest figures in the world; in Asia it is only higher than
Cambodia
Nepal
and
Sri Lanka
. Urbanization has increased rapidly, particularly in the capital
Kabul
, due to returning refugees from Pakistan and Iran after 2001, internally displaced people, and rural migrants.
429
Urbanization in Afghanistan is different from typical urbanization in that it is centered on just a few cities.
430
Kabul is the largest city, with a population of 5 million.
24
The other large cities are located generally in the "ring" around the Central Highlands, namely
Kandahar
in the south,
Herat
in the west,
Mazar-i-Sharif
Kunduz
in the north, and
Jalalabad
in the east.
Largest cities or towns in Afghanistan
2025 estimate by the
National Statistics and Information Authority
431
Rank
Name
Province
Pop.
Kabul
Kabul Province
5,333,284
Kandahar
Kandahar Province
732,629
Herat
Herat Province
673,273
Mazar-i-Sharif
Balkh Province
568,013
Kunduz
Kunduz Province
413,996
Jalalabad
Nangarhar Province
318,733
Taloqan
Takhar Province
284,990
Puli Khumri
Baghlan Province
230,112
Charikar
Parwan Province
222,751
10
Sheberghan
Jowzjan Province
213,411
Ethnicity and languages
Main articles:
Ethnic groups in Afghanistan
and
Languages of Afghanistan
See also:
Afghans
Ethnolinguistic map of Afghanistan (2001)
Afghans
are divided into several
ethnolinguistic
groups. According to research data by several institutions in 2019, the
Pashtuns
are the largest ethnic group, comprising 42%, followed by
Tajiks
, comprising 27%
432
433
of the country's population. The other two major ethnic groups are the
Hazaras
and
Uzbeks
, each at 9%. A further 10 other ethnic groups are recognized and each are represented in the
Afghan National Anthem
434
Dari
and
Pashto
are the
official languages
of Afghanistan;
bilingualism
is very common.
435
Dari, which is also referred to as Eastern Persian as it is a variety of and mutually intelligible with
Persian
(and very often called '
Farsi
' by some Afghans like in
Iran
), functions as the
lingua franca
in Kabul as well as in much of the northern and northwestern parts of the country.
436
Native speakers of Dari, of any ethnicity, are sometimes called
Farsiwans
437
Pashto is the native tongue of the
Pashtuns
, although many of them are also fluent in Dari while some non-Pashtuns are fluent in Pashto. Despite the Pashtuns having been dominant in Afghan politics for centuries, Dari remained the preferred language for government and bureaucracy.
438
According to
CIA World Factbook
, Dari Persian is spoken by 78% (
L1
L2
) and functions as the lingua franca, while
Pashto
is spoken by 50%,
Uzbek
10%, English 5%,
Turkmen
2%,
Urdu
2%,
Pashayi
1%,
Nuristani
1%,
Arabic
1%, and
Balochi
1% (2021 est). Data represent the most widely spoken languages; shares sum to more than 100% because there is much bilingualism in the country and because respondents were allowed to select more than one language. There are a number of smaller regional languages, including Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi, Pashayi, and Nuristani.
249
When it comes to foreign languages among the populace, many are able to speak or understand
Hindustani
Urdu
Hindi
), partly due to returning
Afghan refugees
from
Pakistan
and the popularity of
Bollywood
films respectively.
439
English is also understood by some of the population,
440
and has been gaining popularity as of the 2000s.
441
Some Afghans retain some ability in Russian, which was
taught in public schools during the 1980s
439
Religion
Main article:
Religion in Afghanistan
Blue Mosque
in
Mazar-i-Sharif
is the largest mosque in Afghanistan.
The CIA estimated in 2009 that 99.7% of the Afghan population was Muslim
249
and most are thought to adhere to the
Sunni
Hanafi
school.
442
According to
Pew Research Center
, as much as 90% are of the Sunni denomination, 7%
Shia
and 3%
non-denominational
443
The
CIA
Factbook variously estimates up to 89.7% Sunni or up to 15% Shia.
249
Afghan
Sikhs
and
Hindus
are also found in certain major cities (namely Kabul, Jalalabad, Ghazni, Kandahar)
444
445
accompanied by gurdwaras and mandirs.
446
According to
Deutsche Welle
in September 2021, 250 remain in the country after 67 were evacuated to India.
447
There was a small
Jewish community in Afghanistan
, living mainly in Herat and Kabul. Over the years, this small community was forced to leave due to decades of warfare and religious persecution. By the end of the twentieth century, nearly the entire community had emigrated to Israel and the United States, with one known exception, Herat-born
Zablon Simintov
. He remained for years, being the caretaker of the only remaining Afghan synagogue. He left the country for the US after the second Taliban takeover. A woman who left shortly after him has since been identified as the likely last Jew in Afghanistan.
448
449
450
Afghan Christians
, who number 500–8,000, practice their faith secretly due to intense societal opposition, and there are no public churches.
451
452
Education
Main article:
Education in Afghanistan
UNESCO Institute of Statistics Afghanistan Literacy Rate among population aged 15+ (1980–2018)
Education in Afghanistan
is overseen by the
Ministry of Education
and the
Ministry of Higher Education
. There are over 16,000 schools in the country and roughly 9 million students. Of this, about 60% are males and 40% females. However, the new regime has thus far forbidden female teachers and female students from returning to secondary schools.
453
454
Over 174,000 students are enrolled in different
universities around the country
. About 21% of these are females.
455
Former Education Minister
Ghulam Farooq Wardak
had stated that construction of 8,000 schools is required for the remaining children who are deprived of
formal learning
456
As of 2018 the literacy rate of the population age 15 and older is 43.02% (males 55.48% and females 29.81%).
457
The top universities in Afghanistan are the
American University of Afghanistan
(AUAF) followed by
Kabul University
(KU), both of which are located in Kabul. The
National Military Academy of Afghanistan
, modeled after the
United States Military Academy
at West Point, was a four-year military development institution dedicated to graduating officers for the
Afghan Armed Forces
. The
Afghan Defense University
was constructed near
Qargha
in Kabul. Major universities outside of Kabul include
Kandahar University
in the south,
Herat University
in the northwest,
Balkh University
and
Kunduz University
in the north,
Nangarhar University
and
Khost University
in the east.
After the Taliban regained power in 2021, it became unclear to what extent female education would continue in the country. In March 2022, after they had been closed for some time, it was announced that secondary education would be reopened shortly. However, shortly before reopening, the order was rescinded and schools for older girls remained closed.
458
Despite the ban, six provinces,
Balkh
Kunduz
Jowzjan
Sar-I-Pul
Faryab
, and the
Day Kundi
, still allow girls' schools from grade 6 and up.
459
460
In December 2023, investigations were being held by the United Nations on the claim that Afghan girls of all ages were allowed to study at religious schools.
461
As of November 2024, some parts of the country allow women to attend religious schools to pursue dentistry, nursing, and other subjects.
462
Health
Main article:
Health in Afghanistan
The
Daoud Khan Military Hospital
in Kabul is one of the largest
hospitals
in Afghanistan.
According to the
Human Development Index
, Afghanistan is the
15th least developed country in the world
. The average
life expectancy
is estimated to be around 60 years.
463
464
The country's
maternal mortality
rate is 396 deaths/100,000 live births and its
infant mortality
rate is 66
464
to 112.8 deaths in every 1,000 live births.
249
The
Ministry of Public Health
plans to cut the infant mortality rate to 400 for every 100,000 live births before 2020. The country has more than 3,000
midwives
, with an additional 300 to 400 being trained each year.
465
There are over 100
hospitals in Afghanistan
466
with the most advanced treatments being available in Kabul. The
French Medical Institute for Children
and
Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital
in Kabul are the leading
children's hospitals
in the country. Some of the other leading hospitals in Kabul include the
Jamhuriat Hospital
and
Jinnah Hospital
467
In spite of all this, many Afghans travel to Pakistan and India for advanced treatment.
It was reported in 2006 that nearly 60% of the Afghan population lives within a two-hour walk of the nearest health facility.
468
The
disability
rate is also high in Afghanistan due to the decades of war.
469
It was reported recently that about 80,000 people are missing limbs.
470
471
Non-governmental charities such as
Save the Children
and
Mahboba's Promise
assist orphans in association with governmental structures.
472
Culture
Main article:
Culture of Afghanistan
An Afghan family near
Kholm
, 1939 – most Afghans are tribal.
Afghans
have both common cultural features and those that differ between the regions of Afghanistan, each with distinctive cultures partly as a result of geographic obstacles that divide the country.
246
Family is the mainstay of Afghan society and families are often headed by a
patriarch
473
In the southern and eastern region, the people live according to the
Pashtun culture
by following
Pashtunwali
(the Pashtun way).
474
Key tenets of Pashtunwali include
hospitality
, the provision of
sanctuary
to those seeking refuge, and revenge for the shedding of blood.
475
The Pashtuns are largely connected to the culture of Central Asia and the
Iranian Plateau
. The remaining Afghans are culturally
Persian
and
Turkic
. Some non-Pashtuns who live in proximity with Pashtuns have adopted Pashtunwali in a process called
Pashtunization
, while some Pashtuns have been
Persianized
. Those who have lived in Pakistan and Iran over the last 30 years have been further influenced by the cultures of those neighboring nations. The Afghan people are known to be strongly religious.
442
Afghans, particularly Pashtuns, are noted for their tribal solidarity and high regard for personal honor.
476
There are various
Afghan tribes
, and an estimated 2–3 million
nomads
477
Afghan culture is deeply
Islamic
478
but pre-Islamic practices persist.
479
Child marriage
is prevalent;
480
the legal age for marriage is 16.
481
The most preferred marriage in Afghan society is to one's
parallel cousin
, and the groom is often expected to pay a
bride price
482
A house occupied by nomadic
kochi
people in
Nangarhar Province
In the villages, families typically occupy
mudbrick
houses, or compounds with mudbrick or
stone walled
houses. Villages typically have a headman (
malik
), a master for water distribution (
mirab
) and a religious teacher (
mullah
). Men would typically work on the fields, joined by women during harvest.
473
About 15% of the population are
nomadic
, locally called
kochis
246
When nomads pass villages they often buy supplies such as tea, wheat and
kerosene
from the villagers; villagers buy
wool
and milk from the nomads.
473
Afghan clothing
for both men and women typically consists of various forms of
shalwar kameez
, especially
perahan tunban
and
khet partug
. Women would normally wear a
chador
for head covering; some women, typically from highly conservative communities, wear the
burqa
, a full body covering. These were worn by some women of the Pashtun community well before Islam came to the region, but the
Taliban
enforced this dress on women when they were in power.
483
Another popular dress is the
chapan
which acts as a coat. The
karakul
is a hat made from the fur of a specific regional breed of sheep. It was favored by former kings of Afghanistan and became known to much of the world in the 21st century when it was constantly worn by President
Hamid Karzai
484
The
pakol
is another traditional hat originating from the far east of the country; it was popularly worn by the guerrilla leader
Ahmad Shah Massoud
485
The
Mazari hat
originates from northern Afghanistan.
486
Architecture
Main article:
Architecture of Afghanistan
Kabul skyline, displaying both historical and contemporary buildings
The nation has a complex history that has survived either in its current cultures or in the form of various languages and monuments. Afghanistan contains many remnants from all ages, including
Greek
and
Buddhist
stupas, monasteries, monuments, temples, and Islamic minarets. Among the most well known are the
Great Mosque of Herat
, the
Blue Mosque
, the
Minaret of Jam
, the
Chil Zena
, the Qala-i Bost in
Lashkargah
, the ancient Greek city of
Ai-Khanoum
487
However, many of its historic monuments have been damaged in modern times due to the civil wars.
488
The two famous
Buddhas of Bamiyan
were destroyed by the Taliban, who regarded them as
idolatrous
. As there was no colonialism in the modern era in Afghanistan, European-style architecture is rare but does exist: the Victory Arch at
Paghman
and the
Darul Aman Palace
in Kabul were built in this style in the 1920s. Afghan architecture also ranges
deep into India
such as the city of
Agra
489
and the
tomb of Sher Shah Suri
, an
Afghan Emperor of India
490
Art and ceramics
Main article:
Afghan art
A traditional Afghan
embroidery
pattern
Carpet
weaving
is an ancient practice in Afghanistan, and many of these are still
handmade
by tribal and nomadic people today.
430
Carpets have been produced in the region for thousands of years and traditionally done by women.
491
Some crafters express their feelings through the designs of rugs; for example after the outbreak of the
Soviet–Afghan War
, "
war rugs
", a variant of
Afghan rugs
, were created with designs representing pain and misery caused by the conflict.
492
Every province has its own specific characteristics in making rugs.
493
In some of the Turkic-populated areas in the north-west, bride and wedding ceremony prices are driven by the bride's weaving skills.
494
Pottery
has been crafted in Afghanistan for millennia. The village of
Istalif
, north of Kabul, is in particular a major center, known for its unique turquoise and green pottery,
495
and their methods of crafting have remained the same for centuries.
496
497
Much of
lapis lazuli
stones were earthed in modern-day Afghanistan which were used in
Chinese porcelain
as
cobalt blue
, later used in ancient
Mesopotamia
and Turkey.
498
The lands of Afghanistan have a long history of art, with the world's earliest known usage of
oil painting
found in cave murals in the country.
499
500
A notable art style that developed in Afghanistan and eastern Pakistan is
Gandhara Art
, produced by a fusion of
Greco-Roman
art and
Buddhist art
between the 1st and 7th centuries CE.
501
Later eras saw increased use of the
Persian miniature
style, with
Kamaleddin Behzad
of
Herat
being one of the most notable miniature artists of the
Timurid
and early
Safavid
periods. Since the 1900s, the nation began to use Western techniques in art.
Abdul Ghafoor Breshna
was a prominent Afghan painter and sketch artist from Kabul during the 20th century.
Literature
Main article:
Afghan literature
Classic
Persian
and
Pashto poetry
are a cherished part of Afghan culture. Poetry has always been one of the major educational pillars in the region, to the level that it has integrated itself into culture.
502
One of the poetic styles is called
landay
. A popular theme in Afghan folklore and mythology are
Divs
, monstrous creatures.
503
Thursdays are traditionally "poetry night" in the city of
Herat
when men, women and children gather and recite both ancient and modern poems.
504
Three mystical authors are considered true national glories (although claimed with equal ardor by Iran), namely:
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
of Herat, a great mystic and
Sufi
saint in the 11th century,
Sanai
of
Ghazni
, author of mystical poems in the 12th century, and, finally,
Rumi
of
Balkh
, in the 13th century, considered the greatest mystical poet of the Muslim world. The Afghan Pashto literature, although quantitatively remarkable and in great growth in the last century, has always had an essentially local meaning and importance, feeling the influence of both Persian literature and the contiguous literatures of India. Both main literatures, from the second half of the nineteenth century, have shown themselves to be sensitive to genres, movements and stylistic features imported from Europe.
Khushal Khan Khattak
of the 17th century is considered the national poet. Other notable poets include
Rabi'a Balkhi
Jami
Rahman Baba
Khalilullah Khalili
, and
Parween Pazhwak
505
Music
Main article:
Music of Afghanistan
The Afghan
rubab
Afghan classical music has close historical links with
Indian classical music
and use the same Hindustani terminology and theories like
raga
. Genres of this style of music include
ghazal
(poetic music) and instruments such as the Indian
tabla
sitar
and
harmonium
, and local instruments like
zerbaghali
, as well as
dayereh
and
tanbur
which are also known in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East. The
rubab
is the country's national instrument and precurses the Indian
sarod
instrument. Some of the famous artists of classical music include
Ustad Sarahang
and
Sarban
506
Pop music developed in the 1950s through
Radio Kabul
and was influential in social change. During this time female artists also started appearing, at first
Mermon Parwin
506
Perhaps the most famous artist of this genre was
Ahmad Zahir
, who synthesized many genres and continues to be renowned for his voice and rich lyrics long after his death in 1979.
507
506
Other notable masters of traditional or popular Afghan music include
Nashenas
Ubaidullah Jan
Mahwash
Ahmad Wali
Farhad Darya
, and
Naghma
508
Attan
is the national dance of Afghanistan, a group dance popularly performed by Afghans of all backgrounds.
509
The dance is considered part of Afghan identity.
510
Media and entertainment
Main article:
Mass media in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has around 350
radio stations
and over 200 television stations.
511
Radio Television Afghanistan
, originating from 1925, is the state public broadcaster. Television programs began airing in the 1970s and today there are many private television channels such as
TOLO
and
Shamshad TV
. The first Afghan newspaper was published in 1873,
512
and there are hundreds of print outlets today.
511
By the 1920s,
Radio Kabul
was broadcasting local radio services.
513
Voice of America
BBC
, and
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) broadcast in both of Afghanistan's official languages on radio.
514
Press restrictions have been gradually relaxed and private media diversified since 2002, after more than two decades of tight controls.
Afghans have long been accustomed to watching Indian
Bollywood
films and listening to its
filmi
songs.
515
It has been claimed that Afghanistan is among the biggest markets for the Hindi film industry.
516
The stereotypes of
Afghans in India
Kabuliwala
or
Pathani
) have also been represented in some Bollywood films by actors.
517
Many Bollywood film stars have roots in Afghanistan, including
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Aamir Khan
Feroz Khan
Kader Khan
Naseeruddin Shah
Zarine Khan
Celina Jaitly
, and a number of others. Several Bollywood films have been shot inside Afghanistan, including
Dharmatma
Khuda Gawah
Escape from Taliban
, and
Kabul Express
Cuisine
Main article:
Afghan cuisine
Non
, the most widely consumed bread in Afghanistan
Afghan cuisine is largely based upon the nation's chief crops, such as wheat, maize,
barley
and rice. Accompanying these staples are native fruits and vegetables as well as dairy products such as milk,
yogurt
, and
whey
Kabuli palaw
is the
national dish
of Afghanistan.
518
The nation's culinary specialties reflect its ethnic and geographic diversity.
519
Afghanistan is known for its high-quality
pomegranates
, grapes, and sweet melons.
520
Tea is a favorite drink among Afghans. A typical Afghan diet consists of
naan
, yogurt, rice, and meat.
473
Holidays and festivals
Haft mewa
(seven-fruit syrup), popularly consumed during Nowruz
Afghanistan's official New Year starts with
Nowruz
(natively known as "
Nawroz
"), an ancient tradition that started as a
Zoroastrian
celebration in present-day Iran, and with which it shares the annual celebration along with several other countries. It occurs every year at the
vernal equinox
In Afghanistan
, Nowruz is typically celebrated with music and dance, as well as holding
buzkashi
tournaments.
521
Yaldā
, another nationally celebrated ancient tradition,
522
commemorates the ancient goddess
Mithra
and marks the longest night of the year on the eve of the
winter solstice
Čilli-yi Zimistān
; usually falling on 20 or 21 December),
523
524
during which families gather together to recite poetry and eat fruit.
525
526
As a predominantly Muslim country, Islamic events and festivals such as
Ramadan
Eid al-Fitr
and
Ashura
are widely celebrated annually in Afghanistan. The Sikh festival of
Vaisakhi
is celebrated by the Sikh community
527
and the Hindu festival
Diwali
by the Hindu community.
528
National Independence Day
is celebrated on 19 August to mark the
Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919
and the country's full independence.
249
Several international celebrations are also officially held in Afghanistan, such as
International Workers' Day
529
and
International Women's Day
530
Some regional festivals include the
Red Flower Festival
(during Nowruz) in
Mazar-i-Sharif
531
and the Damboora Festival in
Bamyan Province
532
Sports
Main article:
Sport in Afghanistan
See also:
Traditional games of Afghanistan
The ancient national sport of Afghanistan,
Buzkashi
Sport in Afghanistan is managed by the Afghan Sports Federation.
Cricket
and association football are the two most popular sports in the country.
533
534
The Afghan Sports Federation promotes cricket, association football, basketball, volleyball, golf,
handball
boxing
taekwondo
weightlifting
bodybuilding
, track and field,
skating
bowling
snooker
chess
, and other sports.
The
Afghanistan national basketball team
won the first team sports title at the
2010 South Asian Games
535
In 2012, the country's
3x3 basketball team
won the gold medal at the
2012 Asian Beach Games
. In 2013, Afghanistan's
football team
followed as it won the
SAFF Championship
536
The
Afghan national cricket team
, which was formed in 2001, won the
2009–10 ICC Intercontinental Cup
537
It won the
ACC Twenty20 Cup
in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. The team played in the
2015
2019
, and
2023 Cricket World Cups
538
The
Afghanistan Cricket Board
(ACB) is the official governing body of the sport and is based in Kabul. The
Alokozay Kabul International Cricket Ground
serves as the nation's main cricket stadium. There are several other stadiums throughout the country, including the
Ghazi Amanullah Khan International Cricket Stadium
near
Jalalabad
. Domestically, cricket is played between teams from different provinces.
The
Afghanistan national football team
has been competing in international
football
since 1941.
539
The national team plays its home games at the
Ghazi Stadium
in Kabul, while
football in Afghanistan
is governed by the
Afghanistan Football Federation
. The national team has never competed or qualified for the
FIFA World Cup
but won an international football trophy in 2013.
536
The country also has a national team in the sport of futsal, a 5-a-side variation of football.
The traditional and the national sport of Afghanistan is
buzkashi
, particularly popular in the north.
540
It is similar to
polo
, played by horsemen in two teams, each trying to grab and hold a goat carcass.
541
The
Afghan Hound
(a type of running dog) originated in Afghanistan and was used in
wolf hunting
542
See also
Afghanistan portal
Asia portal
Outline of Afghanistan
2025 Afghan deportation from Iran
Explanatory notes
The last census in Afghanistan was conducted in 1979, and was itself incomplete. Due to the
ongoing conflict
in the country, no official census has been conducted since.
Other demonyms that have been used are Afghani,
11
Afghanese and Afghanistani (see
Afghans
for further details)
12
Afghanistan is a pure
autocracy
, with all law ultimately originating from the supreme leader.
17
18
There is an advisory
Leadership Council
, which is not a legislature as it has no power to pass laws.
The last census was conducted in 1979. Sources disagree about the current population:
The Afghani
National Statistics and Information Authority
gives an estimate of 35,695,527 for 2024.
24
25
The
Encyclopædia Britannica
gives an estimate of 36,432,000 for 2025.
26
The BBC gives a figure of 38.3 million for 2023.
27
The CIA gives an estimate of 40,121,552 for 2024.
28
The UN gives an estimate of 42,045,000 for 2024.
29
30
The US Census Bureau provides an estimate of 49,552,566 for 2025.
31
All figures are mid-year.
ɑː
ɑː
Pashto
افغانستان
romanized
Afğānistān
[ʔaʊ.ɣɑ.nis.tɑn/ʔap.ɣɑ.nis.tɑn]
Dari
افغانستان
romanized:
Afğānistān
[ʔäv.ɣɑː.nɪs.t̪ʰɑ́ːn/ʔäf.ɣɑː.nɪs.t̪ʰɑ́ːn]
Pashto
د افغانستان اسلامي امارت
[d̪ə
ʔaʊ.ɣɑ.nis.tɑn/ʔap.ɣɑ.nis.tɑn
ʔis.lɑ.mi
ʔi.mɑ.ɾat̪]
Dari
امارت اسلامی افغانستان
[ʔɪ.mɑː.ɾä.t̪ʰɪ
ʔɪs.lɑː.mi.jɪ
ʔäf.ɣɑː.nɪs.t̪ʰɑ́ːn/ʔäv.ɣɑː.nɪs.t̪ʰɑ́ːn]
The
Government of India
regards Afghanistan as a bordering country, as it considers all of
Kashmir
to be part of India. However, this is
disputed
, and the region bordering Afghanistan is administered by Pakistan as
Gilgit-Baltistan
23
As of July 2025
[update]
Russia
remains the only UN member state to have extended diplomatic recognition to the Taliban government.
39
Attributed to multiple sources:
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
Attributed to multiple sources:
151
152
153
154
155
156
Attributed to multiple sources:
157
145
158
159
160
References
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
Citations
"Document 77746"
. Archived from
the original
on 3 June 2019
. Retrieved
17 September
2021
Tharoor, Ishaan (19 June 2013).
"The Taliban's Qatar Office: Are Prospects for Peace Already Doomed?"
Time
ISSN
0040-781X
Archived
from the original on 19 August 2021
. Retrieved
19 August
2021
RZEPKA, MARCIN. "HOW TO BUILD A NATION WITH WORDS. THE NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM OF AFGHANISTAN." In Proceedings of the Ninth Conference of the European Society for Central Asian Studies, p. 318. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
in
Geonames.org (CC BY)
"Population Matters"
. 3 March 2016. Archived from
the original
on 16 August 2021
. Retrieved
18 September
2021
"Afghan Ethnic Groups: A Brief Investigation"
. NATO CFC. 14 August 2011.
Archived
from the original on 18 September 2021
. Retrieved
18 September
2021
– via ReliefWeb.
"Afghanistan"
The Association of Religion Data Archives
Archived
from the original on 7 February 2025
. Retrieved
9 February
2025
"Afghanistan Country focus"
(PDF)
European Union Agency for Asylum
. January 2022.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 20 February 2025
. Retrieved
22 February
2025
Kawa, Amin (18 December 2023).
"Taliban's Opposition to Islamic Sects; Nadeem: "All Afghans Are Followers of the Hanafi Denomination"
Hasht e Subh Daily
Archived
from the original on 11 March 2025
. Retrieved
22 February
2025
Siddique, Abubakar; Khosrow, Mansour (17 July 2023).
"Afghanistan's Shi'ite Minority Suffers 'Systematic Discrimination' Under Taliban Rule"
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Archived
from the original on 8 February 2025
. Retrieved
22 February
2025
Dictionary.com.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
Reference.com
Archived
3 March 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
(Retrieved 13 November 2007).
Dictionary.com.
WordNet
3.0.
Princeton University
Reference.com
(Retrieved 13 November 2007).
Archived
28 March 2014 at the
Wayback Machine
"Constitution of Afghanistan"
. 2004.
Archived
from the original on 20 September 2016
. Retrieved
16 February
2013
Afghan | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
. the Cambridge English Dictionary.
ISBN
978-1-107-66015-1
Archived
from the original on 3 March 2021
. Retrieved
27 March
2020
Sakhi, Nilofar (December 2022). "The Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan and Security Paradox".
Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs
(3):
383–
401.
doi
10.1177/23477970221130882
ISSN
2347-7970
S2CID
253945821
Afghanistan is now controlled by a militant group that operates out of a totalitarian ideology.
Madadi, Sayed (6 September 2022).
"Dysfunctional centralization and growing fragility under Taliban rule"
Middle East Institute
Archived
from the original on 28 November 2022
. Retrieved
28 November
2022
In other words, the centralized political and governance institutions of the former republic were unaccountable enough that they now comfortably accommodate the totalitarian objectives of the Taliban without giving the people any chance to resist peacefully.
Sadr, Omar (23 March 2022).
"Afghanistan's Public Intellectuals Fail to Denounce the Taliban"
Fair Observer
Archived
from the original on 23 March 2022
. Retrieved
28 November
2022
The Taliban government currently installed in Afghanistan is not simply another dictatorship. By all standards, it is a totalitarian regime.
"Dismantlement of the Taliban regime is the only way forward for Afghanistan"
Atlantic Council
. 8 September 2022.
Archived
from the original on 28 November 2022
. Retrieved
28 November
2022
As with any other ideological movement, the Taliban's Islamic government is transformative and totalitarian in nature.
Akbari, Farkhondeh (7 March 2022).
"The Risks Facing Hazaras in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan"
George Washington University
. Archived from
the original
on 14 January 2023
. Retrieved
28 November
2022
In the Taliban's totalitarian Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, there is no meaningful political inclusivity or representation for Hazaras at any level.
Bezhan, Frud (7 September 2021).
"Key Figures In The Taliban's New Theocratic Government"
Radio Farda
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Archived
from the original on 6 February 2022
. Retrieved
6 February
2022
George, Susannah (18 February 2023).
"Inside the Taliban campaign to forge a religious emirate"
The Washington Post
Archived
from the original on 18 February 2023
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
Kraemer, Thomas (27 November 2022).
"Afghanistan dispatch: Taliban leaders issue new orders on law-making process, enforcement of court orders from previous government"
JURIST
Archived
from the original on 17 January 2024
. Retrieved
1 May
2023
Dawi, Akmal (28 March 2023).
"Unseen Taliban Leader Wields Godlike Powers in Afghanistan"
Voice of America
Archived
from the original on 13 April 2023
. Retrieved
1 May
2023
Central Statistics Office Afghanistan
"World Economic Outlook Database, October 2024 Edition. (Afghanistan)"
www.imf.org
International Monetary Fund
. 22 October 2024.
Archived
from the original on 23 January 2025
. Retrieved
27 December
2024
"Human Development Report 2025"
(PDF)
United Nations Development Programme
. 2025.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 6 May 2025
. Retrieved
11 May
2025
"Half Hour and 45-Minute Time Zones"
timeanddate.com
Archived
from the original on 15 February 2016
. Retrieved
23 December
2022
"Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management)"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 17 March 2015
. Retrieved
1 September
2008
"Library"
nsia.gov.af
. Archived from
the original
on 23 March 2022
. Retrieved
23 January
2025
"Estimated Population of Afghanistan 2024–25"
National Statistics and Information Authority
Archived
from the original on 10 March 2025
. Retrieved
23 January
2025
"Afghanistan"
www.britannica.com
Archived
from the original on 11 November 2021
. Retrieved
25 January
2025
"Afghanistan country profile"
bbc.com
. 15 August 2023.
Archived
from the original on 29 July 2018
. Retrieved
23 January
2025
"Afghanistan"
The World Factbook
(2025 ed.).
Central Intelligence Agency
. Retrieved
6 January
2025
"World Population Prospects 2024 Summary of Results"
(PDF)
un.org
. p61.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 13 January 2025
. Retrieved
6 January
2025
"World Population Prospects 2024 Data Sources"
(PDF)
un.org
. p11.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 30 April 2025
. Retrieved
6 January
2025
"Afghanistan"
nsia.gov.af
Archived
from the original on 25 January 2025
. Retrieved
23 January
2025
Pillalamarri, Akhilesh.
"Why Is Afghanistan the 'Graveyard of Empires'?"
The Diplomat
Archived
from the original on 11 August 2021
. Retrieved
25 February
2022
Griffin, Luke (14 January 2002).
"The Pre-Islamic Period"
Afghanistan Country Study
. Illinois Institute of Technology. Archived from
the original
on 3 November 2001
. Retrieved
14 October
2010
Cush, Denise; Robinson, Catherine; York, Michael (2012).
Encyclopedia of Hinduism
. Routledge. p. 200.
ISBN
978-1-135-18979-2
"The remarkable rugs of war, Drill Hall Gallery"
The Australian
. 30 July 2021. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021
. Retrieved
22 November
2021
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link
"Professing Faith: Religious traditions in Afghanistan are diverse"
. 16 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 6 October 2021
. Retrieved
1 November
2021
"Afghanistan: the land that forgot time"
The Guardian
. 26 October 2001.
Archived
from the original on 14 December 2021
. Retrieved
14 December
2021
"DŌST MOḤAMMAD KHAN"
Encyclopaedia Iranica
. 1995.
Archived
from the original on 29 April 2011
. Retrieved
8 February
2023
"Russia becomes first country to recognise Taliban government of Afghanistan"
Reuters
. Retrieved
3 July
2025
"Morocco seizes over 840 kg of cannabis – Xinhua | English.news.cn"
. Xinhua News Agency.
Archived
from the original on 18 October 2022
. Retrieved
18 October
2022
"Afghanistan's Saffron on Media | AfGOV"
mail.gov.af
. Archived from
the original
on 8 April 2023
. Retrieved
18 October
2022
"Taliban Takeover Puts Afghanistan's Cashmere, Silk Industries at Risk"
The Business of Fashion
. 25 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 18 October 2022
. Retrieved
18 October
2022
"The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian... " (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J.W. McCrindle).
"Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture Abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan).
Cf: "Their name (Afghan) means "cavalier" being derived from the
Sanskrit
Asva
, or
Asvaka
, a horse, and shows that their country must have been noted in ancient times, as it is at the present day, for its superior breed of horses. Asvaka was an important tribe settled north to Kabul river, which offered a gallant resistance but ineffectual resistance to the arms of Alexander." (
Scottish Geographical Magazine
, 1999, p. 275, Royal Scottish Geographical Society)
"Afghans are Assakani of the
Greeks
; this word being the
Sanskrit
Ashvaka
meaning 'horsemen'." (
Sva
, 1915, p. 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood)
Cf: "The name represents Sanskrit Asvaka in the sense of a
cavalier
, and this reappears scarcely modified in the Assakani or Assakeni of the historians of the expedition of
Alexander
" (Hobson-Jobson:
A Glossary of Colloquial
Anglo-Indian
words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological
. Henry Yule, A. D. Burnell).
Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra
(1977) [1952].
Ancient India
(Reprinted ed.). Motilal Banarsidass. p. 99.
ISBN
978-8-12080-436-4
Ch. M. Kieffer (15 December 1983).
"Afghan"
Encyclopædia Iranica
(online ed.). Columbia University. Archived from
the original
on 16 November 2013.
Vogelsang, Willem (2002).
The Afghans
. Wiley Blackwell. p. 18.
ISBN
0-631-19841-5
Archived
from the original on 9 July 2019
. Retrieved
6 July
2019
Nölle-Karimi, Christine (2020).
"Afghanistan until 1747"
. In Fleet, Kate;
Krämer, Gudrun
; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;
Rowson, Everett
(eds.).
Encyclopaedia of Islam
(3rd ed.). Brill Online.
ISSN
1873-9830
Lee 2019
, p. 317.
Afghanistan – John Ford Shroder, University of Nebraska
. Encarta. Archived from
the original
on 17 July 2004
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
"Afghanistan: A Treasure Trove for Archaeologists"
Time
. 26 February 2009. Archived from
the original
on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
13 July
2011
Rita Wright (2009).
The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society
. Cambridge University Press. p. 1.
ISBN
978-0-521-57652-9
Archived
from the original on 28 June 2016
. Retrieved
11 December
2019
Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1998). Ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation. pp.96
Louis Depree (1981).
Notes on Shortugai: An Harappan Site in Northern Afghanistan
. Centre for the Study of the Civilization of Central Asia.
Bryant, Edwin F. (2001)
The quest for the origins of Vedic culture: the Indo-Aryan migration debate
Oxford University Press
ISBN
978-0-19-513777-4
"Chronological History of Afghanistan – the cradle of Gandharan civilisation"
. Gandhara.com.au. 15 February 1989. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012
. Retrieved
26 February
2026
Gnoli, Gherado (1989).
The Idea of Iran, an Essay on its Origin
. Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. p. 133.
... he would have drawn inspiration from a ireligious policy which intended to counteract the Median Magi's influence and transfer the 'Avesta-Schule' from Arachosia to Persia: thus the Avesta would have arrived in Persia through Arachosia in the 6th century B.C. [...] Although ... Arachosia would have been only a second fatherland for Zoroastrianism, a significant role should still be attributed to this south-eastern region in the history of the Zoroastrian tradition.
Gnoli, Gherado (1989).
The Idea of Iran, an essay on its Origin
. Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. p. 133.
linguistic data [...] prove the presence of the Zoroastrian tradition in Arachosia both in the Achaemenian age, in the last quarter of the 6th century, and in the Seleucid age.
"ARACHOSIA – Encyclopaedia Iranica"
iranicaonline.org
Archived
from the original on 23 May 2021
. Retrieved
19 February
2021
"Country Profile: Afghanistan"
(PDF)
Library of Congress Country Studies
on Afghanistan. August 2008. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 8 April 2014
. Retrieved
10 October
2010
Runion 2007
, p. 44.
'Afghanistan and the Silk Road: The land at the heart of world trade' by Bijan Omrani"
UNAMA
. 8 March 2010.
Archived
from the original on 16 August 2021
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
"Afghanistan – Silk Roads Programme"
UNESCO
Archived
from the original on 18 June 2021
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
Wink, André (2002).
Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries
. BRILL. p. 125.
ISBN
0-391-04173-8
Archived
from the original on 1 December 2019
. Retrieved
11 December
2019
"Afghan and Afghanistan"
Abdul Hai Habibi
. alamahabibi.com. 1969. Archived from
the original
on 23 October 2008
. Retrieved
17 November
2015
Charles Higham (2014).
Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations
. Infobase Publishing. p. 141.
ISBN
978-1-4381-0996-1
Weber, Olivier; Unesco (2002).
Eternal Afghanistan
. Chêne.
ISBN
978-92-3-103850-1
Gradually there emerged a fabulous syncretism between the Hellenistic world and the Buddhist universe
Grenet, Grenet (2016).
Zoroastriansm among the Kushans
Allen, Charles (5 November 2015).
The Search For Shangri-La: A Journey into Tibetan History
. Little, Brown Book Group.
ISBN
978-0-349-14218-0
With Aurmuzd, Sroshard, Narasa and Mihr, we are on safer ground because all are Zoroastrian deities: Aurmuzd is the supreme god of light, Ahura Mazda; and Mihr, the sun god, is linked with the Iranian Mithra. Exactly the same non-Buddhist[...]
Gorder, A. Christian Van (2010).
Christianity in Persia and the Status of Non-muslims in Iran
. Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN
978-0-7391-3609-6
Kennedy, Hugh (9 December 2010).
The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In
. Orion.
ISBN
978-0-297-86559-9
.. when the patriarch at Ctesiphon had to broker a compromise that left one bishop at the capital Zaranj and another further east at Bust, now in southern Afghanistan. A Christian text composed in about 850 also records a monastery of ...
Yossef, Noam Bar'am-Ben (1998).
Brides and Betrothals: Jewish Wedding Rituals in Afghanistan
. Israel Museum.
ISBN
978-965-278-223-6
The Jews of Afghanistan According to tradition, the first Jews reached ... in Hebrew script found in the Tang - e Azao Valley in the Ghor region ...
Ende, Werner; Steinbach, Udo (15 April 2010).
Islam in the World Today: A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society
. Cornell University Press. p. 257.
ISBN
978-0-8014-6489-8
At the time of the first Muslim advances, numerous local natural religions were competing with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism in the territory of modern Afghanistan.
Adrych, Philippa; coins), Robert Bracey (Writer on; Dalglish, Dominic; Lenk, Stefanie; Wood, Rachel (2017).
Images of Mithra
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-879253-6
The Rabatak inscription includes Miiro amongst a list of gods: Nana, Ahura Mazda, and Narasa. All of these gods likely had images dedicated at the Bagolaggo, presumably alongside statues of Kanishka
Allen, Charles (5 November 2015).
The Search For Shangri-La: A Journey into Tibetan History
. Little, Brown Book Group.
ISBN
978-0-349-14218-0
The two most important deities are goddesses: one is the lady Nana', daughter of the moon god and sister of the sun god, the Kushan form of Anahita, Zoroastrian goddess of fertility
"A.—The Hindu Kings of Kábul"
Sir H. M. Elliot
. London:
Packard Humanities Institute
. 1867–1877. Archived from
the original
on 8 April 2014
. Retrieved
18 September
2010
Hamd-Allah Mustawfi of Qazwin (1340).
"The Geographical Part of the NUZHAT-AL-QULUB"
Translated by Guy Le Strange
Packard Humanities Institute
. Archived from
the original
on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
19 August
2011
"A.—The Hindu Kings of Kábul (p.3)"
Sir H. M. Elliot
. London:
Packard Humanities Institute
. 1867–1877. Archived from
the original
on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
18 September
2010
Ewans 2002
, p. 22–23.
Richard F. Strand
(31 December 2005).
"Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan"
nuristan.info
Archived
from the original on 1 April 2019
. Retrieved
2 June
2019
Richard Nyrop; Donald Seekins, eds. (1986).
Afghanistan: A Country Study
. Foreign Area Studies, The American University. p. 10.
Ewans 2002
, p. 23.
"Central Asian world cities"
. Faculty.washington.edu. 29 September 2007. Archived from
the original
on 23 July 2013
. Retrieved
6 May
2012
Page, Susan (18 February 2009).
"Obama's war: Deploying 17,000 raises stakes in Afghanistan"
USA Today
Archived
from the original on 13 May 2011
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
Dale, Stephen Frederic (1998). "The Legacy of the Timurids".
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
(1):
43–
58.
doi
10.1017/S1356186300016424
ISSN
1356-1863
JSTOR
25183465
S2CID
154120015
Periods of World History: A Latin American Perspective – Page 129
The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia – Page 465
Barfield 2012
, pp. 92–93.
Barfield 2012
, pp. 75.
Dupree 1997
, pp. 319, 321.
Hanifi, Shah Mahmoud (15 July 2019).
Mountstuart Elphinstone in South Asia: Pioneer of British Colonial Rule
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-091440-0
"Khurasan"
The Encyclopaedia of Islam
. Brill. 2009. p. 55.
Archived
from the original on 25 February 2024
. Retrieved
20 June
2015
In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the term "Khurassan" frequently had a much wider denotation, covering also parts of what are now Soviet Central Asia and Afghanistan
Ibn Battuta (2004).
Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354
(reprint, illustrated ed.). Routledge. p. 416.
ISBN
978-0-415-34473-9
Archived
from the original on 16 April 2017.
Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah
(1560).
"Chapter 200: Translation of the Introduction to Firishta's History"
The History of India
. Vol. 6. Sir H. M. Elliot. London: Packard Humanities Institute. p. 8. Archived from
the original
on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
22 August
2010
Edward G. Browne.
"A Literary History of Persia, Volume 4: Modern Times (1500–1924), Chapter IV. An Outline of the History Of Persia During The Last Two Centuries (A.D. 1722–1922)"
Packard Humanities Institute
. Archived from
the original
on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
9 September
2010
"Ahmad Shah Durrani"
Encyclopædia Britannica Online
. Archived from
the original
on 4 April 2014
. Retrieved
9 September
2010
Friedrich Engels
(1857).
"Afghanistan"
Andy Blunden
. The New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. I. Archived from
the original
on 27 April 2014
. Retrieved
25 August
2010
Noelle-Karimi, Christine (2014).
The Pearl in Its Midst: Herat and the Mapping of Khurasan (15th–19th Centuries)
. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.
ISBN
978-3-7001-7202-4
Archived
from the original on 7 June 2025
. Retrieved
15 October
2021
Tanner, Stephen (2009).
Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban
. Da Capo Press. p. 126.
ISBN
978-0-306-81826-4
Lee, Jonathan L. (15 January 2019).
Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present
. Reaktion Books.
ISBN
978-1-78914-010-1
Archived
from the original on 12 January 2025
. Retrieved
24 January
2023
Chahryar, Adle (2003).
History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century
. UNESCO. p. 296.
ISBN
978-92-3-103876-1
"Afghan Women Hope for More Gains Under New Administration – Afghanistan"
ReliefWeb
. 22 October 2014.
Archived
from the original on 22 August 2021
. Retrieved
14 June
2020
"Afghanistan – HISTORY"
Country Studies US
Archived
from the original on 25 February 2023
. Retrieved
25 February
2023
Arnold, Anthony (June 1985).
Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective
. Hoover Press.
ISBN
978-0-8179-8213-3
Wyatt, Christopher (2 September 2015). "Afghanistan in the Great War".
Asian Affairs
46
(3):
387–
410.
doi
10.1080/03068374.2015.1081001
S2CID
159788830
Roberts, Jeffery J. (14 June 2003).
The Origins of Conflict in Afghanistan
. Greenwood Publishing Group.
ISBN
978-0-275-97878-5
Nicosia, Francis R. (1997). "
'Drang Nach Osten' Continued? Germany and Afghanistan during the Weimar Republic".
Journal of Contemporary History
32
(2):
235–
257.
doi
10.1177/002200949703200207
JSTOR
261243
S2CID
160565967
"Afghanistan".
Encyclopedia Americana
. Vol. 25. Americana Corporation. 1976. p. 24.
"Queen Soraya of Afghanistan: A woman ahead of her time"
Arab News
. 10 September 2020.
Archived
from the original on 30 August 2021
. Retrieved
3 July
2021
Muḥammad, Fayz̤; McChesney, R. D. (1999).
Kabul under siege: Fayz Muhammad's account of the 1929 Uprising
. Markus Wiener Publishers. pp. 39, 40.
ISBN
978-1-55876-154-4
Archived
from the original on 4 April 2019
. Retrieved
15 June
2019
Muḥammad, Fayz̤; McChesney, R. D. (1999).
Kabul under siege: Fayz Muhammad's account of the 1929 Uprising
. Markus Wiener Publishers. pp. 275, 276.
ISBN
978-1-55876-154-4
Archived
from the original on 4 April 2019
. Retrieved
15 June
2019
Hafizullah, Emadi (2005).
Culture and customs of Afghanistan
. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 35.
ISBN
0-313-33089-1
Archived
from the original on 25 February 2017
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
Eur (2002).
The Far East and Australasia 2003
. Psychology Press. p. 62.
ISBN
978-1-85743-133-9
Anthony Hyman (27 July 2016).
Afghanistan under Soviet Domination, 1964–91
. Springer. p. 46.
ISBN
978-1-349-21948-3
Ron Synovitz (18 July 2003).
"Afghanistan: History Of 1973 Coup Sheds Light On Relations With Pakistan"
. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Archived
from the original on 26 June 2019
. Retrieved
6 July
2019
Ewans 2002
, p. 186–88.
Wadle, Ryan (1 October 2018).
Afghanistan War: A Documentary and Reference Guide
. ABC-CLIO.
ISBN
978-1-4408-5747-8
Meher, Jagmohan (2004).
America's Afghanistan War: The Success that Failed
. Gyan Books. pp.
68–
69, 94.
ISBN
978-81-7835-262-6
Hussain, Rizwan (2005).
Pakistan and the Emergence of Islamic Militancy in Afghanistan
. Ashgate Publishing. pp.
108–
109.
ISBN
978-0-7546-4434-7
Rasanayagam, Angelo (2005).
Afghanistan: A Modern History
I.B.Tauris
. p.
73
ISBN
978-1-85043-857-1
. Retrieved
31 May
2019
"Afghanistan: 20 years of bloodshed"
BBC News
. 26 April 1998.
Archived
from the original on 17 February 2019
. Retrieved
4 July
2019
Barfield 2012
, p. 234.
Kalinovsky, Artemy M. (2011).
A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
. Harvard University Press. pp.
25–
28.
ISBN
978-0-674-05866-8
Lacina, Bethany; Gleditsch, Nils Petter (2005).
"Monitoring Trends in Global Combat: A New Dataset of Battle Deaths"
(PDF)
European Journal of Population
21
2–
3): 154.
doi
10.1007/s10680-005-6851-6
S2CID
14344770
. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014
. Retrieved
1 March
2017
Kakar, Mohammed (3 March 1997).
The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979–1982
. University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0-520-20893-3
Archived
from the original on 6 January 2017
. Retrieved
7 January
2017
The Afghans are among the latest victims of genocide by a superpower. Large numbers of Afghans were killed to suppress resistance to the army of the Soviet Union, which wished to vindicate its client regime and realize its goal in Afghanistan.
Klass, Rosanne (1994).
The Widening Circle of Genocide
. Transaction Publishers. p. 129.
ISBN
978-1-4128-3965-5
During the intervening fourteen years of Communist rule, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Afghan civilians were killed by Soviet forces and their proxies- the four Communist regimes in Kabul, and the East Germans, Bulgarians, Czechs, Cubans, Palestinians, Indians and others who assisted them. These were not battle casualties or the unavoidable civilian victims of warfare. Soviet and local Communist forces seldom attacked the scattered guerilla bands of the Afghan Resistance except, in a few strategic locales like the Panjsher valley. Instead they deliberately targeted the civilian population, primarily in the rural areas.
Reisman, W. Michael; Norchi, Charles H.
"Genocide and the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan"
(PDF)
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 26 October 2016
. Retrieved
7 January
2017
According to widely reported accounts, substantial programmes of depopulation have been conducted in these Afghan provinces: Ghazni, Nagarhar, Lagham, Qandahar, Zabul, Badakhshan, Lowgar, Paktia, Paktika and Kunar...There is considerable evidence that genocide has been committed against the Afghan people by the combined forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union.
Goodson, Larry P. (2001).
Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban
. University of Washington Press. p.
ISBN
978-0-295-98050-8
"Soldiers of God: Cold War (Part 1/5)"
CNN
. 1998.
Archived
from the original on 8 July 2013
. Retrieved
11 October
2011
UNICEF
Land-mines: A deadly inheritance
Archived
5 August 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
"Landmines in Afghanistan: A Decades Old Danger"
. Defenseindustrydaily.com. 1 February 2010. Archived from
the original
on 11 January 2014
. Retrieved
6 May
2012
"Refugee Admissions Program for Near East and South Asia"
. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
Archived
from the original on 28 October 2020
. Retrieved
29 December
2013
Recknagel, Charles.
"Afghanistan: Land Mines From Afghan-Soviet War Leave Bitter Legacy (Part 2)"
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Archived
from the original on 14 August 2021
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"Afghanistan: History –
Columbia Encyclopedia
. Infoplease.com. 11 September 2001. Archived from
the original
on 10 August 2012
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
'Mujahidin vs. Communists: Revisiting the battles of Jalalabad and Khost
Archived
2 August 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
. By Anne Stenersen: a Paper presented at the conference
COIN in Afghanistan: From Mughals to the Americans
, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), 12–13 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
Barfield 2012
, pp. 239, 244.
"Archived Version"
(PDF)
prr.hec.gov.pk
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 9 September 2020.
"Afghanistan"
publishing.cdlib.org
Archived
from the original on 21 January 2023
. Retrieved
25 August
2021
Saikal, Amin
(13 November 2004).
Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival
(2006 1st ed.). I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., London New York. p. 352.
ISBN
978-1-85043-437-5
"Blood-Stained Hands, Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity"
Human Rights Watch
. 7 July 2005. Archived from
the original
on 12 December 2009.
GUTMAN, Roy (2008): How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan, Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, 1st ed., Washington D.C.
"Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: 1978–2001"
(PDF)
. Afghanistan Justice Project. 2005. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 4 October 2013
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
"Afghanistan: The massacre in Mazar-i Sharif. (Chapter II: Background)"
Human Rights Watch
. November 1998. Archived from
the original
on 2 November 2008
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
"Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: 1978–2001"
(PDF)
. Afghanistan Justice Project. 2005. p. 63. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 4 October 2013
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
Matinuddin, Kamal,
The Taliban Phenomenon, Afghanistan 1994–1997
Oxford University Press
, (1999), pp. 25–26
"Documents Detail Years of Pakistani Support for Taliban, Extremists"
George Washington University
. 2007. Archived from
the original
on 3 December 2013.
Afghanistan: Chronology of Events January 1995 – February 1997
(PDF)
(Report). Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. February 1997.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 12 October 2017
. Retrieved
28 February
2018
Coll,
Ghost Wars
(New York: Penguin, 2005), 14.
Country profile: Afghanistan (published August 2008)
Archived
25 June 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
(page 3). Library of Congress. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
Skain, Rosemarie (2002).
The women of Afghanistan under the Taliban
. McFarland. p. 41.
ISBN
978-0-7864-1090-3
James Gerstenzan; Lisa Getter (18 November 2001).
"Laura Bush Addresses State of Afghan Women"
Los Angeles Times
Archived
from the original on 10 October 2012
. Retrieved
14 September
2012
"Women's Rights in the Taliban and Post-Taliban Eras"
A Woman Among Warlords
PBS
. 11 September 2007.
Archived
from the original on 14 January 2013
. Retrieved
14 September
2012
Rashid, Ahmed (2002).
Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia
. I.B.Tauris. p. 253.
ISBN
978-1-86064-830-4
Gargan, Edward A (October 2001).
"Taliban massacres outlined for UN"
Chicago Tribune
Archived
from the original on 16 September 2011
. Retrieved
24 November
2010
"Confidential UN report details mass killings of civilian villagers"
Newsday
. newsday.org. 2001. Archived from the original on 18 November 2002
. Retrieved
12 October
2001
"U.N. says Taliban starving hungry people for military agenda"
Associated Press
. 7 January 1998.
Archived
from the original on 13 September 2018
. Retrieved
7 July
2019
Goodson, Larry P. (2002).
Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics and the Rise of the Taliban
. University of Washington Press. p.
121
ISBN
978-0-295-98111-6
"Re-Creating Afghanistan: Returning to Istalif"
NPR
. 1 August 2002. Archived from
the original
on 23 October 2013.
Marcela Grad.
Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader
(1 March 2009 ed.). Webster University Press. p. 310.
"Ahmed Shah Massoud"
History Commons
. 2010. Archived from
the original
on 25 January 2014
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
Maley, William (2009).
The Afghanistan wars
. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 288.
ISBN
978-0-230-21313-5
Rashid, Ahmed (11 September 2001).
"Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast"
The Daily Telegraph
. London. Archived from
the original
on 8 November 2013.
Life under Taliban cuts two ways
".
CSM
. 20 September 2001
Archived
30 December 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
"Brigade 055"
. CNN. Archived from
the original
on 29 July 2013.
Rory McCarthy (17 October 2001).
"New offer on Bin Laden"
The Guardian
. London. Archived from
the original
on 28 June 2013
. Retrieved
17 July
2012
'Trump calls out Pakistan, India as he pledges to 'fight to win' in Afghanistan
. CNN, 24 August 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
"WPO Poll: Afghan Public Overwhelmingly Rejects al-Qaeda, Taliban"
University of Maryland Libraries
. 30 January 2006.
Archived
from the original on 2 January 2017
. Retrieved
2 January
2017
Equally large percentages endorse the US military presence in Afghanistan. Eighty-three percent said they have a favorable view of "the US military forces in our country" (39% very favorable). Just 17% have an unfavorable view.
"Afghan Futures: A National Public Opinion Survey"
(PDF)
Afghan Center for Socio-economic and Opinion Research
. 29 January 2015. p. 4.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 29 March 2017
. Retrieved
2 January
2017
Seventy-seven percent support the presence of U.S. forces; 67 percent say the same of NATO/ISAF forces more generally. Despite the country's travails, eight in 10 say it was a good thing for the United States to oust the Taliban in 2001. And much more blame either the Taliban or al Qaeda for the country's violence, 53 percent, than blame the United States, 12 percent. The latter is about half what it was in 2012, coinciding with a sharp reduction in the U.S. deployment.
Tyler, Patrick (8 October 2001).
"A Nation challenged: The attack; U.S. and Britain strike Afghanistan, aiming at bases and terrorist camps; Bush warns 'Taliban will pay a price'
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on 11 April 2014
. Retrieved
28 February
2010
United Nations Security Council
Resolution
1386
S/RES/1386(2001)
31 May 2001. Retrieved 21 September 2007. – (
UNSCR 1386
"United States Mission to Afghanistan"
. Nato.usmission.gov.
Archived
from the original on 21 October 2010
. Retrieved
14 November
2010
"Afghanistan's Refugee Crisis"
MERIP
. 24 September 2001.
Archived
from the original on 16 June 2020
. Retrieved
16 June
2020
"Afghanistan: Civilians at Risk"
Doctors Without Borders – USA
Archived
from the original on 16 June 2020
. Retrieved
16 June
2020
Makhmalbaf, Mohsen (1 November 2001).
"Limbs of No Body: The World's Indifference to the Afghan Tragedy"
Monthly Review
Archived
from the original on 7 April 2011
. Retrieved
16 June
2020
"Rebuilding Afghanistan"
Return to Hope
Archived
from the original on 14 August 2021
. Retrieved
16 June
2020
"Japan aid offer to 'broke' Afghanistan"
. CNN. 15 January 2002.
Archived
from the original on 19 November 2002
. Retrieved
16 June
2020
"Rebuilding Afghanistan: The U.S. Role"
Stanford University
Archived
from the original on 20 August 2014
. Retrieved
16 June
2020
Fossler, Julie.
"USAID Afghanistan"
USAID
. Archived from
the original
on 17 October 2010
. Retrieved
14 November
2010
"Canada's Engagement in Afghanistan: Backgrounder"
. Afghanistan.gc.ca. 9 July 2010. Archived from
the original
on 15 December 2010
. Retrieved
14 November
2010
"Pakistan Accused of Helping Taliban"
. United States: ABC News. 31 July 2008. Archived from
the original
on 21 December 2013
. Retrieved
28 September
2010
Crilly, Rob; Spillius, Alex (26 July 2010).
"Wikileaks: Pakistan accused of helping Taliban in Afghanistan attacks"
The Daily Telegraph
. London. Archived from
the original
on 29 January 2014
. Retrieved
28 September
2010
Howard Adelman (15 April 2016).
Protracted Displacement in Asia: No Place to Call Home
. Taylor & Francis. p. 167.
ISBN
978-1-317-07407-6
"The foreign troops left in Afghanistan"
. BBC News. 15 October 2015.
Archived
from the original on 19 August 2021
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
18 May 2018 at 11:38 am (18 May 2018).
"How Many Troops Are Currently in Afghanistan?"
Forces Network
Archived
from the original on 16 March 2020
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"Huge security as Afghan presidential election looms"
. BBC News. 4 April 2014.
Archived
from the original on 21 October 2018
. Retrieved
21 October
2018
"Afghanistan votes in historic presidential election"
. BBC News. 5 April 2014.
Archived
from the original on 21 October 2018
. Retrieved
21 October
2018
Harooni, Mirwais; Shalizi, Hamid (4 April 2014).
"Landmark Afghanistan Presidential Election Held Under Shadow of Violence"
HuffPost
Reuters
Archived
from the original on 3 March 2016
. Retrieved
21 October
2018
"U.S. formally ends the war in Afghanistan"
. No. online. CBA News.
Associated Press
. 28 December 2014.
Archived
from the original on 28 December 2014
. Retrieved
28 December
2014
Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul (28 December 2014).
"Nato ends combat operations in Afghanistan"
The Guardian
. Kabul.
Archived
from the original on 2 January 2015
. Retrieved
11 January
2015
"U.S. formally ends the war in Afghanistan"
CBS News
. 28 December 2014.
Archived
from the original on 28 December 2014
. Retrieved
12 April
2015
"TSG IntelBrief: Afghanistan 16.0"
The Soufan Group
. Archived from
the original
on 9 August 2018
. Retrieved
27 September
2018
"Body Count – Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the 'War on Terror' – Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan"
Archived
30 April 2015 at the
Wayback Machine
(PDF), by
IPPNW
PGS
and
PSR
, First international edition (March 2015)
Gabriela Motroc (7 April 2015).
"U.S. War on Terror has reportedly killed 1.3 million people in a decade"
Australian National Review
. Archived from
the original
on 5 May 2015.
"220,000 killed in US war in Afghanistan 80,000 in Pakistan: report"
Daily Times
. 30 March 2015. Archived from
the original
on 5 May 2015.
Borger, Julian (18 May 2022).
"US withdrawal triggered catastrophic defeat of Afghan forces, damning watchdog report finds"
The Guardian
Archived
from the original on 21 May 2022
. Retrieved
19 May
2022
"US withdrawal prompted collapse of Afghan army: Report"
Al Jazeera
. 18 May 2022.
Archived
from the original on 20 June 2022
. Retrieved
19 May
2022
"NATO to Cut Forces in Afghanistan, Match US Withdrawal"
VOA News
. 14 April 2021.
Archived
from the original on 15 April 2021
. Retrieved
26 July
2021
Robertson, Nic (24 June 2021).
"Afghanistan is disintegrating fast as Biden's troop withdrawal continues"
. CNN.
Archived
from the original on 9 July 2021
. Retrieved
26 July
2021
"Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces' collapse"
The Guardian
. 13 July 2021.
Archived
from the original on 15 August 2021
. Retrieved
26 July
2021
Watkins, Andrew H. (November 2021). Cruickshank, Paul; Hummel, Kristina (eds.).
"An Assessment of Taliban Rule at Three Months"
(PDF)
CTC Sentinel
14
(9). West Point, New York:
Combating Terrorism Center
1–
14.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 29 November 2021
. Retrieved
29 November
2021
"President Ashraf Ghani Flees Afghanistan, Taliban Take Over Kabul: Report"
NDTV.com
Archived
from the original on 15 August 2021
. Retrieved
15 August
2021
"The Afghan government's collapse is a humiliation for the US and Joe Biden"
New Statesman
. 15 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 16 August 2021
. Retrieved
15 August
2021
"Operations"
The National Resistance Front: Fighting for a Free Afghanistan
. National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. Archived from
the original
on 6 September 2021
. Retrieved
21 August
2021
"Anti-Taliban forces say they've taken three districts in Afghanistan's north"
Reuters
. 21 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 23 August 2021
. Retrieved
21 August
2021
"An anti-Taliban front forming in Panjshir? Ex top spy Saleh, son of 'Lion of Panjshir' meet at citadel"
The Week
Archived
from the original on 17 August 2021
. Retrieved
17 August
2021
"Afghan Vice President Saleh Declares Himself Caretaker President; Reaches Out To Leaders for Support"
News18
. 17 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 17 August 2021
. Retrieved
17 August
2021
Kazmin, Amy; Findlay, Stephanie; Bokhari, Farhan (6 September 2021).
"Taliban says it has captured last Afghan region of resistance"
Financial Times
Archived
from the original on 10 December 2022
. Retrieved
6 September
2021
Huylebroek, Jim; Blue, Victor J. (17 September 2021).
"In Panjshir, Few Signs of an Active Resistance, or Any Fight at All"
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on 28 December 2021.
"Human and Budgetary Costs to Date of the U.S. War in Afghanistan, 2001–2022 | Figures | Costs of War"
The Costs of War
Archived
from the original on 6 September 2021
. Retrieved
1 September
2021
"UCDP – Uppsala Conflict Data Program"
ucdp.uu.se
Archived
from the original on 19 August 2021
. Retrieved
25 December
2022
"One year later, Austin acknowledges lasting questions over Afghanistan war's end"
Stars and Stripes
Archived
from the original on 1 October 2022
. Retrieved
1 October
2022
"Karzai says while the war has ended, unity has not yet been achieved | Ariana News"
ariananews.af
. 9 March 2022.
Archived
from the original on 1 October 2022
. Retrieved
1 October
2022
"Briefing by Special Representative Deborah Lyons to the Security Council"
UNAMA
. 26 January 2022.
Archived
from the original on 4 October 2022
. Retrieved
1 October
2022
"Hamid Karzai stays on in Afghanistan — hoping for the best, but unable to leave"
NPR
Archived
from the original on 19 January 2023
. Retrieved
15 October
2022
Zucchino, David (1 September 2021).
"Shifting to Governing, Taliban Will Name Supreme Afghan Leader"
The New York Times
ISSN
0362-4331
. Archived from
the original
on 28 December 2021
. Retrieved
6 September
2021
"گروه طالبان حکومت جدید خود را با رهبری ملا حسن اخوند اعلام کرد"
. BBC News فارسی.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
8 October
2021
"Taliban announce new government for Afghanistan"
. BBC News. 7 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
9 September
2021
"Profile: Who is Afghanistan's new caretaker prime minister?"
The Express Tribune
. 8 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 8 September 2021
. Retrieved
8 October
2021
"Hardliners get key posts in new Taliban government"
. BBC News. 7 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
9 September
2021
"Taliban Announces Head of State, Acting Ministers"
TOLOnews
. 7 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
7 September
2021
"Taliban Name Their Deputy Ministers, Doubling Down On An All-Male Team"
NPR
. 21 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 10 October 2021
. Retrieved
8 October
2021
"Who will speak for Afghanistan at the United Nations?"
Al Jazeera
. 26 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 14 October 2021
. Retrieved
8 October
2021
"China urges World Bank, IMF to help Afghanistan"
News24
. 28 October 2021.
Archived
from the original on 2 June 2022
. Retrieved
12 November
2021
"Afghanistan: Can the Taliban avert a food crisis without foreign aid?"
. Deutsche Welle. 11 November 2021.
Archived
from the original on 26 December 2022
. Retrieved
12 November
2021
'Countdown to catastrophe': half of Afghans face hunger this winter – UN"
The Guardian
. 25 October 2021.
Archived
from the original on 9 June 2022
. Retrieved
12 November
2021
"Afghanistan Facing Famine: UN, World Bank, US Should Adjust Sanctions, Economic Policies"
. Human Rights Watch. 11 November 2021.
Archived
from the original on 12 May 2022
. Retrieved
12 November
2021
"Can the Taliban Tackle Corruption in Afghanistan?"
VOA
. 31 January 2023.
Archived
from the original on 16 August 2023
. Retrieved
16 August
2023
Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is ranked 150th, a remarkable status upgrade from its 174th ranking in 2021. In 2011, at the height of U.S. military and developmental engagement in Afghanistan, the country was ranked 180th, next to North Korea and Somalia.
"2023 Corruption Perceptions Index: Explore the results"
Transparency.org
. 30 January 2024.
Archived
from the original on 4 February 2023
. Retrieved
30 December
2024
"Taliban blasted for 'shocking oppression' of women"
Arab News
. 12 September 2023.
Archived
from the original on 12 September 2023
. Retrieved
13 September
2023
Afghan Refugees, Costs of War,
"Afghan Refugees | Costs of War"
. Archived from
the original
on 10 March 2013
. Retrieved
5 March
2013
, 2012
"In numbers: Life in Afghanistan after America leaves"
. BBC News. 13 July 2021.
Archived
from the original on 23 August 2021
. Retrieved
15 July
2021
'What's wrong?': The silence of Pakistanis on expulsion of Afghan refugees"
. Al Jazeera. 22 November 2023.
Archived
from the original on 26 January 2024
. Retrieved
26 January
2024
"Afghans Banned From 16 Provinces In Iran As Forced Exodus Continues"
. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 4 December 2023.
Archived
from the original on 26 January 2024
. Retrieved
26 January
2024
"Taliban: Iran Deports Almost 350,000 Afghans Within 3 Months"
VOA News
. 11 December 2023.
Archived
from the original on 26 January 2024
. Retrieved
26 January
2024
"Over 1 mn Afghan children facing severe malnutrition, says WHO chief"
Business Standard
. 22 December 2023.
Archived
from the original on 1 January 2024
. Retrieved
26 January
2024
"Afghanistan's Taliban send delegation to COP climate summit"
DW News
. 10 November 2024.
Archived
from the original on 11 November 2024
. Retrieved
11 November
2024
'They threw us out like garbage': Iran rushes deportation of 4 million Afghans before deadline"
The Guardian
. 7 July 2025.
"Afghanistan"
World Food Programme
"U.S. maps"
. Pubs.usgs.gov. Archived from
the original
on 25 December 2013
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
"South Asia: Data, Projects, and Research"
Archived
from the original on 1 March 2015
. Retrieved
2 March
2015
"Maps Showing Geology, Oil and Gas Fields and Geological Provinces of South Asia (Includes Afghanistan)"
. Archived from
the original
on 25 December 2013
. Retrieved
2 March
2015
"University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies: The South Asia Center"
. Archived from
the original
on 2 April 2015
. Retrieved
2 March
2015
"Syracruse University: The South Asia Center"
. 26 March 2013.
Archived
from the original on 26 March 2015
. Retrieved
2 March
2015
"Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS)"
U-M LSA
Archived
from the original on 11 December 2007
. Retrieved
2 March
2015
"Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings"
UNdata
. 26 April 2011.
Archived
from the original on 13 July 2011
. Retrieved
13 July
2011
"Afghanistan"
Encyclopædia Britannica
Archived
from the original on 25 February 2010
. Retrieved
17 March
2010
Tan, Anjelica (18 February 2020).
"A new strategy for Central Asia"
The Hill
Archived
from the original on 16 August 2021
. Retrieved
28 March
2020
, as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has noted, Afghanistan is itself a Central Asian country.
Afghanistan | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
. Cambridge University.
ISBN
978-1-107-61950-0
Archived
from the original on 6 October 2019
. Retrieved
28 March
2020
Neelis, Jason (19 November 2010).
Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia
. BRILL.
ISBN
978-90-04-18159-5
"Afghanistan: Cultural Crossroad at the Heart of Asia"
. Archived from
the original
on 30 August 2020
. Retrieved
17 June
2020
"Land area (sq. km)"
World Development Indicators
. World Bank. 2011. Archived from
the original
on 29 October 2013
. Retrieved
13 October
2011
"CIA Factbook – Area: 41"
. Central Intelligence Agency. 26 November 1991. Archived from
the original
on 31 January 2014
. Retrieved
4 February
2012
"International Land Border."
Archived
8 March 2021 at the
Wayback Machine
India Ministry of Home Affairs. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
Cary Gladstone (2001).
Afghanistan Revisited
. Nova Publishers. p. 121.
ISBN
978-1-59033-421-8
Fisher, W. B. (2002).
"Afghanistan: Physical and Social Geography"
The Far East and Australasia 2003
. Psychology Press. pp.
59–
60.
ISBN
978-1-85743-133-9
Archived
from the original on 28 June 2025
. Retrieved
12 June
2020
Whitehead, Kim (21 October 2014).
Afghanistan
. Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
978-1-63355-989-9
"Forests of Afghanistan"
(PDF)
cropwatch.unl.edu
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 9 October 2022
. Retrieved
28 June
2021
"Afghanistan"
The World Factbook
(2022 ed.).
Central Intelligence Agency
. Retrieved
24 September
2022
"History of Environmental Change in the Sistan Basin 1976–2005"
(PDF)
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 7 August 2007
. Retrieved
20 July
2007
"Afghanistan Rivers Lakes – Afghanistan's Web Site"
afghanistans.com
. Archived from
the original
on 15 August 2021
. Retrieved
12 June
2020
"Snow in Afghanistan: Natural Hazards"
. NASA. 3 February 2006. Archived from
the original
on 30 December 2013
. Retrieved
6 May
2012
"Snow may end Afghan drought, but bitter winter looms"
Reuters
. 18 January 2012. Archived from
the original
on 30 December 2013.
"Afghanistan's woeful water management delights neighbors"
The Christian Science Monitor
. 15 June 2010.
Archived
from the original on 14 November 2010
. Retrieved
14 November
2010
Terms and Definitions FRA 2025 Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 194
. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2023.
Archived
from the original on 11 September 2024
. Retrieved
10 September
2024
"Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, Afghanistan"
Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Archived
from the original on 10 September 2024
. Retrieved
10 September
2024
Crone, Anthony J. (April 2007).
Earthquakes Pose a Serious Hazard in Afghanistan
(PDF)
(Technical report).
US Geological Survey
. Fact Sheet FS 2007–3027. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 July 2013
. Retrieved
14 October
2011
"Earthquake Hazards"
USGS Projects in Afghanistan
. US Geological Survey. 1 August 2011. Archived from
the original
on 4 October 2011
. Retrieved
13 October
2011
Noroozi, Ebrahim (25 June 2022).
"Deadly quake a new blow to Afghans enervated by poverty"
CTV News
Associated Press
Archived
from the original on 3 July 2022
. Retrieved
3 July
2022
"Afghanistan: Earthquakes in Herat Province, Health Situation Report No. 12, November 2023"
reliefweb.int
. 2 December 2023.
Archived
from the original on 5 April 2024
. Retrieved
19 February
2024
Beck, Hylke E.; Zimmermann, Niklaus E.; McVicar, Tim R.; Vergopolan, Noemi; Berg, Alexis;
Wood, Eric F.
(30 October 2018).
"Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution"
Scientific Data
180214.
Bibcode
2018NatSD...580214B
doi
10.1038/sdata.2018.214
PMC
6207062
PMID
30375988
"Afghanistan | History, Map, Flag, Capital, Population, & Languages"
Encyclopædia Britannica
Archived
from the original on 11 November 2021
. Retrieved
23 March
2021
Kladnik, Drago (1 September 2017).
Terraced Landscapes
. Založba ZRC.
ISBN
978-961-05-0019-3
Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative.
"Country Index Rankings"
Archived
from the original on 3 March 2025
. Retrieved
2 December
2024
"Afghanistan: The alarming effects of climate change | OCHA"
www.unocha.org
Archived
from the original on 4 December 2024
. Retrieved
2 December
2024
Clark, Kate (6 November 2021).
"Global Warming and Afghanistan: Drought, hunger and thirst expected to worsen"
Afghanistan Analysts Network – English
(in Pashto).
Archived
from the original on 3 December 2024
. Retrieved
2 December
2024
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) (1 August 2023).
"Afghanistan: The alarming effects of climate change | OCHA"
www.unocha.org
Archived
from the original on 4 December 2024
. Retrieved
3 December
2024
"Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan. A Report to the Department for International Development"
(PDF)
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 28 June 2020
. Retrieved
7 September
2021
World Food Programme.
"Afghanistan"
www.wfp.org
. Retrieved
5 December
2024
Akhundzadah, Noor Ahmad; Soltani, Salim; Aich, Valentin (23 September 2020).
"Impacts of Climate Change on the Water Resources of the Kunduz River Basin, Afghanistan"
Climate
(10): 102.
Bibcode
2020Clim....8..102A
doi
10.3390/cli8100102
ISSN
2225-1154
"Women and children most at risk as climate change and conflict drive migration in Afghanistan | ActionAid International"
actionaid.org
. 22 July 2021
. Retrieved
3 December
2024
"Afghanistan's impending climate disaster – DW – 08/30/2021"
dw.com
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
3 December
2024
Bjelica, Jelena (5 January 2021).
"Shrinking, Thinning, Retreating: Afghan glaciers under threat from climate change"
Afghanistan Analysts Network – English
(in Pashto).
Archived
from the original on 4 September 2021
. Retrieved
3 December
2024
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (12 July 2019).
"Learning from a disaster event: Investigating the 2018 Panjshir flood in Afghanistan"
ICIMOD
Archived
from the original on 4 December 2024
. Retrieved
3 December
2024
Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche.
"Amid Taliban takeover, climate change could drive conflict | DW | 30 August 2021"
DW.COM
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
8 September
2021
Gritzner, Jeffrey A.; Shroder, John F. (14 June 2009).
Afghanistan, Second Edition
. Infobase Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-4381-0480-5
"Afghanistan Plant and Animal Life – Afghanistan's Web Site"
afghanistans.com
. Archived from
the original
on 11 July 2021
. Retrieved
14 June
2020
Wahab, Shaista; Youngerman, Barry (14 June 2007).
A Brief History of Afghanistan
. Infobase Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-4381-0819-3
Grantham, H. S.; Duncan, A.; Evans, T. D.; Jones, K. R.; Beyer, H. L.; Schuster, R.; Walston, J.; Ray, J. C.; Robinson, J. G.; Callow, M.; Clements, T.; Costa, H. M.; DeGemmis, A.; Elsen, P. R.; Ervin, J.; Franco, P.; Goldman, E.; Goetz, S.; Hansen, A.; Hofsvang, E.; Jantz, P.; Jupiter, S.; Kang, A.; Langhammer, P.; Laurance, W. F.; Lieberman, S.; Linkie, M.; Malhi, Y.; Maxwell, S.; Mendez, M.; Mittermeier, R.; Murray, N. J.; Possingham, H.; Radachowsky, J.; Saatchi, S.; Samper, C.; Silverman, J.; Shapiro, A.; Strassburg, B.; Stevens, T.; Stokes, E.; Taylor, R.; Tear, T.; Tizard, R.; Venter, O.; Visconti, P.; Wang, S.; Watson, J. E. M. (2020).
"Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity – Supplementary Material"
Nature Communications
11
(1): 5978.
Bibcode
2020NatCo..11.5978G
doi
10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3
ISSN
2041-1723
PMC
7723057
PMID
33293507
"Hardliners get key posts in new Taliban government"
. BBC News. 7 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
9 September
2021
Trevelyan, Mark; Trevelyan, Mark (3 July 2025).
"Russia becomes first country to recognise Taliban government of Afghanistan"
Reuters
. Retrieved
3 July
2025
V-Dem Institute (2023).
"The V-Dem Dataset"
Archived
from the original on 8 December 2022
. Retrieved
14 October
2023
Javohir Makhmatkulov (5 May 2024).
"INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND WATER MANAGEMENT BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN AND THE ISLAMIC EMIRATE OF AFGHANISTAN"
ResearchGate
Afghanistan's unitary nation is primarily governed by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also referred to as the Afghan administration. The supreme leader and its religious consultants, whom they refer to as the Leadership together, possess concentrated political control in the Taliban-run emirate and theocracy that rules Afghanistan.
"Q&A: What is a loya jirga?"
. BBC News. 1 July 2002.
Archived
from the original on 23 May 2019
. Retrieved
2 June
2019
Barfield 2012
, p. 295.
"Taliban meet tribal leaders, minority reps in first loya jirga since takeover"
Arab News
. 30 June 2022.
Archived
from the original on 25 January 2025
. Retrieved
8 April
2025
Xu, Weiwei (3 July 2022).
"Loya Jirga appeals for recognition of Taliban"
China Daily
. Retrieved
8 April
2025
Khan, Omer Farooq (28 June 2022).
"Taliban convene 'Loya Jirga' in Kabul"
The Times of India
ISSN
0971-8257
Archived
from the original on 4 July 2022
. Retrieved
8 April
2025
"Afghanistan's Hekmatyar says heading for Doha with Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah to meet Taliban – Al Jazeera"
Reuters
. 16 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 16 August 2021
. Retrieved
18 August
2021
AFP (18 August 2021).
"Taliban met ex-Afghan leader Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah"
Brecorder
Archived
from the original on 18 August 2021
. Retrieved
18 August
2021
Macias, Amanda; Turak, Natasha (18 August 2021).
"Ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani resurfaces in UAE after fleeing Kabul, Emirati government says"
CNBC
Archived
from the original on 18 August 2021
. Retrieved
19 August
2021
"Ghani says he backs talks as Taliban meet with Karzai, Abdullah"
New Age
Archived
from the original on 18 August 2021
. Retrieved
18 August
2021
Osman, Borhan (July 2016).
Taliban Views on a Future State
(PDF)
New York University
. p. 7.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 9 October 2022.
"Afghanistan: Taliban expected to announce new government"
The Guardian
. 2 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 2 September 2021
. Retrieved
2 September
2021
"Taliban to Follow Iran Model in Afghanistan; Reclusive Hibatullah Akhundzada to be Supreme Leader"
News18
. 31 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 31 August 2021
. Retrieved
3 September
2021
"Taliban again postpone Afghan govt formation announcement"
The Economic Times
Archived
from the original on 4 September 2021
. Retrieved
4 September
2021
"New 'inclusive' Afghanistan government to be announced soon: Taliban"
mint
. 5 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 6 September 2021
. Retrieved
5 September
2021
"Afghanistan: Taliban deputy denies reports of leadership row in new video"
. 15 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 15 September 2021
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Afghanistan: Women protest against all-male Taliban government"
. BBC News. 8 September 2021.
Archived
from the original on 8 September 2021
. Retrieved
9 September
2021
"The Taliban confirm they will attend a UN-led meeting in Qatar on Afghanistan"
AP News
. 25 June 2024
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
Kumar, Ruchi.
"Why has China recognised Taliban's envoy to Beijing?"
. Al Jazeera
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says"
ABC News
. 16 September 2024.
Archived
from the original on 17 September 2024
. Retrieved
17 September
2024
"Taliban Leader Removes 'Acting' Designation From All Government Posts"
Afghanistan International
. 15 August 2025
. Retrieved
31 October
2025
Malikzada, Natiq (19 August 2025).
"Taliban Officials Are No Longer 'Acting'
The Diplomat
Archived
from the original on 26 August 2025
. Retrieved
25 August
2025
"Afghanistan Provinces"
. Ariana News.
Archived
from the original on 4 July 2019
. Retrieved
4 July
2019
Ahmed, Azam (8 December 2012).
"For Afghan Officials, Prospect of Death Comes With Territory"
The New York Times
ISSN
0362-4331
Archived
from the original on 19 October 2017
. Retrieved
7 April
2017
"Explaining Elections, Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan"
. Iec.org.af. 9 October 2004. Archived from
the original
on 27 August 2010
. Retrieved
4 February
2012
Jamie Boex; Grace Buencamino; Deborah Kimble.
"An Assessment of Afghanistan's Municipal Governance Framework"
(PDF)
. Urban Institute Center on International Development and Governance.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 4 July 2019
. Retrieved
4 July
2019
Dupree 1997
, p. 642.
"Treaty of Friendship"
mea.gov.in
Archived
from the original on 19 January 2021
. Retrieved
31 December
2020
"China Embraces High-Stakes Taliban Relationship as U.S. Exits"
Bloomberg News
. 16 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 20 August 2021
. Retrieved
17 October
2021
Latifi, Ali M (7 October 2021).
"Taliban still struggling for international recognition"
Al Jazeera Media Network
Archived
from the original on 13 October 2021
. Retrieved
15 October
2021
"Hillary Clinton says Afghanistan 'major non-Nato ally'
. BBC News. 7 July 2012.
Archived
from the original on 5 July 2019
. Retrieved
4 July
2019
Mizelle, Shawna; Fossum, Sam (7 July 2022).
"Biden will rescind Afghanistan's designation as a major non-NATO ally"
. CNN.
Archived
from the original on 10 August 2022.
"White House defends letting billions in military equipment fall into Taliban hands"
Yahoo News
. 12 October 2021. Archived from
the original
on 12 October 2021
. Retrieved
12 October
2021
Andrzejewski, Adam.
"Staggering Costs – U.S. Military Equipment Left Behind In Afghanistan"
Forbes
Archived
from the original on 11 October 2021
. Retrieved
12 October
2021
Ahmadzai, Aria (7 October 2016).
"The LGBT community living under threat of death"
. BBC News.
Archived
from the original on 21 November 2022
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"Afghanistan | Human Dignity Trust"
humandignitytrust.org
. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
Bezhan, Frud.
'Fake Life': Being Gay in Afghanistan"
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Archived
from the original on 19 August 2021
. Retrieved
12 June
2020
"LGBT relationships are illegal in 74 countries, research finds"
The Independent
. 17 May 2016.
Archived
from the original on 14 June 2019
. Retrieved
3 June
2019
Kumar, Ruchi (28 March 2020).
"For Afghan Sikhs, it's between violence and exodus"
The Hindu
ISSN
0971-751X
Archived
from the original on 3 April 2022
. Retrieved
11 September
2021
Mashal, Mujib; Abed, Fahim (19 July 2020).
"India Offers Escape to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs Facing Attacks"
The New York Times
ISSN
0362-4331
Archived
from the original on 3 April 2022
. Retrieved
11 September
2021
Lyons, Kate; Blight, Garry (27 July 2015).
"Where in the world is the worst place to be a Christian?"
The Guardian
Archived
from the original on 25 April 2022
. Retrieved
26 April
2022
Afghan clerics call for Christian convert to be killed despite Western outrage
AP Archive
, 23 March 2006,
archived
from the original on 26 April 2022
, retrieved
26 April
2022
George, Susannah (7 May 2022).
"Taliban orders head-to-toe coverings for Afghan women in public"
The Washington Post
Archived
from the original on 7 May 2022
. Retrieved
8 May
2022
Graham-Harrison, Emma (7 May 2022).
"Taliban order all Afghan women to cover their faces in public"
The Guardian
Archived
from the original on 14 May 2022
. Retrieved
8 May
2022
Shelley, Jo; Popalzai, Ehsan; Mengli, Ahmet; Picheta, Rob (19 May 2022).
"Top Taliban leader makes more promises on women's rights but quips 'naughty women' should stay home"
. Kabul, Afghanistan: CNN.
Archived
from the original on 20 May 2022
. Retrieved
20 May
2022
Zucchino, David; Akbary, Yaqoob (21 May 2022).
"The Taliban Pressure Women in Afghanistan to Cover Up"
The New York Times
. Kabul, Afghanistan.
Archived
from the original on 22 May 2022
. Retrieved
22 May
2022
Gannon, Kathy (8 May 2022).
"Taliban divisions deepen as Afghan women defy veil edict"
Associated Press News
. Kabul, Afghanistan.
Archived
from the original on 20 May 2022
. Retrieved
20 May
2022
Fraser, Simon (19 May 2022).
"Afghanistan's female TV presenters must cover their faces, say Taliban"
. BBC News.
Archived
from the original on 20 May 2022
. Retrieved
20 May
2022
Nader, Zahra (28 August 2023).
'Despair is settling in': female suicides on rise in Taliban's Afghanistan"
The Guardian
. Retrieved
28 August
2023
Thoms, Silja (8 July 2023).
"How the Taliban are violating women's rights in Afghanistan"
DW
Archived
from the original on 28 August 2023
. Retrieved
28 August
2023
Ali, Rabia (1 August 2023).
"Activists sound alarm over surge in suicides among Afghan women"
Anadolu Ajansı
Archived
from the original on 28 August 2023
. Retrieved
28 August
2023
"Taliban dissolves Afghanistan's human rights commission as 'unnecessary'
The Guardian
. Reuters. 16 May 2022.
Archived
from the original on 21 May 2022
. Retrieved
20 May
2022
"Internationaler Strafgerichtshof beantragt Haftbefehl gegen Taliban-Anführer"
[International Criminal Court requests arrest warrant against Taliban leaders].
Der Spiegel
(in German).
The Hague
, Netjherlands. 21 January 2025
. Retrieved
21 January
2025
"Afghanistan"
. International Monetary Fund.
Archived
from the original on 1 May 2023
. Retrieved
1 May
2023
Mehrotra, Kartikay (16 December 2013).
"Karzai Woos India Inc. as Delay on U.S. Pact Deters Billions"
Bloomberg News
Archived
from the original on 11 October 2017
. Retrieved
23 May
2017
"Field Listing :: GDP – composition, by sector of origin – The World Factbook"
. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from
the original
on 11 November 2020
. Retrieved
12 June
2020
"Interest Rate Cut in Place, Says Central Bank"
TOLOnews
Archived
from the original on 4 July 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
"Afghani Falls Against Dollar By 3% In A Month"
. TOLOnews. 18 April 2019.
Archived
from the original on 19 April 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
Gall, Carlotta (7 July 2010).
"Afghan Companies Say U.S. Did Not Pay Them"
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on 2 April 2013
. Retrieved
30 September
2011
"DCDA | Welcome to our Official Website"
. dcda.gov.af. Archived from
the original
on 30 December 2013
. Retrieved
4 February
2012
"Welcome to Ghazi Amanullah Khan Website"
. najeebzarab.af. 2009. Archived from
the original
on 29 April 2013
. Retrieved
15 August
2011
Ephgrave, Oliver (2011).
"Case study: Aino Mina"
. Designmena. Archived from
the original
on 6 January 2014
. Retrieved
4 February
2012
A Humane Afghan City?
" by Ann Marlowe.
Forbes
. 2 September 2009.
Archived
31 December 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
Michael Sprague.
"Afghanistan country profile"
(PDF)
USAID
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 1 May 2017
. Retrieved
23 May
2017
"Economic growth"
. USAID Afghanistan. Archived from
the original
on 29 September 2013
. Retrieved
25 September
2011
Nickel, Rod (12 April 2018).
"Sales of Afghanistan's renowned carpets unravel as war intensifies"
Reuters
. Archived from
the original
on 12 June 2020.
"Afghanistan trade balance, exports and imports by country 2019"
World Integrated Trade Solution
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"Taliban blames U.S. as 1 million Afghan kids face death by starvation"
CBS News
. 20 October 2021.
Archived
from the original on 12 July 2023.
Fisher, Max; Taub, Amanda (29 October 2021).
"Is the United States Driving Afghanistan Toward Famine?"
The Interpreter
Archived
from the original on 26 March 2023.
"Afghanistan's hunger crisis is a problem the U.S. can fix"
MSNBC
. 10 November 2021.
"Two Years into Taliban Rule, New Shocks Weaken Afghan Economy"
. United States Institute of Peace. Archived from
the original
on 11 August 2023
. Retrieved
16 August
2023
"Taliban Controls the World's Best Performing Currency This Quarter"
Bloomberg.com
. 25 September 2023
. Retrieved
27 September
2023
"Agriculture"
. USAID. Archived from
the original
on 29 September 2013
. Retrieved
23 May
2017
"Unlocking the Potential of Agriculture for Afghanistan's Growth"
. World Bank.
Burch, Jonathon (31 March 2010).
"Afghanistan now world's top cannabis source: U.N."
Reuters
Sultan, Abid.
"Taliban leader bans cannabis cultivation in Afghanistan"
Taliban leader bans cannabis cultivation in Afghanistan
. Archived from
the original
on 1 July 2024
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Afghanistan's red gold 'saffron' termed world's best"
Arab News
. 22 December 2019.
"Afghan Saffron, World's Best"
TOLOnews
"Saffron production hits record high in Afghanistan"
. Xinhua News Agency. Archived from
the original
on 28 December 2019.
Bryan Denton; David Zucchino; Yaqoob Akbary (29 May 2022).
"Green Energy Complicates the Taliban's New Battle Against Opium: The multibillion-dollar trade has survived previous bans. Now, the Taliban are going after solar-powered water pumps to try to dry up poppy crops in the middle of a national economic crisis"
The New York Times
. Retrieved
29 May
2022
Do not destroy the fields, but make the fields dry out.... We are committed to fulfilling the opium decree.
David Mansfield (23 May 2022).
"When the Water Runs Dry: What is to be done with the 1.5 million settlers in the deserts of southwest Afghanistan when their livelihoods fail?"
areu.org.af
. The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU). Archived from
the original
on 29 May 2022
. Retrieved
29 May
2022
"Poppy Cultivation in South of Afghanistan Down by 80%: Report"
ToloNews
. 7 June 2023. p. 1
. Retrieved
8 June
2023
"Afghan opium poppy cultivation plunges by 95 percent under Taliban: UN"
. Al Jazeera
. Retrieved
7 November
2023
"Opium cultivation declines by 95 per cent in Afghanistan: UN survey | UN News"
. United Nations. 5 November 2023
. Retrieved
7 November
2023
Peters, Steven G. (October 2007).
Preliminary Assessment of Non-Fuel Mineral Resources of Afghanistan, 2007
(PDF)
(Technical report). USGS Afghanistan Project/
US Geological Survey
/Afghanistan Geological Survey. Fact Sheet 2007–3063. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 July 2013
. Retrieved
13 October
2011
"Minerals in Afghanistan"
(PDF)
British Geological Survey
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
4 December
2010
"Afghans say US team found huge potential mineral wealth"
. BBC News. 14 June 2010. Archived from
the original
on 9 August 2013
. Retrieved
13 October
2011
O'Hanlon, Michael E.
"Deposits Could Aid Ailing Afghanistan"
Archived
23 September 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
),
The Brookings Institution
, 16 June 2010.
Klett, T.R. (March 2006).
Assessment of Undiscovered Petroleum Resources of Northern Afghanistan, 2006
(PDF)
(Technical report). USGS-Afghanistan Ministry of Mines & Industry Joint Oil & Gas Resource Assessment Team. Fact Sheet 2006–3031. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 July 2013
. Retrieved
13 October
2011
"Afghanistan signs '$7 bn' oil deal with China"
. 28 December 2011.
Archived
from the original on 30 December 2013
. Retrieved
29 December
2013
"Afghanistan's Mineral Fortune"
. Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security Report. 2011. Archived from
the original
on 12 December 2013
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
Tucker, Ronald D. (2011).
Rare Earth Element Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Preliminary Resource Assessment of the Khanneshin Carbonatite Complex, Helmand Province, Afghanistan
(PDF)
(Technical report). USGS. Open-File Report 2011–1207. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 July 2013
. Retrieved
13 October
2011
China, Not U.S., Likely to Benefit from Afghanistan's Mineral Riches
".
Daily Finance
. 14 June 2010
Archived
31 December 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
"China Willing to Spend Big on Afghan Commerce"
The New York Times
. 29 December 2009. Archived from
the original
on 31 July 2011.
Indian Group Wins Rights to Mine in Afghanistan's Hajigak
" (
Archived
10 October 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
).
Businessweek
. 6 December 2011
Risen, James
(17 June 2010).
"U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan"
The New York Times
Archived
from the original on 17 June 2010
. Retrieved
14 November
2010
Hosp, Gerald (31 August 2021).
"Afghanistan: die konfliktreichen Bodenschätze"
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
(in German)
. Retrieved
1 September
2021
"Country Trends"
. Global Footprint Network
. Retrieved
23 June
2020
Lin, David; Hanscom, Laurel; Murthy, Adeline; Galli, Alessandro; Evans, Mikel; Neill, Evan; Mancini, MariaSerena; Martindill, Jon; Medouar, FatimeZahra; Huang, Shiyu; Wackernagel, Mathis (2018).
"Ecological Footprint Accounting for Countries: Updates and Results of the National Footprint Accounts, 2012–2018"
Resources
(3): 58.
Bibcode
2018Resou...7...58L
doi
10.3390/resources7030058
"Taliban Sign Multibillion-Dollar Afghan Mining Deals"
. Voice of America. 31 August 2023
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Access to electricity, rural (% of rural population) – Afghanistan | Data"
. World Bank
. Retrieved
28 March
2021
"Access to electricity (% of population) – Afghanistan"
World Bank
"Afghanistan Has Capacity To Produce 310,000MW Power"
TOLOnews
"Afghanistan Resurrects its Largest Hydropower Plant Toward a Brighter Future"
. World Bank.
"Power to the People: How to extend Afghans' access to electricity"
Afghanistan Analysts Network – English
. 3 February 2015.
"The Power of Nature: How Renewable Energy is Changing Lives in Afghanistan"
UNDP in Afghanistan
. Archived from
the original
on 14 April 2021
. Retrieved
14 June
2020
Navid Ahmad Barakzai, ed. (27 September 2016).
"20,000 foreign tourists visit Afghanistan annually"
. Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN). Archived from
the original
on 23 November 2016
. Retrieved
15 May
2017
"Coronavirus shatters tourism hopes in Afghanistan's Bamyan province"
The National
. 26 April 2020.
Basharat, Hakim (3 September 2017).
"More than 200,000 tourists visit Bamyan this year"
pajhwok.com
"Where Instagramers and Taliban play"
South China Morning Post
. 14 July 2018.
"Origins of the hippie trail"
richardgregory.org.uk
. Archived from
the original
on 11 November 2020
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"The hippie trail"
richardgregory.org.uk
. Archived from
the original
on 8 March 2021
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
Smith, Oliver (20 April 2018).
"When Afghanistan was just a laid-back highlight on the hippie trail"
The Daily Telegraph
Archived
from the original on 10 January 2022.
"Bamyan, First Ever Cultural Capital of South Asia: A big party, but what else?"
Afghanistan Analysts Network – English
. 8 June 2015.
Dupree 1997
, p. 115.
Kumar, Ruchi (4 February 2020).
"The Afghan artefacts that survived Taliban destruction"
BBC Travel
"The Taliban are working to woo tourists to Afghanistan"
AP News
. 30 April 2024
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Photos: Tourist numbers up in post-war Afghanistan"
. Al Jazeera
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
'A remarkable development': How Western tourism is on the rise in this controversial nation"
. Sky News
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Attack on tourists rocks fledgling Afghanistan tourism sector"
. France 24. 20 May 2024
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Connecting Afghanistan: The rise of technology in governance and society – The Embassy of Afghanistan in London"
afghanistanembassy.org.uk
Archived
from the original on 21 January 2018
. Retrieved
20 January
2018
Qayoom Suroush (16 January 2015).
"Going in Circles: The never-ending story of Afghanistan's unfinished Ring Road"
. Afghanistan Analysts Network.
Archived
from the original on 7 July 2019
. Retrieved
7 July
2019
Gopalakrishnan, Ramamoorthy (13 June 1982).
"The Geography and Politics of Afghanistan"
. Concept Publishing Company.
"Going in Circles: The never-ending story of Afghanistan's unfinished Ring Road"
Afghanistan Analysts Network – English
. 16 January 2015.
Cary Gladstone (2001).
Afghanistan Revisited
. Nova Publishers. p. 122.
ISBN
978-1-59033-421-8
Azimy, Yousuf (9 February 2010).
"Afghan avalanches kill dozens, trap hundreds"
Reuters
"Afghan bus crash kills 45"
The Guardian
. 26 April 2013.
Archived
from the original on 5 November 2014
. Retrieved
4 November
2014
"Driving in Afghanistan"
Caravanistan
Archived
from the original on 4 September 2016
. Retrieved
22 November
2016
"EU To Impose Ban on Afghan Planes"
. Airwise News. 22 November 2010.
Archived
from the original on 24 May 2013
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
Kabul-based
Safi
is the country's No. 2 airline after national carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines
"Hairatan to Mazar-i-Sharif railway – Railways of Afghanistan"
andrewgrantham.co.uk
Archived
from the original on 24 December 2017
. Retrieved
3 January
2018
Salehai, Zarghona (28 November 2016).
"Afghan-Turkmenistan railroad inaugurated"
pajhwok.com
Archived
from the original on 12 May 2017
. Retrieved
6 January
2018
"Khaf-Herat railroad to be launched in Iran soon"
. 7 August 2018.
Archived
from the original on 28 September 2018
. Retrieved
27 September
2018
"Iran-Afghanistan railway networks through Khaf-Herat Railroad will be completed in the next few months," Yazdani said, according to Mehr news agency on 3 August
"Iran Strongly Condemns Herat Railway Mine Blast"
. Iran Front Page. 20 May 2019.
Archived
from the original on 21 May 2019
. Retrieved
7 July
2019
"Rail Linkup With Afghanistan by March 2018"
. 25 February 2017.
Archived
from the original on 22 September 2018
. Retrieved
3 January
2018
"Khaf-Herat railway"
RaillyNews | Dailly Railway News in English
. 10 December 2013. Archived from
the original
on 20 December 2017
. Retrieved
1 June
2014
Rahmat, Mohibullah; Mizokami, Shoshi; Fujiwara, Akimasa (2018).
"The Possibility of Introducing a Regular Bus System in Kandahar"
Asian Transport Studies
(2):
292–
309.
Porter, Valerie; Alderson, Lawrence; Hall, Stephen J.G.; Sponenberg, D. Phillip (9 March 2016).
Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding, 2 Volume Pack
. p. 23.
ISBN
978-1-84593-466-8
[Donkeys] are the primary means of transportation in the countryside (along with bicycles) and are sometimes described as the 'Jeeps' of Afghanistan — or even as the country's 'helicopters'.
Glatzer, Bernt (2002).
"The Pashtun Tribal System"
(PDF)
. New Delhi: Concept Publishers.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 9 October 2022.
United Nations and Afghanistan
". UN News Centre.
Archived
31 October 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
"Afghanistan – Population Reference Bureau"
Population Reference Bureau
. Archived from
the original
on 2 December 2013
. Retrieved
29 December
2009
Wickramasekara, Piyasiri; Sehgal, Jag; Mehran, Farhad; Noroozi, Ladan; Eisazadeh, Saeid.
"Afghan Households in Iran: Profile and Impact"
(PDF)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 23 February 2018.
Nasir, Jamal Abdul; Akhtar, Sohail; Zaidi, Syed Arif Ahmed; Rani, Andleeb; Bano, Hina; Hinde, Andrew (16 October 2019).
"Is recent Afghanistan survey data suitable for fertility analysis? A regional investigation based on fertility inhibiting determinants"
PLOS ONE
14
(10) e0223111.
Bibcode
2019PLoSO..1423111N
doi
10.1371/journal.pone.0223111
PMC
6795489
PMID
31618275
"Gini Index"
. World Bank. Archived from
the original
on 11 May 2014
. Retrieved
2 March
2011
"Total fertility rate Comparison – The World Factbook"
www.cia.gov
. Archived from
the original
on 7 December 2024.
"World Bank Open Data"
World Bank Open Data
"World Bank Open Data"
World Bank Open Data
Karimi, Ali (20 March 2015).
"Can Cities Save Afghanistan?"
"Unravelling the Afghan art of carpet weaving"
. Al Jazeera.
"Estimated Population of Afghanistan 2025-26"
(PDF)
. National Statistics and Information Authority. September 2025. pp. 13, 94, 109, 76, 70, 29, 67, 39, 20, 97
. Retrieved
27 December
2025
"Afghanistan's ethnic mosaic"
The Times of India
. 23 August 2021.
Archived
from the original on 18 September 2021
. Retrieved
18 September
2021
"Distribution of Afghan population by ethnic group 2020"
. 20 August 2021.
"The roots of Afghanistan's tribal tensions"
The Economist
. 31 August 2017.
"The Constitution of Afghanistan"
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
. Archived from
the original
on 29 August 2021
. Retrieved
2 September
2020
"Article Sixteen of the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan"
. 2004. Archived from
the original
on 28 October 2013
. Retrieved
13 June
2012
Pashto and Dari are the official languages of the state. Uzbek, Turkmen, Baluchi, Pashai, Nuristani and Pamiri are – in addition to Pashto and Dari – the third official language in areas where the majority speaks them
The
Encyc. Iranica
makes clear in the article on Afghanistan — Ethnography that "The term Farsiwan also has the regional forms Parsiwan and Parsiban. In religion they are Imami Shia. In the literature they are often mistakenly referred to as Tajik."
Dupree, Louis (1982) "Afghanistan: (iv.) Ethnography", in
Encyclopædia Iranica
Online Edition 2006.
Bodetti, Austin (11 July 2019).
"What will happen to Afghanistan's national languages?"
alaraby
Afroz, Nazes; Najib, Moska; Smart!, Culture (1 December 2013).
Afghanistan – Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
. Kuperard.
ISBN
978-1-85733-680-1
The Asia Foundation.
Afghanistan in 2018: A Survey of the Afghan People
Archived
7 August 2019 at the
Wayback Machine
Khan, M. Ilyas (12 September 2015).
"Pakistan's confusing move to Urdu"
. BBC News.
"Religion in Afghanistan"
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA)
"Chapter 1: Religious Affiliation"
The World's Muslims: Unity and Diversity
Pew Research Center
's Religion & Public Life Project. 9 August 2012.
Archived
from the original on 26 December 2016
. Retrieved
22 August
2018
Majumder, Sanjoy (25 September 2003).
"Sikhs struggle in Afghanistan"
. BBC News. Archived from
the original
on 22 February 2009
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
Lavina Melwani.
"Hindus Abandon Afghanistan"
Hinduism Today
. Archived from
the original
on 11 January 2007
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
"Afghanistan: Sikhs rebuilding gurdwaras"
Religioscope
. 25 August 2005.
Chabba, Seerat (8 September 2021).
"Afghanistan: What does Taliban rule mean for Sikhs and Hindus?"
. Deutsche Welle
. Retrieved
25 October
2021
N.C. Aizenman (27 January 2005).
"Afghan Jew Becomes Country's One and Only"
The Washington Post
Archived
from the original on 16 May 2011
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
"Last Jew in Afghanistan en route to US: report"
The New Arab
. 7 September 2021
. Retrieved
17 September
2021
Ben Zion Gad (1 December 2021).
'Last Jew in Afghanistan' loses title to hidden Jewish family"
The Jerusalem Post
. Retrieved
7 February
2023
Gebauer, Matthias (20 March 2006).
"Christians in Afghanistan: A Community of Faith and Fear"
Der Spiegel
Archived
from the original on 27 January 2012
. Retrieved
25 April
2019
USSD Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2009).
"International Religious Freedom Report 2009"
. Archived from
the original
on 30 November 2009
. Retrieved
6 March
2010
"Afghanistan: Girls excluded as Afghan secondary schools reopen"
. BBC News. 18 September 2021
. Retrieved
20 September
2021
Blue, Victor J.; Zucchino, David (20 September 2021).
"A Harsh New Reality for Afghan Women and Girls in Taliban-Run Schools"
The New York Times
ISSN
0362-4331
. Archived from
the original
on 28 December 2021
. Retrieved
20 September
2021
"Education"
USAID
. Archived from
the original
on 10 November 2018
. Retrieved
26 May
2017
Adina, Mohammad Sabir (18 May 2013).
"Wardak seeks $3b in aid for school buildings"
. Pajhwok Afghan News. Archived from
the original
on 30 December 2013
. Retrieved
13 August
2013
"UNESCO UIS: Afghanistan"
. UNESCO
. Retrieved
6 August
2020
"Taliban reverses decision, barring Afghan girls from attending school beyond 6th grade"
NPR
. Retrieved
5 April
2022
"Afghanistan: Six provinces keep schools open for girls despite nationwide ban"
. AmuTV. 1 January 2023
. Retrieved
17 February
2023
Neda Safi, Tooba (17 February 2023).
"Girls return to high school in some regions of Afghanistan"
Geneva Solutions
. Retrieved
17 February
2023
"UN is seeking to verify that Afghanistan's Taliban are letting girls study at religious schools"
The Seattle Times
. 20 December 2023
. Retrieved
21 December
2023
"Taliban seeks international aid for Afghanistan's reconstruction"
South China Morning Post
. 18 November 2024
. Retrieved
18 November
2024
"Afghanistan"
(PDF)
World Health Organization
(WHO).
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 22 July 2017
. Retrieved
17 May
2017
"Afghanistan"
. UNESCO. 27 November 2016. Archived from
the original
on 23 June 2017.
Peter, Tom A. (17 December 2011).
"Childbirth and maternal health improve in Afghanistan"
The Christian Science Monitor
. Archived from
the original
on 31 December 2013
. Retrieved
12 January
2012
"Afghanistan National Hospital Survey"
(PDF)
. Afghan Ministry of Health. August 2004. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 7 August 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
Gul, Ayaz (20 April 2019).
"Pakistan-funded Afghan Hospital Begins Operations"
VOA News
Archived
from the original on 23 April 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
It opens a new chapter in the friendship of the two countries... This is the second-largest hospital [in Afghanistan] built with your support that will serve the needy," Feroz told the gathering.
"Health"
United States Agency for International Development
(USAID). Archived from
the original
on 29 September 2013
. Retrieved
20 October
2010
DiNardo, Anne-Marie; LPA/PIPOS (31 March 2006).
"Empowering Afghanistan's Disabled Population – 31 March 2006"
USAID
. Archived from
the original
on 8 May 2004
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
Norton-Taylor, Richard (13 February 2008).
"Afghanistan's refugee crisis 'ignored'
The Guardian
. London. Archived from
the original
on 15 December 2010
. Retrieved
19 May
2012
"Afghanistan: People living with disabilities call for integration"
The New Humanitarian
. 2 December 2004.
Archived
from the original on 20 September 2011
. Retrieved
28 June
2021
Haussegger, Virginia (2 July 2009).
"Mahboba's Promise"
. Australia: ABC News.
Archived
from the original on 26 July 2013
. Retrieved
15 July
2009
"Afghanistan Way of Life | Afghanistan's Web Site"
afghanistans.com
. Archived from
the original
on 8 March 2021
. Retrieved
14 June
2020
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
Blood, Peter R., ed. (1998).
"Pashtun"
Afghanistan: a country study
. Washington, D.C.:
Library of Congress
Federal Research Division
OCLC
904447770
. Retrieved
23 January
2021
Dupree 1997
, p. 126.
Barfield 2012
, p. 59.
Afghanistan: Kuchi nomads seek a better deal
".
IRIN
Asia. 18 February 2008.
Archived
10 September 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
Barfield 2012
, p. 40–41.
Dupree 1997
, p. 104.
Bahgam, S; Mukhatari (2004).
"Study on Child Marriage in Afghanistan"
(PDF)
Medica Mondiale
1–
20. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 6 May 2012
. Retrieved
15 March
2014
"Afghanistan Has a Tougher Law on Child Marriage than Florida"
. Human Rights Watch. 20 October 2017.
Archived
from the original on 25 July 2019
. Retrieved
15 September
2019
In Afghanistan girls can marry at 16, or at 15 with permission from their father or a judge.
Dupree 1997
, p. 122, 198.
Amer, Sahar (2 September 2014).
What Is Veiling?
. UNC Press Books.
ISBN
978-1-4696-1776-3
"Karzai heads for hat trouble"
. BBC News. 28 April 2002.
"Traditional Afghan Clothes"
. 12 March 2018. Archived from
the original
on 13 August 2021
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"Hats Proliferate as Symbol of Pashtun Protest Movement"
. Voice of America.
dead link
"Afghanistan Art and Architecture | Afghanistan's Web Site"
afghanistans.com
. Archived from
the original
on 7 March 2021
. Retrieved
14 June
2020
G.V. Brandolini.
Afghanistan
cultural heritage
. Orizzonte terra,
Bergamo
. 2007. p. 64.
ud-Din, Hameed (1960). "THE AFGHAN ARCHITECTURE OF INDIA: An historical study, 1451–1526".
Rivista degli studi orientali
35
149–
155.
ISSN
0392-4866
JSTOR
41922907
Habib, Irfan (2007).
Medieval India the study of a civilization
. National Book Trust, India. p. 228.
ISBN
978-81-237-5255-6
"In Afghanistan, weaving ancient industry back into global market"
The Christian Science Monitor
. 21 August 2019.
"Selling war: commodifying the (in)security of Afghan women"
SPERI
. 15 January 2020.
"Weaving Culture through the Afghan rug"
. 7 December 2017. Archived from
the original
on 30 August 2021
. Retrieved
13 June
2020
"Rug Weavers and Bride Prices in the Northwest: Still expensive in spite of government and Taleban rules"
Afghanistan Analysts Network – English
. 12 May 2019.
"Giving Back – Seret and Sons"
"The Potter: Crafting Afghanistan's future"
The Khaama Press News Agency
. 27 January 2015.
Fahim, Kareem (18 August 2016).
"War and Pillaging Couldn't Break an Afghan Village, but a Tumbling Economy May"
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on 1 January 2022.
Wilkinson, Isambard (14 June 2018).
"How the quest for the 'perfect blue' changed art forever"
. CNN.
"First-ever oil paintings found in Afghanistan"
. CNN. 24 April 2008. Archived from
the original
on 20 March 2018
. Retrieved
3 December
2012
"World's Oldest Oil Paintings Found in Afghanistan"
Fox News
. 24 April 2008. Archived from
the original
on 27 April 2008
. Retrieved
3 December
2012
"Gandhara art"
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Retrieved
22 August
2018
"FEATURE: In Western Afghanistan, an ancient love of poetry thrives again"
UN News
. 5 October 2017. Archived from
the original
on 17 August 2021
. Retrieved
15 June
2020
Fee, Christopher R.; Webb, Jeffrey B. (29 August 2016).
American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore [3 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore (3 Volumes)
. ABC-CLIO.
ISBN
978-1-61069-568-8
"Afghanistan: 10 facts you may not know"
. BBC News. 6 July 2011.
Archived
from the original on 4 March 2018
. Retrieved
21 June
2018
"Classical Dari and Pashto Poets"
. Afghan-web.com. Archived from
the original
on 12 April 2014
. Retrieved
4 February
2012
"Afghanistan – The Rough Guide to World Music"
Songlines
"Ahmad Zahir: The Voice of Afghanistan"
daily.redbullmusicacademy.com
"Artist Biographies"
. Afghanland.com. Archived from
the original
on 9 August 2013
. Retrieved
17 October
2011
"Afghanistan's Traditional Dance-Attan"
. 7 July 2012. Archived from
the original
on 14 April 2021
. Retrieved
12 June
2020
"Attan – the fascinating national dance of Afghanistan"
Afghan Zariza
. Archived from
the original
on 8 March 2021
. Retrieved
14 June
2020
"Suspects Sentenced To Death For Killing Journalist in Kandahar"
TOLOnews
. 16 April 2019.
Archived
from the original on 17 April 2019
. Retrieved
28 July
2019
Dupree 1997
, p. 405.
Monica Whitlock (24 October 2003).
Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia
. St. Martin's Press. p. 127.
ISBN
978-0-312-27727-7
"Freedom of the Press 2016: Afghanistan"
. Freedom House. 2016.
Archived
from the original on 5 February 2017
. Retrieved
28 July
2016
"Encounters with Bollywood in Kabul"
Himal Southasian
. 14 September 2013.
"Bollywood's Panipat irks Afghans over founding father's portrayal"
. Al Jazeera.
"Vilifying Afghans in Bollywood"
The Telegraph
. India.
Ali, Tanveer (31 July 2012).
"Everything You Need To Know About Afghan Food"
. foodrepublic. Archived from
the original
on 13 February 2013.
Brittin, Helen (2011).
The Food and Culture Around the World Handbook
. Boston: Prentice Hall. pp.
20–
21.
"Rare Heirloom Seeds – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds"
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
28 October
2013
"Afghanistan Holidays and Festivals"
iexplore.com
. Archived from
the original
on 14 April 2021
. Retrieved
12 June
2020
Rezaian, Lachin (20 December 2015).
"Yalda: Iranian celebration of winter solstice"
Mehr News Agency
Roessing, Lesley (2012).
No More "us" and "them": Classroom Lessons and Activities to Promote Peer Respect
. R&L Education. p. 89.
ISBN
978-1-61048-812-9
Hamedy, Saba (20 December 2013).
"In ancient tradition, Iranians celebrate winter solstice"
Los Angeles Times
Foltz, Richard
(2013).
Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present
. Oneworld Publications. p. 29.
ISBN
978-1-78074-307-3
Alavi, Nasrin (8 November 2015).
We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs
. Soft Skull Press. p. 135.
ISBN
978-1-55192-871-5
Mahbob, Mahbob Shah (11 April 2013).
"Sikhs throng temples to celebrate Vaisakhi"
pajhwok.com
"Afghan Hindus and Sikhs celebrate Diwali without 'pomp and splendour' amid fear"
The National
. 19 October 2017.
"International Workers Day 2024: List of Countries that Celebrate Labor Day on 1st May, Check Here"
Jagranjosh.com
. 30 April 2024
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
Ellingwood, Anselma (11 March 2024).
"International Women's Day: Afghan Women Endure Gender Apartheid"
Feminist Majority Foundation
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Nowruz celebration in Afghanistan"
. Mehr News Agency. 24 March 2022
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
"Traditional Dambora Musical Festival organized in Bamyan province"
Khaama Press
. 30 June 2018
. Retrieved
1 July
2024
Uthra Ganesan (11 January 2016).
"Cricket is now the biggest sport in Afghanistan"
The Hindu
. Retrieved
4 July
2019
"Sport in Afghanistan"
. Top End Sports.
Archived
from the original on 11 July 2018
. Retrieved
4 July
2019
"South Asian Games: Shooters, swimmers shine as India consolidate dominance"
The Times of India
. 5 February 2010.
Archived
from the original on 13 June 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
Lyse, Doucet (12 September 2013).
"Precious moments of unity touch Afghans after football triumph"
. BBC News.
Archived
from the original on 25 September 2013
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
"2009–10 Intercontinental Cup"
CricketEurope
. Archived from
the original
on 24 February 2013
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
"Afghanistan Makes History in Cricket World Cup, Despite Debut Loss to Bangladesh"
. 20 February 2015.
Archived
from the original on 28 May 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
"Statistics: Iran"
. Team Melli.
Archived
from the original on 3 November 2019
. Retrieved
28 May
2019
"Afghanistan's buzkashi horses prepare for the game of courage"
The Hindu
. 17 January 2018.
Abi-Habib, Maria; Fazly, Walid (13 April 2011).
"In Afghanistan's National Pastime, It's Better to Be a Hero Than a Goat"
The Wall Street Journal
Archived
from the original on 26 May 2015
. Retrieved
13 April
2011
Stewart, Rory
(2007).
The Places in Between
. HMH Books. p. 100.
ISBN
978-0-15-603593-4
Muhammad Khan, Ashiq (1998).
THE LAST PHASE OF MUSLIM RULE IN MULTAN (1752–1818)
(Thesis). University of Multan, MULTAN. p. 159. Archived from
the original
on 4 December 2021
. Retrieved
4 December
2021
Lee 2019
, p. 155.
Lee 2019
, p. 158.
Lee 2019
, p. 162.
Lee 2019
, p. 166.
Lee 2019
, p. 172.
Mehta
, p. 248.
History of Islam
, p. 509, at
Google Books
Lee 2019
, p. 122–123.
Snedden, Christopher (2015).
Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-1-84904-342-7
Lee 2019
, p. 149.
Lee 2019
, p. 176.
Ingram, Edward (1980).
"Great Britain's Great Game: An Introduction"
The International History Review
(2):
160–
171.
doi
10.1080/07075332.1980.9640210
JSTOR
40105749
. Archived from
the original
on 16 August 2016.
In Defence of British India: Great Britain in the Middle East, 1775–1842
Archived
6 January 2017 at the
Wayback Machine
By Edward Ingram. Frank Cass & Co, London, 1984.
ISBN
0714632465
. p7-19
Lee 2019
, p. 205.
Lee, Jonathan L. (1 January 1996).
The "Ancient Supremacy": Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901
. BRILL. p. 257.
ISBN
978-90-04-10399-3
Lee 2019
, p. 359-366.
Onley, James (March 2009).
"The Raj Reconsidered: British India's Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa"
(PDF)
. Routledge. Page 9 of URL/Page 52.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 9 October 2022
. Retrieved
18 September
2021
Lee 2019
, p. 376-383.
General and cited sources
Mehta, Jaswant Lal (January 2005).
Advanced Study in the History of Modern India 1707–1813
. Sterling Publishers.
ISBN
978-1-932705-54-6
Further reading
Main article:
Bibliography of Afghanistan
See also:
Bibliography of the history of Central Asia
Barfield, Thomas (2012).
Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History
. Princeton University Press.
ISBN
978-0-691-15441-1
Bleaney, C. H.; Gallego, María Ángeles (2006).
Afghanistan: a bibliography
. BRILL.
ISBN
978-90-04-14532-0
Cox, Michael, ed. (2022).
Afghanistan: Long War, Forgotten Peace
. LSE Press.
ISBN
978-1-911712-00-8
Dupree, Louis
(1997).
Afghanistan
(2nd ed.). Oxford Pakistan Paperbacks.
ISBN
978-0-19-577634-8
Ewans, Martin (2002).
Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics
. Curzon Press.
ISBN
0-06-050508-7
Fowler, Corinne (2007).
Chasing Tales: Travel Writing, Journalism and the History of British Ideas About Afghanistan
. Rodopi.
ISBN
978-90-420-2262-1
Griffiths, John C (2001).
Afghanistan: a History of Conflict
. Carlton Books.
ISBN
978-1-84222-597-4
Habibi, Abdul Hai
(2003).
Afghanistan: An Abridged History
. Fenestra Books.
ISBN
978-1-58736-169-2
Hamilton, Angus (1906).
Afghanistan
. London: William Heinemann.
Hopkins, B.D. (2008).
The Making of Modern Afghanistan
. Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN
978-0-230-55421-4
Johnson, Robert (2011).
The Afghan Way of War: How and Why They Fight
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-979856-8
Malleson, George Bruce
(2005).
History of Afghanistan, from the Earliest Period to the Outbreak of the War of 1878
(Elibron Classic Replica ed.). Adamant Media Corporation.
ISBN
978-1-4021-7278-6
Olson, Gillia M (2005).
Afghanistan
. Capstone Press.
ISBN
978-0-7368-2685-3
Omrani, Bijan; Leeming, Matthew (2011).
Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide
(2nd ed.). Odyssey Publications.
ISBN
978-962-217-816-8
Reddy, L.R. (2002).
Inside Afghanistan: End of the Taliban Era?
. APH Publishing.
ISBN
978-81-7648-319-3
Runion, Meredith L. (2007).
The History of Afghanistan
. Greenwood Publishing Group.
ISBN
978-0-313-33798-7
External links
Library resources
about
Afghanistan
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
Key Development Forecasts for Afghanistan
from
International Futures
Government
Presidential Palace (Arg)
– Official website of the Presidential Palace of Afghanistan
Administrative Affairs
– Official website of the Administrative Affairs office of the president of Afghanistan
Prime Minister
– official website of the prime minister of Afghanistan
Supreme Court
– official website of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan
Statistics and Information
– official website of National Statistics and Information Authority
History
About Afghanistan
– at the Afghanistan Embassy in Cairo
Maps
Wikimedia Atlas of Afghanistan
Geographic data related to
Afghanistan
at
OpenStreetMap
Afghanistan
articles
History
Pre-Islamic period
Indus Valley civilisation
Maurya Empire
Greater Khorasan
Yabghus of Tokharistan
Turk Shahis
Hindu Shahis
Islamic conquest
Mongol invasion
Hotak dynasty
Siege of Kandahar
Durrani Empire
Third Battle of Panipat
Dost Mohammad Khan
Emirate of Afghanistan
Battle of Jamrud
Afghan–Sikh Wars
First Anglo-Afghan War
Second Anglo-Afghan War
Third Anglo-Afghan War
Kingdom of Afghanistan
Reforms of Amānullāh Khān and civil war
Saqqawists
Emirate
Daoud's Republic
Democratic Republic
Soviet war
since 1992
Islamic State
First Islamic Emirate
2001 invasion
War (2001–2021)
Islamic Republic
Aftermath of the war (2001–2021)
Second Islamic Emirate
Taliban
By topic
Timeline
Arabs in Afghanistan
European influence
Graveyard of empires
Wars in Afghanistan
Geography
Administrative divisions
Borders
Climate change
Earthquakes
Environmental issues
Extreme points
Volcanoes
Wildlife
Demographics
Ethnic groups in Afghanistan
Arabs
Baloch
Farsiwan
Gurjar
Hazaras
Kho
Nuristanis
Pashtuns
Qizilbash
Tajiks
Turkmens
Uzbeks
Health
Languages
Persian (Dari)
Women
Politics
Constitution
Democracy
Loya jirga
Leadership Council
Supreme Leader
Prime Minister
Deputy Leader
Cabinet
Current provincial governors
Foreign relations
with the Taliban
Human rights
LGBT
women
Supreme Court
Chief Justice
Military
Law
Law enforcement
Political parties
Economy
Afghani (currency)
Communications
Energy
Mining
Opium production in Afghanistan
Sanctions
Taxation
Telecommunications
Tourism
Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline
Transport
Culture
Cuisine
Education
Flag
Music
Cinema
Olympics
Pashtunwali (Pashtun life)
Poetry
Religion
War rugs
Outline
Index
Bibliography
Category
Portal
Links to related articles
Sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia
Sovereign states
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
Cyprus
East Timor
Egypt
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
North Korea
South Korea
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Turkey
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
States with limited
recognition
Abkhazia
Northern Cyprus
South Ossetia
Taiwan
Dependent
territories
Australia
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Greece
Kastellorizo
United Kingdom
Akrotiri and Dhekelia
(Sovereign Base Areas)
British Indian Ocean Territory
Special administrative
regions of China
Hong Kong
Macau
Spans the conventional boundary between Asia and another continent.
Considered European for cultural, political and historical reasons but is geographically in West Asia.
Category
Asia portal
Central Asia
Countries and regions
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Ethnic groups
Uzbeks
Tajiks
Kazakhs
Kyrgyzs
Mongolians
Russians
Koreans
Ukrainians
Turkmens
Volga Germans
Uyghurs
Dungans
Tatars
Karakalpaks
Meskhetian Turks
Armenians
Pashtuns
Hazaras
Baloch
Belarusians
Poles
Azeris
Culture
Architecture‎
Art
Cinema
Cuisine
Dastan
Gardens
Languages
Music
Religion
Buddhism
Islam
Turco-Persian tradition
Economy
and
Politics
Geostrategy
Greater Central Asia
Greater Iran
Human rights in Central Asia
Stock exchanges
History
Archaeology
Archaeological cultures
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Former countries
Sports
Central Asian Football Association
Central Asian Games
South Asian topics
Countries and regions
Afghanistan
(sometimes not included)
Bangladesh
Bhutan
British Indian Ocean Territory
India
Regions
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Regions
Sri Lanka
South Asian regions
Northwestern
Northern
Eastern
Southern
General geography
Ethnic groups
Andamanese
Austroasiatic
Austronesian
Dravidian
Indo-Aryan
Iranic
Nuristani
Tibeto-Burman
Turkic
Other groups
Afro-Asians
Chinese
European and Eurasian
Semitic
Diaspora
Culture
Architecture‎
Art
Cinema
Cuisine
Cultural sphere
Fashion
Languages
Literature
Music
Mythology
Philosophy
Scripts
Surnames
Environment
Monsoon
Climate change
Economy
and
Politics
Human rights in South Asia
Religious nationalism
Hindu
Muslim
Sikh
Stock exchanges
Caste system
History
Archaeology
Archaeological cultures
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Middle kingdoms
Medieval
Early modern
Colonial era
Contemporary era
Former countries
Religion
Dharmic
Buddhism
Hinduism
Jainism
Sikhism
Islam
Religious persecution
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
Sports
Cricket
South Asian Football Federation
South Asian Games
Martial arts
Physical culture
Traditional games
Education
South Asian studies
History
Military
India–Pakistan conflicts
Sino-Indian border dispute
Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes
Science and technology
Indian Institutes of Technology
Inventions and discoveries
History
Swords
Traditional medicine
Economic Cooperation Organization
(ECO)
Politics
ECOTA
Secretariat
Secretaries-General
Treaty of Izmir
Islamabad Declaration
Symbols
Emblem
Flag
Summits
Tehran 1992
Istanbul 1993
Islamabad 1995
Ashgabat 1996
Almaty 1998
Tehran 2000
Istanbul 2002
Dushanbe 2004
Baku 2006
Tehran 2009
Istanbul 2010
Baku 2012
Islamabad 2017
2021
(virtual)
Ashgabat 2021
Tashkent 2023
Khankendi 2025
Member
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
Iran
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Pakistan
Tajikistan
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Observers
Northern Cyprus
(as Turkish Cypriot State)
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC)
Agreements
South Asian Free Trade Area
Summits
Dhaka 1985
Bangalore 1986
Kathmandu 1987
Islamabad 1988
Malé 1990
Colombo 1991
Dhaka 1993
New Delhi 1995
Malé 1997
Colombo 1998
Kathmandu 2002
Islamabad 2004
Dhaka 2005
New Delhi 2007
Colombo 2008
Thimphu 2010
Addu 2011
Kathmandu 2014
Islamabad 2016
(Cancelled)
Members
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Observers
Australia
China
European Union
Iran
Japan
Mauritius
Myanmar
South Korea
United States
Guests
South Africa
Russia
Specialised agencies
SAARC Consortium on Open and Distance Learning
SAARC Documentation Centre
South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme
Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature
SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry
South Asian Federation of Accountants
SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund
Related Articles
SAARC Secretary General
SAARC Secretariat
SAARC satellite
South Asian University
South Asian Games
SAARC Literary Award
SAARC Road
SAARC Fountain
War on terror
September 11 attacks
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Withdrawal
Iraq War
(2003–2011) (
Withdrawal
Participants
Operational
ISAF
Operation Enduring Freedom participants
Afghanistan
Northern Alliance
Iraq
Iraqi Armed Forces
NATO
Pakistan
United Kingdom
United States
European Union
Philippines
Ethiopia
Targets
Individuals
Osama bin Laden
Hamza bin Laden
Anwar al-Awlaki
Sirajuddin Haqqani
Jalaluddin Haqqani
Anas Haqqani
Khalil Haqqani
Hafiz Saeed
Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Bahaziq
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Factions
al-Qaeda
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Abu Sayyaf
Al-Shabaab
Boko Haram
Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami
Hizbul Mujahideen
Islamic Courts Union
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jemaah Islamiyah
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Taliban
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Islamic State
Conflicts
Operation
Enduring Freedom
War in Afghanistan
OEF – Philippines
Georgian involvement in the Iraq War
OEF – Horn of Africa
OEF – Trans Sahara
Drone strikes in Pakistan
Other
Operation Active Endeavour
Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
Insurgency in the North Caucasus
Moro conflict in the Philippines
Iraq War
Iraqi insurgency
Operation Linda Nchi
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
War in Somalia (2006–2009)
2007 Lebanon conflict
al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
Policies
Patriot Act
(2001)
Torture Memos
(2002)
Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2009
President's Surveillance Program
Protect America Act of 2007
Terrorist Surveillance Program
Related
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Axis of evil
Bush Doctrine
Clash of Civilizations
Cold War
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Criticism of the war on terror
CIA black sites
Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri
Killing of Osama bin Laden
Enhanced interrogation techniques
Extrajudicial prisoners
Extraordinary rendition
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
Iranian Revolution
Islamic terrorism
Islamism
Operation Noble Eagle
Operation Eagle Assist
Situation Room
photograph
State Sponsors of Terrorism
Targeted killing
Targeted Killing in International Law
Targeted Killings: Law and Morality in an Asymmetrical World
Unitary executive theory
Unlawful combatant
CAGE
Category
Commons
Portals
Afghanistan
Asia
Countries
Afghanistan
at Wikipedia's
sister projects
Media
from Commons
News
from Wikinews
Quotations
from Wikiquote
Travel guides
from Wikivoyage
Authority control databases
International
ISNI
VIAF
GND
FAST
WorldCat
National
United States
France
BnF data
Japan
Czech Republic
Spain
Sweden
Israel
Geographic
MusicBrainz area
Artists
KulturNav
People
Trove
UK Parliament
Other
IdRef
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
NARA
SNAC
Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine
İslâm Ansiklopedisi
Yale LUX
Retrieved from "
Categories
Afghanistan
1709 establishments in Asia
Countries in Central Asia
Countries in Asia
Emirates
Iranian plateau
Islamic states
Landlocked countries
Least developed countries
Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Member states of the United Nations
Countries and territories where Pashto is an official language
Countries and territories where Persian is an official language
Countries in South Asia
States and territories established in 1709
Theocracies
Totalitarian states
Hidden categories:
Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
Pages using the Phonos extension
Pages including recorded pronunciations
Articles containing Pashto-language text
Pages with Pashto IPA
Articles containing Dari-language text
Pages with Dari IPA
Articles containing potentially dated statements from July 2025
All articles containing potentially dated statements
Webarchive template wayback links
CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown
CS1: unfit URL
CS1 Pashto-language sources (ps)
CS1 German-language sources (de)
Source attribution
All articles with dead external links
Articles with dead external links from April 2025
Articles with short description
Short description matches Wikidata
Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages
Wikipedia extended-confirmed-protected pages
Use American English from February 2023
All Wikipedia articles written in American English
Use dmy dates from March 2026
Articles containing Arabic-language text
Coordinates on Wikidata
Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the flag caption or type parameters
Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the symbol caption or type parameters
All articles lacking reliable references
Articles lacking reliable references from October 2025
Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020
Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images
All articles with unsourced statements
Articles with unsourced statements from October 2021
Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata
Afghanistan
Add topic