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Thank you for shopping at Wally World,' says U.S. Sgt. Ryan Brown, borrowing from Wal-Mart's greeter's handbook as he hands a begrizzled Afghan a blanket and gloves. The man smiles [...]

Ghazni, Afghanistan The line of Army Humvees stood motionless, engines running, waiting for the order to roll forward. Behind the convoy, concrete barriers and loops of concertina wire marked the [...]

Faqir Shah sprays machine-gun fire across the black hills of Tora Bora, shooting at phantoms of al Qaeda. The shots echo through a forest of twisted holly trees, zigzagging up [...]

A persistent wet snow blanketed the marketplace as shouting villagers, their plastic shoes slipping in the mud, unloaded food, tools, and other basics from the four-by-four pickups that ply the [...]

'To every man, his homeland is as beautiful as Kashmir.'--AFGHAN SAYING It's barely 9 A.M. on this day in early September 2002, and already more than 300 families have arrived [...]

When the United States made its opening gambit in the war against terrorism by bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, the need to liberate Afghan women from the Taliban regime lent [...]

An overview of the difficulties involved in the delivery of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. It is contended that would should be a simple philanthropic endeavour has become a legal and ethical minefield through which aid agencies and donors must carefully pick their way.

Afghanistan was in the spotlight for a few months last year. Today it is no longer `catchy' or `newsworthy'. Yet in April 2002, the United Nations Office for the Coordination [...]

The army is investigating its domestic-violence problems after a string of slayings and suicides at Fort Bragg in Fayette, North Carolina. The base is a training ground for America's elite Special Forces. Three of the cases involve model soldiers who had served in Afghanistan before they killed their wives.

Like most 16-year-old girls, Latifa liked watching movies, listening to music, trying on clothes, and putting on makeup. She dreamed of going to college and becoming a journalist. But on [...]

A personal account of the impact of the Taliban on life in Afghanistan and being forced, by the oppressive nature of the Taliban regime, to leave the country and start a new life elsewhere.

'It's like having a flower, or a rose. You water it and keep it at home for yourself, to look at it and smell it. It is not supposed to [...]

The status of women in Afghanistan is described by the author, who journeys to the country and interviews several champions of women's rights, Parlika and Jamila Muhajed. Women in Afghanistan are slowly gaining back rights from the Taliban, but change is slow.

The auction is a private one. Bidders inspect the property for sale. For security, offers are made via cell phones. A few days later, the highest bidder will be informed [...]

GETTING ORIENTED, MAZAR-E-SHARIF It's the end of November and, just in town, I decide to go for a walk. I leave the hotel, cross the street to the mosque, and [...]

On the streets of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, people are seeing something they haven't seen for years: women's smiling faces. For six years, the Taliban, the Islamic group that […]

KABUL, Afghanistan--'It's as if a garden, once without flowers, has been reborn,' said Karim, a teacher, about the streets of the Afghan capital now that the Taliban have been ousted [...]

War-ravaged, drought-stricken and impoverished, Afghanistan has in the past months witnessed momentous historic changes. When five years of Taliban rule ended last year, it opened an unprecedented window of opportunity […]

It might seem strange to call Razma Qasemiar (KAH-sim-yar) a lucky girl. Razma, 12, lives with her parents and two brothers in a three-room house with no electricity, telephone, or [...]

They are a diverse lot, these seven Stans. Only Kazakhstan, one of the rive Stans born ten years ago in the breakup of the Soviet Union, seems likely to enjoy [...]

In the past year, over one million Afghans have been forced to flee their homes for the relative safety of makeshift camps. Here, they await the coming winter with trepidation. [...]

AFGHANISTAN is not a country for wimps. Right now, it may be the harshest, most brutal, most terrifying, most cheerless, and most dangerous country in the world in which to […]

PABBI, Pakistan -- When 70-year-old Hadiko finally reached the border of Pakistan, she wept. Four days earlier, she and her family had fled their home in Kabul to escape the […]

THE DEFINING FEATURE OF AFGHANISTAN IS despair. Clusters of widows, cloaked head to toe in blue shrouds, wander the streets, begging. Skeletal men, unable to afford donkeys, pull overloaded carts. […]

Life for Afghani women is examined, including restrictions on employment, and the case of a woman physician.

The revival of the Islamic dress code for women sealed many Afghan widows to a fate of house arrest and slow starvation. Without a veil, or burkha, Afghan widows are not allowed to shop nor gather water. Under the Taliban laws, widows cannot avail of paid employment and are denied access to food aid. Unfortunately, the widows' projects of some UN agencies have failed to teach self-sufficiency or business skills among its beneficiaries. Mainly concerned with the provision of food and medical aid, relief agencies refuse to dwell on humanitarian issues.

The Taliban, the most fundamentalist Islamic group in the world, has turned Afghanistan to ruins in their attempt to gain control over Kabul. They want to impose a rule based on the principles of fundamentalist Islam. The Islamic law is strictly enforced in the Taliban controlled areas, such as Qandahar. Women are confined to their homes, and use of TV sets and cameras are prohibited. The Taliban Health Minister personally engages in mutilation of criminals. The war for Kabul has heaped untold miseries on the common man, but the world at large remains unconcerned about their sufferings.