An Afghan musician poses for a portrait with his dilruba in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 18, 2021. About a month after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the music is starting to go quiet.
(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The international community, particularly the music and music research communities, must stand with the Afghan musicians when it comes to protecting their cultural rights and human rights.
Now is the time for U.S. President Joe Biden to ask the American people to invite homeless and war-ravaged Afghan refugees into their homes and their communities. Experience has taught us that, like the Statue of Liberty, many will raise their hand in enthusiastic response.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
As the U.S. considers its own private refugee sponsorship program, it should look to Canada. History shows that large-scale adoption is possible and can bridge divides on immigration.
Afghan women hold ‘silent’ protests in Kabul against repressive measures under the Taliban regime.
Bilal Guler/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Two Afghan women scholars write about how Afghan women’s groups have been fighting for human rights, both now and historically.
Indonesia runs the world’s largest network of madrasas (Islamic schools). They have contributed significantly to girls’ enrolment, and can serve as a model for the Taliban government.
(ANTARA FOTO/Sahrul Manda Tikupadang)
Indonesia can serve as an important model for the Taliban of how Muslim nations and faith-based organisations can play a big role in expanding girls’ education.
Harsh punishments: the Taliban have announced they will reinstate execution and amputations.
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The Taliban’s punishments are at odds with many basic principles of Islamic law.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks during a congressional committee hearing on the withdrawal of American troops Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)
This summer’s disintegration of the Afghan government and continuing political turmoil in Iraq provide valuable lessons for the U.S. and its mission to impose democracy on the rest of the world.
Hollie Adams / EPA-EFE
The image of a post-Brexit Britain with a strong international presence is being lost to the so-called special relationship.
Muhammed Muheisen/AP/AAP
Madrassas don’t just provide an education that may lead to terrorism. They provide critical financial support to impoverished people.
Afghan women march to demand their rights under Taliban rule during a demonstration near the former Women’s Affairs Ministry building in Kabul.
(AP Photo)
How can we reconcile competing claims that colonialism of any kind is detrimental with the view that Afghanistan has been failed by the West?
A Taliban fighter, wearing U.S. clothing and carrying U.S. weapons, looks through a captured night-vision device.
Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Despite efforts to prevent militant groups from getting weapons, they often get their hands on U.S. equipment and use it to attack American troops.
The rug designs tend to contain symbols – AK-47s, 9/11 and drones – that reflect an outsider’s understanding of war.
Kevin Sudeith, courtesy of WarRug.com
War rugs are more reflections of market forces than memorials to suffering.
Burlingham/Shutterstock
Drones are not the ethical, precise weapons they’re made out to be.
The Tailban destroyed this Buddha statue dating to the 6th century AD in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in March 2001. The photo on the left was taken in 1977.
AP Photo/Etsuro Kondo, (left photo) and Osamu Semba, both Asahi
From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban outlawed almost all forms of art while looting and destroying museums. With their resurgence, Australia must strengthen measures to stop trafficking of antiquities.
Hundreds of people who want to flee the country gathered outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.
AP photo
The dangerous situation faced by Afghans who want to flee, but can’t, shows how unwilling or unprepared the US and other countries are to deal with refugees.
Alessandra Fuccillo
European leaders expressed solidarity with people trapped in Kabul with no reference to the people trapped in makeshift camps on its periphery.
Women are at the forefront of protests in Afghanistan’s cities.
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Segregation and other measures being introduced by the Taliban’s hardline new government are being greeted with widespread protests, many of them led by women.
The Hazara have long been targeted in Afghanistan, and many fear violence will intensify with the Taliban in power.
Dimitris Lampropoulos/NurPhoto via Getty Images
With the Taliban again in power in Afghanistan, minorities like the Hazara may have the most to lose.
It was the day the US realised it was fighting a different kind of war.
A Soviet soldier on guard in Afghanistan in 1988.
(RIA Novosti News Agency)
In the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia looks like an increasingly desirable international partner across much of the globe.
Afghanistan relies on informal money changers more than banks.
AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini
The Taliban have at least five significant potential sources of revenue as they begin to govern Afghanistan again.