Mazar-i-Sharīf, also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fourth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with an estimated 500,207 residents in 2021. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highways with Kunduz in the east, Kabul in the southeast, Herat in the southwest and Termez, Uzbekistan in the north. It is about 55 km (34 mi) from the Uzbek border. The city is also a tourist attraction because of its famous shrines as well as the Islamic and Hellenistic archeological sites. The ancient city of Balkh is also nearby.
Abdul Ali Mazari was an Afghan Hazara politician and leader of the Hezbe Wahdat during and following the Soviet–Afghan War, who advocated for a federal system of governance in Afghanistan. He believed that this would end political and ethnic division in Afghanistan by guaranteeing rights to every ethnic group. He was allegedly captured and murdered by the Taliban during negotiations in 1995.
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.
At Five in the Afternoon is a 2003 film by Iranian writer-director Samira Makhmalbaf. It tells the story of an ambitious young woman trying to gain an education in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban. The title comes from a Federico García Lorca poem and is a tale of flourishing against the odds.
Wasef Bakhtari was an Afghan poet and literary figure.
The 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Third Afghan Civil War, took place between the Taliban's conquest of Kabul and their establishing of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996, and the US and UK invasion of Afghanistan on 7 October 2001: a period that was part of the Afghan Civil War that had started in 1989, and also part of the war in Afghanistan that had started in 1978.
Deborah Ellis is a Canadian fiction writer and activist. Her themes are often concerned with the sufferings of persecuted children in the Third World.
The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001 resulted from the first major offensive of the Afghanistan War after American intervention. A push into the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh Province by the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, combined with U.S. Army Special Forces aerial bombardment, resulted in the withdrawal of Taliban forces who had held the city since 1998. After the fall of outlying villages, and an intensive bombardment, the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces withdrew from the city. Several hundred pro-Taliban fighters were killed. Approximately 500 were captured, and approximately 1,000 reportedly defected. The capture of Mazar-i-Sharif was the first major defeat for the Taliban.
The Other Side of the Sky: A Memoir is a memoir by Farah Ahmedi with Tamim Ansary. The book profiles the life of Farah Ahmedi from the time she was born until she was seventeen years old.
The Battles of Mazar-i-Sharif were a part of the Afghan Civil War and took place in 1997 and 1998 between the forces of Abdul Malik Pahlawan and his Hazara allies, Junbish-e Milli-yi Islami-yi Afghanistan, and the Taliban.
Nora Twomey is an Irish animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actress. She is best known as the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young, an animation studio and production company, based in Kilkenny City, Ireland. She is best known for co-directing The Secret of Kells and directing The Breadwinner. Her work on both films earned Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature.
Bacha posh is an Afghan tradition in which some families will pick a daughter to live and behave as a boy. This enables the child to behave more freely: attending school, escorting her sisters in public, and working. The practice is more common among families with a large number of daughters, particularly if there are no sons. Girls raised bacha posh typically resume living as a girl around the time they hit puberty, as it becomes more difficult for them to pass.
Qadriya Yazdanparast is an Afghan politician and a commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Before joining the human rights commission she resigned from her leadership position at the Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan, a major political party, in order to fulfill the requirement of a commissioner to be non-political. She started her career during the Soviet–Afghan War. She studied jurisprudence and political science at Kabul University. Yazdanparast speaks Pashto, Dari, Dutch and English.
And the Mountains Echoed is the third novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2013 by Riverhead Books, it deviates from Hosseini's style in his first two works through his choice to avoid focusing on any one character. Rather, the book is written similarly to a collection of short stories, with each of the nine chapters being told from the perspective of a different character. The book's foundation is built on the relationship between ten-year-old Abdullah and his three-year-old sister Pari and their father's decision to sell her to a childless couple in Kabul, an event that ties the various narratives together.
A Fort of Nine Towers is a memoir by Qais Akbar Omar recounting his childhood in Afghanistan, and the rise of the Taleban and the subsequent present war in Afghanistan. It was published in 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. Qais, the author of A Fort of Nine Towers, reveals that his work is actually inspired by the works of Khaled Hosseini. The book has received positive reviews from critics. As the author's young life coincided with the war era in Afghanistan, there have been vivid descriptions of the conditions prevalent in that time.
The Breadwinner is a 2017 animated drama film from Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon directed by Nora Twomey. Based on the best-selling novel by Deborah Ellis, the film was an international co-production among Canada, the Republic of Ireland and Luxembourg, and received a limited release on 17 November 2017.
Nowruz is the beginning of springtime and a cultural holiday in Afghanistan. It is also celebrated by the majority of the Afghan diaspora around the world. Farmer's Day, which starts around the same time as the Afghan New Year, is celebrated nationwide alongside Nowruz and usually lasts around two weeks. Among other things, the celebration involves planting saplings and flowers throughout the country.
Shafiqa Habibi is a journalist, television anchor, activist and politician from Afghanistan. She is known for her work to support women journalists, and for her 2004 candidacy for Vice President of Afghanistan as the running mate of Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Latifa Nabizada is an Afghan helicopter pilot in the Afghan Air Force. She is one of the first two women pilots to serve in Afghanistan that were qualified to fly a Mi-17 helicopter. By 2013, she was a colonel in the new Afghan Air Force. Nabizada's own career in the Afghan military has inspired other women to join.
Suraya Dalil, is an Afghan physician and politician who served as Minister of Public Health from 2010 to 2014 and has been the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since November 2015.
