AANCast – Details, episodes & 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.