SpecialFeature |
| A profile of Afghanistan |
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Special Feature |
| A profile of Afghanistan |
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The Islamic State of Afghanistan is republic in southwestern Asia. It lies across ancient trade and invasion routes from Central Asia into India. This position has been the greatest influence on its history because the invaders often settled there. Today the population includes many different ethnic groups. Most of the present borders of the country were drawn up in the 19th century, when Afghanistan became a buffer state, or neutral zone, between Russia and British India. Kabul is the capital and largest city.
Land Afghanistan covers an area of 652,225 sq km (251,825 sq mi). Its maximum length from east to west is about 1,240 km (about 770 mi); from north to south it is about 1,015 km (about 630 mi). The northwestern, western, and southern border areas are primarily desert plains and rocky ranges, whereas the southeast and northeast borders rise progressively higher into the major, glacier-covered peaks of the Hindu Kush, an extension of the western Himalayas. Climate Most of Afghanistan has dry and cold winters, except for the lowlands, which have arid and semiarid climates. Summers are hot and winters can be bitterly cold. Summer temperatures as high as 49° C (120° F) have been recorded in the northern valleys. Midwinter temperatures as low as -9° C (15° F) are common around the 2,000-m (6,600-ft) level in the Hindu Kush. The climate in the highlands varies with elevation. The coolest temperatures usually occur on the heights of the mountains. Temperatures often range greatly within a single day, from freezing conditions at dawn to the upper 30°s C (upper 90°s F) at noon. Most of the precipitation falls between the months of October and April. Resources Afghanistan has a long history of small-scale mining of gems, gold, copper, and coal. However the systematic exploration of mineral resources did not begin until the 1960s and was disrupted by war. There is a wide variety of mineral resources, but only coal, iron ore, copper ore, and gemstones were targeted for development. There are also unexploited natural gas fields and significant unexploited oil reserves in the north as well. Plant life in Afghanistan is sparse but diverse. Only 12 percent of the land is cultivated. Moreover, a war with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 1980s and the subsequent civil war in the 1990s left some of that land unusable because of neglect, the planting of explosive mines, and other problems. In general, sheep and goat grazing make up the main agricultural land use. People A 2001 population estimate was 26,813,057, though the effect of the war-with its casualties and refugees-makes estimating difficult. In 1999 some 79 percent of the population lived in rural areas. Of the urban dwellers, probably about half lived in Kabul, the capital city. The nomadic population was estimated to be about 2.5 million people. During the war with the Soviets the number of Afghan refugees outside the country escalated dramatically, with as many as 2.5 million to 3 million refugees in Pakistan and another 1.5 million in Iran. About 150,000 Afghans were able to migrate permanently to other countries, including the United States, Australia, and various European countries. Afghanistan is comprised of a variety of ethnic groups, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim, usually either followers of Sunni or Shia Islam. The people of Afghanistan are related to many of the ethnic groups in Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; the borders drawn between these groups are arbitrary. The Pashtuns, who make up about two-fifths the population, have traditionally been the dominant ethnic group. The Pashtuns dominate the Taliban regime. The Tajiks, a people of Iranian origin, are the second largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. They live in the valleys north of Kabul and in Badakhshan. They are farmers, artisans, and merchants. Prior to the war important political positions were distributed almost equally among ethnic groups. Principal Cities Kabul, the capital and largest city, had an estimated 1.4 million inhabitants in 1988, but an estimated 700,000 in 1993 because so much of it has been destroyed by war. Other important cities are Kandahar, or Qandahar (225,500; 1988 estimate) in the south, which is dominated by Pashtun tribes; Herat (177,300) in the west, with a dominant Tajik population; and Mazar-e Sharif (130,600) in the north, also with a dominant Tajik ethnicity. Mazar-e Sharif, where the tomb of the Muslim leader Ali is said to be located in a 15th-century mosque, is a leading place of Muslim pilgrimage. Scattered throughout Afghanistan are the flag-covered graves of saintlike people who are revered and petitioned for help in childbearing, settlement of disputes, moral leadership, or in other capacities. Way of Life Although the Afghan population is composed of many distinct ethnic groups, certain elements of their way of life are much the same. Characteristically, the family is the mainstay of Afghan society. Extremely close bonds exist within the family, which consists of the members of several generations. The family is headed by the oldest man, or patriarch, whose word is law for the whole family. Family honor, pride, and respect toward other members are highly prized qualities. Among both villagers and nomads the family lives together and forms a self-sufficient group. In the villages each family generally occupies either one mud-brick house or a walled compound containing mud-brick or stonewalled houses. The same pattern prevails among the nomads, except that tents replace the houses. Economy In the mid-1990s, after a decade of Soviet occupation, war, and economic manipulation, followed by the ongoing civil war, the economy of Afghanistan was in shambles. Even in the 1970s, prior to the war, Afghanistan had one of the lowest standards of living in the world; things have declined since then, with the production, trafficking, and movement of drugs and guns as a major hidden part of the economy. Only a very small share of Afghanistan's land, mostly in scattered valleys, is suitable for farming, and a majority of this farmland requires irrigation. Afghanistan is a major supplier in the international drug trade. It is the second-largest opium producer after Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), with 950 metric tons produced in 1994. Afghanistan also produces significant quantities of hashish. In 1997 the Taliban agreed to cooperate with a United Nations (UN) drug control program to reduce opium production. The unit of currency in Afghanistan is the afghani, which is divided into 100 puls. In 1999 the exchange rate averaged 3,000 afghanis to U.S.$1. Recent history Until the 1960s Afghanistan's king and the king's relatives dominated the central government, though the royal family had to keep the support of conservative ethnic and religious leaders. In 1973 military officers led by Muhammad Daud overthrew the king and proclaimed Afghanistan a republic. In 1978 Afghanistan came under Communist rule when the military overthrew Daud and installed Noor Muhammad Taraki, who was overthrown and killed in September 1979 by Hafizullah Amin and his supporters. In December 1979 the Soviet Union mounted a full-scale invasion of the country, killed President Amin, and installed Babrak Karmal as the president. In 1987 the Soviet-backed Communist government issued a new constitution providing for a president to be indirectly elected to a seven-year term; Sayid Mohammad Najibullah was elected president. Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 and the overthrow of the Communist regime and Najbullah in April 1992, an interim council took power. In December 1992 Burhanuddin Rabbani was elected president by a special Grand Council. The term of Rabbani's government officially expired in December 1994, but he continued to hold office until September 1996, when the Pashtun-led Taliban took the capital and ousted his government. President Rabbani fled north, joining other factions in an opposition alliance against the Taliban. In 1997 the opposition coalition took the name United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan and appointed Dostum as chief military commander. By the late 1990s the Taliban controlled almost all of Afghanistan, although most other countries had not recognized the group as the legitimate government of the Afghan state. In 1998, after terrorist bombings struck U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the United States launched cruise missiles at alleged terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan. The camps were reportedly connected to an international terrorist ring allegedly run by Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian named by U.S. officials as the mastermind behind the embassy bombings. In early 1999 a United Nations diplomatic initiative produced an agreement among Afghanistan's warring factions. The accord called for a permanent cease-fire and a shared government. However, fighting erupted again almost immediately, and plans for further talks were delayed.
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