Afghanistan

Afghanistan, a poor, largely agricultural country with a heterogeneous population of approximately 15 million people, is currently experiencing the most severe-but not the first-protracted, violent, and all-encompassing crisis in its 100-year history as a national entity. The present crisis finds Soviet soldiers, who control the cities and major transportation routes, and the remnants of the armed forces and the supporters of the short-lived regime of Nur Taraki, Hafizullah Amin, and the People's Democratic Party, pitted against diverse and mutually distrustful insurgent groups. Continuing civil war, with direct and massive Soviet involvement, has resulted in extensive loss of life in centers of urban and rural resistance and the arrest and execution of large numbers of officers, administrators, teachers, and others in leadership positions.' The rural economy, already disrupted by the ill-considered agricultural reforms of the Taraki government, has been further disturbed by the interruptions of transit traffic caused by rebel ambushes and damaged roads and by the mass flight of Afghans to Pakistan and Iran. By early April 1980, some 681,928 refugees had been registered by the Pakistani government, with thousands more waiting to be registered, while Iranian officials reported an influx of 200,000-300,000 refugees.2 In the cities, there are reports of strikes, shortages, breakdowns of public services, closure of educational institutions, and the like. What led to these convulsive events? What conditions and currents are responsible for the character and severity of the crisis in Afghanistan? Apart

Development economics · Economics · Environmental planning · Geography · Political science · Population · Sociology · Demography · Health and Conflict Studies · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

• Years of women representation in Afghanistan

  Open Access•Parwiz Mosamim, Jean-Patrick Villeneuve et al.•Public Administration and…•2024

  Add to list

• The Uzbeks in Afghanistan

  Eden Naby•Central Asian Survey•1984

  Add to list