Abubakar Siddique, a journalist for RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, specializes in the coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is the author of The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key To The Future Of Pakistan And Afghanistan.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you our reporting on Afghans preparing for another brutal winter under Taliban rule, rising malnutrition among Afghan children, and Pakistan ranking first in a new index measuring Chinese influence.
Afghans are preparing for another brutal winter under the rule of the Taliban. Aid groups fear that this winter could be even worse than the last as hunger and disease continue to rise.
This week's Gandhara Briefing provides insight into why fear of the Taliban is prompting some Afghan parents to marry off their daughters early; the questioning of Taliban corporal punishments; and the struggles of Afghan Army women.
Forced and early marriages of teenage girls have increased across Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and promptly closed secondary schools 15 months ago. Many parents marry off their adolescent daughters to avoid forced marriages to Taliban members.
Pakistan has arrested around 1,500 Afghan refugees, including women and children, in recent weeks for allegedly living in the South Asian nation illegally. Afghans fear the mass arrests are part of a new crackdown on the millions of Afghan refugees and migrants residing in Pakistan.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights into the Taliban clamping down on universities, the militant group barring women from entering public parks and bathhouses, and gay Afghan men fearing for their lives.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights into the Taliban's alleged persecution of the Achakzai Pashtun tribe, the recruitment of former elite Afghan commandos to join Russia's war in Ukraine, and a secret school for Afghan girls.
Former Afghan government officials say the Taliban has engaged in extensive retribution killings, forced disappearances, and the displacement of followers of a late Afghan general in southern Afghanistan. Supporters of General Abdul Raziq allege the militant group continues to persecute them.
This week’s Gandhara Briefing brings you insights into the Taliban turning a blind eye to the opium trade; the militant group banning women from many university courses; and the return of the Pakistani Taliban to the Swat Valley.
The Taliban has banned the cultivation and trafficking of opium. But Afghan farmers say the militant group is turning a blind eye to the drug trade.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you our reporting on the two best friends killed in the bombing of a Kabul education center and the Taliban forcing students and teachers to sign pledges to follow its interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights into Afghan women protesting Taliban rule, the militants' trade deal with Russia, and the Taliban's unenforced ban on poppy cultivation.
Afghan women have staged protests in major cities across the country in the largest demonstrations against Taliban rule in months. They have protested the Taliban's ban on girls' education and the inability of its government to protect religious minorities, despite mounting Taliban violence.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insights into the worsening relations between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban, the effects of the floods in Pakistan's Swat valley, and the Taliban’s harassment of couples in restaurants.
The Afghan Taliban has accused Islamabad of allowing its air space to be used by U.S. drones to strike targets in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan has accused the Taliban of harboring the leaders of militant groups fighting Islamabad.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insights into the Pakistani Taliban's aggressive extortion campaign, defiant Afghan parents protesting the Taliban ban on girls' education, and the fate of exiled Afghan journalists in Pakistan.
The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has engaged in a growing extortion campaign since hundreds of its fighters returned to the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Locals view the extortion campaign targeting businesses and wealthy families as a sign of a return to Taliban control.
This week's Gandhara Briefing highlights our reporting on the devastation caused by the floods in Afghanistan, an Afghan woman accusing a Taliban official of rape, and the militants holding their first film festival.
Flash floods have struck eastern and southern Afghanistan in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people and exacerbating the country's devastating economic and humanitarian crisis.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insights into clerics turning into prime targets in the conflict between the Taliban and the rival Islamic State-Khorasan militant group; the uproar over a move to close the lone women-only park in Bannu; and Tajikistan's deportations of Afghan migrants.
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