Afghanistan in Brief
Land and People
General Facts and Statistics
Area: 647,500 sq. km. (249,935 sq. mi.), slightly smaller than Texas
Capital: Kabul, 2,000,000 (approx.)
Population: 29,863,000 (2005 est.)
Natural resources: Natural gas, petroleum, coal, cooper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones
Land use: Arable land 12% Permanent pastures 46% Forests and woodland 3% Other 39%
Literacy rate: 28.7 percent (UN Afghanistan Human Development Report of 2005)
Major religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups
For centuries, Afghanistan has been a mosaic of people with diverse cultures, religions and languages. Afghanistan’s ethnically and linguistically rich and mixed population reflects its location at the crossroads of Central, South and Southwest Asia. Communities with separate religions, languages, and ethnic backgrounds have lived side by side for generations. Afghanistan still remains a country of dynamic diversity.
The main ethnic groups are Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen, Aimaq, Baluch, Nuristani, and Kizilbash.
Pashto and Dari are Afghanistan’s official languages. Afghanistan’s Consitution stipulates
that all other languages are “official” in the areas in which they are spoken by
a majority of the population. Dari is spoken by more than one-
Afghanistan is an Islamic country. An estimated 80% of the population is Sunni, following the Hanafi School of jurisprudence. The remainder of the population is predominantly Shi'a.
Women in Afghanistan
Afghanistan, prior to the Soviet occupation and Taliban takeover, was a relatively
liberal country with a progressive outlook on women’s rights. Afghan women made up
50 percent of government workers, 70 percent of schoolteachers and 40 percent of
doctors in Kabul. However, the effects of war and the Taliban regime quickly effaced
the rights of women in public life and relegated them to solely the domestic domain.
In 2001, with the overthrow of the Taliban, Afghan women were once again able to
enjoy some of the freedoms that had been stripped from them. In particular, the education
and health sector have provided greater access to women and advanced their social
development in an emergent state.
With the fall of the Taliban, women have been able to reenter schools and universities. In fact, girls composed a third of the nearly six million children who returned to school this year. Women have also started serving as teachers and faculty members again, and are filling political positions and participating in the national elections.
The health sector is working hard to improve the lives of Afghan women, and, free
from the prohibitions of the Taliban, male physicians are now allowed to examine
and treat female patients. However, while women can see male doctors, the availability
of clinics and hospitals is nonetheless limited. Only 15 percent of births in Afghanistan
are attended by qualified health professionals, thus contributing to the second highest
maternal mortality rate in the world; one pregnant woman dies for every 6 live births.
Besides pregnancy-
Afghan women have suffered through war, poverty, famine and violence, but with the help of the international community and the Government of Afghanistan, they are reemerging with even stronger voices for change.
Geography and climate
Afghanistan's rugged terrain and seasonally harsh climate have presented a challenge
to habitants and conquering armies for centuries. Afghanistan extends from the imposing
Pamir Mountains in the northeast Wakhan Corridor, through branches of smaller mountain
ranges, down to the southwestern plateau where the fertile regions of Kandahar merge
with the deserts of Farah and Seistan. More than 49 percent of the total land area
lies above 2,000 meters. There are a number of smaller mountain ranges spanning Afghanistan
but the largest mountains are found in the north-
Afghanistan is completely landlocked, bordered by Iran to the west (925 kilometers), by the Central Asian States of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north and northeast (2,380 kilometers), by China at the easternmost top of the Wakhan Corridor (96 kilometers), and by Pakistan to the east and south (2,432 kilometers).
For the most part, Afghanistan may be described as semi-
Map of Afghanistan
The National Flag
The National Anthem
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Government
The executive branch of the Afghan government consists of a powerful and popularly elected President and two Vice Presidents. A National Assembly consisting of two Houses, the House of People (Wolesi Jirga) with 249 seats, and the House of Elders (Meshrano Jirga) wiyh 102 seats forms the Legislative Branch. There is an independent Judiciary branch consisting of the Supreme Court (Stera Mahkama), High Courts and Appeal Courts. The President appoints the nine members of the Supreme Court with the approval of the Wolesi Jirga.
President Hamid Karzai became the first democratically elected President of Afghanistan on December 7, 2004. Previously, Hamid Karzai had been Chairman of the Transitional Administration and Interim President from 2002.
History
Afghanistan's history spans five thousand years and the Afghan people have contributed
to the emergence of many Central Asian empires. The ancient centers of culture and
civilization were influenced by diverse outsiders such as Rome, Greece, Arabia, Iran,
Central Asia, India, and China. Great conquerors such as Jenghiz Khan and Timurlane
swept through Afghanistan during the 13th and 14th century. These rulers brought
with them the desire to establish kingdoms, and founded cultural and scholarly communities
in Afghanistan. In particular, during the Timurid dynasty, poetry, architecture and
miniature painting reached their zenith.
The rise of the great Mughal Empire again lifted Afghanistan to heights of power.
The ruler, Babur, had his capital in Kabul in 1512, but as the Mughals extended their
power into India, Afghanistan went from being the center of the empire to merely
a peripheral part of it. In the 18th and 19th century with European forces eroding
the influence of the Mughals on the Indian subcontinent, the kingdom of Afghanistan
began to emerge. Ahmad Shah ruled from 1747 and successfully established the concept
of a united Afghanistan.
Throughout the 19th century Afghans fought against British forces. In the 1830s,
Dost Muhammad skillfully balanced the influence of the Russians, British, Iranians,
and Sikhs. However, rising tensions resulted in several wars from 1839 and 1842 and
from 1878 to 1880. The twenty-
Modern History
In 1919, Afghanistan gained independence from British occupying forces. From 1919-
In 1978 and 1979, a number of coups brought to power a communist government that drifted increasingly toward the USSR, ending with a Soviet puppet government in Kabul led by Babrak Kamal and an invasion of Soviet forces. Throughout the eighties, an indigenous Afghan resistance movement fought against the invading Soviet forces. With the help of the United States, Afghans successfully resisted the occupation. On February 15, 1989 the last Soviet soldier retreated across Afghanistan’s northern border. As hostilities ceased, more than a million Afghans lay dead and 6.2 million people, over half the world's refugee population, had fled the country.
The Soviet withdrawal in 1989 weakened the communist government of President Najibullah, leading to his ousting in April 1992. An interim president was installed and replaced two months later by Burhanuddin Rabbani, a founder of the country's Islamic political movement, backed by the popular commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Recent History
The government remained unstable and unable to form a national consensus amongst
its various factions. This instability was exploited by a group of Islamic fighters
called the Taliban ('talib' means 'religious student' or 'seeker of knowledge').
With the assistance of foreign governments, organizations, and resources, the Taliban
seized Kandahar and in September 1998 entered Kabul.
Taliban rule became infamous for their repression of women and dissidents as well
as their destruction of the country's cultural heritage. Showing little interest
in trying to govern and rebuild Afghanistan, they instead played host to the radical
Al-
In December of 2001, Afghan and world leaders met in Bonn, Germany under United Nations
auspices to design an ambitious agenda that would guide Afghanistan towards “national
reconciliation, a lasting peace, stability, and respect for human rights,” culminating
in the establishment of a fully representative government. Many political and civil
institutions were established with the Bonn Agreement such as the Afghan Independent
Human Rights Commission, the Judicial Commission, Counter-
Progress on the political front has been rapid, with elections leading to an elected parliament and president as well as a national constitution. With international assistance, the new government of Afghanistan is developing a stable, political infrastructure and security apparatus.
The security situation in Afghanistan necessitates the continued presence of international
forces. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was created in accordance
with the Bonn Conference, in December 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took over command and coordination
of ISAF in August 2003. This is the first mission outside the Euro-
The London Conference on Afghanistan in January 2006 aimed to launch the Afghanistan
Compact, the successor to the Bonn Agreement, to present the interim Afghanistan
National Development Strategy, and to ensure the Government of Afghanistan has adequate
resources to meet its domestic ambitions. The Afghanistan Compact marks the formal
end of the Bonn Process, with completion of the Parliamentary and Provincial elections,
and represents a framework for co-
The Interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy (I-
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Society
Religious diversity
As with much of the region, the rise and fall of political power has been inextricably tied to the rise and fall of religions. It was in Afghanistan that the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism began in the 6th century BCE. Later, Buddhism spread west from India to the Bamiyan Valley, where it remained strong until the 10th century AD. The eastward sweep of Islam reached Afghanistan in the 7th century AD, and today the vast majority of Afghans are Muslim. In recent history, there have been small Sikh, Jewish, and Ismaili communities in Afghanistan.
Sport
Buzkashi is a game that dates itself into Afghan antiquity. The name Buzkashi, literally
translated means "goat killing" suggest it was derived from hunting mountain goats
by champions on horseback. Today the rider (or team) who is able to pitch a dead
calf across a goal line first wins. The game may last as long as a week and is as
free-
Another sport that is enjoyed by millions of Afghan children is kite-
Afghans also play a wide variety of sports familiar to Americans, such as soccer and basketball.
Education system
The modern educational system was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century by the Afghan government and combined traditional Islamic learning with a modern curriculum. In 1935, education was declared universal, compulsory and free. With its expansion, the secular system came to be regarded as the principle medium for creating a national ideology and emphasized productive skills. By the 1960s, technical education assumed critical importance as a result of Afghanistan’s development drive.
The Afghan educational system is currently experiencing a period of rehabilitation and reconstruction. Twenty years of conflict caused the exodus of many teachers and qualified instructors and caused literacy rates to plummet. Violence throughout the country during the Soviet invasion, the Civil War, and the Taliban period, made the existence of primary and secondary schools near impossible. Schools still existed during these times, but they had little access to resources or qualified professionals.
Today, starting at age seven, children attend six years of primary school, three years of middle school and three years of secondary school. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education provides a specialized curriculum and textbooks that have been developed with the assistance of Afghanistan’s international partners.
Traditional religious schools, found in towns and villages, teach children basic moral values and ritual knowledge through the study of the Koran, the Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet Mohammad), and popular edited religious texts. Herat, Kunduz, Ghazni, Kandahar and Kabul have become important centers for religious scholars.
While higher education also suffered during the 1980s and 90s, the Afghan government
is striving to recruit foreign professors, computerize the universities, and train
young Afghans to be qualified professionals in today’s competitive market. Currently,
there are thirteen universities in Afghanistan educating 40, 000 students (19% women,
81% men), a tenfold increase from the 4,000 enrolled in 2002. American University
of Afghanistan, supported by USAID, is opening its doors to Afghanistan and the world.
In recent years, education development has been a focus for international aid. Many
organizations, especially UNESCO, ACEM, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Asian Development
Bank are sponsoring and organizing education initiatives. The Government of Afghanistan
similarly view education is the key to the long-
Jirgas
A historically Pashto term, Loya Jirga, translates to “grand council.” It is a unique
forum in which tribal elders of each ethnic group convene to discuss and resolve
Afghanistan’s affairs. The loya jirga is centuries old tradition and a quintessential
part of the Afghan government. A decision-
Following the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan held several jirgas to determine the best course of action for the country’s social, political and economic development. Approximately 1,500 delegates from all over Afghanistan took part in the loya jirga in Kabul. Each district elected 20 people, who then held a secret vote to select one person to represent the whole district. The 362 districts in Afghanistan had at least one seat, with more seats allotted for every 22,000 people. Ultimately, women held 160 of the remaining seats.
In 2003, another historical loya jirga convened to discuss the proposed Afghan constitution,
which was ratified on January 4th, 2004. The most pressing issues were those of centralized
power, social reform, and the feasibility of a free-
In September of 2006, President Karzai proposed holding jirgas along the Afghanistan-
Health System
Since 2002, the government has made considerable progress in increasing access to health care services. Afghanistan’s health care sector has faced many challenges in the past four years, but the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) continues to move Afghanistan forward. Some achievements have included:
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In Kabul, state of the art hospitals have opened and clinics have been built and
staffed all over the country. However, there is much left to be done. Maternal, infant
and under-
Holidays
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