Topic: Taliban

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Security forces in Peshawar on 31 January 2023 (image: Faridullah Khan/DW)

Resurgence of Pakistan's Taliban

Terror returns with the TTP

When the Taliban swept back to power in Afghanistan just under two years ago, analysts warned that their return would also mean a return of the threat posed to neighbouring Pakistan by offshoot Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). By Mohammad LuqmanMore

Afghanistan and its neighbours: Is the Taliban takeover still in Pakistan's interest?Pakistan turns 75: Islamabad has serious issues Khan attack aftermath: Pakistan in turmoil
A woman in a burka on a racing bike

Taliban sports ban

Afghan women take a stand

The Taliban's takeover of power has meant wide-ranging restrictions on Afghan women's freedom. This includes a ban on sport. Some women have taken a stand against this – and had their sports equipment photographed anonymously. More...More

UN Security Council demands Taliban 'swiftly reverse' women bansWomen’s rights in Afghanistan: The Taliban cannot defeat womenFIFA and Afghanistan: The national women's football team that isn't
Montaha of the Melbourne Victory Afghan Women's Team (right) celebrates with team mates during the Victoria Women's State League 4 West competition match against rival team Melton Phoenix (image: Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

FIFA and Afghanistan

The national women's football team that isn't

Afghanistan's former international women's team continue to play football together – in Australian exile. The sport's global governing body, FIFA, has so far denied them recognition as the Afghan national team. By Stefan NestlerMore

Women′s rights in Iran: "Now it's the men's turn"Women’s football in Morocco: Jump-starting women's football in the Arab worldQantara photo essay: Faith united at Sisterhood FC!
Afghan refugee Norina planting strawberry bush twigs at the Terra de Abrigo initiative in Portugal (image: Marta Vidal)

Afghan refugees in Portugal

Regenerating soil and soul

Human rights activists who fled the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan get the chance of a new start in life in Portugal thanks to a permaculture initiative focusing on ecology, agroforestry, social justice and solidarity. Marta Vidal reportsMore

Migration policy: Europe's migrants are part of the solutionUncovering Portugalʹs Islamic roots: Where Christians pray facing MeccaGreece and the asylum-seekers: How do you solve a problem like Moria?
Primary school students in a Kabul schoolyard (image: Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/AA/picture alliance)

Development aid

Despite the Taliban, Afghanistan deserves help

For the sake of the Afghan people, the international community needs to re-engage in development cooperation. The education sector would be an ideal entry point, argue Conrad Schetter and Katja MielkeMore

Women’s rights in Afghanistan: The Taliban cannot defeat womenAfghanistan under the Taliban: "Girls continue to attend our schools"Negotiating with the Taliban for girls′ education: Treading carefully
Fatima Haidari gives tours of her native Herat from her student flat in Milan, Italy (image: Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

Afghan diaspora

Refugee from Taliban offers virtual tours of homeland

Forced to flee by the Taliban, Fatima Haidari now offers virtual tours of Afghanistan from her new home in Italy – with the proceeds funding secret English classes for women thereMore

Women’s rights in Afghanistan: The Taliban cannot defeat womenAfghanistan under the Taliban: "Girls continue to attend our schools""Not our Islam!": German imams condemn ban on university education for Afghan women
Whirling dervishes in Konya, Turkey (image: Marian Brehmer)

The future of Islamic mysticism

Is Sufism under threat?

Sufis today are under attack from fundamentalists and modernists alike. At the same time, a new form of Sufism is emerging in the West. By Marian BrehmerMore

Sufism in Egypt: Cairo's mystic revivalMarking the anniversary of Rumi's death in Konya: From traditional to lifestyle SufismGod's love for all: Sufism is not just Muslim
A group of women with raised hands and a placard at a demonstration in Kabul (image: Stringer/Reuters)

Women’s rights in Afghanistan

The Taliban cannot defeat women

Since returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have steadily eroded the rights and opportunities of women and girls, particularly their access to education. But Afghans are not taking the regime's draconian policies lying down – and nor should the rest of the world. By Gordon Brown & Yasmine SherifMore

Afghanistan under the Taliban: "Girls continue to attend our schools""Not our Islam!": German imams condemn ban on university education for Afghan women"Scheherazade's heirs": Keep writing! Literature from Afghanistan
In the foreground of the picture are purple saffron flowers. In the background walks a row of women carrying red baskets in their hands. All the women are wearing a pale blue uniform, red headscarves and mouthguards

The Taliban's war on women

Since seizing power in mid-2021, the Taliban have continued to restrict the rights of Afghan women and girls. At the end of 2022, they banned women from attending higher education. More...More

Women’s rights: The Taliban cannot defeat womenAfghanistan under the Taliban: "Girls continue to attend our schools""Scheherazade's heirs": Keep writing! Literature from Afghanistan
Female students stand outside Kabul University (photo: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP/dpa/picture alliance)

"Not our Islam!"

German imams condemn ban on university education for Afghan women

German imams have publicly expressed their solidarity with the women of Afghanistan. In a letter of protest, the clerics say that the Taliban regime's decree barring women from universities cannot be justified by Islam and is even "in fatal contradiction" to the religionMore

Hussein Mohammadi's novella "Scheherazade's heirs": Keep writing! Literature from AfghanistanTaliban Afghanistan: Afghan girls attend "secret school"Reconstruction in Afghanistan: The strong women of Darul AmanMouhanad Khorchideʹs "Godʹs Revelation in the Word of Men": A Koran for the 21st century
Hawa, a third-year Russian literature student, reads a book as she sits on a windowsill at her home in Kabul, Afghanistan, 23 October 2021 (photo: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Hussein Mohammadi's novella "Scheherazade's heirs"

Keep writing! Literature from Afghanistan

The "Weiter Schreiben" (Keep Writing) project promotes literature from war-torn and crisis-stricken regions and has, most recently, shone its spotlight on Afghanistan. Afghan author Hussein Mohammadi's debut novella is an outstanding work that crosses frontiers. Gerrit Wustmann read the bookMore

Young Persian fiction: "Dort" – weird fiction fresh from IranInterview with Iranian-German author Siba Shakib: "The notion of home is bound up with loss"Book review: Raihana Raha's "My Mother's Tales" – Fairy tales depicting independent Afghan womenThe Afghan author Taqi Akhlaqi: The not-so-universal art of writing
Demonstrators in Iran give the victory sign (photo: abaca/picture-alliance)

Protests in Iran

Rethinking Sharia and democracy

According to a recent survey, half of all Iranians say that they have left Islam as a religion, while two-thirds believe Islamic law should be excluded from their legal system. In the following essay, Ahmet T. Kuru explores the implicationsMore

Islam’s conscientious thinkers: People of reason vs. people of the hadithAuthoritarianism in the Islamic world: Islamic clerics and statesmen in an unholy allianceCritical Koran edition: The Koran – and its variants?Qantara photo essay: Around the world of Islam
Year 12 girls' class in Afghanistan (photo: Kinderhilfe Afghanistan)

Afghanistan under the Taliban

"Girls continue to attend our schools"

Education for girls and women is still possible in Afghanistan, says Reinhard Eroes of the Kinderhilfe Afghanistan initiative. In interview with Elisa Rheinheimer, he talks about skewed media portrayals, the great hunger gripping the country and why aid organisations should returnMore

"The Lionesses of Afghanistan": No more 'white saviours', pleaseTaliban Afghanistan: Afghan girls attend "secret school"Negotiating with the Taliban for girls′ education: Treading carefully
The Pakistani city of Mingora, in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the border with Afghanistan (photo: Abdul MAJEED/AFP)

Extortion and intimidation in Swat Valley

Pakistan Taliban racketeering hits borderlands

A lawmaker in Pakistan's rugged northwest was sipping tea with voters when his phone chirped to life – the Taliban were calling with a demand for 'donations'. "We hope you won't disappoint" read the chilling text from a shady go-between of the Pakistan chapter of the Islamists, known as Tehreek–e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)More

Terrorism in Pakistan: Afghan Taliban do little to stop Pakistan TalibanThe Swat Peace Accord in Pakistan: "A dangerous precedent"Pakistan at a crossroads: A people's uprising against the Taliban?
Afghan schoolgirl looks out of the window (photo: Bulent Kiic/AFP)

"The Lionesses of Afghanistan"

No more 'white saviours', please

Journalist Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi was forced to flee Afghanistan with her family as a child and grew up in Germany. To mark the publication of her book "The Lionesses of Afghanistan", she spoke to Qantara.de about growing up between two cultures, her focus on Afghan women and the media's distorted view of the country. Interview by Schayan RiazMore

Afghanistan under the Taliban: Back to the pastTaliban Afghanistan: Afghan girls attend "secret school"The West's failure in Afghanistan: In denial to the bitter end
Symbolic image of terrorism/extremism (photo: picture-alliance)

Confessions of an ex-jihadist

What makes someone a jihadist?

Charting his own descent into extremism, former Moroccan jihadist Adil El Hasani reveals how he was ultimately able to extricate himself from the grasp of those peddling religious illusions. Mohamed Taifouri read the bookMore

De-radicalising young people: Is there a way to stop jihadists in Europe?The psychology of radicalisation: Lego IslamIslamisation, a racist conspiracy theory: The hatred of Hanau and its enablers

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