Zarif Nazar is a producer and correspondent for RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan.
A year after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul, a former top U.S. diplomat who negotiated and signed a controversial peace deal with the group gave his view on why it failed to secure reconciliation among Afghans.
The Taliban has been accused of forcibly displacing hundreds of ethnic Uzbek and Turkmen residents in Afghanistan's northern province of Jowzjan. Ethnic Uzbeks and Turkmen say Pashtun nomads have seized their homes and land with the help of the Taliban, a predominately Pashtun group.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad says the only way to end the war and prevent a "protracted" conflict is by political agreement.
The abduction of a child in northern Afghanistan has shocked the country’s Turkmen minority, prompting them to protest and shut the country’s northern river ports and border crossings with its Central Asian neighbors.
U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has described the latest round of U.S.-Taliban peace talks as the "most productive" ever, telling RFE/RL that “a lot of progress” has been made.
Of the Afghan migrants who are heading in record numbers to Europe in search of a better life, many will never make it to their final destination.
Afghanistan's Finance Ministry has drafted a package of incentives aimed at luring much needed investment over the next two years. But are the proposals enough to soothe fears over security and widespread corruption?
Problems with Afghanistan's schools go deeper than the often reported lack of buildings and threats of militant attacks. Amid growing concerns about what children are learning, officials are examining the entire school system -- from kindergarten through 12th grade -- to determine how to improve the quality of education.
Civil-service jobs in Afghanistan, from lofty gubernatorial positions to more modest secretarial positions, have traditionally been snatched up by the well-connected. But revamped testing procedures aim to change the culture of favoritism.
The Afghan government and foreign donors have provided significant funding to restore the ancient city of Ghazni, which will take up the mantle as an Islamic Capital of Culture in 2013. But less than a year before the monthlong cultural festivities that go with the honor are due to begin, negligence and insecurity are threatening to doom the project.
A shortage of blank passports in Afghanistan has led to a flourishing black market for the little blue books, according to Afghans who say they have had to go underground to obtain them.
Afghanistan's new roads cost millions to build. Now they're being destroyed by overweight trucks.
Elected local councils are Afghanistan's best hope for building democracy and marginalizing the Taliban. But they face enormous challenges.
The lack of affordable housing -- driven by a rapidly rising population, the wartime destruction of neighborhoods, and an influx of foreign contractors occupying choice locations -- has become one of the biggest social problems in Kabul.
Afghans protest the alleged mistreatment of their countrymen in Iran, including the killing of migrants trying to cross the border. What's behind the shootings?
The water carriers of Aqibi Silo are hardly the only child laborers in Kabul. But the fact that they are missing school to deliver water that should be delivered by public utilities outrages the people of their neighborhood.
Sometimes Iran's role in Afghanistan is open and transparent, sometimes it is secret, and at other times -- as in the case of the madrasah -- it is somewhere in between.
Kabul hosts a major conference with its international partners, and high on the agenda are deciding how much control the Afghan government should have over foreign aid and how to reduce corruption.
The Amu Darya, Central Asia's longest river, demarcates much of northern Afghanistan's border. But it is an unstable frontier that shifts as the river changes course, causing deadly land disputes.
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