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This paper examines higher education in Afghanistan. Based on qualitative research, including interviews with key policymakers and stakeholders, the paper examines the primary issues, challenges, progress, and future vision for higher education in the country. The research reveals that one of the most significant issues in the country in the post-Taliban era is female participation in higher education. It also shows the importance of alternative forms of higher education, such as two-year institutions, private education, and technical/ vocational education. The paper also discusses the emergence of quality assurance mechanisms and international partnerships with other universities. Regarding the future direction and vision for higher education, the paper reveals two primary focuses: preparing students for the labor market, and the potential for education to influence democratic values and social cohesion in a divided country.

This paper represents one of the most recent and pertinent studies conducted in Afghanistan, aiming to address the societal imperative of comprehending the factors behind the fall of the Republic government and the subsequent rise of the Taliban to power. Furthermore, the paper seeks to analyse public attitudes towards the current situation. Employing a quantitative approach, the research utilizes a descriptive-analytical method through questionnaires and the participants include social media activist, students and universities professors, the data collected by online survey according WhatsApp, Facebook messengers, telegram, email and other social media groups from different ethnic groups. The findings of this research have identified several pivotal factors contributing to the ascent of the Taliban to power, including the US-Taliban agreement in Doha, Qatar; political disparities; administrative and financial corruption within the Republic's administration; Pakistan's support for the Taliban; the previous government's accord with the Taliban; ethnic dominance; robust military morale of the Taliban; and proficient war management by the Taliban. Afghanistan, as a multi-ethnic society, witnesses political dynamics predominantly rooted in ethnic affiliations. The majority of respondents express dissatisfaction with the current Afghan situation, displaying significant concerns for the populace. Foremost concerns, in terms of prioritization, encompass poverty; closure of girls' schools; restrictions on women's education and employment; escalation of civil unrest; mono-ethnic rule; ethnic conflicts; emergence of ISIS; ethnic marginalization; violations of citizenship rights; political participation and legitimacy crises; and authoritarianism. Consequently, to address the political crisis and establish a viable system, the research concludes that while Pashtuns lean toward a centralized system, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Turkmens evince greater interest in a decentralized structure.

Afghanistan's history over the last century is littered with incidents and bloody conflicts. In other words, the history of this land over the last century has been one of blood and fire, as well as a conflict between "tradition" and "modernity." Over the last century, the citizens of this land have witnessed life-threatening and subversive changes. These changes have had both positive and negative effects on Afghans' lives. Meanwhile, Afghan women, education, the right to political and social activity, and the right to work and employment have been among the issues that have undergone change and transformation, along with political, social, and cultural changes and developments, willingly or unwillingly, and have been seriously harmed as a result. A qualitative research method has been used, in which data was collected from previous literary sources such as research articles, magazines, reports, and documents kept in the archives and national libraries of Afghanistan. This paper investigates and examine the position of Afghan women in Afghan law from various angles and perspectives. The researchers approached the subject of women by taking into account their worldviews, assumptions, and subjective variables. The purpose of this research is to evaluate Afghan women's active, long-term, and meaningful presence in Afghanistan over the last century. The study's findings show that despite deliberate campaigns, efforts, and ongoing struggles over the last century, Afghan women are still denied the right to education, political participation, and institutional employment.

Purpose: This paper introduces a conceptual lens for leading social change in slums and informal settlements. In line with this aim, the purpose of this case study is to describe the public problem-solving approach of a social change organization situated in an informal settlement through the lens of adaptive leadership, complexity theory and social change leadership (SCL). Design/methodology/approach: This paper follows an engaged reflection tradition. First, the author-practitioners describe an informal settlement case hereafter called ISC in southeast Iran where many people have historically remained undocumented and uneducated. Using complex adaptive systems theory, adaptive leadership and SCL as the conceptual lens, the paper analyzes ISC as a complex adaptive context in which the community and the government are in tension in solving problems, particularly illiteracy. The instrumental case study draws from participant observation and document analysis to describe and examine the endeavors of a community office operating within ISC. Through this reflective analysis, the authors illustrate how a social change organization can effectively tackle public issues like illiteracy within informal settlements. Findings: This paper applies complexity leadership theory to a social context. The study illustrates how social change organizations can support the transformation of informal spaces into adaptive spaces to enact social change. Originality/value: This paper reflects on engagement activity near the insecure borders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. By extending an organizational-level theory to the public sphere, this paper contributes theoretically to the complexity theory literature. Moreover, it provides a practical insight for community development and slum upgrading projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to frame Khaled Hosseini's novels, "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns", as literature to expand and enhance the American secondary curriculum with multicultural themes based on Afghanistan as a geographical and cultural place in a dynamic, diverse, and complex world more mediated than ever before by computer technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach to the study is a synthesis of geographic education grounded in the concept of place and diversity pedagogy. Findings: Khaled Hosseini's web site has become the cyber place where hundreds of readers from around the world come to express their deep emotional reactions to "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns". At the same time, that so many diverse international readers are responding favorably to Hosseini's novels, his works are being censored in classrooms in the USA. The research outlines geographical and cultural geographic features of Afghanistan--a place torn by military efforts of several nations. In the context of diversity pedagogy, the power of the novels portrays "difference," yet humanity in need of understanding. Further attention is given to the censorship of ideas in American education, with Hosseini's books as one example. Originality/value: This paper frames Hosseini's novels as place-based literature illustrating the homeland of Afghanistan now more accessible than ever before to international and US classrooms. (Contains 2 tables.)

This article draws on practice theory to examine aspiring youths' pursuit of higher education in Afghanistan. It finds that plans and actions are mediated through youths' families, communities, and solidarity networks. As a result, the personal improvement and enhanced reputational status that aspiring youth seek is structurally connected to processes of social reproduction and social change. The paper is based on over 100 in-depth interviews conducted with youth in Afghanistan by an undergraduate research team.

In August 2001, the author relates his first encounter with Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi when he visited the "Wall Street Journal." Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi was then the ambassador at large and the deputy foreign minister for the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. Ten years before, in 1993, Rahmatullah Hashimi's people tried to blow up the World Trade Center and failed. Years after that encounter in 2001, the author assumed Rahmatullah Hashimi either to be in prison, a fugitive, or dead. Then, opening up the "New York Times," the author saw a February 2006 cover story titled "The Freshman," featuring Rahmatullah Hashimi, now an undergraduate at Yale University. Technically, he was in a non-degree granting program, but the point of the article was that, after a bit of orientation, he would be mainstreamed into the undergraduate population. The goal of this was a degree, presumably because he had been marked for "leadership" in the Middle East. In this article, the author narrates how he tried to pry an explanation from Yale about the admission of Rahmatullah Hashimi. He mentioned this anecdote to show that anyone "can" affect what goes on. Through his writings, he was able pressure Yale to do something about admitting Rahmatullah Hashimi.

In Afghanistan, education has largely been destroyed, partly in the name of Islam, by the wars fought on its behalf, or by different ethnic groups vying for control of this Islamic country. Similarly, curriculum has been used to promote political and/or religious viewpoints and to strengthen positions of power. War dominated the language of curriculum to such an extent that it became part of the discourse on Islam and education in Afghanistan. In what might be called post-conflict Afghanistan, the new Life Skills curriculum for primary schools promotes ideals of peace and social justice that are inherent in Islam, while being influenced by Western concepts of pluralism and civil society. This paper considers past sociopolitical influences on language and content of textbooks, and examines Islamic and civil society principles espoused in the new curriculum framework as reflected in the Life Skills curriculum. Finally, it considers the convergence of universal themes and Islamic culture/traditions in the curricula of countries where the education systems serve Muslim populations. (Contains 2 notes.)

The paper describes the Indo-Afghan ties after 9/11 and its economic and political effects on Pakistan. After 9/11, the relations between Afghanistan and India became extremely mature and cordial. Moreover, India has been helping Afghanistan politically, socially and economically. Thus, the Indian unconditional support to Afghans has opened the door for India to assure its presence anywhere in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the presence of India in Afghanistan has hurt Pakistan badly since India uses the Afghan soil to create political unrest and instability in Pakistan by supporting the anti-Pakistan elements within Pakistan. Thus, the region would be in loselose situation which is neither in the favor of Pakistan nor it benefits the Indo-Afghan ties. The paper addresses the question, how Pakistan deals with its policy option in respect to Indo-Afghan ties after 9/11 in order to discourage Indian covert activities from Afghan soil. Moreover, the paper is qualitative in nature, is based on critical analysis and investigation of different facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of suitability within applications of Ideal Distribution Models (IDMs). Specifically, we investigate the effectiveness of single measures of suitability in contexts where diverse local populations practised a range of subsistence strategies with different environmental requirements and sociocultural consequences. To do so, we draw on legacy survey data from northern Afghanistan, within the historic region of Bactria. This region of Central Asia has a rich history of nomadic pastoralism as well as dense urban settlement, with these two lifeways often occurring concurrently with complex social and economic interdependencies developing between pastoral and agricultural societies. Conceptually, we predict that such diversity should be difficult to model by conventional IDMs, as what may be defined as a low ranked habitat by one definition of suitability may be highly ranked in another. On the other hand, identifying strong deviations from IDMs may in fact indicate shifts in subsistence strategies and settlement patterns occurring across various periods of sociopolitical and cultural change. Based on our analysis, we conclude that single measures of suitability do not sufficiently model settlement patterns as predicted by IDMs but do in fact help highlight long-term processes of ecological engineering and inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recent growth of the opium economy in north-eastern Afghanistan. A detailed analysis of one village in Badakshan Province reveals profound changes in the local economy and social institutions. The paper describes two major shifts in the local economy: first, the switch from wheat to poppy cultivation; and second, the shift from the livestock trade to the opium trade. It then examines the underlying causes and impacts of the opium economy on social relations in the village. Although a case study of a community living on the margins of the global economy, it is argued that these changes have important implications for international policymakers. The emergence of the opium economy in north-eastern Afghanistan is symptomatic of new and expanding forms of trans-border trade associated with the restructuring of the global political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Against a backdrop of more than four decades of war, conflict and insecurity, Afghanistan is recognised as suffering from endemic violence and children are exposed to multiple forms of violence, including at the family and school levels. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of school-based peace education and a community-based intervention to change harmful social norms and practices related to gender and the use of violence in conflict resolution, implemented in Afghanistan with the aim of reducing violence against and between children. Methods: The evaluation consisted of a cross-sectional, interrupted time series design with three data collection points over 12 months. Data was collected from students in 11 secondary schools (seven girls’ and four boys’ schools) in Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, with a total of 361 boys and 373 girls sampled at endline. All children were interviewed with a questionnaire developed for the study. Key outcomes included children’s experience of peer violence (both perpetration and victimization) at school, corporal punishment both at home and at school, and observation of family violence. Other outcomes included children’s gender equitable attitudes, attitudes towards child punishment, depression and school performance. Results: Between baseline and endline evaluation points, there were significant reductions in various forms of violence at the school level, including both boys’ and girls’ past month experience of peer violence victimization, peer violence perpetration, and corporal punishment by teachers. There were also significant reductions in boys’ and girls’ experience of corporal punishment at home and observation of family violence, with a particularly strong effect observed among girls. Both boys and girls had significantly more equitable gender attitudes and significantly less violence-supportive attitudes in relation to children’s punishment, and significantly fewer symptoms of depression. Girls’ school attendance was also significantly higher at endline. Discussion: To our knowledge this is the first time that a peace education program has been evaluated in Afghanistan, with or without a community intervention to change harmful social norms and practices related to gender and the use of violence for conflict resolution. The evaluation suggests that the intervention may have led to a reduction in various forms of violence, including children’s peer violence, corporal punishment of children both at school and at home, and in children’s reports of domestic violence against women at the household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the post-war reconstruction programme in Afghanistan, arguing that it contains the seeds of radical social change. The paper analyses the tensions of the present reconstruction project in light of the past experience of similar programmes launched by Afghan rulers and their foreign supporters. The central argument is that the conflation of post-war reconstruction with a broader agenda for development and modernisation has brought out a wide range of tensions associated with social change. Simultaneously the prominent foreign role in the undertaking has increasingly had negative effects. As a result, the entire project shows signs of severe contradictions that are adding to the problems caused by the growing insurgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper elaborates on critical processes of institutional change and the implications for local economic development in fragile settings. Drawing on empirical research in Afghanistan, the discussion looks specifically at how local actors interact to reshape the “rules of the game” in women’s enterprise. The research has highlighted diverse actor negotiation in the transformation of (heterogeneous) purdah norms and development of enterprise institutions. This has crucially influenced the scope of norm development, and women’s engagement in business. The study shows that external actors (such as NGOs) may be able to both initiate and guide institutional change and development. Yet in challenging environments such as Afghanistan, there may be limitations to their endeavors, with strong resistance from local power holders, unpredictable entrepreneurs and disruptive (local) events. The use of liberal cultural/religious narratives has proved fundamental in permitting change processes. Emerging open-minded beliefs have unleashed a more democratic “narrative” on women, particularly if championed by progressive leaders, or credible outsiders in “receptive” local conditions. This has led to the evolution of new attitudes and preferences, with potential effects beyond the market, including increasing girls’ education and women’s property rights. The research has generated a micro-social perspective of institutional change, identifying key actors and conditions that may shape grassroots institutional processes in enterprise development. In emerging outcomes, the paper presents insights into the role of dominant entrepreneurs in driving (nested) institutional pathways. This may promote inclusive opportunities for (new) power and wealth through open institutions, in “productive institutional pathways.” Yet it can equally foster distorted economies if exclusive institutions are allowed to prevail in more “destructive institutional pathways.” To further develop micro-institutional theory, the paper argues for a greater appreciation of culture, religion, and fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on practice theory to examine aspiring youths' pursuit of higher education in Afghanistan. It finds that plans and actions are mediated through youths' families, communities, and solidarity networks. As a result, the personal improvement and enhanced reputational status that aspiring youth seek is structurally connected to processes of social reproduction and social change. The paper is based on over 100 in-depth interviews conducted with youth in Afghanistan by an undergraduate research team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afghan refugees in Iran, like many Muslims around the world, think that using contraceptives is against their religious beliefs. The majority of Iranians also thought so until a decade ago. Since then an all-encompassing social movement has emerged in Iran in which women and young people have played decisive roles. This movement has led to an attitude shift towards acceptance of family planning across Iranian society. High-ranking clerics, responding to the social movement, issued progressive edicts indicating that poor families could practise family planning. This paper reports the findings of focus group studies carried out among Afghan refugee men in two communities in Iran. The findings indicate that exposure to Iranian life, especially the rulings of Iranian clerics, have influenced Afghans' views on family planning. The findings also indicate that a system of justification is needed to help people avoid both social sanctions and individual stresses resulting from a controversial practice regarded as a sin for centuries.

The processes through which women's economic empowerment interventions are envisaged to improve women's health are strongly embedded in notions of building women's agency and autonomy. Yet despite the ubiquity of such interventions, there remains incredibly little qualitative work exploring how women actually utilise interventions to reshape their lives and wellbeing. Drawing on 9 focus groups discussions among 52 women who participated in the Women for Women International intervention in Afghanistan, an economic strengthening and social empowerment intervention, we explore processes of change. Data showed women learnt new skills around numeracy and animal husbandry; they perceived themselves to have become more respected within the household setting; they invested cash they received for intervention attendance in businesses, primarily their husband's or family's, and saved cash. Women did not, however, report their relationships to have been radically restructured. Rather women described incremental changes in their relationships within their household and used what they gained from the intervention to secure and sustain this. This conceptualisation of agency and empowerment reflects approaches to understanding agency, which move away from ‘action-oriented’ understandings, to ones that recognise ‘distributed agency’ as pathways to change through interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US-led War on Terror in Afghanistan conducted for the aim of eliminating Al-Qaeda and Osama-bin-Laden has brought about enormous economic, social and political changes in the region. Pakistan's role as a front-line state in the War on Terror has had profound implications for its domestic politics and foreign policy. Pakistan not only took a U-turn on its Afghanistan policy, but also had to crack down on internal extremism and terrorism. Several military operations were carried out against the so-called terrorist factions in tribal areas and some other parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), renamed as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KPK) under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of 1973 of Pakistan. With a majority Pashtun population, KPK has been a target of the War on Terror due to its social structure, cultural restraints and the religion of its inhabitants on the boundary with Afghanistan. The socio-cultural similarities and geographical proximity with Afghanistan have made it a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda members. The War on Terror in KPK has had negative political, economic and social repercussions for the region and thus has created hatred among the Pashtuns. This paper is an attempt to analyze the factors which made the Pashtuns of this area prone to militancy. It will analyze the political, economic and social implications of the War on Terror for KPK in general and its Pashtun population in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on strategies of inter-ethnic conflict resolution in southwest Afghanistan under the circumstances of social changes in a tribal society. Field research was carried on in September and October 2008 in Kabul and Zaranj, the province centre of Nimruz. During ethnographic fieldwork focusing on transnational identities of the Baloch people in the Afghan-Iranian border region, I observed an informal inter-ethnic trial. The location of this trial was the town of Zaranj, the administrative centre of the south-western Afghan province of Nimruz. This province, beside Pashtun and Tajik populations, has a compact Baloch settlement area bordering the Baloch areas in Iran and Pakistan. The trial took place between my host, the chief of a Baloch cultural centre, and an Uzbek defendant. As my host was a representative of an emerging Baloch self-confidence since the decline of the Taliban regime, the trial has to be analysed in the broader socio-cultural context of the Baloch people in present-day Afghanistan. The paper first presents the sequence of events during the trial; then it deals with the social context considering some new developments in the self-conceptions of the Baloches in Afghanistan. Finally, the trial is analysed in the framework of this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender roles and gender stereotypes are culturally and socially constructed. Previous studies suggested that the Afghan community is a male-dominated and conservative society, where men are more visible in social activities, and women remain responsible mainly for household tasks. This research aimed to show Afghan women' perceptions of gender roles and the possibilities for and barriers in Australian society to change those roles after their settlement in Australia. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 21 Afghan women who had been living in Australia between 6 months and 10 years. The interviews were conducted face to face or by telephone, in either Farsi (Persian) or English. An inductive thematic analysis was used to explore the data and build themes. Afghan women were aware of gender roles, patriarchy, and gender inequality, and they hoped to address those issues now as they live in a society that offers more freedom to women. Moving to Australia had enhanced women's possibilities, self-confidence and skills and inspired many to go beyond traditional stereotypes and seek out options previously denied to them on the basis of their gender. However, their attempts at realising gender equality often met with the disapproval of their family or the wider Afghan community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress in education in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban has been described as ‘fragile, limited in reach, depth and uncertainty of sustainability' [UNICEF. 2013.Basic Education and Gender Equality: Afghanistan. United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.http://www.unicef.org/afghanistan/education_2206.htm]. This is particularly true for Afghan women participating in higher education, within a culture that remains resistant to women's education. This article documents the views and attitudes of Afghan women who have sought to gain a higher education, within a context where only 5% of the Afghan population attends university, and less than 20% of university students are female [The World Bank. 2013. World Development Indicators: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines.The World Bank Group. http://data.worldbank.org/country/afghanistan]. It is an attempt to listen to the voices of Afghan women to ascertain what they see as the best ways to improve their educational outcomes. Findings illustrate that while progress has been made in enabling a small percentage of women to pursue higher education, there are still significant and enduring obstacles for Afghan women seeking such a path. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on women of Afghanistan and exploration of aesthetics of social change across boundaries of time and space among myriad agents operating in disparate centers of cultural gravity.

This article interrogates the assumptions that returned migrants can be agents of change in development and peace-building in the country of origin. In current political and academic debates, it remains under-defined which category of returnees can contribute to what kind of change. This article identifies four ways in which voluntary and involuntary returnees relate to the conflict after return: physically, institutionally, psychologically and with regard to the future. It finds that the only returnees who could potentially live up to the expectations raised in the migration-development-peace-building debate, are voluntary returnees, while involuntary returnees were in no way potential contributors to Afghan peace-building and development. It concludes that, first, the human dimension of returnees' involvement is the most important potential contribution to change. Second, while the international community sees repatriation as the ultimate proof of peace that represents the restoring of normalcy, it is rather continued transnational mobility that could be the basis for Afghan migrants to contribute to change in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Afghanistan, examining the challenges to the political and social developments that have occurred in the country between 2001-2009. Two events will test the stability of Afghanistan's political and social infrastructure which include the increase of U.S. troops in summer 2009 and presidential and parliamentary elections in Afghanistan that will take place in August 2009 and early 2010. Other topics include the overthrow of the Taliban and the threat that the Afghan government may undo political process made in the country.

Compares the state, society and gender politics in Iran and Afghanistan. Tendency among feminists to emphasize the state as the major determinant of women's status; Attribution of changes to women's legal status and social positions to changes in the composition and orientation of states and regimes; Contention by several groups of scholars that the state and social structure also determine social change processes.

Analyzes gender dynamics and social change in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Role of women in countering Islamic radicalism; Impact of gender, the state and economic development on the status of women in Afghanistan; Description of women's civil and political rights in post-Taliban Afghanistan.