The Mausoleum of Ali, which is located in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, is a site of cultural significance for Khorasan.
Mushtaq B/Shutterstock
Khorasan is globally associated with terrorism, but people from Afghanistan are out to challenge that assumption.
After the terrorist attacks at Crocus City near Moscow, the Russian government is rounding up central Asian migrants and sending them home.
Nikolay Vinokurov /Alamy
Russia has been rounding up central Asian migrant workers and sending them home.
A protester wearing a Georgian and European flag faces off with policemen blocking a street near the Parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 14 2024.
David Mdzinarishvili / EPA
Georgia seems to be particularly prone to activism, distinguishing it from its neighbours in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The praying hall in Bukhara Synagogue, in the Uzbek capital.
Ymblanter|Wikimedia
A hidden history of connection and commerce between Britain, Afghanistan, and central Asia serves as a reminder of the possibility of inter-religious co-existence in even the most fraught of times.
Nasimjon Sharipov has not been seen in public since late February 2023.
Group 24
The Central Asian nation has long figured among the ‘worst of the worst’ in regards to political and human rights. A new report shines light on cases of activists being seized and then going missing.
Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan loom over the people of Bishkek.
Contributor/Getty Images
Recent laws and pro-Putin sentiment by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov have sparked concern that the Central Asian country is backsliding on democracy.
A massive dust storm billows across the western desert of Iraq on April 26, 2005.
Shannon Arledge/USMC via Getty Images
Desert dust storms are increasingly picking up materials like sewage, herbicides and other human-made waste and transporting them on tiny particles that are easy to inhale.
Karachi could channel exports from central Asia.
Asianet-Pakistan/Shutterstock
Could Pakistan become a Singapore of the 21st century?
Fear and intimidation: everyday life in Kabul under the Taliban.
EPA-EFE/Samiullah Popal
Two years on from taking control of Afghanistan the Taliban continues to rule through fear and threatens the stability of the whole region.
Mobilisation: Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
UPI/Alamy Stock Photo
Some of the key articles from our coverage of the war in Ukraine over the past week.
Vladimir Putin says he understands Xi Jinping’s ‘concerns’ over the Ukraine war.
EPA-EFE/Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
A rapid shift in the balance of power between Moscow and Beijing is becoming apparent as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meets in Central Asia.
A military patrol detains a protester in Kazakhstan.
Valery Sharifulin\TASS via Getty Images)
A former US ambassador to Kazakhstan explains the strategic and economic importance of Kazakhstan to the US.
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.
A protest against bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, on April 8, 2021, after a young woman abducted for marriage was found dead.
Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images
In rural Kyrgyzstan, 1 in 3 marriages begins with an abduction. Older generations see this as a harmless tradition, but two brides have been killed since 2018. A study finds other problems, too.
Anton Balazh / shutterstock
Climate change means more water is evaporating than is flowing in.
Jakub Czajkowski / shutterstock
We found evidence of irreversible ecological breakdown millions of years ago – this time round, we should heed the warning signs.
Unprecedented: an opposition rally in Minsk ahead of the August 9 Belarus election.
Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA
Opposition candidates have been arrested amid mass protests and a worsening coronavirus pandemic ahead of the August 9 election.
Industrial premises being disinfected in Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan city.
Turar Kazangapov
How Kazakhstan failed to deal with COVID-19 and became the first country to enter a second national lockdown.
Caucasus mountains in Svaneti, northwest Georgia.
Polscience/Wikimedia
How does reporting on the environment promote democracy? A US journalism professor describes conditions in the republic of Georgia, where the media isn’t equipped to cover issues like pollution.
Shutterstock
Central Asia is at the centre of two new initiatives by China and Russia that run against a longstanding economic vision of the US.