Afghanistan Geography, History, Culture, and Religion

Posted by on Jul 12, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

The Khyber Pass on the northwest frontiers of the Indian subcontinent, linking Pakistan with remote Afghanistan. To drive north through the southern mountains is to journey backward in time to an isolated nation which has consistently ignored the approach to a 20th century world. But this year event the caught up with and never taken of few Afghanistan. Traditionally a buffer state standing alone between major powers it has suddenly court world attention. New men have seized control men who appear willing to reactivate ancient grievances and to assist the ambitions of powerful friends. In this edition Echo looks at a tiny nation engulfed in big issues Afghanistan. For centuries the Tom tribes have Afghanistan have lived by their own rules. Here a man carries a gun with a badge of honor and most use them with deadly accuracy. Here, even today tribal chiefs rule with absolute authority tolerate no interference even from the state. Armed with independent spirited they have never compromise with farmers. The British came here and stayed long enough to fortify such ragged borders as could be established. But they retreated leaving little more than a few rusting relics. Islam and one of its more straight-laced forms is the national religion. The power religious authority remains a conservative force regardless of who rules in Kabul the capital. And the streets of the capital illustrate this nation’s problems, principally that poverty. The average annual income in this country is less than seventy-five dollars. The illiteracy rate is 90% slavery was officially abolished only in 1947. And now there had been a revolution, King Shahi Asha was ousted and his cousin Muhammad Dowd decreed Afghanistan a republic king went into exile. The new regime has the backing up Afghanistan’s small but powerful army. And that in turn is supplied and equipped by the Soviet Union. The troops of Afghan but the heavy weapons, tanks, advisers, ammunition field come from the Red Army. It was president Dowd Prime Minister until 1963 who first encouraged Russian assistance. And Moscow did not hesitate to take advantage at the invitation. They poured in aid that military and civil they built this enormous power plant on the...

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Afghanistan Life

Posted by on Jul 11, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

It has taken me three to get here, in northeast Afghanistan in Batic Shown which is one most in Afghanistan. Decades of conflict sometime around shot at this point it is peaceful land, and this is now one of the poorest places in the world where half the population live on less than 50 clear day. One millions of pounds are being spent on the war in the south here in the isolated mountain villages impoverished North a unique British charity Afghan aid has worked tirelessly for more than 25 years, they provide agricultural support so people can feed themselves get children back into education and build a central roads and bridges. Afghan aid have a staff for almost all local with a huge amount of knowledge and expertise, their trusted by communities in need is and this is particularly important when working with women. as a traditional culture here that restricts women from being freely seen or spoken to by men or foreigners. Life here in Afghanistan has always been particularly tough for women during the Taliban’s reign, they were forced to hide away in their homes and was suffocated by the rule they were not allowed to go outside to the house work go to school or even to laugh out loud. Public whipping was the punishment to not covering you anchors, when the Taliban fell in 2001 it was optimism that women’s lives with improving. But for most there is a long way to go every 28 minutes a woman’s eyes from childbirth in Afghanistan as an astounding figure and hearing bad action alone they experience the highest maternal mortality rates of anywhere in the world. There are only about two and a half thousand midwives a country around 30 million people and in this incredibly remote area medical facilities are almost impossible to find, it is there are complications in childbirth a mother may have to travel for up to six days in very harsh conditions. To stop fifty women a day needlessly dying afghan aid were teaching volunteer women in the villages to share basic health care information an assist women giving birth, but the money for this training...

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GLOBAL PULSE: Afghan Women: Far From Equal (8/21/09)

Posted by on Jul 10, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Women are expected to wear a Burqa because the Taliban are active in this area, next on mobile homes. How these news outlets around the world are covering the struggle of women in Afghanistan. Women have made progress in Afghanistan but even though they can run for office equality is still just a dream. High I am Erin Coker. Iran’s Press TV pointed out at the taliban’s treatment of women led to a justification for war. “They sold the invasion of the way of driving out the Taliban, while empowering the female population but the Taliban, still in evidence and anything the wall who is becoming more bloody and entrenched. Is the more home been good for women’s rights,” said PressTV/Iran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has now signed a law that in a fact, return some women to the oppression experienced under the Taliban as ABC News reported. The new law severely restricts the right in Afghanistan’s three million Shiite women. Allowing husbands to refuse support two wives who do not obey their sexual demands, and requiring women to get permission from their husbands to work. When the law was first signed in March its part outrage here and around the world, Karzai withdrew it but in the middle of the presidential campaign it is back apparent attempt to win votes among conservatives. Even women who gain a measure a power can escape danger according to this report by the BBC. Every day when the first woman prosecutor here at needs home she does not know should see her children again. Maria Bashir is guarded round-the-clock extremists detonated a massive bomb outside her home last year. Maria the top law officer in the province is trying to give women human rights and equality they were promised that under the constitution adopted by President Karzai’s government five years ago, but this hasn’t happened. This woman cannot can protection from her husband and drug addict in idsa. The organization Women for Women International reports that up to eighty percent Afghan women are affected by domestic violence. Nearly half of all girls are forced into marriage before 16 and eighty-five percent of women have no formal education...

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Quest for Blue Mountain in Afghanistan

Posted by on Jun 11, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Hello, I am Tom Chapin and a distant from tear the far east as a stark mountain enclave that is lowered and prefered breed of traveler for at least five thousand years. To get there, they have to cross one of the most treacherous passes on earth. Climb to more than 15,000 feet and more recently skirt the bottom lines of the soviet Afghan war. But for those who survive the land mines in the crossfire, the rewards are great indeed. Lapis Lazuli the semi-precious stone, is an abundant natural resource Afghanistan. Doctor Whitney Atoy, an American adventurer recently braved a trip to the oldest mine in the world. Rich with a spectacular bluestone known as lapis. In the late 13th century, the great explorer Marco Polo spoke and speak. He praised the as your stone within it which has been mined in this remote corner of Afghanistan for more than five thousand years. Today the stones called Lapis Lazuli. Since the days of the Babylonians Lapis has held a ritualistic value celebrated for deep, blue-collar unmatched by any other stone or jewel. Doctor whitten batboy is an expert on Afghanistan. For years the Bluestone has fascinated him and when by chance he found this Egyptian figurine, in the library at the school at which teachers whitten came to a decision. At the age of 48, he would attempt the most hazardous journey of his life, into war-torn Afghanistan to find the mountain of azier. From London his journey will take first to Pakistan and the north-west frontier town of peshawar. As a boy I was inspired by the travels of Marco Polo, but later I realized he never actually reach the mines himself. After years and traveling over much about Afghanistan, neither had I. And I do not know any foreigner who has, then two years ago in the bazaars of of peshawar, I met a man who made his living smuggling lapus from the mines. When I asked him whether I too could get to the mines? He simply said, “wanna”. I spend the first week in the relative cool at my hotel trying to make contact with the people who control...

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Afghanistan: Culture of Geography

Posted by on Jun 10, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Thank you doctor Hunt. Good day ladies and gentlemen. The first I wish to express my thanks to the cultural arts consortium for inviting me, to present this lecture today. And second I wish to thank you the audience for your interest in attending and I look forward to your participation. My talk will be on the culture of Afghanistan. There are many cultures in Afghanistan but they share three common components tribal, code, Islam and impact of geography. The last geography has to find people: Afghanistan is roughly the size of Texas. In terms of its mountainous terrain and extreme climate of hot summers and cold winters, you can compare to Wyoming. Afghanistan is divided by the Hindu mountains. These mountains first divide the country in half diagonally and then divided it, again, into two concentric circles. First, the Hindu Kush mountains runs northeast dividing the country into three major regions The Central Highlands, parts of the Himalayas an account to roughly two-thirds op the country’s area The Southwestern Plateau, accounts for another quarter of the land mass and ; The smaller Northern Plains contains the country’s most fertile soil. Second, the Central Highlands formed by the Hindu Kush expands outward east to west into a vast almost circular mountainous plateau with peaks rising between 12,000 and 19,000 feet in height. There is little human habitation here. Historically, it has served as a sanctuary for the ethnic Hazaras. Most Afghans live in settlement – cities, towns, and villages – that encircle this plateau. So, here we have a topographical physical map of Afghanistan. In City indicates first bites North, east, south, west then the expansion in the Central Highlands. The northern area being the to fertile area the country and the South and the Southwest be in the desert. And human habitation will be confined around this central plateau. To give you an idea, here is a view of Hindu Kush among world’s, highest mountain tops. Here is a view a Hindu Kush from the valley. In the city of the capital city of Kabul. Like the central highlands, the south and west to the country is also sparsely-populated. The area is part...

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Afghanistan – My Kabul, Part 1 of 3

Posted by on Jun 8, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Kabul Capital City, power centers a city which has attracted the attention of Asian change across the region. A place which has gone through several years of war, but now Kabul is reaching out today more than age. Hello I am Toher Kodrid from BBC Persian television reporting for BBC World News. Welcome to Kabul, this city is over 3,500 years old. It the capital on the economy and cultural heart of Afghanistan, as you can see from where I am standing called is built with natural beauty. But as we all know, it also has its problems. I want to show you how the ordinary people of that this city leaved their daily lives. I have come back here to my hometown to look beyond the fighting and the politics. And to meet some of Kabul’s ordinary residence, 60 years ago Kabul had a population of 200,000. Today almost four million people are squeezed into the city. Feting them is a struggle the sewage system cannot cope and according to government figures at least 3,000 people died every year, as a result of poor sanitation. As the population has swelled, so has traffic every day more than half a million cards chocks, combo’s narrow streets. I start my journey in the old town of Kabul, we had the Afghan civilization was born. The first settlements in Kabul they back more than three-and-a-half thousand years. The city lives nearly 2,000 meters above sea level. Misled beneath two mountains, the city’s architecture is a glorious mix of influences from central Asia, NGR and Persia. Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur the founder of the Mughal Empire, who conquered Kabul in 1504, was so taken with define climate and a spectacular views that he made the city has summer capital. In the Middle Ages call was surrounded by think defensive walls with seven dollars built into them. Anyone coming or going would have to pass through these doles. I need Abdul Wasi an engineer who is overseeing the construction work in the old town. Many of the houses in old Kabul or at least 200 years old, walking through these narrow streets it peas as if nothing has changed...

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NatGeo: Lost Treasures of Afghanistan

Posted by on Jun 7, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Afghanistan at the crossroads of the silk wood it gathered the treasures of the ancient world. And in possibly reach mosaic of cultures left their history written in the ground, but in the last three decades war and terrorism devastated Afghanistan’s cultural legacy. Yet in this place, which is in endure invaders as fierce and this Alexander the great and Genghis khan the past won’t die. Now two man set out on historic quests to rediscover Afghanistan’s greatest lost treasures. 1. A Russian archaeologist seeks to prove the existence of one of the ancient world’s greatest trolls, containing more gold objects in the ton of King Tat. Not a single treasure in the world is such a detective story. The other an afghan archaeologist is on the trail of riches greater than gold. One of the largest statues ever created. This colossus may survive in the rubble with the Taliban destroyed. It is two giant brothers. I will offer up the thousand-foot Buddha, as a response to the Taliban. Across Afghanistan, treasures re-emerge into a nation re born. Each came to light because of the courage of Afghans who risk death, to take on extremists threatening their heritage. To build a future Heroak Afghans claim their past lost treasures of Afghanistan. With the guns of Afghanistan, all but silent for the first time in decades, those with deep roots here can finally come home. Afghan American not yet Tarsi head in his association dedicated to preserving Afghan antiquities, she also raises funds to support the work of her father. A world-renowned archaeologist, Nadia grew up in Europe, where she dreamed of this moment. The first time she would ever set foot in Afghanistan a home land, she is never known. Her destination is some hundred and fifty miles of the west. There in the Bamiyan valley, Nadia his father Doctor Somalia like Tarsi searching for a treasure of monumental importance for Afghanistan. For the first time Nadia will take part in one of her father’s excavations. The two have not seen each other in more than a year. But between them, like ten hours of bed roads and relics of the wars that kept...

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