In 1969 Afghanistan tried its hand at compulsory public education for children between the ages of 7 and 15, but the initiative never had a chance to grow roots. When the Soviets invaded 10 years later, many programs, including compulsory public education, were terminated. Prior to 1969, education was purely at the discretion of the family. Even then, much of the education offered concentrated on rote memory of the Quran, and was reserved for males only.

Families that elected not to send their children to school often did so out of a need for extra hands to maintain the household and field duties. Dari is the language of the educated in Afghanistan. Regardless of their ethnicity, if a family could pool the resources to send their children through an extensive education, they would become fluent in the Dari language. But after the Soviet withdrawal, any semblance of public education disappeared. Even Kabul University closed its doors. The Taliban had a very different approach to education. Outside of religious education for boys only, public education was forbidden, especially for girls. The result of the last three decades is a literacy rate less than 40%. Most of the literate were concentrated in urban areas, while rural locations accounted for less than 10% of the literate.

Social Statistics
Population:
28.396 Million (2009 est.)

0-14 years: 44.5%
(male 7,664,670/female 7,300,446)

15-64 years: 53%
(male 9,147,846/female 8,679,800)

65 years and over: 2.4%
(male 394,572/female 422,603) (2009 est.)

Total Fertility Rate:
6.53 children born/woman

Under-5 Mortality:
(m/f) 232/237 per 1000

Life Expectancy at Birth:
Total population: 44.64 yrs
Male: 44.47 yrs
Female: 44.81 yrs (2009 est.)

Literacy:
Age 15 and over can read and write
total pop.: 28.1%
male: 43.1%
female: 12.6% (2000 est.)

School life expectancy:
total: 8 years male
11 years female
4 years (2004)

Percentage of population using improved drinking-water sources, 2006, total: 20%

GDP per capita: $700 (2008 est.)

Labor force: 15 million (2004 est.)

Unemployment Rate: 40%

Urban Population: 24% of total population

Economy Overview

• Wheat and cereal production along with fruit and nuts have long been Afghanistan’s traditional agricultural mainstays

• Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and very dependent on foreign aid • There is a shortage of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs • Other challenges include corruption and a huge illicit opium trade • Agriculture: 80%, Industry: 10%, Services: 10% (2004 est.)
• Afghanistan has a wealth of natural resources to include: natural gas, petroleum, oil, marble, gold, copper, chromate, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, and salt
• Exploration indicates abundant deposits of precious and semi precious gemstones, including emerald, ruby, sapphire, garnet, lapis, kunzite, spinel, tourmaline, and peridot; most mining and exportation of these precious and semi precious gems is illegal
• Illegal and unregulated deforestation has depleted much of the country’s timber industry and has left much of the once forested areas barren
• Afghan hand woven rugs are one of the more popular exports along with leather, furs, and hand crafted replica antiques
• Overall the economy of Afghanistan has improved significantly since 2002 due to the infusion of billions of US dollars and international aid
• Exchange rate: 1 $US = 50 Afghanis (AFs)
• Afghanistan’s economy remains weak as economic production is insufficient to generate sufficient personal incomes, to sustain an effective public sector or to finance its wide-ranging imports of finished goods and services.
• In addition to the continuing problems of security, low employment, poor labor productivity, a lack of capital and poor capital productivity, a lack of a comprehensive set of policies to encourage entrepreneurship make the situation very discouraging.
• The Afghan economy has historically remained mostly agricultural in spite of the fact the country is only 12% arable and less than 6% is cultivated; there is almost no use of modern farming techniques to include: the use of farm equipment, chemical fertilizer, or pesticides; irrigation is primitive and totally dependent on the winter snows and seasonal rainfall; fruit and nuts exports average around $115 million a year but could easily be ten times that amount with a little investment.
• Although security has been a major hindrance to Afghanistan’s economic progress, the ability of the Afghan government to extend its reach throughout the country poses the biggest threat to future economic growth; illicit opium production and trade generates roughly 3 billion dollars a year and remains one of Kabul’s largest policy concerns.

Here is another blog post that is part of the Afghanistan Lessons Learned series. With the recent postings about Karzai’s statements and the arguing back and forth between our country’s government I figured it would be good to provide some background on how the Afghanistan Government works.

Afghanistan’s 34 Provinces are divided into districts. The number of districts has changed with the division or merging into other districts. The 325 districts that existed prior to 1979 changed with a reorganization in 2004 to an even larger number of 397. Currently, the Afghan Ministry of Interior (MoI) recognizes 398 districts. As Afghanistan continues to organize itself, this number may change over time.

Political Structure

• Executive — President is head of both state and government

• Provincial governors for each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces appointed by the president

• Legislative — National Assembly consists of two houses:

• Lower- Wolesi Jirga (the House of the People)

• Responsibility for making and ratifying laws and approving the actions of the president

• Upper- Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders)

• Advisory role with veto power

• Judicial — Supreme Court

• All justices (nine, including Chief Justice) appointed by the president and approved by the Wolesi Jirga
• Subordinate by high courts and appeals courts

I hope that clears some things up

The Flag of Afghanistan

• Black stands for the time period of 1839-1919 when the Afghan people fought three wars of independence against the British Empire
• Red represents blood, sacrifice, and the continuous challenge of the people to overcome hardship
• Green is the color of Islam and symbolizes peace
The writing on the flag emphasizes the importance of Islam by stating: “There is no God but God and Mohammad is his
prophet”
The mosque with the mihrab, is from seal of Abdur Rahman Khan, added by Habibullah Khan (who ruled 1901-1919).

This posting starts a series of blog posts I will be doing about Afghanistan. These will be posted both here and under my other blog, Afghanistan Lessons Learned at afghanlessons.blogpost.com.

A Brief History of Afghanistan (334 B.C.- Jan 2010)
• 334-326 BCE: Alexander the Great’s conquests Establishes many trade centers in Afghanistan to include Kandahar and Herat

• 30-248 CE: Kushan Empire The Kushans were great patrons of Buddhist art and culture; Bamiyan Buddha statues erected

• 642 – 1187 CE: Islamic Conquest of Afghanistan
Resulting in the conversion of Afghanistan to Islam from the pre-invasion practices of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and other belief systems

• 962 – 1186: Ghaznavid Dynasty A Persian dynasty of Turkic origins centered in Ghazni, brought in language (Dari) and a rich Persian culture to Afghanistan

• 1219: Mongol Invasion
The Mongols devastated Afghanistan, killing the population of major city centers, causing the population to revert to an agrarian rural society

• 1747-1826: Durrani Empire This was the beginning of the modern Afghan State and the Pashtun ruling class

• 1839-1842: First Anglo-Afghan War

The start of the “Great Game”, which was a power struggle between Russia and Great Britain in an effort to win power and dominance in the region; Britain occupies Afghanistan and uses it as a buffer to protect British India from Russian territory

• 1878-1880: Second Anglo-Afghan War Afghans attempt to oust British control of the country

• 1893: British establish the Durand Line
This disputed border separating Afghanistan from British Indian territories would eventually lead to strained relationships between Afghanistan and the new state of Pakistan; Durand line designed with the defense of India in mind

• 1919: Third Anglo-Afghan War After which Afghanistan gains full independence from Britain

• 1919 – 1929: The Kingdom of Afghanistan King Amanullah moved to end his country’s long-standing isolation and develop
diplomatic relationships with most major countries; slavery abolished in 1923
•1973: Republic of Afghanistan
Monarchy abolished; establishment of a republic

• 1978: Coup by communists backed directly by Soviet Union

• 1979: Soviets invade, install pro-Moscow government

• 1980s: Anti-Soviet jihad fought by the Mujahedeen

• 1989: Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan

• 1992: Last Communist regime falls; Mujahideen forces vie for power and factional infighting begins

• 1994: Civil war intensifies; 70% of country destroyed; Taliban rise to power

• 1996: Taliban capture Kabul and declare Islamic Emirate; Osama bin Laden relocates to Afghanistan

• 1996 – 2001: Era of Taliban government’s “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”; based loosely in Shari’a Law

• 1998: U.S. cruise missiles strike an Al Qaeda terrorist training complex in Afghanistan

• Sep 2001: Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood killed by Al Qaeda; attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon

• Oct 2001: Coalition forces begin air and ground operations in Afghanistan, support to Northern Alliance

• Nov 2001: Northern Alliance captures Kabul

• Dec 2001: Taliban fall from power; Bonn Agreement establishes Afghan Interim Administration with Hamid Karzai elected as chairman

• Jun 2002: Hamid Karzai becomes interim President

• 2002-2003: International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces responsible for Kabul

• Aug 2003: NATO assumes command of ISAF

• Jan 2004: NATO/ISAF assumes responsibility for Northern Afghanistan and begins gradual transition of responsibility from the US led coalition

• Jan 2004: New constitution introduced

• Oct 2004: Presidential elections, Karzai elected

• Oct 2006: NATO assumes responsibility for security across Afghanistan

• Jul 2007: Former King Zahir Shah dies

• Aug 2007: Opium production soars to a record high, according to UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

• Nov 2009: President Karzai sworn in for second term amid controversy and accusations of ballot stuffing

• Dec 2009: President Obama to increase troop strength in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 100,000

• Jan 2010: Taliban introduce a “Code of Conduct” in an effort to reduce civilian casualties, soften their image, and win allies