Osama is a 2003 drama film made in Afghanistan by Siddiq Barmak. The film follows a preteen girl living in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime who disguises herself as a boy, Osama, to support her family. It was the first film to be shot entirely in Afghanistan since 1996, when the Taliban regime banned the creation of all films. As of 2018, the film was the highest-grossing Afghan film of all time. The film is an international co-production between companies in Afghanistan, the Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, and Iran.
Kandahar is a 2001 Iranian film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, set in Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban. Its original Afghan title is Safar-e Ghandehar, which means "Journey to Kandahar", and it is alternatively known as The Sun Behind the Moon. The film is based on a partly true, partly fictionalized story of Nafas, a successful Afghan-Canadian woman played by Nelofer Pazira.
TOLO is a commercial television station operated by MOBY Group in Afghanistan. Launched in 2004, it became one of the first commercial stations in the country and laid the foundation for an accessible media outlet by offering a large library of shows. It is one of the most popular television channels in Afghanistan and broadcasts shows in both Dari-Persian and Pashto.
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.
Afghan Film also known as Afghan Film Organization (AFO) is Afghanistan's state-run film company, established in 1968. The former president is Sahraa Karimi, who attained a PhD in Cinema from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and is its first female president. The Afghan Film is now headed by Mawlawi Shafiullah Javid "Afghan".
Malek Shafi’i is a film director, producer, festival organiser, and human rights activist from Afghanistan.
Sonia Nassery Cole is an Afghan-born American human rights activist, filmmaker, and author.
Leena Alam is an Afghan film, television, and theater actress. She has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Black Kite, Loori, A Letter to the President and Hassan. She is widely known to have worked on film and TV that speak of child marriage, gender inequality, women's rights and social conflicts.
Marshal Fahim National Defense University (MFNDU) is a military university located in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. Established in 2005, the university is named after the late Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, an Afghan political and military leader who served as the First Vice President of Afghanistan from 2004 until his death in 2014.
Aryana Sayeed is an Afghan pop singer and songwriter. She sings mostly in Dari but also has many songs in Pashto and some in Uzbek. Sayeed also had hosting roles in musical television shows for the 1TV and TOLO networks along with appearances on reality shows. Sayeed has established herself as one of Afghanistan's most famous contemporary musical artists, performing regularly in concerts and philanthropic festivals within and outside Afghanistan.
Roya Sadat is an Afghan film producer and director. She was the first woman director in the history of Afghan cinema in the post-Taliban era, and ventured into making feature films and documentaries on the theme of injustice and restrictions imposed on women. Following the fall of the Taliban regime in the country, she made her debut feature film Three Dots. For this film she received six of nine awards which included as best director and best film. In 2003,A Letter to the President her most famous film that received many international awards, she and her sister Alka Sadat established the Roya Film House and under this banner produced more than 30 documentaries and feature films and TV series. She is now involved to direct the opera of A Thousand Splendid Suns for the Seattle Opera and she is during pre production of her 2nd feature film Forgotten History.
On 31 May 2017, a truck bomb exploded in a crowded intersection in Kabul, Afghanistan, near the German embassy at about 08:25 local time during rush hour, killing over 150 and injuring 413, mostly civilians, and damaging several buildings in the embassy. The attack was the deadliest terror attack to take place in Kabul. The diplomatic quarter—in which the attack took place—is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the city, with three-meter-high (10 ft) blast walls, and access requires passing through several checkpoints. The explosion created a crater about 4.5 meters (15 ft) wide and 30 feet deep. Afghanistan's intelligence agency NDS claimed that the blast was planned by the Haqqani Network. Although no group has claimed responsibility, the Afghan Taliban are also a suspect but they have denied involvement and condemned the attack. It was the single largest attack on the city up till that point.
Hava, Maryam, Ayesha is a 2019 Afghan drama film directed by Sahraa Karimi. It was the first independent film shot in Afghanistan with an all-Afghan cast and crew. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and had its first screening in Asia at the Busan International Film Festival.
The Afghan film festival in Australia was established in 2019 as an annual showcase of Afghan cinema in Australia. It takes place in Canberra and is jointly hosted by the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the ANU Film Group, at the Australian National University.
Farahnaz Forotan is an Afghan journalist and women's rights activist. She moved to Iran together with her family during the Mujahideen regime. Farahnaz returned to Afghanistan in 2001, but took refuge in France in 2020 after being included on a Taliban's target list.
Protests in Afghanistan against the Taliban started on 17 August 2021 following the Fall of Kabul to the Taliban. These protests are held by Islamic democrats and feminists. Both groups are against the treatment of women by the Taliban government, considering it as discriminatory and misogynistic. Supported by the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, the protesters also demand decentralization, multiculturalism, social justice, work, education, and food. There have been pro-Taliban counterprotests.
Hasiba Ebrahimi is an Afghan actress. She is best known for her role as Marvena in A Few Cubic Meters of Love (2014) for which she earned a Crystal Simorgh for Best Actress nomination. She became the first Afghan to be nominated for Best Actress at the Fajr Film Festival..
