The legacy of Taliban mines throws up a cruel analogy: just as Afghanistan's infant democracy is learning to find its feet, so some of Afghanistan's infants are learning to walk again after the Taliban. Here we see children who lost limbs due to Taliban land mines practising with their new artificial limbs.
© Wpn / Reporters
Building new roads has been a key priority as its benefits include better communications, relations, trade and essential services. Some Afghan farmers have even said that they could stop growing opium and switch to cash crops, as the roads meant crops could now reach markets while still fresh. The Taliban's response? Attempts to blow up some of these new roads.
© Reporters / Associated Press
Effective messages, which reach an Afghan audience, need to come from effective Afghan journalists. But it is not the easiest job to have in the country. The International Federation of Journalists complained earlier in 2008 of several reports of journalists being threatened and harassed by both local militias and authorities.
© Belga / AFP
The message mullahs: the Taliban's media operations are far more sophisticated each year. Improved production values, editing suites, publication facilities, and skilled media operatives are all available - and growing.
© Reporters / Associated Press
The one that got away...The Taliban's recent increased use of suicide bombings bears the hallmarks of foreign jihadist influences, as suicide missions had been relatively rare in the country. These continue, despite local religious and tribal rulings that they are neither Pashtun nor Islamic acts.
© Belga / AFP
While the Taliban spends much of its time fighting both kinetically and in the media, it has done little for the next generation of Afghans. This is particularly crucial in a country which still has the second highest infant mortality rate in the world. Even those who survive childhood can only expect to live to an average age of 43.
© Belga / AFP
A view from behind a burkha. This is what virtually every women saw in Afghanistan until 2001. Though the practice continues in patches, it is no longer brutally enforced by the Taliban, liberating millions of Afghan women. And they are free to see a wider range of images too.
© Reporters / Associated Press
The legacy of Taliban mines throws up a cruel analogy: just as Afghanistan's infant democracy is learning to find its feet, so some of Afghanistan's infants are learning to walk again after the Taliban. Here we see children who lost limbs due to Taliban land mines practising with their new artificial limbs.
© Wpn / Reporters
Building new roads has been a key priority as its benefits include better communications, relations, trade and essential services. Some Afghan farmers have even said that they could stop growing opium and switch to cash crops, as the roads meant crops could now reach markets while still fresh. The Taliban's response? Attempts to blow up some of these new roads.
© Reporters / Associated Press
Effective messages, which reach an Afghan audience, need to come from effective Afghan journalists. But it is not the easiest job to have in the country. The International Federation of Journalists complained earlier in 2008 of several reports of journalists being threatened and harassed by both local militias and authorities.
© Belga / AFP
The message mullahs: the Taliban's media operations are far more sophisticated each year. Improved production values, editing suites, publication facilities, and skilled media operatives are all available - and growing.
© Reporters / Associated Press
The one that got away...The Taliban's recent increased use of suicide bombings bears the hallmarks of foreign jihadist influences, as suicide missions had been relatively rare in the country. These continue, despite local religious and tribal rulings that they are neither Pashtun nor Islamic acts.
© Belga / AFP
While the Taliban spends much of its time fighting both kinetically and in the media, it has done little for the next generation of Afghans. This is particularly crucial in a country which still has the second highest infant mortality rate in the world. Even those who survive childhood can only expect to live to an average age of 43.
© Belga / AFP
A view from behind a burkha. This is what virtually every women saw in Afghanistan until 2001. Though the practice continues in patches, it is no longer brutally enforced by the Taliban, liberating millions of Afghan women. And they are free to see a wider range of images too.
© Reporters / Associated Press