PukhtoonistanGazette

 Sexism in Muslim world: Yes, They Hate Us, It Must be Said

"Why Do They Hate Us?", Egyptian-born, U.S.-based journalist Mona Eltahawy's cover story for Foreign Policy's first-ever "Sex Issue", is an uncomfortable and obligatory read. Eltahawy argues that the Arab Spring movement is just as misogynistic as the regimes it replaced, and that true revolution is...

 Betrayal, and Death, in the Barracks

Signs of Plot Litter Afghan Post Where Officer Killed 9 Comrades and Wounded Prized Force YAHYA KHEL, Afghanistan: Every battlefield is a killing ground. But the room where nine Afghan policemen died late last month is something different: a crime scene. There is the tea kettle where the suspect,...

 Duplicating Afghanistan From the Ground Up

FRESNO, Calif: When Sgt. First Class Darrell Rowe’s Army bosses told him they were sending him for a week of beekeeping and tree pruning here in California’s fertile Central Valley, he was irked. “My first reaction was, what the hell would I be doing with agriculture?” said Sergeant Rowe, 32. “Wha...

 Australia to withdraw troops from Afghanistan earlier than expected

Australian troops could begin pulling out of Afghanistan in the coming months and may leave the country almost entirely by the end of next year, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday. It's the latest announcement of international troop draw downs in Afghanistan, a trend that signals the coaliti...

 Afghanistan’s Karzai: U.S. deal has to specify cash

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that the long-term partnership agreement being negotiated with the United States should specify exactly how much money the U.S. will give to Afghan forces in coming years. The demand could place a new hurdle in front of the key pact just as ne...

 With Eye on Past, Karzai Lays Out Vision for an Independent Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan: In a sweeping speech on Tuesday that touched on some of the heroes of Afghanistan’s past 150 years, President Hamid Karzai laid out a vision of a modern, independent Afghanistan that could outlast security upheaval and foreign entanglement. And he made an emotional defense of his...

 U.S. troops pose with suspected Afghan bombers' bodies

The Los Angeles Times published photos Wednesday of U.S. soldiers posing with what the newspaper said were bodies of insurgents in Afghanistan -- sparking outrage and condemnation from U.S. military officials. The two photos published by the paper are among 18 provided by a U.S. soldier, who wanted...

 Afghan Youth Orchestra Plans to Visit the U.S.

One of the best-known facts about music in Afghanistan, at least in the West, is that it wasn’t. The Taliban banned it when they took power in 1996, beating musicians, burning instruments and destroying cassette tapes in the name of their severe and extreme vision of Islam. But with the Taliban’s ...

 Afghan Textbooks Skip Decades of Violence

Schools get history books that miss out all the bad bits. Afghanistan: In a highly controversial move, Afghanistan’s education ministry has dealt with the complexities of the last four decades of turmoil and war by simply omitting the entire period from the new history textbooks it is issuing to sc...

 Afghanistan: A Moderate Defies the Taliban

Agha Jan Motasim urged moderation—and was nearly killed. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau on the Afghan insurgency’s deepening splits over peace talks. Not so long ago, Agha Jan Motasim was one of the most important men in the Afghan Taliban. That was before he was sacked as head of the ruling Quetta ...