Afghan Women’s Cycling Team In National Geographic’s Adventurers Of 2016

The Afghanistan Women’s Cycling Team has been listed by the National Geographic for the Adventurers of the Year 2016 vote contest.

Honored as ‘The Boundary Breakers’, the Afghan Women’s Cycling Team is among the 10 Adventurers contesting in People’s Choice Vote – Adventurers of the Year 2016.

The Afghan team is among the 10 adventurers contesting in Adventurers of the Year 2016 which includes American rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson, U.S.-Brazil kayaking team of Ben Stookesberry, Chris Korbulic, Benny Marr, and Pedro Oliva, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, one of Nepal’s rising climbing stars.

The Wilderness Protector led by South African biologist Steve Boyes, American ski mountaineers Chris Davenport and Christy and Ted Mahon, the wildlife heros – biologist Arthur Middleton and photographer Joe Riis, German sea kayaker Freya Hoffmeister, trail runner Scott Jurek, and the Swiss Solar Pilots Andrés Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard.

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Extremism on the rise in unofficial religious Madrasas in Afghanistan

The Afghan government could face new challenges from the unofficial religious Madrasas – seminaries, according to a new survey report which suggests extremists thoughts have been adopted and are widely spreading among the students and teachers of these Madrasas.

The report has been prepared by Afghanistan Institute for Strategic Studies which covers 50 unofficial Madrasas in ten different provinces of the country.

At least 306 educators and students have been interviewed by the researchers of the report which covers Madrasas operating in southern, northern, eastern and central parts of the country.

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Afghanistan-Turkmenistan: Shifted From Friendly to Brotherly Ties

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have been good neighbors and friend for couple of years. Turkmenistan is an old friend of Afghanistan and we have historic and cultural ties between us. Turkmenistan is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and Afghanistan can draw in enormous riches from this potential neighbor. Earlier two premiers, affirmed to increase the volume of bilateral trade between the two neighbors to double of current stand point which is $1 billion.

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Lack of Social Freedom

We have been longing for freedom voraciously. Freedom to express our thoughts, to act without restrictions, to walk without boundaries, to do what we want without the mood of being told to do what is right. In other words, freedom has mostly been misread; empty of moral values and responsibilities. We have walked to freedom, however, “made missteps along the way” without admitting. Moreover, we did not only make missteps but also went the wrong way feeling a great disdain to ask a guide the way to freedom.

Think of a person who is in prison for three decades. Whenever he peeps through the prison’s hole, he sighs wistfully wishing to walk the same as the people outside the prison. He just sees people waking outside, but does not know exactly what is going on there. The prison guard releases him after many years. When he comes out, he sees the real criminals outside such as gangsters, kidnappers, murderers, robbers, bullies, etc. Every day, he notices violence, bloodshed, moral corruption, and so on. People, tyrannize him, threaten him to death, force him to do what they want and use him as a punching bag.  Won’t the person feel like returning to prison?

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Nadia Anjuman: Poet of Herat

While periodic blog-and-print wars erupt among US poets and critics about the possible death of poetry, in other parts of the world women die for writing poems. In Herat, Afghanistan, Nadia Anjuman was one among a group of women who risked their lives to continue writing under Taliban rule, gathering under the guise of the Golden Needle Sewing School. After the Taliban fell, her first book sold 3000 copies.

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(Russian) Афганские товары представили в Душанбе

In the 4th exhibition of economic developments of Afghanistan expected to be held in Tajikistan in the purpose of expansion of commercial ties with the regional countries, over 40 productive companies of the country would exhibit their products in the neighboring country.

Enhancement of importance of domestic products and expansion of commercial ties between Afghanistan and central Asian nation was called the main motive behind the planned show.
The in-charge of public relation of chamber of commerce and industry, Hashem Rasouli says that the 4th exhibition of economic developments of Afghanistan would be held in August 7th to 10th in Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan with cooperation of chambers of commerce and industry.

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President Ghani: ISIS ecology (continuation)

President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mohammed Ashraf Ghani interviewed with World Apart Network on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 20th of July 2015. The first part of the interview you can read here.

OB: Welcome back to Worlds Apart where we are discussing Afghanistan and Asian integration with the President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Ashraf Ghani. Mr President, let me switch gears a little bit. Your academic background, as you mentioned, is in anthropology, which in its broadest sense is the science about humans and human societies. How relevant do you find your academic experience to your current occupation, and have you ever changed fields? Because I think a case could be made that world politics is a prime example of cultural anthropology in action.
MAG: No, I have learned many new fields, I have never changed my field. And I practice it on a daily basis. Because the discipline has given me the capability to hear, to listen, and not to impose the categories of thought. Its greatest advantage to me is the ability to listen very carefully – listening is in very short supply. And then to be able to take an idea and express it 20 different ways, because the idiom of the interlocutor requires that understanding. And we’re all in discursive, symbolic fields, and we need to be able to communicate through symbols that are mutually understandable, not mutually incomprehensible.

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President Ghani: ISIS ecology

President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mohammed Ashraf Ghani interviewed with World Apart Network on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 20th of July 2015.

Oksana Boyko: The War on Terror unleashed the terrors of war on South Asia and the Middle East, with the goal of eliminating extremism. But more than a decade and a half later, that extremism has morphed into something almost unrecognizable, threatening the very structures of borders, states and the regional order. How does one fight an enemy that combines the worst of medieval thinking with the best of modern technology? Well, to discuss that, I’m now joined by the President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Ashraf Ghani. Mr President, it’s a great honour to have you on the show, thank you very much.

Mohammed Ashraf Ghani: It’s a pleasure to be with you, thank you for having me.
OB:Mr President, we are speaking on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and one of the issues that was discussed here at length is the growth of the so-called Islamic State, or Daesh as Americans refer to it. And the issue of how you call them is interesting, because it’s a choice between the extremists’ self-aggrandizing spin, the Islamic State, or the American, rather derogatory spin. Doesn’t this framing limit how we conceptualize this challenge, and how we ultimately deal with it?
MAG: Well, first of all, we need to make three distinctions. One is an ecology. Terrorism is a system now. Morally, it’s an aberration, sociologically it’s a systemic phenomenon. Second, it is a morphology. If Al-Qaeda was terrorism version one, Daesh is terrorism version six. It’s a fast-changing phenomenon, and one needs to grasp it in its own terms, not imposed categories from outside. Third, there’s a pathology. It’s brutal. The form of brutality is increasing. But it’s also the theatre of terror. Its actions are designed to overwhelm, to strike fear and to frighten. All these need to be taken together as a system. What enables it? The weakness of the state system, the lack of coherence in the national system. Terrorism as an organization and as network is fast, it’s rapid, it’s decisive. The response to it is fragmented, partial and episodic.

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Lev Gumilеv Centre explores Afghanistan information and political area

The presentation of a new information project «Afghanistan Lev Gumilеv Centre» took a place in Moscow Eurasian Club «Scythian Table». «Afghanistan Lev Gumilеv Centre» promises to become the one of the most successful information project on the Euroasian space.

Two new Eurasian information projects were presented to the participants: «Tajikistan Lev Gumilеv Centre» (in Russian and Tajik) and «Afghanistan Lev Gumilеv Centre» (in Russian, Dari, English, Farsi, Pashto and Uzbek).

«Eurasian information project starts in the Persian-speaking world. There is impossible to stay a separate state in the current extreme geopolitical situation in Central Asia. It is necessary to combine in unions, alliances, to develop a variety of integration projects. The creation of the Eurasian Union is a geopolitical and historic opportunity for Asia small states, primarily Tajikistan», said the head of the Lev Gumilеv Centre Paul Zarifullin.

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Moscow and Tashkent try to find common approach towards Afghan issue

On the eve, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov met with Uzbek ambassador to Russia Ziyadulla Pulatkhodzhaev at the Foreign Ministry. According to Uzbek media, one of the key topics of the discussion was issues related to coordination of efforts by Russia and Uzbekistan in solving the Afghan issue.

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