Afghanistan

By Mujib Mashal in Asia on December 5th, 2011
Sultan Mohamed has sold books for over two decades

"How can you care for books when you lose friends?" explained Wasim, a bookseller in Kabul's largest book market as he spoke of the impact that four decades of violence and turmoil has left on readership in the Afghan capital.

He and his young son, who looked no older than eight, were surrounded by stacks of books covered in dust: textbooks, thick collections of poetry and volumes of English stories with translations in local languages, a commodity in high demand for the thousands of Afghans trying to learn English – a language that can take you far in the job market.

Wasim's family has been selling books for generations.

"During the Taliban, perhaps we sold more books than ever. But it was a particular kind of books," he said, explaining that Taliban fighters would stop by to buy a volume or two of religious books before heading to battle.

By Jennifer Glasse in Asia on October 7th, 2011
Distrust is to be expected a country where a number of high-level officials have been murdered in their own homes [AFP]

Tahmina's enduring memory of living under the Taliban was crying all night just before Eid, one of the biggest celebrations in the Muslim calendar, because she couldn't go to the market in Kandahar with her mother to get treats.

The Taliban didn't allow women or girls out like that. She was then 11 years old and said she asked her mother that night why Afghanistan was the way it was.

Now 21, Tahmina is studying to be a midwife, taking a business-development course and has also learned English.

"We have good luck now,” she says. “Today we can come out of our homes, we can work, but we will always have security problems."

Tahmina covered her face, all except for her eyes, to speak to us on camera, reflecting the still-conservative attitudes here.

Despite threats against her school, and taunts by men in the street, she remains undaunted.

By Imran Khan in Asia on September 25th, 2011
Photo by EPA

Like all great lovers' tiffs, this one started with frustration. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, decided to make his feelings public.

In a nutshell, he accused Pakistan of state sponsored terrorism, alleging that its Inter-Services Intelligence backs the Haqqani network. The Haqqanis are a fearsome bunch of fighters whose lineage goes back to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Back then, their leader, Jalaludin Haqqani, was seen as a hero, even sitting in the White House with the then President Ronald Reagan. But it wasn't just the US. The Pakistanis nurtured and encouraged him to go fight in Afghanistan, supplying him with weapons and safe havens.

That was 20 years ago and, like all bad marriages, things left unresolved often explode.

By Imran Khan in Asia on September 8th, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

Tahira is typical of many people in Pakistan's urban middle class. She is a successful businesswoman with a loving family. She remembers the day those planes struck at the heart of America, but not like many in the West.

"It wasn't a life changing moment; I can't remember exactly where I was or what I was doing. My husband called me and I switched on the television. I remember thinking it was sad, but not much else. What I didn't know was how our lives would change."

Tahira spoke to me in her garden in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, exactly a year ago. I had made a comment on the barriers that had appeared on her street, and she just sighed. "When 9/11 happened I thought that it had nothing to do with us, they were blaming an Arab living in Afghanistan, not a Pakistani living here, but look at our lives now... We live like prisoners in our own home, nervous of anyone we don't know."

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on June 23rd, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

In less than a month’s time, US forces will begin pulling out of Afghanistan.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on May 12th, 2011

Within years after Russian forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the US and Saudi Arabia sent in billions of dollars to help the mujahideen, or holy warriors, in their uphill struggle against Russian forces. As the battles for control of Afghanistan got under way, thousands of Arab and other foreign volunteers made a beeline for Pakistan to join the Afghan mujahideen and cross into Afghanistan to wage jihad against the brutal occupation of Afghanistan.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on May 1st, 2011
The news of bin Laden's death brought many to the streets across US cities [AFP]

The killing of Osama bin Laden is a major symbolic victory for the Obama administration, but is it a game changer for the US strategy in the "Greater Middle East"?

By Al Jazeera Staff in Africa on February 22nd, 2011
Alleged mercenaries deployed by Gaddafi in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

As the uprising in Libya enters its ninth day, we keep you updated on the developing situation from our headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 8th, 2011

File 6121

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on February 4th, 2011
Photo by AFP

The images of the assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat are still fresh in my mind. I remember how the assassin had shouted at Hosni Mubarak to step aside as he had come to kill the Pharaoh.

He could never have imagined that Mubarak would soon become the next Pharaoh who would rule for three decades and with an iron fist!

As a Pakistani I have always been used to the luxury of being critical.

People here have said all kinds of things about their own tyrants and very few have been diplomatic. But no one was ever picked up by the secret police or jailed for insulting the president or the prime minister.

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