Afghanistan
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Official name: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan |
DEMOGRAPHY
ECONOMY |
LIFE & LIBERTY |
Contents |
[edit] Geography
The nation of Afghanistan has been, in many ways, defined by its location and its terrain. It has been called the "Crossroads of Central Asia" because the legendary Khyber Pass on its eastern border with Pakistan is a strategic link between India and points west. Numerous world emperors have invaded Afghanistan in order to control this gateway, and most have, in the end, failed.
Afghanistan is cut virtually in two by the rugged mountains of the Hindu Kush. These mountains form a natural hiding place and barrier to invading armies. The freedom fighters of every age had only to melt back into these mountains and wait for the opportune moments to strike at their captors. At the same time, these rugged mountains have enabled a nearly endless civil war the government and whatever force--fundamentalist or liberal--happened to be in opposition at the time; and they have also kept out modernizing influences (like technology) as well as the gospel.
[edit] Climate
- Nearly three-quarters of its territory is virtually inaccessible. The nation has a harsh continental climate. Its temperature variance is the widest in the world; in winter, the temperature often falls below zero degrees.
- Winter 2007/2008 was a very harsh winter with temperatures falling to -25°C in some areas. More than 500 people - mostly children and the eldery - have died due to cold weather and heavy snow since December 2007.
[edit] Natural Resources
Natural gas and coal are the most important strategic resources. However, agriculture is the most common economic activity, although after the long civil war less than 60% of the farmland is cultivated.
[edit] Demographics
[edit] Peoples
- The largest ethnic group are the Pashto (or Pashtun, Pathan), which make up about 38% of the population and are its traditional rulers. Tajiks make up 25%, Uzbeks about 6%, and Hazara 19%. Ethnic divisions have largely been responsible for the feuds since the expulsion of the Soviets in 1992. There are also a variety of minor ethnic groups.
- See Joshua Project listing of peoples in Afghanistan.
- Most Afghanis live in rural villages; only 20% are found in the cities.
[edit] Provinces of Afghanistan
- Balkh province in northern Afghanistan lies on the borders of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan. The 1.6 million population of the province are dominated by Uzbeks and Tadjiks although there are significant Hazara and Pashtun minorities. Between May and July 1997 the Taliban unsuccessfully attempted to take Mazari, the provincial capital, leading to approximately 2,500 Taliban soldiers being massacred. In retaliation to this incident, in August 1998, the Taliban returned prompting a six-day killing frenzy of Hazaras and other local people. Soon after, the city was occupied by the Taliban. Today Mazari Sharif, as the forth-largest city in Afghanistan, is seeing the arrival of new streets, supermarkets and internet cafes. However there are only small numbers of Christians. Only 20 minutes away by car to the west of Mazari, lies the famous town of Balkh previously known as Bactria. This city has a population of 70,000 people consisting mostly of ethnic Uzbeks. In Balkh today there is no known Christian witness.
- Nuristan, see [30-days-net]
- Kabul
[edit] Life
- Most Afghans live in conditions of abject poverty. The nation does not have the resources to feed its people, and outside assistance is needed for the process of rehabilitation.
- The literacy rate for women is the lowest in the world; the education system is effectively male-only. All education for women -- including religious education -- has been banned. Since 2006 there is change to the better.
- The majority of women have been denied health care, since male doctors are not permitted to view female patients. The health service has virtually collapsed with the exit of most medical professionals from the nation. Infant and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world.
- Fighting Afghan opium will cost billions
- To eradicate the opium cultivation in Afghanistan, the international community must, according to the World Bank, invest more than two billion US dollars in rural development. The fight against drug cultivation in the long run could only be successful, if the otherwise impoverished farmers be enabled to get another livelihood should. This Tuesday 05.02.2008) begins at a conference at which politicians, donors and aid agencies discuss measures to combat the growing of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. (Source: World Bank)
- Pray that the Afghani drug trade, which is estimated to be among the worst in the world, will cease.
[edit] Economy
- The economy has been completely destroyed by nearly 2 decades of war. The countryside has been poisoned, bombed and mined; half the housing, most of the complex irrigation systems and a high proportion of the livestock have been destroyed. The most lucrative crop is opium. Many of the intellectuals abandoned the country after the Taliban took over.
[edit] History
Afghanistan's history, internal political development, foreign relations, and very existence as an independent state have largely been determined by its geographic location at the crossroads of Central, West, and South Asia. Over the centuries, waves of migrating peoples passed through the region--described as a "roundabout of the ancient world," by historian Arnold Toynbee--leaving behind a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups. In modern times, as well as in antiquity, vast armies of the world passed through Afghanistan, temporarily establishing local control and often dominating Iran and northern India.
Although it was the scene of great empires and flourishing trade for over two millennia, Afghanistan did not become a truly independent nation until the twentieth century. The area's heterogeneous groups were not bound into a single political entity until the reign of Ahmad Shah Durrani, who in 1747 founded the monarchy that ruled the country until 1973. In the nineteenth century, Afghanistan lay between the expanding might of the Russian and British empires. In 1900, Abdur Rahman Khan (the "Iron Amir"), looking back on his twenty years of rule and the events of the past century, wondered how his country, which stood "like a goat between these lions [Britain and Tsarist Russia] or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill, [could] stand in the midway of the stones without being ground to dust?" Constrained by the competing dictates of powerful British and Russian empires, Abdur Rahman focused instead on consolidating his power within Afghanistan and creating the institutions of a modern nation-state.
Islam played a key role in the formation of Afghan history as well. Despite the Mongol invasion of Afghanistan in the early thirteenth century which has been described as resembling "more some brute cataclysm of the blind forces of nature than a phenomenon of human history," even a warrior as formidable as Genghis Khan did not uproot Islamic civilization, and within two generations his heirs had become Muslims. An often unacknowledged event that nevertheless played an important role in Afghan history (and in the politics of Afghanistan's neighbors and the entire region up to the present) was the rise in the tenth century of a strong Sunni dynasty--the Ghaznavids. Their power prevented the eastward spread of Shiism from Iran, thereby insuring that the majority of the Muslims in Afghanistan and South Asia would be Sunnis.
Source in part: Library of Congress Country Study
[edit] Government
- Type of Government: Islamic republic
- An autocratic monarchy was overthrown in 1973. Republican rule was ended in a pro-Marxist coup in 1978 coupled with an invasion by Soviet forces. The armed conflict was a disaster for the country and finally led to the withdrawl of Soviet forces in 1988-89 and the fall of the Communist regime in 1992. Disunity among the guerrillas degenerated into civil war. The nation was soon taken over by the fundamentalist Taliban regime, which remained in power until the early years of this century when they were removed by US forces in reaction to the September 11th attack masterminded by Osama bin Laden based in Afghanistan.
- Prayer is urged for Pakistan and Afghanistan as the Taliban is gaining strength more than six years after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to drive the Islamist militant movement from power. Meanwhile, Taliban forces are reportedly targeting Christians in the region. Despite the presence of more than 50,000 U.S. and NATO troops throughout Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken back control of vast rural areas during the past year and now has a foothold just outside Kabul, USA Today reported. The Taliban had been pushed deep into the mountains in the years immediately following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Since then, the militant group has taken advantage of safe havens in the mountains bordering Pakistan to regroup and strike across the border at U.S., NATO, and Afghan government forces, USA Today reported. The year 2007 was Afghanistan’s bloodiest since the year of the invasion: More than 6,500 people — mostly insurgents — died in 2007.
[edit] Religion
[edit] Islam
- The nation is 99% Muslim, of which 84% are Sunni and 15% are Shi'a. The nation has been Muslim for most of its history. Even during the time of the Soviet occupation, many who claimed to be non-religious were secretly Muslims who reclaimed their faith after the Soviet withdrawal. Islam has been the official religion since the 10th century.
[edit] Buddhism
[edit] Christianity
[edit] History
- The earliest trace of Christianity is the attendance of the Bishop of Herat at the Council of Seleucia in 424. There was a Nestorian bishop in Kabul in the 13th century but Christians were eradicated from Afghanistan by Timur in the 14th century.
[edit] Churches
- See also Denominations in Afghanistan
- There is no public Afghani church within Afghanistan. There are some converts but all are very secret and few have found it possible to remain in Afghanistan. Open evangelism is effectively illegal.
[edit] Church and State Relations
- No Christian preaching to Muslims is legally permitted. Conversion from Islam to Christianity is considered apostasy and is still punishable by death. After the US-assisted overthrow of the Taliban, a later case of a convert to Christianity sentenced to death met with international condemnation and the convert was permitted to go into exile.
[edit] Mission
- See also Ministries in Afghanistan
The Church Missionary Society labored among Afghanis in Peshawar in 1853.
[edit] Persecution
- The 2006 constitution guarantees freedom of religion but prohibits laws contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam.
- New converts are often pressured by family and society to return to Islam and may face repeated verbal abuse, intimidation, beatings, unemployment and even imprisonment. They need courage and protection, spiritual and physical, from God and church leaders, who help them in their struggles.
- The 2007 South Korean hostage crisis began on July 19, 2007, when twenty-three (16 women and 7 men) South Korean Protestant aid workers including nurses and teachers travelling from Kandahar to Kabul by bus on a mission sponsored by the evangelical Presbyterian Saemmul Church, Seoul were captured and held hostage by members of the Taliban while passing through Ghazni province. Over the next month, the hostages were kept in cellars, farmhouses and constantly moved around in groups of three or four. Of the twenty-three hostages captured, two men were killed, pastor Bae Hyeong-gyu (aged 42) and Shim Seong-min (aged 29); two were released on August 13 and the remaining nineteen were released on August 29 and August 30. More details see: Wikipedia. Another Link: CNN
[edit] Councils and Networks
[edit] Future Trends
[edit] For More Reading
