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Afghanistan Under Different Flags
From the black banners of the emirs to the white flag of the Taliban: the history of Afghanistan in colours
 • Vitaliy Karanda
A Fort of Nine Towers: A Book to Understand Afghanistan
How the story of one Afghan family can tell you more about the country than dozens of books about wars, politics, and foreign invasions
 • Vitaliy Karanda
Where Did Afghanistan Get This “Tail”?
How the Great Game between two empires left Afghanistan with a narrow corridor stretching all the way to China
 • Vitaliy Karanda
“The Graveyard of Empires”: The First Great Lesson
What the history of the British invasion of Afghanistan tells us about all the wars that followed
 • Vitaliy Karanda
What If Afghans Are Descended from the Ancient Israelites?
Qais, King Saul, the mysterious Afghana - and one of the most remarkable legends about the origins of the Pashtuns
 • Vitaliy Karanda
Why Read Those We Disagree With
From the story of a man who nearly joined the Taliban to a broader conversation about books, culture, and other people’s experience
 • Vitaliy Karanda
A Face the Whole World Knew. A Voice Almost No One Heard
How the “Afghan Girl” photograph turned a real person into a symbol of Afghanistan - and what we actually see in her gaze
 • Vitaliy Karanda
The Underground Girls of Kabul: Freedom in the Guise of a Boy
Jenny Nordberg’s book uncovers the unsettling practice of bacha posh - and a much larger story about patriarchy, control over women’s bodies, and the…
 • Vitaliy Karanda
The Bookseller of Kabul: Between Hospitality and Truth
A literary dispute in which cultural tradition collides with human dignity
 • Vitaliy Karanda
Voices from Afghanistan That Were Not Allowed to Be Heard
On My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird - short fiction by Afghan women, where writing becomes a way to reclaim voice, dignity and the right to be heard
 • Vitaliy Karanda
Two Lines of Freedom: Afghan Landays
The anonymous, piercing voices of Afghan women
 • Vitaliy Karanda
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