Multiple news agencies are reporting that American University in Kabul is under attack by armed militants. Students are tweeting that they are trapped inside campus buildings and hearing explosions and gunfire.
Comedies about naive Americans in the Middle East have been frequently attempted, but infrequently successful—it is all too easy to resort to stereotypes, to offensively make light of victims of real tragedy. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot could be the first to succeed where other studio films have flopped.
Last Thursday, the wildly popular podcast Serial returned to tell a story that was, in its own right, already wildly popular. Season two is about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier who may have deserted his post in Afghanistan in 2009, and who was subsequently captured and held captive by the Taliban for five…
A shocking story in Sunday’s New York Times reports that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are told to ignore the brutal sexual abuse of young boys by Afghan police officers and militia commanders—even when that sexual abuse takes place on military bases.
As we exit another Memorial Day weekend full of solemn paeans to The Troops, the Washington Post reminds us that the Veterans Affairs Administration still won’t cover in vitro fertilization for injured returning veterans. The ban has been in place for nearly a quarter century, and it’s there to protect fertilized…
An Afghan court has sentenced four men to death in the mob killing of Farkhunda, the 27-year-old woman who was beaten to death and tossed off a bridge after she was falsely accused of burning a Quran. Her body was also set on fire.
A new report released by the United Nations says that those who are most in need of a functioning Afghani judicial system—women who are victims of violence—receive the least amount of help from it, reports the Los Angeles Times.
A 27-year-old Afghan woman was buried Sunday after being beaten, pushed off a roof and stoned to death by an angry mob of men who believed she had been burning a Quran. The woman, known only as Farkhunda, was mentally ill, according to her family. The men who killed her then tied her body to a car, dragged it to a…
Last week a 27-year-old woman known as Farkhunda was killed by an angry mob of men in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The mob accused Farkhunda of burning the Koran and beat the woman with sticks and stones, eventually setting her on fire, as the police looked on. The brutal murder was captured on video and circulated…
As our nation reels from the sudden rediscovery of the fact that vapidity is infinite, we must look to leaders to show us how to continue on—and Sara Bahayi, 38, brings just the example we need. The Washington Post has a terrific profile up today of this legitimate revolutionary: Bahayi is Afghanistan's first female…
Today, a suicide bomber carried out an attack on the vehicle of Shukria Barakzai a female member of Afghanistan parliament and outspoken proponent of women's rights. Barakzai survived the assassination attempt with minor injuries, but three people were killed and somewhere between 17-22 were left injured.
Mohammed Ali, 21, and his wife Zakia, 18, are fugitives.
A shooting involving two female journalists in Afghanistan has left one dead and another in stable condition.
Change is happening in Afghanistan and Col. Jamila Bayaz, a 50-year-old mother of five, is leading the charge. Literally.
Last night's AMAs were a blur of metallic outfits, celebrity antics, and Miley Cyrus with a giant crying cat as a backup dancer. Perhaps you'd like a little palate cleanser? If so, consider the story of Paradise Sorouri, who is probably Afghanistan's first female rapper.
Since the collapse of the Taliban in 2001, when the status of women in Afghanistan was arguably at its lowest in recent history, Afghani women have made meaningful strides in gaining rights. During the brutal Taliban years, women were banned from going to work or even leaving their house without a male to accompany…
The Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women, a 2009 mandate approved by President Hamid Karzai's decree that aims to protect women's rights — specifically, one that bans child marriage and the practice of "baad," selling and buying women to settle disputes — was shot down in Afghani Parliament today.
There’s a huge barrier standing between Afghanistan’s female police officers and on-the-job security. Want to guess what it is? Here’s a hint: it has nothing to do with, say, needing more kevlar vests or working in a destabilized, war-ravaged country. What the Afghan women serving in the police force really need…
One intrepid way to discourage girls from going to school is to shoot a 15-year-old education rights advocate in the head. Another innovative tactic: mass-poisoning.
Earlier this year, we asked if you remembered Afghanistan. The answer then, obviously but somewhat unofficially, was no. Now, with the release of several news organization's year-end top stories lists, we know that, objectively, no one gives a shit about the 11-year-old war.
