Blood feuds have long been a feature of Afghan society, claiming countless lives and perpetuating conflict that sometimes spans generations. In recent decades, however, this has shifted, particularly as a young Afghans have begun to question tribal traditions. Original research by AAN’s Sharif Akram in Khost province suggests that this shift in social norms springs from greater access to education and increased exposure to other cultures and values. His report is read by Rachel Reid. 

Sharif Akram’s report, Breaking the Cycle of Centuries-old Violence: A decline in blood feuds in Khost province? was published in August 2025. The report refers to another AAN paper by Lutz Rzehak, Doing Pashto, published in 2011. In October 2025 Sharif Akram published another fascinating paper, The Turbaned Traders: The Taliban take over the urban economy. 

 Photo: Chief of the Balkhel tribe. A long-standing feud over land and water has persisted between the Balkhel and the Sabari sub-tribes that inhabit eastern Khost and Paktia provinces for decades. Photo: Wakil Kosher/AFP, 22 April 2024

The Afghanistan Analyst’s Network vast archive of reports and articles can be found on our website. For more episodes of AANCast, please subscribe. 

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.

Every month AANCast dives into some of our longer reports, to give you a flavour of our in-depth reporting, in discussion with a range of authors. In this episode, we’re looking what to expect from the arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for two Taliban for the international crime of gender persecution, with Rachel Reid and Ehsan Qaane, while AAN’s Kate Clark talks us through her report on the impact of massive American aid cuts to Afghanistan, and Roxanna Shapour pulls out a gem from AAN’s massive archive, a report delving into the question: Why don’t most Afghan men like naming their wives and daughters in public? 

Shownotes: To read the full story of the ICC's arrest warrants, see: Reigniting the Flames of Justice: ICC seeks arrest of the Islamic Emirate’s Supreme Leader and Chief Justice, by Rachel Reid. This article was published in January when the request for warrants was made; they were approved by the ICC in July. You can find lots of background on Afghanistan and the ICC on AAN’s website, including this 2022 piece by Ehsan Qaane: ICC Afghanistan Investigation Re-Authorised: But will it cover the CIA, ISKP and the forces of the Islamic Republic, as well as the Taleban?. Kate Clark discusses her May 2025 report: The End of US Aid to Afghanistan: What will it mean for families, services and the economy?, while Roxanna Shapour selected What’s in a Woman’s Name? No name, no public persona by Rohullah Suroush from AAN’s archive. Subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast.

Photo: ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who requested arrest warrants for the Emirate’s Supreme Leader and Chief Justice.

#Afghanistan #Taliban #ICC #WarCrimes #WomensRights  #USAID #Trump 

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.

In this episide of the The Daily Hustle, we hear from an Afghan who had to flee Iran when conflict between Israel and Iran escalated in June 2025. The Iranian government’s drive to deport Afghans had already accelerated the pace of ‘returns’. However, for Afghans who had lived through years of conflict in their own country, the ominous drums of war served as a powerful catalyst to flee Iran. AAN’s Nur Khan Himmat heard the story of a man who left his home in Tehran and took his family to start life all over again, in Afghanistan. He spoke from a camp for returnees in Herat. 

Duration: 15 minutes

Shownotes: Roxanna Shapour reads The Daily Hustle: Afghans flee the Iran-Israel war, based on an interview by Nur Khan Himmat, first published in June 2025. For more on the expulsion of Afghans from Pakistan, please take a look at this story, also from June 2025: The Second Phase of Forced Returns from Pakistan: Afghans tell stories of hardship and misery 

For more Daily Hustles, stories of one struggle in one Afghan’s life, look back at our archive here: 

Photo: Afghan families, who have been deported from Iran, rest with their belongings at the Islam Qala border crossing, by Wakil Kohsar/AFP, 28 June 2025 

#Afghanistan #Taliban #Iran #Refugees #Returnees #AAN

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.

In this episode we look at the dramatic fall of Haji Abdul Zaher Qadir, once a powerful Afghan commander and politician, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in the United States, after being arrested at a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2025. Haji Zaher, as he’s best known, was a prominent police commander and parliamentarian and was accused, multiple times, throughout the Islamic Republic era, of connections to drug smuggling, running private militias and land-grabbing. In this episode of AANCAST, Rachel Reid reads her account of Zaher’s fall from grace, as well as diving into the history of sting operations by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Duration: 26 minutes

Shownotes: Losing His Immunity: Former Afghan MP Haji Zaher extradited to US on drug charges, was published  in April 2025 and read by author Rachel Reid. 

For more stories of political intrigue, check out some of AAN’s rich archive here, including this report by Ali Yawar Adili: The Politics of Survival in the Face of Exclusion (2): The Emirate’s accommodation and suppression of local Hazara commanders. 

Photo: Haji Zaher with members of his local militia, which at the time was slated to be incorporated into the Territorial Army, from Haji Qadir Zaher via Facebook, 12 February 2016

#Afghanistan #Druglord #DEA #Drugwar 

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.

The Daily Hustle is our series of first-person accounts by one Afghan about one aspect of their daily life, as they adjust to Taliban rule. In this episode, we hear from a woman who, though born and raised in Pakistan, was forced to leave. As part of the wave of mass deportations and expulsions, she suddenly found herself in Afghanistan – a country she had never lived in, but was now expected to call home. Roxanna Shapour reads her account of this traumatic move and her struggles to settle in Afghanistan, including how she could prove her identity. 

Shownotes: Roxanna Shapour reads a story based on an interview by Nur Khan Himmat, which was published in May 2025. You can read the full story here: The Daily Hustle: How to get a national ID card in Afghanistan if you’re a Kuchi. 

You can read more personal stories in The Daily Hustle on our website, such as the story of a girl who was so appalled by madrasa education, she persuaded her family to set one up just for girls, or the labourer and his wife taking in a poor widow and her family and the girl who goes on a picnic. For analysis of the expulsion of Afghans from Pakistan, please take a look at this story from June 2025: The Second Phase of Forced Returns from Pakistan: Afghans tell stories of hardship and misery. For more on the deepening discrimination against women and girls, check out our Dossier of Reports on Afghan Women.  

Photo: Afghan refugees arrive from Pakistan in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, by Sanaullah Seiam/AFP, 3 December 2023  

#Afghanistan #Taliban #Refugees #Returnees #AAN

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.

AAN authors discuss three in depth reports: Kate Clark on what has changed in the year since the introduction of the ‘Vice and Virtue’ law in Afghanistan, Roxanna Shapour discusses a survey on men's views about the restrictions on women and finally, Rachel Reid gives a glimpse into her forthcoming report on alleged war crimes by British special forces in Afghanistan. 

Duration: 31 minutes 

Shownotes: The reports discussed in this episode are A year of Propagating Virtue and Preventing Vice: Enforcers and ‘enforced’ speak about the Emirate’s morality law and In Pursuit of Virtue: Men’s views on the Islamic Emirate’s restrictions on women. The report on potential war crimes by UK special forces has not yet been published, but you can read a little about it in this wider piece on accountability efforts in Afghanistan, A New Accountability Mechanism for Afghanistan: What the IIM-A can (and cannot) do. 

Image: Taliban in front of the Vice and Virtue Ministry. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP, 16 October 2024

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.

Afghan women may have been silenced in their own country, but in December 2025, they were given a very public platform to tell the world about life under the Taliban – The People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan. The tribunal took place in Europe, but Afghans were able to watch the hearings via satellite and online livestreams. Rachel Reid attended the hearings and interviewed many of those involved, bringing AANCAST this special report on the tribunal and its potential ramifications. 

Shownotes:

Rachel Reid’s report, Afghan Women Spoke: The People’s Tribunal for Afghan Women listened, was published in December 2025. The indictment, some of the testimony and verdict can be found on the website of the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan. 

The Afghanistan Analysts Network’s vast archive of reports and articles can be found on our website, including a dossier of reports on women’s rights, which was collated in March 2025, Deepening Discrimination: A dossier of reports about Afghan women. For more episodes of AANCast, please subscribe. 

Picture: The People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan’s panel of judges read their final judgment during a session in The Hague. Photo: Rachel Reid, AAN, 11 December 2025. 

Don’t forget to subscribe for regular listens from the team at AANCast and check out the Afghanistan Analysts Network website for more great research and analysis.