Afghan Society Research Articles

Відродження Ісламського Емірату Афганістан в контексті повернення «Талібану» до влади

There were analyzed preconditions of forming radical movement “Taliban”, as well as its returning to power with the aim of revival of Islamic Emirate Afghanistan. It has been defined that today Taliban is recognized as terroristic organization by UNO which formation has been caused not only by domestic policy processes of Afghanistan but by the influence of external actors, in particular Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. It has been analyzed the composition of Taliban in the context of its social classes and it defined that the biggest share of Taliban are the representatives of marginal classes of Afghanistan and Pakistan. There was proved, that at the beginning, in 1994 the emergence of Taliban in Afghanistan was kindly perceived by the biggest part of population. The emigrants’ press, which published papers to support Taliban, played the active role in supporting Afghan Taliban. It was defined that later in Afghan society the processes of confrontation and polarization grew and as a result there was the split on two groups by political and ethnic features: anti-Taliban (mainly non-Pashtun) and Taliban (Pashtun). It has been defined that the ideology of Taliban is religious nationalism. The official religion of Taliban is Sunni Islam. Afghanistan was under the control of Taliban till 2001, however the USA with help of North alliance after the situation on 11 September began antiterrorist operation against Taliban and destroyed it. It was defined that in 2021 the USA got the troops out from Afghanistan, what let Taliban to make the revolution and take almost the whole territory of a country under control. It has been proved that modern Taliban uses the religion to have the power in a region as well as to persuade recognition of the global community of it as legal power which has good intentions for saving Islamic traditions and laws of shariah for recovering and peace development of Islamic Emirate Afghanistan. It has been defined that values that Taliban has declared in the Constitution do not correspond to the real situation which is today in Afghanistan: the rights of women to study and work are violated, entertainments are banned in the other words promises and real actions of Taliban today differ.

Transitivity Analysis of Mariam’s Character in A Thousand Splendid Suns

This study investigates the portrayal of the central character, Mariam, in A Thousand Splendid Suns through the framework of Transitivity based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The study has analyzed some important events in Mariam’s life such as her childhood, her marital life, and the act of murdering her husband towards the end of the novel. A clause-by-clause analysis reveals that Mariam is assigned mental processes more than material, verbal, and relational processes in the beginning of the novel. Within mental processes, a majority of the processes are cognitive which illustrate that Mariam is a rational person. In contrast, a large number of verbal processes assigned to the Mullah, a religious figure, especially on the eve of Mariam’s wedding, suggest the influential and controlling role played by the religious/orthodox segments in the Afghan society as depicted in the novel. Towards the end of the novel, there is a shift in the use of material processes from Rasheed to Mariam which suggests the transfer of ‘power’ from one to the other, culminating in the murder of Rasheed at Mariam’s hand. The study shows the transformation of Mariam’s character from an ‘innocent’ and docile person into a powerful and empowered woman who takes her fate in her own hands.

Being a Woman under Taliban’s Theocratic Regime

In the light of the recent events that have taken place in Afghanistan, the purpose of this policy brief is to turn back to the time when the Taliban were in power (1996-2001) and to explore the brutality of their theocratic regime against women. In particular, this policy brief examines the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on Afghan women, by depriving them of essential rights, as well as the changes that are claimed to have taken place in the post-Taliban era. It is concluded that the international community and NGOs should play a significant role in upgrading the position of women in Afghan society.

TRADITIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF AFGHAN SOCIETY IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

The experience of building a democratic regime in Afghanistan in the period from 2001 to the conquest of power by the Taliban in August 2021 has been considered. It has been emphasized and highlighted how the traditional foundations of governance of the Afghan society were embodied in the political system, which had a democratic structure established by the Constitution of 2004. The main traditional power centers in the Afghan territorial communities have been identified, existing independently of state institutions and in parallel with them. The essence and mechanism of action of each of them have been revealed. The importance of informal relations and connections, which form the basis of Afghan society and determine the status of a person in it, has been emphasized. As a result, the population strive not to the ideas, but to strong leaders, which allows them to determine the political and social climate in the country. The logic of the emergence and wide existence of traditional power centers, such as jirgas, khans, maliks, battlefield commanders, based on the perception of them by the population as sources of stability and strength, has been determined. The impact of traditional institutions and relations on the functioning of the central and local political authorities, their influence on the relationship between the population and state bodies has been shown. The process of development by traditional leaders, as the centers of power, of modern democratic mechanisms and means of control and their use in personal interests has been considered. The combination of traditional management institutions with classical democratic institutions has been noted, which manifests itself both in the use of traditional management forms without changes, and in the transfer of traditional forms of leadership and social relationships to modern political structures, which modifies the essence of democratic institutions. In addition, the existence of informal traditional structures that duplicate the functions of official ones has been noted, indicating the weakness of state institutions.

Regulation on Bachelor Degree Education: Problems and the Way Forward

Educational systems have a direct impact on the process of learning and academic achievements of students and faculty members alike. In an attempt to standardize higher education and introduce a binding regulatory framework, the Regulation on bachelor's degree Education, 2020 applies to both the private and public sectors in Afghanistan. The Regulation, prima facie, suffers from problems that are divided into two sets. Firstly, issues whose presence or existence in the Regulation leads to problems; these include, but are not limited to, an excessive number of Objectives set in Article 2; contradiction with provisions of other laws in force; vagueness and ambiguity of certain provisions; violation of academic autonomy of institutions of higher education; and emphasis on certain matters that are non-compliant with the reality and norms prevalent in the Afghan society. The second set comprises issues that are absent while they should have been part of the Regulation. These include, for instance, a mechanism for achieving each Objective set for the Regulation; rules and principles appropriate for applied sciences, medical, and engineering because it appears the Regulation is drafted in view of social sciences only; the maximum number of students to be enrolled in a class; provisions dealing with Grade Point Average (GPA); practical work and research for students; E-Learning; a mechanism for incorporating mechanism of quality assurance and quality enhancement in the bachelor's program. This paper analyses problems that the Regulation suffers from in a descriptive critical method and ends with particular recommendations. Keywords: Afghanistan, Higher Education, Regulation, Bachelor, Credit System

RUSSIA'S ROLE IN AFGHAN PEACE PROCESS

Kabul has tremendous importance in Moscow's strategic culture. Moscow has seen Kabul as a place for competition with the western world. Russia has fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s with different segments of Afghan society. After the complete silence of more than two decades, Russia has now started to take an interest in the internal politics of Afghanistan directly. Moscow has established strong ties with the political identities of Afghanistan. Russia has also found links with the Taliban in Afghanistan. America has also blamed Russia for supporting the Taliban militants against American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Moscow hosted the Intra Afghan Talks in 2019 before starting the official peace process between America and the Taliban. Moscow now fully supports the initiatives has taken by the United States; Moscow wants a significant role in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal. Washington and Moscow are not on the same page on different issues, but both states are willing to bring peace to Afghanistan.

The Talibs or the Taliban in Afghanistan

The rapid military and political victory of the Taliban movement during the summer offensive in 2021 shocked the system of international relations and the regional security architecture. The Taliban’s military successes in rural areas were expected and predicted, but the capture of Kabul and the instant capitulation of the official Afghan authorities became the “black swan” of regional geopolitics. This study hypothesis states that the reincarnation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was the logical result of an unsuccessful twenty-year military campaign by the United States and NATO. The attempt to integrate the Afghan society into an accelerated modernization process was carried out under immature socio-political practices and a complete lack of institutions. Another hypothesis of the study suggests that the victory of the radical terrorist movement can cause a domino effect and lead to the strengthening of international transcontinental terrorist groups. From the systems theory perspective, the victory of a radical group and establishing control over a UN member state cannot but cause a negative reaction for the global and regional security construction. The study puts forward a third hypothesis and thesis: the Taliban victory was the victory of radical political Islam (jihadism) at the global level, which significantly strengthened its position in the system of international relations.

Valor behind the Burqa: Afghan women's fight against Covid-19

The paper studies the gendered impact of the pandemic in a war ravaged Afghanistan. For majority of Afghan women, the onslaught of Covid has exacerbated their already dire condition and adversely impacted their social, economical, physical and cultural aspects of life. The research also underlines that the imposition of lockdown has caused the reversal of war gains. The paper also highlights the notable works of various Afghan women carried out during the corona pandemic that has contributed to their emancipation and upliftment of the society at large. It brings forth strong and courageous women who are combatting terrorism, everyday conflicts, frequent bombings, societal restrictions and now the deadly coronavirus and yet contributing majorly in re-building the Afghan society. This paper is an attempt to dispel the dominant narrative of their state of helplessness and despondency around Afghan women before the withdrawal of American troops and Taliban takeover. Both primary and secondary sources have complemented this research.

Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Afghanistan: Cultural Traits as Pivotal Factor

This paper explores the cultural values that prevailed in Afghanistan to understand the recruitment and use of underage soldiers in the long-lasting armed conflict while comparing the existing domestic and international law. The study analyzed the effect of the traditions of Afghans on child soldiering. The method was doctrinal, and therefore, the collected and analyzed data was qualitative. The analysis was thematical, where each related idea was subjected to review and evaluation. The research found that since time immemorial, the Afghan culture traditions were conducive to underage soldiering for various reasons, including peace and justice where male and female child warriors are treated as heroes, perhaps more than any other member of the Afghan society. Due to the stated reasonings, the study established that more underage soldiers were used and recruited during the period of the British Empire, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the civil war that caused the Taliban and Northern Alliance to resume control and in the post 9/11 phase of armed conflict in Afghanistan irrespective of domestic and international law that prohibited the recruitment and use of underage soldiers as it violated their basic fundamental rights of childhood.

Sea Prayer: An Illustrated Literary Narration on the Afflictions of Refugees

Illustrated fiction is one of the narrative media that came into the arena of literature during the 18th century because of the technological advancements that occurred during this period. Illustrated editions of literary creations became more popular during the late18th century until the last decades of the 19th century. During this period, an illustrated edition of fictional works was in higher demand than the prose editions. However, the emergence of various adaptations of literary creations, such as films and graphical representation that came into command at the end of the 19th century and 20th century replaced the popularity of illustrated fiction. Khaled Hosseini, one of the beloved writers of the 21st century has documented the sufferings of Afghan society in his three novels; The Kite Runner (2003), A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), and And the Mountains Echoed (2013). His works explore the sufferings of common people under the dark shadows of war and violence and spread the rays of peace and humanity. His latest work, Sea Prayer, published on 18 September 2018, Illustrated by Dan Williams, is also deals with the perennial problems faced by the human race in the modern world; war, violence, and refugee life. Written in the form of a letter from a father to son, on the eve of their journey to find their new home, the work describes the traumatic condition of the Syrian refugees and the glory of pre-war Syria. Thus, Hosseini urges the readers to reflect on the dilemmata faced by the Syrian society during the period of war and to hold their hands together to bring peace in Syria and all over the world.

THE TALIBAN & AFGHANISTAN: CONFLICT & PEACE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW PERSPECTIVE

This study aims to determine the political situation in Afghanistan which is now occupied by the Taliban. This qualitative research method is often called "naturalistic research method" because the research is carried out in natural conditions (natural setting). In this study, researchers used two kinds of data, namely primary data and secondary data. To determine the validity of the data, an inspection technique is needed. The implementation of the inspection technique is based on a number of certain criteria. There are four criteria used, namely the degree of trust (credibility), transferability, dependence (dependability), and certainty. The conclusions of this study are; 1) The Taliban insists that it is committed to peace talks with the Afghan government. The implementation of the original Islamic system will be something they strive for. 2) The Taliban is committed to accommodating all the rights of citizens, whether male or female, based on the noble religious rules of Islam and the noble traditions of Afghan society. The Taliban will allow women to carry out public roles. 3) Advancing a better Afghanistan.

THE AFGHAN EXODUS AND THE POSSIBLE NEW CONJONCTURE IN THE POST-USA REGION

Human history is not alien to the phenomenon of mass migration. Humans has been withnessing migration many times for ages. After the U.S announced that it will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan on August 31, a mass exodus of people from Afghanistan to other parts of the world began. The expansionist foreign policy of the USA presented itself as a country which seeks to contribute to the development of Afghan society and its state, resorting to “democratization and the fight against global terrorism” rhetoric. The main reason behind the U.S’s entry into Afghanistan is to achieve its objective of gaining geostrategic advantages. The U.S, which uses radical salafi movements as a stepping stone, has recently tried to make a presence in Central Asia, in a region confined by China, Russia and Iran, and to show a sustainable presence in the region from Afghanistan where the Taliban is now in control. The main issue is centered on what will occur after the 31st of August, when the USA leaves Afghanistan, how the conjuncture will unfold in the region and how the Taliban regime will interact with Iran, Pakistan and China. Western societies tend to analyze and construe the Taliban over their approach to women. However, the accurate approach should be contributing to the formation of a non-marginal, legitimate political regime in Afghanistan, which will also be in accordance with international law. With the stability to be achieved in Afghanistan, a refugee crisis can be prevented.

The American role in the Anti-Soviet Afghan War (1977- 1980)

Purpose of the study: This study aims to discuss the American role in the anti-Soviet Afghan war and disclose the reasons for the Soviet worry about the growth of the fundamentalist terrorist groups inside Afghanistan.
 Methodology: This is library-based research work.
 Results: The article has come up with some main points on that severe war. One of these was that the American President Jimmy Carter's Doctrine in 1980. Carter's Doctrine could be considered a sort of policy that allows the use of military force in case American interests are exposed to Soviet threats. As a result, the American administration promised to militarily support the Afghan fighters against the Soviet control in Afghanistan. But, at the same time, the Americans failed to realize the ethnic, ideological, social, lingual, and theological structure of the Afghan society.
 Application: This study could have many applications in the faculties of politics and the contemporary altogether to teach the ways of public and secret or hidden political relationships between the secular states or so-called superpowers that employed the extremist groups to overwhelm the stable states that do not subdue to the western domination.
 Novelty: This study explores the incorrect claim of the superpowers in general and of the United States of America in particular of the theory of separation religion and the state, which is often used in the double standard.

Yoksulluk ve Eğitimin Afganistan'da Kadın Çocuk Evliliği Üzerindeki Etkisi 2015 Afganistan Nüfus ve Sağlık Araştırmasından Elde Edilen Kanıtlar

Female children as a vulnerable part of Afghan society extremely influencing by the lack of education facilities and poverty. Child marriage as a human right violation, destroying the child’s future and affecting the health of society. Despite; implementation of several programs in the level of nation and international to decrease the female child marriage, still Afghanistan has the highest female child marriage in the region. In this research, the data from 2015 Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey (2015AfDHS) has extracted to gauge the impact of poverty and education on female child marriage in Afghanistan. To examine the effect of poverty and education on female child marriage binary logistic regression was applied. The result shows, poverty and education strongly influencing the female child marriage. Girls who live in poor households 1.18 times more likely to marry and who ever not attended to school 1.16 times more likely to marry in the age of 10-19 years. Similarly; female child illiteracy, living in rural area, ethnicity and region also significantly increasing the female child marriage in Afghanistan. In conclusion, poverty is directly affecting the household status and increasing the female child marriage in Afghanistan. By creating the job opportunities to job seekers, improving the households condition and providing the equal accessible qualified education facilities to all female children the probability of female child marriage significantly will decrease.

Male Chauvinism in Afghan Society: An Analysis of A Thousand Splendid Suns

The paper is an attempt to analyze the dominant role of the male community in Afghan society. Western Feminists such as Judith Butler claim that all women face the same problems. However, their claim is challenged by Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1991) who is of the view that the claim of universal sisterhood is based on ethnocentricity. This paper analyses the inferior status of women in the patriarchal system of Afghanistan where people live under their cultural code called Pashtunwali. Pashtunwali assigns an active role to the male community under their privileged status while women are restricted to homes. In this society, a man has to be rigid, authoritative and must keep women under his iron hands. A man of weak nerves has no respect in Afghan society; he has to be strong enough to protect the honor of his family. The study is based on textual analysis of Khaled Hosseini's novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, in the light of Mohanty's views (1991). Hosseini (2008) criticizes the marginalized status of women in Afghan society. Though the Afghan society is influenced by globalization which gives some space to women for social activities, male chauvinism remains the main feature of Pashtun culture wherein people are ruled by a male-oriented code of conduct called Pashtunwali.

“My father told me ‘child, there is no son in this house, so you should wear these boy clothes’”: perspectives on gender norms, roles, and bacha posh among Afghan migrant women in Melbourne, Australia

ObjectivesIn Afghanistan, strong son preferences render women with lower social capital. A practice was created to overcome this gender bias, known as bacha posh, which literally translates to ‘dressing up as a boy’. This exploratory study aims to understand gender roles, identities, and experiences of Afghan women in order to understand why this cultural practice has arisen. DesignUtilising a social constructivist approach, qualitative data was collected from Afghan migrant women in Melbourne, Australia, using semi-structured in-depth interviews (n=10) and a group discussion (n=1). The interviews were conducted in Dari, translated and transcribed to English and thematically analysed using NVivo 12. ResultsKey findings identified include the perception of an easy transition for girls to become and return from being bacha posh, community members knowing bacha posh are girls but concealing the truth to maintain family honour, and societal and familial son preferences playing a significant role in becoming bacha posh. Most participants perceived bacha posh to be an unnecessary practice, but understood that it may be an act of desperation forced upon them by the rigidity of Afghan society. ConclusionsThis exploratory analysis makes an important contribution to understanding gender roles, identities and bacha posh in Afghanistan, and is the first qualitative study exploring how gender roles and norms in Afghanistan have led to the bacha posh phenomenon. Exploring how social and gender norms and son preferences contribute to the emergency of bacha posh is critical to understand challenges faced by this group, and how these power structures influence daily living.

Підготовка афганських студентів у навчальних закладах Української РСР у 1980-х рр. (на прикладі м. Кіровограда)

Introduction. Within the framework of the “socialist orientation” policy, pursued by the USSR in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in the 1980s, an important place was given to the reorganization of the system of education due to the Soviet model. An important role in the education of Afghan youth in the spirit of the “ideals of the April Revolution” was given to the education of Afghans in educational institutions of the Soviet Union. The purpose of this article is to study the issue of training Afghan students in the Ukrainian SSR on the example of educational institutions in Kirovograd and to clarify its place in the structure of the socialist transformation of Afghanistan in the 1980-s. The research methodology is based on content analysis of historical sources, problem-chronological, typological, retrospective methods. Main results and conclusions. During the Cold War the education of citizens of “third world” countries in Soviet educational institutions was an effective element of policy aimed at promoting the interests of the USSR in the world. During the years of such purposeful work, thousands of qualified specialists of various specialties for Afghanistan have been trained in Soviet higher and vocational schools. At the same time, a whole generation of Afghans had been brought up and who, after studying in the Soviet Union, became the bearers of the “Marxist-Leninist worldview,” sincerely admired the Soviet reality and wanted to transfer at least some elements of it to their homeland. Studying in the USSR in the 1960’s and 1970’s contributed to the spread of Marxist ideas in Afghanistan, which was embodied in the “April Revolution” of 1978. In the next decade the training of Afghans in the USSR was a means of forming a large pro-Soviet stratum of Afghan society under Soviet occupation, Scientific novelty of research results. For the first time in Ukrainian historiography, the problem of educating the citizens of Afghanistan in educational institutions of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1980s as a component of the policy of “socialist orientation” has been studied. Based on a study of a wide documentary base, it was established that ideological and political education, instilling in them “Marxist-Leninist worldview” and “ideals of the April Revolution” was the main component of working with Afghan students.

Endurance of Women in Afghan Society in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Book review)

No abstract available.

The Core Issue of Stability in Afghanistan: Envisioning the Future of Peace Deal

Afghanistan has been a battleground to the world’s largest powers. From USSR to NATO, through the Taliban, and now to the peace deal, Afghanistan holds a remarkable and yet chaotic history. Amidst the wars, some have succeeded for a limited time while others have failed. NATO has a history with Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in the USA. The crucial matter is how to guarantee that states budding from divergence are set with the basics on which to assemble a robust peace. The keen and incisive analysis in serenity and the Public Purse provides a precious involvement to this attempt. This article provides an analysis of the post-9/11 period and the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces, focusing on the ethnic origin of the native fighters and how assorted groups engaged in dissimilar aspects of the divergence. Furthermore, this learning also highlighted the United States grasp for Afghan civil society, promotes amplified admiration for human rights, helps to fight the prohibited trade in narcotics, and continues to endow with noteworthy humanitarian uphold. The United States has owed approximately $29 billion in civilian aid for Afghanistan and the perspective of U.S. policy headed for Afghanistan cannot be in point of truth assessed exclusively of a nearer estimation of Afghanistan’s existing and emergent security, political, and economic landscapes—and their collision on U.S. strategic aims.

KHALED HOSSEINI’S WORLD VIEW ON AFGHANISTAN SOCIETY DEPICTED IN A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Culture is the complex whole that man has acquired as a member of society. The culture shows the result of the behavior and habits of the societies of its place. Khaled Hosseini through his novel tries to extend his thought based on his view over the sociological problem which exists in Afghanistan. This investigation aims to explain the author's world view which focuses on a novel entitled A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. The setting of the novel is in Afghanistan from the 1960s until the early 2000s. Through this novel, Khaled Hosseini describes the Sociological issues which happen in Afghanistan at that time. In analyzing the data, the author uses a descriptive qualitative method and focused on Lucien Goldmann's theory of genetic structuralism. The result of this research shows that there are some problems within Afghan society such as (1) the education system, (2) marriage, and (3) domestic violence.