Afghanistan Suffering Under the Taliban
High school female students in Afghanistan were left with tears after the Taliban kept girls schools closed, back-tracking from their earlier promise. The schools were to reopen on Wednesday, 23rd March, after the Taliban’s so-called ‘Ministry of Education’ had already made an announcement a week earlier. Nevertheless, many girl students, with unparalleled excitement and hope, […]
All-time Victim: Women of Afghanistan
After 20 years of struggle for democracy and women’s rights in Afghanistan, the country turned to a black death hole — hundreds of thousands of Afghans trying to escape the country after the Taliban returned to power on August 15, 2021. Listen to Audio version of this article on Bolaq’s YouTube Channel Though there is […]
Why An Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan is a Harbinger of Chaos?
After only a short episode of optimistic brouhaha, the situation in Afghanistan seems to be getting realistic, and, therefore, obnoxious. The prognostications of a peace deal between Taliban and the representatives of a republic system in the country are now figments of imagination. Taliban, looking at the exhausted international troops withdrawing, appear to be overzealous […]
State-building and Social Contract in Afghanistan
After almost 20 tough years, the United States has realized it needs to rethink the political structure in Afghanistan or the state as a whole since it has failed to preserve a social contract. Or, looking at the scenario, it would be appropriate to say it was never the intention to build the Afghan state […]
US-led State-building in Afghanistan and Survival of the Warlords
Post 9/11 US-led state-building efforts in Afghanistan have not been able to strengthen political structure and resolve social issues, or they have never intended to do so. There is a possibility that these efforts were never directed to such a cause; rather, they were to give only an impression of state-building, while the US intervention […]
US Taliban Deal: One Year On
Last year, on February 29th, the US signed a peace deal with the Taliban which was hailed as a success by some and a surrender, capitulation, and defeat by the critics. What did it achieve for the two sides and the region and the country as a whole? First, a few words about the deal […]
US Withdrawal from Afghanistan and its Aftermath
Recently, the US daily, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, “Afghanistan Braces for Worst as US Troops Withdrawal Accelerates.” The paper talks about the situation in the country and then highlights a local commander, Abdul Ghani Alipoor, a Hazara from central Afghanistan who commands a group of fighters numbering about 500. He is […]
Qissa-hai-Natamam: A tale of Hazara Genocide in Pakistan
The book is a collection of Hasan Riza Changezi’s articles most of which were published in the Dawn newspaper as Urdu language blogs. The book contains thirty-one of his selected articles written during the horrific period of 2012-2015 when Pakistan in general and Quetta in particular, was ablaze with sectarian terrorism. The writer has highlighted […]
Faustian Pact with the Devil
The peace deal that the US signed with the Taliban on February 29, 2020, in Doha, Qatar had two main tenets: the first one stated that in 135 days, the “United States, its allies, and the Coalition…will reduce the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to eight thousand six hundred (8,600) and proportionally bring reduction […]
US Peace Deal with the Taliban: An Ethnic Dimension
The US deal with the Taliban has had several dimensions but one dimension that is overlooked is the ethnic or tribal one. All sides involved in promoting the deal, have had an element of the ethnic contribution that facilitated or coalesced into a deal or in effect triumph of the Taliban and Pakistan. Firstly Pakistan, […]