watanafghanistan:

Children death increases in winter due to extreme cold and heavy snow in Kabul and all over Afghanistan.

Unusually heavy snow, and freezing temperatures mean more misery for Afghans displaced by fighting specially the children.

I will soon make up an account to collect donations for these poor children and i will personally deliver your aid to the afghan children during my regular trips to Afghanistan. I accept money which will be then used to provide the children with blankets, coats and warm cloth in winter and other school supplies. Even if it is just $1 please do donate to help these poor children.

fotojournalismus:

Improving Access To Water In Afghanistan

(via Guardian)

In Afghanistan, more than 92% of the population lives without proper sanitation, and four out of five people have no access to safe drinking water. For the last two years, water, sanitation and hygiene teams from the NGO Medair have been working to improve the situation.

From Medair : 

Cultural Background and Current Challenges 

“More than 35 years of conflict and war have left the people of Afghanistan in a state of protracted crisis. Despite the overthrow of the Taliban regime ten years ago, civil unrest and increasing levels of insurrection have hindered efforts to bring stability and development to the nation. Almost a third of Afghans are food insecure. In 2010, 191,000 of Afghanistan’s youngest children died before reaching their fifth birthday—that’s an average of 523 child deaths every single day. More than one-quarter of those deaths are caused by diarrhoea, an indication of the country’s poor sanitation and unsafe water. In addition, more than 400,000 people—the majority living in remote and isolate communities—are affected each year by natural disaster. For these families, many already living hand-to-mouth, a flood, landslide, or earthquake can exhaust all their coping means, leaving them desperate for outside assistance.”

What is Medair doing in the country?

Medair’s purpose for being in Afghanistan is to assist communities that have critical needs. We work with families affected by natural disaster, the chronically poor who are living in underdeveloped areas, and communities who have been displaced by conflict. In particular, Medair seeks to identify and serve communities that are isolated and neglected, with no other means of assistance. 

In order to meet these needs, Medair currently runs the following programmes: food aid; nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and emergency response, incorporating disaster prevention and/or mitigation measures. [Read More]

Photos : 

#1 : A young girl gives her goats a drink in the village of Borlak Paein in Bamyan.

#2 : A woman collects water from a stream in the village of Borlak Paein in Bamyan.

#3 : A mother of six washes potatoes at her house in the village of Borlak Paein in Bamyan. Her husband’s crop was badly affected by a prolonged drought and he has had to buy in a lot of food for the winter.

#4 : A girl leads donkeys while her father stands on the plough behind in a village in the province of Bamyan. A prolonged drought means this year’s harvest has been poor and many people are worried about having enough food to see them through the winter.

#5 : Collecting water in Bamyan province. Cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery are common in Afghanistan, and more than 20% of children under the age of five will die as a result of water-related diseases.

#6 : Zaina, a widow and mother of six, is a beneficiary of Medair’s financial support for vulnerable families.

#7 : The valleys of Bamyan, where Medair runs many of  its water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects.

#8 : Khadija’s two grandchildren have lived with her since their mother left to marry another man after the death of her husband. A widow herself, Khadija is a beneficiary of Medair’s vulnerable persons programme as she has no means of income or place of her own.

[Credit : Kate Holt/Medair]

watanafghanistan:

Afghan women Facial tattoo (Khaal):
If you visit Afghanistan you will notice most of the women have green, dots or shapes drawn on their face ( chin/forehead/cheeks) or hands. Tattoos are very normal in Afghanistan especially among Pushtun women, except they are called “Khaal” ( means dot, because the tattoos are mostly drawn in form of dots) . It was, and in most of villages, still is considered a sign of beauty among young girls and women. Most of the women got their facial tattoos before marriage.

It’s a pre-Islamic habit that still exist in some tribes. They get it done by holding several sterilized sharp needles in the spot they are getting the tattoo, usually done to them by another elder woman who is known in the village for doing them. Afghanistan is Islamic country but they don’t have the proper teaching of Islam conveyed to them, most of the people having these tattoos admit that they never knew it was a sin in Islam and had it done when they were of small age (14-20). A lot of women have tried to remove it in several ways after knowing it is forbidden while others just leave it. Most of the Afghan people don’t have access to medical methods of removing tattoos,  because of being poor or simply because it is not available to them. Those who have done small dots use acid on their skin to remove it, which eventually leave scars. While others having bigger shapes just stay with it not knowing how to remove it.

Every Afghan family specially pashtuns have atleast one person in their family having these khaal.

watanafghanistan:

“The purpose of the Afghan war” is to stop the “return of the Caliphate” - UK General

Listen from 4 mins on, especially at 5:35: “the high water mark of the last caliphate”.

A British general telling us which version of Islam is acceptable? This is an interview with UK General “Sir” Richard Dannatt.

Isn’t it incredible how he tells us what the perversion of Islam is and isnt?! And how the caliphate is only (supposedly!) the aspiration of “Al Qaeda”? This is the strategy of the west- paint the caliphate as an al Qaeda project, paint Al Qaeda as the great terrorists, and so the caliphate becomes a form of extremism in itself. 

It has nothing to do with 9/11, it has nothing to do with Peace in Afghanistan. These are all reasons to invade Afghanistan for a SOLE purpose, that is to prevent the caliphate. That is why their reasons for this war changes every time.

The former head of the British army states that the objective for Britain and US in Afghanistan is preventing the establishment of a Caliphate that would expand from South Asia until it could threaten Europe at the Mediterranean. It is perhaps the clearest explanation so far from a member of the military establishment in the UK about their fear of the establishment of the Khilafah since Tony Blair’s famous speech.