Official name Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Persian Dowlat-e-Islami-ye-Afghanestan
Local name Afgh?nest?n Timezone GMT +4·5 Area 647 497 km²/249 934 sq mi population total (2002e) 27 756 000, plus an estimated 2·5 million nomadic tribesmen and c.2·5 million living in Pakistan and Iran as refugees. Status Democratic republic Date of independence 1919 Capital Kabul Languages Pushtu, Dari Ethnic groups Pathans (50%), Tajik (20%), Uzbek (9%), Hazara (9%), Chahar Aimak (3%), Turkmen (2%), Baluchi (1%) Religions Muslim (Sunni 84%, Shi'ite 15%) Physical features Mountainous, landlocked country centred on and divided EW by the Hindu Kush mountain range which reaches heights of over 7 000 m/24 000 ft. Three distinctive regions: fertile valley of Herat in NW; arid uplands to the S; and 129 495 km²/50 000 sq mi of desert in the SW plateau (including the Rigestan Desert). Amu Darya (Oxus) R forms N border. Climate Continental climate; summers warm everywhere except on highest peaks; rain mostly during spring and autumn; average annual rainfall 338 mm/13·25 in; winters generally cold, with much snow at higher altitudes (central highlands have a sub-polar climate); at lower levels desert or semi-arid climate. Currency 1 Afghani (AFA) = 100 puls Economy Traditionally based on agriculture, especially wheat, fruit, vegetables, maize, barley, cotton, sugar-beet, sugar cane, sheep, cattle, goats; natural-gas production in the N, largely for export; most sectors have been affected by civil war, especially sugar, carpets, textiles; natural resources also include oil, coal, copper, sulphur, lead, zinc, iron, salt, precious and semi-precious stones; many of these resources remain untapped owing to inaccessibility. Main trading partners: Eastern European and CIS countries, Japan, China. GDP (2002e) $19 bn, per capita $700 History Nation first formed in 1747, under Ahmad Shah Durrani; seen as a bridge between India and the Middle East. Britain tried but failed to gain control during a series of Afghan Wars (the last in 1919); independence declared in 1919 after World War 1; feudal monarchy survived until after World War 2, when the constitution became more liberal under several Soviet-infuenced five-year economic plans; king deposed in 1973, and a republic formed; new constitution, 1977; coup (1979) brought to power Hafzullah Amin, which led to invasion by USSR forces and establishment of Babrak Karmal as Head of State; new constitution in 1987 provided for an executive President, bicameral National Assembly, and council of ministers; Soviet withdrawal implemented 1988-9; new regime met with heavy guerrilla resistance from the Mujahideen (Islamic fghters); resignation of President Najibullah in April 1992; Islamic State of Afghanistan declared, 1992; continuing unrest and disunity among Mujahideen groups, hindering implementation of UN-backed peace plans; new conflict, 19945, with the taliban (army of students), a Muslim force whose military organization emerged in late 1994; taliban seize Kabul and drive out government forces, imposition of strict Islamic regime, and execution of Najibullah, 1996; government of Burhanuddin Rabbani continues to control part of the country in rebellion to the Taleban government; October 2001, US-led coalition forces launch aerial bombardment of Taliban controlled military installations linked to Osama bin Laden, Islamic fundamentalist suspected of being involved in the terrorist attack on New York and Washington, Sep 2001; US-led coalition forces launch aerial bombardment of Taleban controlled military installations linked to Osama bin Laden, Oct 2001; Afghan delegations agree to set up the interim administration under the auspices of the UN to end more that 20 years of war, Dec 2001; International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) established; US-led ongoing operations against remaining Taliban resistance, 2002; ISAF taken over by NATO, 2003; election victory for Hamid Karzai, 2004; fighting between Taliban and coalition forces renewed, 2006. (Protection is not an endorsement of the current page version.)|
د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī jomhoriyat جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jamhorīyē Eslāmī-ye Afġānistān Islamic Republic of Afghanistan |
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| Anthem: Suroudi Milli | |||||
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Capital (largest city) |
Kabul 34°31′N 69°08′E |
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| Official language |
Pashto Persian (Darī) |
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| Government | Islamic Republic | ||||
| - President | Hamid Karzai | ||||
| - Vice President | Ahmad Zia Massoud | ||||
| - Vice President | Karim Khalili | ||||
| Independence | from the United Kingdom | ||||
| - Declared | August 8, 1919 | ||||
| - Recognized | August 19, 1919 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total |
652,090 km² (41st) 251,772 sq mi |
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| - Water (%) | n/a | ||||
| Population | |||||
| - 2005 estimate | 29,863,000 (38th) | ||||
| - 1979 census | 13,051,358 | ||||
| - Density |
46/km² (150th) 119/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2006 estimate | ||||
| - Total | $31.9 billion (91st) | ||||
| - Per capita | $1,310 (162nd) | ||||
| HDI (2003) | n/a (n/a) (unranked) | ||||
| Currency | Afghani (Af) (AFN) | ||||
| Time zone | (UTC+4:30) | ||||
| - Summer (DST) | (UTC+4:30) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .af | ||||
| Calling code | +93 | ||||
Afghānistān, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, Persian: جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان), is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Asia and the Middle East.
Afghanistan is a mosaic of ethnic groups and cultures, and a crossroads between east and west. An ancient land that is a focal point of trade, it has often been plundered, and the region of present-day Afghanistan has seen many invading forces come and go, including Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets. Afghanistan was created in 1747 as a large empire, its modern-day shape being recognized by the international community as a fully independent state in 1919, when foreign intervention ceased following the Anglo-Afghan wars.
Name
The name Afghānistān literally translates to Land of the Afghans.
The Encyclopædia Iranica states:
| From a more limited, ethnological point of view, "Afghān" is the term by which the Persian-speakers of Afghanistan (and the non-Paštō-speaking ethnic groups generally) designate the Paštūn. The equation [of] Afghan [and] Paštūn has been propagated all the more, both in and beyond Afghanistan, because the Paštūn tribal confederation is by far the most important in the country, numerically and politically [...] The term "Afghān" has probably designated the Paštūn since ancient times. |
The term "Afghanistan" was mentioned by Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs of AD 1525, refering to the areas south of Kabul which were inhabited by Pashtuns (called "Afghans" by Babur). It became the official name of the country in 1919, after Afghanistan gained its full independence from the British, and was confirmed as such in 1964 by Afghanistan's first national constitution.
Regarding the name "Afghanistan", the Encyclopædia Of Islam states:
| Afghānistān has borne that name only since the middle of the 18th century, when the supremacy of the Afghan race (Pashtuns) became assured: previously various districts bore distinct apellations, but the country was not a definite political unit, and its component parts were not bound together by any identity of race or language. |
History
Excavation of prehistoric sites suggests that humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 50,000 years ago, and that farming communities of the area were among the earliest in the world.
Afghanistan is a country at a unique nexus point where numerous Eurasian civilizations have interacted and often fought, and was an important site of early historical activity.
Between 2000 and 1200 BC, waves of Indo-European-speaking Aryans are thought to have flooded into this part of Asia which now consists of modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and others, setting up a nation that during the rule of Medes and the Persian Empire became known as Aryānām Xšaθra or Airyānem Vāejah. Later, during the rule of Ashkanian, Sasanian and after, it was called Erānshahr ايرانشهر (Irānshæhr) meaning "Dominion of the Aryans", which included large parts of Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and modern-day Central Asia (Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the western part of Pakistan, etc.).
It has been speculated that Zoroastrianism might have originated in what is now Afghanistan between 1800 to 800 BC.
During the 1st century AD, the Tocharian Kushans created a vast dynasty in Khorasan, bringing the Buddhism culture into this territory.
The Arab Empire initially annexed parts of western Afghanistan in 652 and then conquered most of the rest of Afghanistan between AD 706 and 709 and administered the region as Khorasan.
In 1219, the region was overrun by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, who devastated the land. By the early 1700s, the region of present-day Afghanistan was controlled by three ruling groups: Uzbeks to the north, Safavids to the west and the remaining larger area by the Mughals.
In 1709, Mir Wais Khan Khotak, leader of the Pashtun Ghilzai clan, overthrew and killed Gurgin Khan, the Safavid gouvernor of Kandahar.
In 1738, Nadir Shah conquered Kandahar;
By 1751, Ahmad Shah managed to reconquer and rule the entire present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Khorassan region of Iran, along with Dehli in India.
During the 19th century, following the Anglo-Afghan wars (fought 1839-1842, 1878-1880, and lastly in 1919) and the ascension of the Barakzai Pashtun dynasty, Afghanistan saw much of its territory and autonomy ceded to the United Kingdom. During the period of British intervention in Afghanistan, ethnic Pashtun territories were divided by the Durand Line, and this would lead to strained relations between Afghanistan and British India – and later the new state of Pakistan – over what came to be known as the Pashtunistan debate.
The longest period of stability in Afghanistan was between 1933 and 1973, when the country was under the rule of King Zahir Shah. Daoud and his entire family were murdered in 1978 when the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan launched a coup known as the Great Saur Revolution and took over the government.
Opposition against, and conflict within, the series of communist governments that followed, was considerable.
The Soviet withdrawal from the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was seen as an ideological victory in the US, which had backed the Mujahideen through three US presidential administrations in order to counter Soviet influence in the vicinity of the oil-rich Persian Gulf. Following the removal of the Soviet forces in 1989, the US and its allies lost interest in Afghanistan and did little to help rebuild the war-ravaged country or influence events there.
The result of the fighting was that the vast majority of the elites and intellectuals had escaped to take refuge abroad, a dangerous leadership vacuum thereby coming into existence. The chaos and corruption that dominated post-Soviet Afghanistan in turn spawned the rise of the Taliban, who were mostly Pashtuns from Kandahar.
The Taliban developed as a politico-religious force, and eventually seized Kabul in 1996.
During the Taliban's seven-year rule, much of the population experienced restrictions on their freedom and violations of their human rights.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom, a military campaign to destroy the Al-Qaeda terrorist network operating in Afghanistan and overthrow their host (the Taliban).
In December 2001, major leaders from the Afghan opposition groups and diaspora met in Bonn, Germany, and agreed on a plan for the formulation of a new democratic government that resulted in the inauguration of Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun from Kandahar, as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority.
After a nationwide Loya Jirga in 2002, Karzai was chosen by the representatives to assume the title as President of Afghanistan.
As the country continued to rebuild and recover, as of late 2006, it was still struggling against widespread poverty, continued warlordism, poor infrastructure, possibly the largest concentration of land mines and other unexploded ordinance on earth, as well as a huge illegal poppy and heroin trade.
See also: Afghanistan timeline and Invasions of Afghanistan
Politics
Politics in Afghanistan has historically consisted of power struggles, bloody coups and unstable transfers of power.
Afghanistan is currently led by President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in October 2004.
The current parliament was elected in 2005. This made Afghanistan, long known under the Taliban for its oppression of women, one of the leading countries in terms of female representation.
The Supreme Court of Afghanistan is currently led by Chief Justice Abdul Salam Azimi, a former university professor who had been legal advisor to the president.
See also: Constitution of AfghanistanAdministrative divisions
Afghanistan is administratively divided into thirty-four provinces (velayat), which are further subdivided into districts.
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Map showing the provinces of Afghanistan. |
Geography
Afghanistan is a land-locked, mountainous, central Asian country, with plains in the north and southwest.
At 249,984 mi² (647,500 km²), Afghanistan is the world's 41st-largest country (after Burma).
The country's natural resources include copper, zinc and iron ore in central areas;
Economy
Afghanistan is an extremely impoverished country, one of the world's poorest and least developed nations.
The economically active population in 2002 was about 11 million (out of a total of an estimated 29 million).
As much as one-third of Afghanistan's GDP comes from growing poppy and illicit drugs including opium and its two derivatives, morphine and heroin, as well as hashish production.
On a positive note, international efforts to rebuild Afghanistan led to the formation of the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) as a result of the December 2001 Bonn Agreement, and later addressed at the Tokyo Donors Conference for Afghan Reconstruction in January 2002, where $4.5 billion was committed in a trust fund to be administered by the World Bank Group.
According to a 2004 report by the Asian Development Bank, the present reconstruction effort is two-pronged: first it focuses on rebuilding critical physical infrastructure, and second, on building modern public sector institutions from the remnants of Soviet style planning to ones that promote market-led development.
One of the main drivers for the current economic recovery is the return of over two million refugees from neighbouring countries and the West, who brought with them fresh energy, entrepreneurship and wealth-creating skills as well as much needed capital to start up small businesses.
While the country's current account deficit is largely financed with the "donor money", only a small portion – about 15% – is provided directly to the government budget.
Inflation had been a major problem until 2002.
The Afghan government and international donors seem to remain committed to improving access to basic necessities, infrastructure development, education, housing and economic reform.
While these improvements will help rebuild a strong basis for the nation in the future, for now, the majority of the population continues to suffer from insufficient food, clothing, housing, medical care, and other problems exacerbated by military operations and political uncertainties.
The real good news for Afghanistan is that it has great potentials to come out of poverty very quick and become a normal stable country. According to the US Geological Survey and the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Industry, Afghanistan may be possessing 15.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 1.6 billion barrels of oil and up to 1,325 million barrels of natural gas liquids.
See also: Opium Production in AfghanistanPeople
Demographics
The population of Afghanistan is divided into a wide variety of ethnic groups. According to the CIA World Factbook, an approximate ethnic group distribution is as follows:
Ethnic groups of Afghanistan ██ 42% Pashtun ██ 27% Tajik and Qezelbash ██ 9% Hazara ██ 9% Uzbek 4% Aimak ██ 3% Turkmen ██ 2% Baloch 5% other (Pashai, Nuristani, Brahui, etc.)The Encyclopædia Britannica gives a slightly different list for various ethnolinguistic groups in Afghanistan :
49% Pashtun 18% Tajik 9% Hazara 8% Uzbek 4% Aimak 3% Turkmen 9% otherBased on official census numbers from the 1960s to the 1980s, as well as information found in main - mostly scholarly - sources, the Encyclopædia Iranica gives the following list:
36.4% Pashtun 33.6% Tajik, Farsiwan, and Qezelbash 8.0% Hazara 8.0% Uzbek 3.2% Aimak 1.6% Baloch 9.2% otherLanguages
The CIA factbook on languages spoken in Afghanistan is as follows: Pashto 35% (in gray) and Persian (Dari) 50% (in pink), both Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family.
According to the Encyclopædia Iranica, the Persian language is the mother tongue of roughly 1/3 of Afghanistan's population, while - at the same time - it is the most widely used language of the country, spoken by ca.
Religions
Religiously, Afghans are over 99% Muslim: approximately 74-89% Sunni and 9-25% Shi'a (estimates vary). With the fall of the Taliban, a number of Sikhs have returned to the Ghazni, Nangarhar, Kandahar and Kabul provinces of Afghanistan.
Largest cities
The only city in Afghanistan with over one million residents is its capital, Kabul.
Afghanistan has a complex history that has survived either in its current cultures or in the form of various languages and monuments.
The people of Afghanistan are prominent horsemen as the national sport is Buzkashi, similar to Polo, but instead which a goat carcass is used instead of a ball.
Although literacy levels are very low, classic Persian poetry plays a very important role in Afghan culture.
The eastern dialects of the Persian language are popularly known as "Dari" outside of Iran. Hence, the name Fārsī, the langue of Fārs, is strictly avoided."
Many of the famous Iranian poets of 10th to 15th centuries stem from where is now known as Afghanistan. Examples are Mowlānā Rumi, who was born and educated in Balkh in the 13th century and moved to Konya in modern-day Turkey, Sanaayi Ghaznavi (12th century, native of Ghazni provice), Jāmī of Herāt (15th century, native of Jam-e-Herat in western Afghanistan), Nizām ud-Dīn Alī Sher Navā'ī, (15th century, Herat province). Most of these individuals were of Persian (Tājīk) ethnicity who still form the second-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Also, some of the contemporary Persian language poets and writers, who are relatively well-known in both Iran and Afghanistan include Ustad Betab, Khalilullah Khalili, Sufi Ghulam Nabi Ashqari,, Qahar Asey, Parwin Pazwak and others.
In addition to poets, numerous Iranian scientists have had their origins lie in where it's now called Afghanistan.
In 1988, an Afghan by the name of Abdul Ahad Mohmand reached space before anyone from the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Israel and many other nations.
Before the Taliban gained power, the city of Kabul was home to many musicians who were masters of both traditional and modern Afghan music, especially during the Nauroz-celebration.
The tribal system, which orders the life of most people outside metropolitan areas, is potent in political terms.
Heathcote considers the tribal system to be the best way of organizing large groups of people in a country that is geographically difficult, and in a society that has an uncomplicated lifestyle - from a materialistic point of view.
See also: Radio Kabul, Music of Afghanistan, and Islam in AfghanistanEducation
In the spring of 2003, it was estimated that 30% of Afghanistan's 7,000 schools had been very seriously damaged during more than two decades of civil war.
As regards the poverty and violence of their surroundings, a study in 2002 by the Save the Children Fund said Afghan children were resilient and courageous.
Up to four million Afghan children, possibly the largest number ever, are believed to have enrolled for class for the school year beginning in March of 2003.
Literacy of the entire population is estimated at 36%, the male literacy rate is 51% and female literacy is 21%.
Another aspect of education that is rapidly changing in Afghanistan is the face of higher education. With the aim of providing a world-class, English-language, co-educational learning environment in Afghanistan, the university will take students from Afghanistan and the region.
Communication and technology
Afghanistan has rapidly increased in communication technology, and has embarked on wireless companies, television channels, and commercial international airlines. Afghanistan's commercial airlines, Ariana Afghan Airlines, now serves flights to London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Dubai and Istanbul to and from Kabul and Herat.
Afghanistan's television channels include: Ariana TV Tolo TV Ariana Afghanistan TV Afghan Sports Network Zeba Fashion TelevisionAfghanistan has also improved in vehicle conditions with Toyota, Land Rover, BMW and Hyundai dealerships all over Kabul, and a huge import of fine second-hand vehicles from Dubai on display in Kandahar.
Views of Afghanistan
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Bamyan |
Ghazni |
Herat |
Kabul |
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Kandahar |
Mazari Sharif |
Panjshir Valley |
Tora Bora |
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