Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi) of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains in the north and the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's largest city and serves as its capital. According to the World Population review, as of 2021, Afghanistan's population is 40.2 million The National Statistics Information Authority of Afghanistan estimated the population to be 32.9 million as of 2020.
The history of Afghanistan, preceding the establishment of the Emirate of Afghanistan in 1823 is shared with that of neighbouring Iran, central Asia and Indian subcontinent. The Sadozai monarchy ruled the Afghan Durrani Empire, considered the founding state of modern Afghanistan.
The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist and Pashtun nationalist militant political movement in Afghanistan. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the American invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 following the departure of most coalition forces, after nearly 20 years of insurgency, and currently controls all of the country. However, its government is not recognized by any country. The Taliban government has been internationally condemned for restricting human rights in Afghanistan, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.
The music of Afghanistan comprises many varieties of classical music, folk music, and modern popular music. Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage and features a mix of Persian melodies, Indian compositional principles, and sounds from ethnic groups such as the Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras. Instruments used range from Indian tablas to long-necked lutes. Afghanistan's classical music is closely related to Hindustani classical music while sourcing much of its lyrics directly from classical Persian poetry such as Mawlana Balkhi (Rumi) and the Iranian tradition indigenous to central Asia. Lyrics throughout most of Afghanistan are typically in Dari (Persian) and Pashto. The multi-ethnic city of Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the city of Herat, which is home to traditions more closely related to Iranian music than in the rest of the country.
Farhad Darya is an Afghan singer, composer, music producer, and philanthropist. Active since the 1980s, Darya has been one of the most renowned and influential Afghan pop musicians of the modern era, contributing to establishing new wave in Afghanistan and blending urban and rural styles. Darya's career has spanned multiple genres - including semi-classical ghazal, pop, folk, and rock - as well as both his native languages Dari Persian and Pashto as well as Uzbek, Hindi and English.
Kabul Express is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language adventure thriller film written and directed by documentary film maker Kabir Khan and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films was released on 15 December 2006. The film stars John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Salman Shahid, Hanif Humgaam and Linda Arsenio. Kabul Express is the first fictional film for director Kabir Khan who has made several documentaries over the years in Afghanistan. According to him Kabul Express is loosely based on his and his friend Rajan Kapoor's experiences in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Kabul Express was shot entirely in Afghanistan.
Cinema was introduced to Afghanistan at the beginning of the 20th century. Political troubles slowed the industry over the years; however, numerous Pashto and Dari films have been made both inside and outside Afghanistan throughout the 20th century. The cinema of Afghanistan entered a new phase in 2001, but has failed to recover to its popular pre-war status.
The following items form a partial timeline of the War in Afghanistan. For events prior to October 7, 2001, see 2001 in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In August 1947, the partition of British India led to the emergence of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern frontier, and the two countries have since had a strained relationship; Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the United Nations following the latter's independence. Various Afghan government officials and Afghan nationalists have made irredentist claims to large swathes of Pakistan's territory in modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani Balochistan, which complete the traditional homeland of "Pashtunistan" for the Pashtun people. The Taliban has received substantial financial and logistical backing from Pakistan, which remains a significant source of support. Since the Taliban's inception, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been providing them with funding, training, and weaponry. However, Pakistan's support for the Taliban is not without risks, as it involves playing a precarious and delicate game. Afghan territorial claims over Pashtun-majority areas that are in Pakistan were coupled with discontent over the permanency of the Durand Line, for which Afghanistan demanded a renegotiation, with the aim of having it shifted eastward to the Indus River. Territorial disputes and conflicting claims prevented the normalization of bilateral ties between the two countries throughout the mid-20th century. Further Afghanistan–Pakistan tensions have arisen concerning a variety of issues, including the Afghanistan conflict and Afghan refugees in Pakistan, water-sharing rights, and a continuously warming relationship between Afghanistan and India. Nonetheless, the Durand Line witnesses frequent occurrences of suicide bombings, airstrikes, or street battles on an almost daily basis.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is the state agency in charge of implementing Islamic law in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as defined by the Taliban. It was first instituted in 1992 by the Rabbani government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and adopted in 1996 by the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of 1996–2001. The ministry was restored in the reinstated Islamic Emirate in September 2021 after the August fall of Kabul.
Zabihullah Mujahid is an Afghan official serving as the chief spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) since 25 October 2021 and Deputy Minister of Information and Culture since 7 September 2021. He has long served as one of several spokesmen for the Taliban, the others being Suhail Shaheen and Yousef Ahmadi. Mujahid commented mainly on the Taliban's activities in eastern, northern, and central Afghanistan, while Ahmadi focused on the western and southern regions. In addition to being the government's main spokesman, Mujahid serves as a personal spokesman for Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Television in Afghanistan started broadcasting in August 1978, flourishing until the 1990s, when hostilities in the capital Kabul destroyed broadcasting infrastructure. Between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban government outlawed television, though some stations in areas outside Taliban control continued to broadcast. After their removal, country-wide television broadcasting was resumed beginning with the government-run channel Afghanistan National Television. It was reported that Afghanistan currently has over 200 local and international television channels, 96 in Kabul and 107 in other provinces of the country. In 2014, the country commenced a switch from analog to digital TV transmission.
The Afghanistan High Peace Council (HPC) was a body of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program, established by Hamid Karzai to negotiate with elements of the Taliban. The HPC was established on 5 September 2010. The last chairman of the council was former Afghan Vice-President Karim Khalili who was appointed to the post in June 2017.The council was initially chaired by former President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani until his assassination in 2011.
Habibullah Fawzi is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was a senior diplomat during the Taliban's administration of Afghanistan, and was appointed to the Afghanistan High Peace Council in September 2010. Fawzi had served as the Charge D'Affairs at the Taliban's embassy in Saudi Arabia.
The Islamic State – Khorasan Province is an affiliate of the Islamic State militant group active in South Asia and Central Asia. ISIS–K has been active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, where they claimed attacks. ISIS–K and the Taliban consider each other enemies.
Radio Dreams is a 2016 American film by Iranian-born film director Babak Jalali. Inspired by a group of real life Iranian Metallica fans, calling themselves the Persian Magnetic, and the realities of expatriate life of the Iranian diaspora in the United States.
The Islamic State–Taliban conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Islamic State and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The conflict escalated when militants who were affiliated with Islamic State – Khorasan Province killed Abdul Ghani, a senior Taliban commander in Logar province on 2 February 2015. Since then, the Taliban and IS-KP have engaged in clashes over the control of territory, mostly in eastern Afghanistan, but clashes have also occurred between the Taliban and IS-KP cells which are located in the north-west and south-west.
In May 2020, a series of insurgent attacks took place in Afghanistan, starting when the Taliban killed 20 Afghan soldiers and wounded 29 others in Zari, Balkh and Grishk, Helmand on 1 and 3 May, respectively. On 12 May, a hospital's maternity ward in Kabul and a funeral in Kuz Kunar (Khewa), Nangarhar were attacked, resulting in the deaths of 56 people and injuries of 148 others, including newborn babies, mothers, nurses, and mourners. ISIL–KP claimed responsibility for the funeral bombing, but no insurgent group claimed responsibility for the hospital shooting.
