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September 28, 2012 

Afghanistan, Pakistan sign long-term pact
Sept. 28, 2012 at 8:01 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to sign a long-term strategic cooperation agreement between the two countries, officials said.

Joint-Force Operations Resume in Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal By JULIAN E. BARNES in Washington and NATHAN HODGE in Jalalabad, Afghanistan September 27, 2012
Joint operations between international and Afghan forces are restarting, Pentagon officials said Thursday, easing a prohibition on small-unit patrols that presented a high risk for insider attacks that have killed dozens of allied troops.

Afghanistan: As Nato troops pull out, Kabul has the task of rebuilding society
Foreign-led reconstruction teams want to preserve progress in Afghanistan but may have failed to establish an 'invisible' legacy
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Thursday 27 September 2012
The military campaign in Afghanistan has been the focus of international attention over the last decade, but that is shifting markedly as Kabul tries to make sense of what will be left behind when Nato's combat troops disappear.

Afghan troops taking on perilous fight against insurgency
CNN By Anna Coren September 28, 2012
Delaram, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines stand under the blazing sun at Camp Bastion airfield waiting for their ride to take them far beyond the perimeter fence.

Exclusive: Chinese halt at flagship mine imperils Afghan future
Reuters By Jessica Donati and Mirwais Harooni September 27, 2012
KABUL - Afghan officials are battling to convince nervous Chinese investors to restart work at a landmark $3 billion mine project and not to worry unduly about insurgent rocket attacks to salvage one of the country's big hopes of economic independence.

Pakistan Military Warn East Afghanistan Residents to Leave Homes
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 27 September 2012
Pakistan military forces have sent warnings to residents of the far eastern districts of Nangarhar province to leave their homes or risk attack, according to Nangarhar MP Faridon Mohmand.

Afghan teens scarf up a fashion trend from Bollywood
Washington Post By Richard Leiby September 27 , 2012
In the dusty heat of Afghanistan’s capital, the best defense is a scarf: It filters the gritty air, blocks the sun, sops up sweat and, in a pinch, even doubles as a prayer mat.

Taliban likely to regain power in Kabul: analyst
AFP 27/09/2012
KABUL - The Afghan government will collapse and Taliban insurgents are likely to retake power after the US and NATO pull their troops out in 2014, a respected international scholar has predicted.

Experts fear a 'Talibanization' of Afghan justice
DW 27/09/2012
The lashing of a teenage girl in Afghanistan for having an "illegal relationship" has caused an uproar inside and outside the country. Experts fear a "Talibanization" of the Afghan justice system.

Afghanistan launches first professional football league
Afghanistan has launched its first professional football league, with organisers hoping it will raise the standard of its national team and one day rival cricket as the country's most watched sport.
By Ben Farmer, Kabul 6:17PM BST 28 Sep 2012 The Telegraph (UK)
The two-week-old Afghan Premier League has proven an overnight hit and its daily matches are already attracting crowds of thousands and significant television audiences.

Undercover security: the Afghan women taking on the Taliban
In Helmand, women are joining security forces in an effort to improve rights, and safety, as Nato troops prepare to withdraw
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Thursday 27 September 2012
Gulalia Sherzad is an unusual woman with an unusual job.
She set up and runs a women's centre in Gereshk, the main town in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province, one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan.

Afghan Cycles London to Kabul to Show Nation's Prowess
TOLOnews.com By Mir Sayed Thursday, 27 September 2012
A 29-year-old Afghan man living in Britain for the past 12 years cycled from London to Kabul, arriving in the Afghan capital Thursday morning after the three-month trek.

British-built schools in Afghanistan may be forced to close
Dozens of schools and health clinics built by the British military in Helmand may be forced to close down because the Afghan government can no longer afford keep them open, it was reported last night.
Telegraph.co.uk 27/09/2012
Millions of pounds were spent across the war-torn province over the last decade in an effort to win over hearts and minds and convince civilians to side with British troops rather than the Taliban.
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Afghanistan, Pakistan sign long-term pact
Sept. 28, 2012 at 8:01 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to sign a long-term strategic cooperation agreement between the two countries, officials said.

An Afghan government official said Thursday Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari agreed to sign the pact during the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Khaama Press reported.

Details of the agreement were not known.

Afghanistan has signed long-term strategic cooperation agreements with the United States and other nations. The Afghan Review said the pact with the United States covered "security, economics and governance."
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Joint-Force Operations Resume in Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal By JULIAN E. BARNES in Washington and NATHAN HODGE in Jalalabad, Afghanistan September 27, 2012
Joint operations between international and Afghan forces are restarting, Pentagon officials said Thursday, easing a prohibition on small-unit patrols that presented a high risk for insider attacks that have killed dozens of allied troops.

In the wake of fallout from an anti-Muslim video, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said last week it had halted joint operations between smaller units to guard against the problem of Afghan soldiers shooting their U.S. counterparts.

Defense officials said they resumed most of the joint small-unit patrols after regional commanders made security reviews and added force-protection measures. Officials consider the joint patrols crucial to let Afghan soldiers take over security after NATO forces depart in 2014.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday he expected such attacks to continue.

"The purpose of those insider attacks has been to target the very trust that we need between ISAF and Afghan forces," Mr. Panetta said. "That trust is critical to completing this transition."

Defense officials said levels of cooperation haven't returned to the pre-suspension conditions. "It's not back to the status quo," said a defense official.

In the field, tensions remain high over the threat that seemingly friendly Afghans turn their weapons on allied troops. Such attacks have claimed the lives of 51 U.S. and NATO troops this year. Defense officials haven't be able to explain the majority of insider attacks, but are increasingly blaming Taliban militants.

Longstanding measures to protect U.S. forces—such as well-armed "guardian angels" who stand watch during routine allied encounters with Afghans—are still in place.

Other measures are newer. At one small outpost in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, U.S. troops temporarily cut back on jogging outdoors, as a safety precaution.

U.S. troops are still wary around Afghan soldiers. On one mission Thursday morning, an Army sergeant spotted a group of Afghan National Army troops outside an Afghan government compound.

"These are the guys you have to worry about, more than the enemy," the sergeant told a reporter. "They're loaded for bear."

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who visited Afghanistan this week, said a directive limiting joint operations was meant to buy time for commanders on the ground to "assess their own situation."

The suspension came in a classified directive Sept. 16 that said regional commanders must approve any joint operations between units below the level of a battalion, instantly putting a halt to joint patrols and combined operations between international and Afghan troops.

Joint operations must still be approved by regional commanders, but many requests are now being quickly approved, officials said.

In 2009, a directive put in place by the top U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, pushed all U.S. forces to integrate more closely with Afghan forces to improve their training.

Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com and Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
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Afghanistan: As Nato troops pull out, Kabul has the task of rebuilding society
Foreign-led reconstruction teams want to preserve progress in Afghanistan but may have failed to establish an 'invisible' legacy
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Thursday 27 September 2012
The military campaign in Afghanistan has been the focus of international attention over the last decade, but that is shifting markedly as Kabul tries to make sense of what will be left behind when Nato's combat troops disappear.

The country has 34 provinces and progress in each, on issues such as women's rights and counter-narcotics, is, so far, patchy.

A new sense of realism appears to be sweeping the civilian-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), along with a chilling recognition that their legacy will help shape the future of the country.

The feeling is particularly acute in Helmand, where the British-led PRT has broken new ground over the last three years and is desperate to preserve such progress as has been made.

Afghanistan's first local elections were held in Helmand, which now has 32 councillors. It has recently adopted a more pragmatic drugs strategy, that could help to persuade poppy farmers to develop crops that are actually needed in cities such as Kabul.

But time is against them. The PRT, which has a team of 160, is being gradually wound down.

And Hamid Karzai's surprise sacking last week of Helmand's provincial governor, Gulab Mangal, is an undoubted blow at an important moment.

The British liked Mangal and hoped that if he had to be replaced, a progressive would be appointed. Instead, Karzai gave the province to an unknown: General Naeem Baloch, who used to work for the Afghan intelligence service.

It is too soon to know how this will affect the PRT, but it is hard to imagine that Baloch has been put in place because he is a liberal; or that he will instinctively support the head of the PRT, Catriona Laing, who wants Helmand to become a model, for other provinces, in aspects such as good governance.

This is the unsexy, below-the-line organisation that Helmand desperately needs. And with the unerringly punishing luxury of hindsight, the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development now believe the British spent too much time and money on "visible" changes in the province, such as the building of new schools, roads and health clinics, and not enough time putting in place the kind of checks, balances and controls that make governments be accountable, and function.

One of the key figures in Helmand is Jim Haggerty, a 58-year-old Geordie who has the ear, and the trust, of many of the village elders and tribal chiefs.

Working for the UK's stabilisation unit, Haggerty has been in Afghanistan for more than five years and in Helmand for more than four.

Few Britons in Afghanistan understand the country's people and its practices better than he. He is pragmatic, and cautions against being too ambitious in the time the PRT has left.

He believes the priority now is what he calls a "back to the future strategy". He says: "We need to take them back to the point where they were at 20 years ago.

Instead of comparing what they have now to what we have, we have to think back to what they had then. That should be the starting point.

"It may look ugly to us from where we are, but it might make sense here. There are going to be setbacks.

"It may not end up as we had hoped for, but when you look at the changes we have seen, and the people that have been affected, and the willingness of the Afghans to take the lead now, then that is progress.

"It is not going to be ideal, it may not be what we wanted four of five years ago, but this is a process that will be truly owned by the Afghans. We have to respect that."

The Afghans, he admits, want the British to leave. But not just yet.

"They don't want us here. But they are very pragmatic and they know that they need us to enable them to do what they want to do."

And though the PRT will disappear, Haggerty says, "there will still be some people here after 2014".

He adds: "The civilian side will evolve into something else. It is not as if we are walking away from here. We won't let it founder.

"There is unfinished business here. It is not the end of the book, just the end of a chapter in the book."
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Afghan troops taking on perilous fight against insurgency
CNN By Anna Coren September 28, 2012
Delaram, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines stand under the blazing sun at Camp Bastion airfield waiting for their ride to take them far beyond the perimeter fence.

Wearing body armor and weapons, they dump their helmets and bags in the dirt and look out onto one of Afghanistan's busiest runways.

A $25 million Harrier jet flies past, leaving the roar of its engine in its wake, while a C-130 Hercules touches down to pick up troops and cargo. An Osprey aircraft -- half helicopter, half plane -- hovers in the distance before landing to join the dozen other Ospreys sitting on the tarmac.

A Sikorsky then comes into view. The helicopter invented by a Russian-American is older than the other military hardware on the runway but it's reliable and gets the job done. As it approaches the apron of the runway, the draft blows the dirt straight into the faces of the Marines.

They don't turn their backs to the assault of sand, dirt and gravel but hold their ground and stare right into it -- a display of Marine toughness that could come in handy in the mission ahead. They're headed to Nimroz province, where the insurgency is growing stronger by the day.

As I stand there wondering if all these Marines will return from their tour in the badlands of southwest Afghanistan, a lanky 19-year-old soldier with a buzz cut strolls by and strikes up a conversation. He tells me he was in the third grade in Minnesota when the September 11 attacks occurred.

"I grew up watching the war in Afghanistan on CNN, and I knew I wanted to come here and fight for my country," he says.

We've come to the front line of this war to see the transfer of power that is under way between U.S. and Afghan forces.

But a spate of so-called "green on blue" attacks -- Afghan soldiers or police attacking U.S. and other international forces -- has caused serious alarm for U.S. and ISAF troops, and the transition process has been fast tracked.

The Marines have sent us to Delaram, at the crossroads of Helmand, Nirmroz and Farah provinces, to show how joint patrols are still happening, despite NATO's orders to suspend many of the operations.

As we touch down in this dusty, desolate landscape, it quickly becomes apparent the Marines are no longer training the Afghans.

They've handed over the reins of this outpost to the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the 28 Marines who remain here are working in an "advisory" role, marking off the days on the calendar until they are scheduled to go home for Christmas.

While everyone lives inside the massive compound, the two camps are divided by high barbed-wire fences, with several hundred meters of land between them.

The Marines and Afghans live, eat and sleep separately. They only come together and mix on common ground where the central command headquarters is located.

A Marine introduces me to the man in charge -- Gen. Abdul Wasea Milad from the ANA. The former Mujahadeen fighter is leading 5,000 Afghan soldiers from the Iranian border east to Kajaki -- some of the most dangerous territory in the country.

He's just returned from a 10-day trip visiting many of his outposts, driving hundreds of kilometers along Highway One. It's a journey the Americans wouldn't even consider doing by road because of all the improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, planted daily by insurgents.

When I ask the general about the dangers he faces, he just laughs and tells me: "This is Afghanistan. My men sweep the roads for landmines every morning, so they're fine to travel on during the day. It's when we sleep that the Taliban puts them out again."

While standing in Wasea's office, a soldier informs him of a report of a suspected IED outside the local police headquarters.

He takes us in his Humvee to the site about three kilometers (two miles) beyond the wire from Camp Delaram. The Americans are not accompanying us. They have no desire to leave the fortified compound, as they explain this is now an Afghan operation.

Lt. Jan Mohammad, who has been with the ANA for the past two years, is leading the mission. He and another solider are carrying a metal detector, a block of C4 explosive, detonators and a drag rope.

The site is off the main highway on a dirt road leading to a village. We walk in single file, aware of every single step, in case there are other mines that have been laid under the surface.

The soldier sweeping the road suddenly stops when his equipment starts beeping -- a sign it's picked up something possibly very dangerous. We all crouch down and he gently picks at the earth. After a painstaking search he declares there's nothing there and we move on.

Soldiers armed with M4 machine guns stand above us on the dusty hill watching in case there's an ambush.

A local villager on a motorcycle attempts to drive in our direction. The soldiers point their weapons and yell out a warning, telling the driver to head off in another direction.

Suicide bombings are also a common tactic for the Taliban, and these soldiers are only too aware of the dangers that now face them.

We reach the site and Lt. Mohammad takes over. The 30-year-old officer earns less than $300 a month, risking his life every day to disable these deadly devices.

I ask how much experience he has, and he tells me: "It's not my first time. I have defused 70 IEDs in Kajaki in seven days when I was there with the Marines."

When I ask him why he does this dangerous line of work he replies: "If I lose my life it wouldn't be a problem. But if others die while I am doing this then I would feel bad because I don't want others to die. This is my job -- to save my people from the risk of these IEDs."

As he lies on his stomach assessing the area, he digs with his hands to remove the earth. He slowly stands up and sweeps the metal detector over and over again, making sure he identifies the exact spot before lying back in the dirt to continue digging.

After 20 minutes, he stands up and declares the site is clear explaining the Taliban must have removed the IED after it had been reported to the police, or a local came and took it to claim the $100 reward.

As we walk back to the Humvee I ask Lt. Mohammad how he feels about the U.S.-led coalition pulling out of Afghanistan by 2014.

He says: "It wouldn't make a difference to me if they leave because it is my country and I will keep doing my job."
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Exclusive: Chinese halt at flagship mine imperils Afghan future
Reuters By Jessica Donati and Mirwais Harooni September 27, 2012
KABUL - Afghan officials are battling to convince nervous Chinese investors to restart work at a landmark $3 billion mine project and not to worry unduly about insurgent rocket attacks to salvage one of the country's big hopes of economic independence.

Western donors have focused on Aynak, the largest foreign investment project in its history which could help the country, now reliant on development aid, find its feet after most foreign combat troops leave in 2014.

But the giant Aynak copper deposit, among the world's largest, is situated in Logar province, one of the country's most dangerous, southeast of Kabul and insurgents aiming to wreck the government's flagship project have stepped up attacks.

After decades of war, many Afghans are resigned to the daily threat of roadside bombs and crossfire between NATO and insurgents. Civilian casualties hit a three-year high in August.

Most Chinese staff at the site, however, appear to have been spooked by Taliban attacks and left the country, with only a skeleton crew remaining to watch over equipment.

Afghan officials point out that the insurgents have not yet killed any Chinese workers.

"We had meetings with them (the Chinese investors) and assured them these rocket attacks happen anywhere and they are not the direct targets. We had repeatedly meetings with them but could not make them confident," Sardar Mohammad Sultani, acting deputy Minister of the Interior, told Reuters in his office.

"They left before any harm (was done to them). This was their own idea... It's up to them if want to return or not," said Sultani, in charge of the security force protecting the mine.

A spokesman for the consortium running Aynak, China Metallurgical Group (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper , confirmed some workers had been sent home indefinitely. It said unspecified "conditions" promised by the Afghan government in their contract had not been met.

He declined to link their departure to attacks, but said the government was working to improve security as the Afghan-NATO coalition targets insurgent strongholds in the east.

"The timing of those workers returning to Afghanistan will depend on conditions," the MCC spokesman told Reuters.

The project has been underway since 2007, with the Chinese companies overseeing the project about to start the final stage of construction, expected to take at least three years.

Even if work resumed tomorrow, it would be almost 2016 before any copper is extracted. Once fully operational, the mine could generate annual income of close to half a billion dollars, based on current copper prices.

International aid is already expected to fall short of the $6 billion a year required to promote economic growth, and a further $4.1 billion a year needed to secure pay the bill for the 350,000-strong security forces as NATO draws down.

So far, $4 billion a year through to 2015 has been promised.

TALIBAN THREAT

The Taliban say blocking the Aynak project has become one of their priorities, even as NATO claims a nine percent reduction in militant attacks.

"All government offices are corrupt and we don't believe that the money will benefit our nation, but will all be looted," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by telephone.

"If they (the Chinese operators) get permission from us, their lives may be spared," he said, although the Taliban frequently exaggerate their reach and abilities.

The government-run Afghan force created this year to protect oil and mining assets -- when President Hamid Karzai banned private security firms -- is having difficulty protecting Aynak.

Despite increasing to more than 2,000 the number of security personnel at the site and installing extra checkpoints and wider security perimeters, rockets attacks have continued.

Afghan officials say they are doing all they can.

"We launched many operations. We detained a number of insurgents and killed a lot more. But our efforts haven't reached any conclusion," deputy minister Sultani said.

In a rare visit to Kabul this month by a top Chinese leader, bilateral deals on security were signed, including an agreement for police to be trained, funded and equipped with help from Beijing.

The government did not say whether the Chinese program was aimed at boosting security around China's oil and mining assets.

"This problem (insurgent attacks) exists all over the country. We are trying our best to clean the Aynak copper area from insurgents," Sultani added.

The threat is so severe that villages have warned the Afghan rights and anti-corruption monitor Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) to stay away as they can no longer guarantee their safety.

IWA reported there are four armed groups operating in the Aynak area, some aiming to stop the project.

And the attacks are becoming more deadly. At the start of September, an assault on the protection unit killed 15 Afghan policemen, spreading fear among local and visiting workers.

"There are new groups who are more brutal and make it difficult for us to go. There is one new group in particular that is quite opposed to the development of the mine," said the IWA's mining expert Javed Noorani.

Noorani said that most Chinese workers had been repatriated.

CHINESE SLUMP

Safety may not be the only reason.

Beijing officials may intend to delay the project amid China's worst economic slowdown in years, which has caused global copper prices to tumble and hit Aynak's investors hard.

Metallurgical Corp of China, which has a majority share in the mine, swung into the red in first six months of 2012. Net losses stood at 186.13 million yuan ($29 million), compared to net profits of 1,969.03 million yuan in the first half of 2011.

Jiangxi Copper performed slightly better, but profits in the first half of 2012 slid by 38 percent, compared to a 12 percent decline in global copper prices over the past year.

Social, environmental and economic concerns linked to the development of the mine also remain, Noorani added, including disruptions to water supply and displacement of villagers.

Some officials at the Ministry of Mines say China may be waiting for new mining laws to be passed by parliament to renegotiate the terms of the deal.

Proposals to draft new legislation have been backed by Western donors and the World Bank. But some cabinet members blocked proposed legislation in July, saying it failed to protect national interests from foreign exploitation.

A new proposal has been redrafted and is expected to be discussed in parliament within weeks.

Wrangling over the legislation is already holding up progress finalizing an investment deal with an India-led consortium at the Hajigak iron ore deposit in central Bamiyan province, worth up to $11 billion.

The government said last year oil and mining could contribute up $1.5 billion in revenue by 2016, but there is little prospect of achieving such figures while the legal framework is in limbo.

Ministry of Mines senior geologist and adviser Atiq Sediqi said the future of the industry depended on the legislation.

"If the mining law is not approved, no one will come to invest in the mining sector in Afghanistan and the revenue forecast by the government from the development of the country's mineral resources will become a myth," Sediqi said last week.

($=6.3459 yuan)

(Additional reporting by Polly Yam in HONG KONG; Editing by Rob Taylor and Ron Popeski)
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Pakistan Military Warn East Afghanistan Residents to Leave Homes
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 27 September 2012
Pakistan military forces have sent warnings to residents of the far eastern districts of Nangarhar province to leave their homes or risk attack, according to Nangarhar MP Faridon Mohmand.

He claimed in an interview with TOLOnews Thursday that armed forces from Pakistan have pushed several kilometers into Afghanistan and launched missiles into the Lahlpor and Gushta districts numerous times.

"The Pakistani military warned the residents of Lahlpoor district to leave their homes, and as the residents refused to do so, they started shelling. The rocket attacks started two weeks ago and have continued until now, resulting in the displacement of 5000 families who have moved to other districts. The area is now empty," Mohmand said.

Provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said that the problem has been brought to the attention of both the Afghan Interior and Defence Ministries with promises that representatives from the ministries will come soon to investigate the issue.

"I assure you that the problem of the Lahlpoor and Gushta residents will be solved," Abdulzai said.

"We support any action from the residents which is for the benefit of their area," he added.

Cross-border shelling has become one of the most critical and controversial issues for the Afghan government, prompting them to raise it with the United Nations Security Council.

The eastern provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan have been regularly targeted by the insurgents and allegedly Pakistan's military rocket attacks for the past two years. Hundreds of the residents of Kunar's Dangam district have been displaced over the heavy shelling.
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Afghan teens scarf up a fashion trend from Bollywood
Washington Post By Richard Leiby September 27 , 2012
In the dusty heat of Afghanistan’s capital, the best defense is a scarf: It filters the gritty air, blocks the sun, sops up sweat and, in a pinch, even doubles as a prayer mat.

Utility is usually the point. But now comes the Salman Khan scarf.

Khan, a famed Indian actor, is responsible for launching a neck-accessory craze that has spurred a fivefold to tenfold increase in the price of a certain scarf: narrow, boldly hued and more fashionable than practical.

It is seen in a movie trailer featuring the song “Mashallah,” a Bollywood romp in which Khan changes scarves at a blistering pace, while wooing a flesh-baring temptress in an Arab-style bazaar.

The look gradually caught on with teenage boys after the video’s summer release, and the scarves now add striking dashes of color — red, orange, blue and striped combinations — to the drab, forbidding landscape of Kabul, which bristles with steel-and-wire encampments and machines of war.

It is but one signifier of increased outside cultural influences here, particularly among the young, to the chagrin of some older Afghans. They see an erosion of the Islamic ways as people reject traditional dress to keep in step with Bollywood and Hollywood.

“I am totally against these Western influences,” said 50-year-old Mir Jan, wiping down his dusty taxi on a recent evening. “If a movie actor would take his pants off and put them over his shoulder, the next day you would see it in Kabul.”

But faddism translates to good business. “The Afghan people know every Indian actor — not only the actor but who their father is,” said shopkeeper Khalid Ismail Zada, 26, who displayed a colorful rack of Khan-style scarves, $5 apiece.

Around town prices have been hiked from $1, with some scarves even going for $10.

But no matter: “Afghans, even if they have nothing to eat at home, will dress stylishly and follow the fashions they see on TV and in movies,” Zada said.

The U.S. military, after an 11-year presence here, has introduced its share of popular looks, including tattoos, camo shorts, and rubber wristbands bearing the American or Afghan flag.

Now, however, the United States is fighting a tough image war, in part because of an Islam-insulting YouTube video, which many here have taken to the streets to condemn. And President Hamid Karzai often blasts the United States as a sovereignty-violating bully.

India, though, has long been in good repute in Afghanistan: It has been the largest regional donor to Afghan reconstruction, spending $1.5 billion over the years on infrastructure, including roads and power plants, and humanitarian projects — and has pledged to spend half a billion more, Indian officials say. Last year, the countries signed a strategic pact under which India will help train Afghan security forces.

Some wearers of the Salman Khan scarf say it is an expression of individuality — although youth fads tend to be quite the opposite, a product of peer pressure.

Fifteen-year-old Ghulam Mohammad said that after his friends in southern Paktia province started wearing colorful scarves this summer, influenced by Khan, he picked up on the trend, too, though he said he had never seen the video.

He also started gelling his hair, copying the spiky coifs and emo-look cuts touted on salon placards throughout the capital. Older folks deride the kids as looking like roosters and porcupines.

The magazine Afghanistan Today, reporting on the rise of Western trends earlier this month, quoted a cellphone salesman who said police dragged away some of his friends and cut their hair.

“Afghanistan’s the land of war. It’s always war, war, war,” said 18-year-old student Abdul Monir. “What we want is to express ourselves. The latest trend is the scarf and the hairstyle and the clothes.”

He displayed all three: a turquoise-and-black-striped scarf, a tousled mop, and tight-fitting black pants.

“Businessmen are watching the movies to see the styles, and then they import them,” Monir said knowingly.

Some skinny-scarf-draped teens say that Mazar-e Sharif, a city in the north, exported the trend to Kabul months ago. But it clearly was Khan’s video — a promo for a movie released in August called “Ek Tha Tiger” — that sent the look viral. The leading lady is Katrina Kaif, deemed one of Bollywood’s most beautiful actresses, and it features sexy belly dancing that would not please Muslim clerics.

Yet the song title, “Mashallah,” is an Arabic blessing used in many Muslim countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. It translates as “May God be praised” but means more than that: It is an expression of admiration conveyed toward beautiful things as well as an invocation for their protection.

Under Islamic mores of modesty, teen girls are more constrained in their fashion choices than boys; one almost never sees a woman, young or old, with her hair uncovered.

But not all follow the rules: “Even our women copy the actresses,” Jan, the taxi driver, lamented. “Now they are wearing their dresses with half-sleeves!”

On the sidewalk, a trim youth dressed in black passed by, his T-shirt emblazoned with the English words “Oh S--- I Am In Low,” whatever that means.

Jan just kept cleaning his car and shaking his perspiring head, which he had wrapped tightly with a black-and white scarf.
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Taliban likely to regain power in Kabul: analyst
AFP 27/09/2012
KABUL - The Afghan government will collapse and Taliban insurgents are likely to retake power after the US and NATO pull their troops out in 2014, a respected international scholar has predicted.

The withdrawal of international forces will in some respects leave the country worse off than it was before a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban nearly 11 years ago, Afghan expert Gilles Dorronsoro of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.

"In the end the withdrawal is the result of a failed strategy," he wrote in an analysis published this week.

Even US President Barack Obama's troop surge, which pumped an extra 33,000 soldiers into Afghanistan two years ago -- before they were withdrawn this month -- had failed, he said.

"After 2014, the level of US support for the Afghan regime will be limited and, after a new phase in the civil war, a Taliban victory will likely follow," Dorronsoro said.

His analysis contrasts strongly with forecasts by Western governments who are keen to get out of the long and costly war, and predict that Afghan forces will be able to take over the fight against the Taliban.

The US led the 2001 invasion to topple the Islamists for harbouring Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, and has since said its aim was to ensure Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for international terrorists.

Dorronsoro, a former professor of political science at Sorbonne University in Paris and an Afghan specialist, foresees a Taliban advance beginning in the spring of 2013 as the West continues to draw down its troops.

In addition to the military threat, the Afghan government will confront an economic crisis sparked by the drop in Western spending and an institutional crisis as President Hamid Karzai's term ends in 2014, he says.

"The Afghan regime will most probably collapse in a few years," Dorronsoro wrote.

"Though negotiations with the Taliban are unlikely before the troops' withdrawal, the United States will not be able to pursue its longer-term interests in and around Afghanistan if it is not willing to deal with the Taliban.

"Poised to take power after the Afghan regime's likely collapse, only the Taliban can potentially control the Afghan border and expel transnational jihadists from Afghanistan."

In conclusion Dorronsoro said: "The desirable endgame should be a stabilisation of Afghanistan, probably with the Taliban in Kabul."

The bulk of NATO's 112,000 troops are due to leave by the end of 2014 and Afghan security forces, trained and equipped by foreign forces, will take charge of the country's security.
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Experts fear a 'Talibanization' of Afghan justice
DW 27/09/2012
The lashing of a teenage girl in Afghanistan for having an "illegal relationship" has caused an uproar inside and outside the country. Experts fear a "Talibanization" of the Afghan justice system.

On September 16, three mullahs in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni sentenced 16-year-old Sabera to 100 lashes for having an "illegal relationship" with a boy. On Monday, September 24, hundreds of students and rights activists took to the streets to protest so-called "desert trials" such as the one which tried Sabera, which take place without due process of law and are held by the Taliban and local clerics.

The protesters demanded the government take measures to stop such unlawful trials and punishment. A day later, Afghan authorities reported the arrest of five people connected to Sabera's lashing. Authorities said they were investigating the case.

Sabera's sister Shafiqa was among the demonstrators. She had watched the sentence being carried out.

"At first, no one had the courage to carry out the lashings," she told Deutsche Welle. "When a local police chief said he would take responsibility, that's when one of his officials went forward and carried out the order."

Expecting justice?

Shafiqa said she tried to get the legal authorities involved in her case but that they had not been cooperative. "Basically they said, 'what do you expect if you want justice?'"

Parastu Yari, one of the demonstrators in Kabul, said the justice system should get involved in such cases. "We want the organizers of arbitrary trials to be brought before a court of law. The government must become active and prohibit these kinds of acts."

Shahgul Rezai, an MP from Ghazni province, where the trial took place, joined the protesters in Kabul to show her solidarity with the teenage girl. She also agreed to commission a parliamentary delegation to investigate Sabera's case.

Equal rights?

Amnesty International welcomed the decision of the Afghan parliament to investigate the incident. At the same time, the rights organization criticized the country's government and its legal authorities for not taking any action in such cases in the past. The impunity for violence against women was widespread in Afghanistan, Huria Musadiq of Amnesty International told DW - despite the fact that the Afghan constitution guaranteed equal rights to men and women. In reality, she said, women faced much discrimination.

Referring to a 2011 report by the UN Mission in Afghanistan, Musadiq said very few judges and prosecutors in Afghanistan even had any knowledge of equal rights laws: "The discrimination of women starts in families and goes all the way to the justice system and to the top leaders of government."

Preparing for the worst?

For many, it was quite a surprise that Sabera was subjected to this form of parallel justice in an area like Jaghori District, where the Taliban is not active and has no followers, and which is generally seen as forward-thinking. The government, for the most part, has control over security and administration in the region.

Afghan expert Musadiq fears the incident could be an indication of a "re-Talibanization" of Afghan justice.

"We are observing a self-imposed censorship and the withdrawal of women from the public sphere," he told DW. "An incident like the one in Jaghori could be an indication that the people there fear the return of the Taliban and are simply preparing themselves by demonstrating that they follow shariah law."
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Afghanistan launches first professional football league
Afghanistan has launched its first professional football league, with organisers hoping it will raise the standard of its national team and one day rival cricket as the country's most watched sport.
By Ben Farmer, Kabul 6:17PM BST 28 Sep 2012 The Telegraph (UK)
The two-week-old Afghan Premier League has proven an overnight hit and its daily matches are already attracting crowds of thousands and significant television audiences.

Expectation at the first matches was so high that the Kabul venue was swamped with spectators and police had to use water hoses and sticks to repel crowds of ticketless boys swarming into the stadium.

The league began with a reality television show where aspiring players showed off their skills in regional heats to be chosen by a panel of coaches and viewers' phone votes.

The resulting eight regional teams have now converged on the capital for six weeks and will battle through group and elimination stages to find the winner.

If the selection system appeared gimmicky, the excitement at a Thursday afternoon match between De Maiwand Atalan, from the south west, and De Abasin Sape, from the south east, was genuine.

More than 250 Maiwand fans had left Kandahar and Helmand in the early hours and braved one of the country's most dangerous roads for a six-hour coach journey to cheer on their new team.

"Yes we have troubles in Kandahar and explosions, but we also have many heroes in Kandahar. These sporting heroes help us forget," said Assad, a university student who had bunked off his classes to watch.

"We didn't know we had such good players before this. It will be very beneficial for the national team," he added.

The tournament, played on an AstroTurf pitch close to the city's main stadium, has been sanctioned by both Fifa and the Asian football confederation, but has a distinctly Afghan feel.

Pashtu and Dari pop music blared through the stadium speakers before the match and the police guarding the venue all carried AK-47s.

Midway through the second half, as the sun sank towards Kabul's mountains and behind a Nato surveillance blimp, the spectators took time from cheering to lay out their cotton shawls as mats and pray.

The league is sponsored by some of the country's biggest companies, including the Roshan mobile phone network, Afghanistan International Bank and Moby Media Group.

Players' modest wages of £6 per day, are supplemented by wealthy supporters and patrons.

While Maiwand powered towards a comfortable 3-0 win, the stadium announcer listed gifts being showered on the team as Kandahari businessmen and MPs in the "VVIP area" vied to outdo each other's largesse.

Mohammad Ishaq Aloko, the Afghan attorney general, gave them 100,000 Afghani (£1,200).

Lalai Hamidzai, an MP who reportedly grabbed a police heavy machine gun and fired on Taliban fighters as they assaulted parliament in April, gave $5,000 (£3,000) to the players.

Even the referees received $300 from one Kandahari elder.

Football has long been popular in Afghanistan and the national football federation was admitted into Fifa in 1948, but the quality of the national team has suffered from the absence of a nationwide league.

Shafic Gawhari, one of the league's commissioners, said he wanted to strengthen football in the country, but he also hoped it might strengthen national unity.

He said: "We have got all these players coming from different parts of the country and they are coming together for six weeks on this platform.

"They are idols for a lot of kids and a lot of players in the provinces. If they compete in the right way, that will have a huge positive impact on nation building."
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Undercover security: the Afghan women taking on the Taliban
In Helmand, women are joining security forces in an effort to improve rights, and safety, as Nato troops prepare to withdraw
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Thursday 27 September 2012
Gulalia Sherzad is an unusual woman with an unusual job.

She set up and runs a women's centre in Gereshk, the main town in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province, one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan.

The centre is part refuge, part meeting place. She is part tutor and part mentor to her visitors. But for the Taliban, she is all irritant: the insurgents have said they will kill her if they catch her.

If the 52-year-old is worried, she doesn't show it; instead, she regales those who visit her with stories about the women who have come to her, the problems they have, and how she has tried to solve them. She is, in every sense, the godmother of Gereshk – a symbol of how things have changed in the last decade, and how far they have to go in a country where women are very much second-class citizens.

Their treatment under the Taliban was one of the justifications used for British troops remaining in the country following the 2001 invasion, and since then a host of international and home-grown aid agencies have been working to improve women's standing. It is one of the priorities for the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

There have been gains, notably in education, and in Helmand there are striking examples of women breaking out and trying to establish themselves in different professions, including within the Afghan security forces.

There are 27 female police officers in the province now, and though most of them are restricted to doing body-search duty, a handful have progressed to detective level, and they are lobbying for firearms and driving training.

Most don't dare tell their families what they are doing, but Corporal Bibi Gull is not one of them. The 28-year-old joined the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP) in 2009 despite death threats.

"There was a lot of Taliban around and some of my family did not want me to join," she said. "Some of my relatives wanted me killed, but I arrested one of them and he was put in jail. At the beginning I was scared. Now I am not scared. I tell everyone what I am doing. I want to help women in Afghanistan."

Another woman, a private in the police, told the Guardian her husband was the only person who knew where she worked.

In another age, the one before the Taliban, she had been a student at university in Kabul studying journalism. Now, like every female police officer, she has to wear a full burqa at work, and lives in fear that someone might recognise her when she in on duty. Despite the dangers, she perseveres.

"I would like to wear a uniform and be like other police officers. But that is not possible at the moment. My husband gave me permission to join the police, but he is the only one who knows what I am doing. I tell everyone that I am teaching at a local school.

"My brother doesn't know what I am doing. But the most important thing is that my brother-in-law does not find out. He would be very angry with me. All the men in the family would be saying you should not be doing this, you should be looking after the children at home. They do not even think I should be a teacher. If they found out they would beat me."

Shelley Groves, who works for the UK's Ministry of Defence police and is mentoring female officers for the PRT, described the new recruits as "amazing, inspiring and very brave".

"Women want to do this, but they are risking their lives if they join up. We have some very strong women that are prepared to get out there."

The Afghan National Police (ANP) has launched a recruitment drive for educated young women. Groves, who leaves next March, is trying to train a local to replace her so that this kind of work can continue.

"I would like to see female officers all over Helmand," said Groves. "But there are so many different areas and so many different cultures, and there is no chance of getting through in those areas where there are Taliban."

In the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, there is a women's radio station called Muska, which was set up by Roma Muhammadi, an enterprising 22-year-old. Muska – which means "smile" in Pashto – has a staff of eight, including producers and journalists, and they are all women. Muhammadi, who only started school after the Taliban left, has ambitions to make Muska a national network.

"At the beginning it was a struggle, it was very difficult," she said. "The reaction of the men was very bad. That changed when they realised our programmes were not anti-men, pitting men against women. I plan to attract more people and more staff. My first focus is Helmand, but I would like to have radio all over Afghanistan."

At the other end of the spectrum, back at the women's centre in Gereshk, Sherzad sees the difficulties that women face on a daily basis.

"The day before yesterday a girl came here," she said. "She escaped her family and fled because they wanted her to marry. They were forcing her to marry because her brother had killed a member of another family, and that family wanted money or a girl in return.

"When she said she didn't want to marry she was beaten up and abused. She is 14."

Sherzad said the teenager has been staying with her because she has nowhere else to go. "I don't want her attacked again. I don't want the ANP to get involved at this stage. I want to meet with her family and try to sort it out.

"If it is beyond my powers, I will go to the ANP or the district governor. I will tell the authorities, so that everyone knows what is going on. Most women will come to me before they go to the police. I may get six or seven cases a week, it depends."

It is a measure of Sherzad's reputation that people respect her as a fixer, even though, as a woman, she has no way of enforcing any of her proclamations. She has the status of an elder, and that has not pleased the Taliban.

"A couple of years ago there was a family living in a rural area. They had a land issue and I got them to sign a document to solve the problem.

"Four hours later I got a call from a commander of the insurgents. He said the decision I had made was perfect under Sharia law. He said the way I had dealt with the case was right. And then he said: 'If I catch you, I will kill you.'"

On another occasion, the husband of a woman she had helped planted a roadside bomb outside her house. "It was frightening, but luckily it did not hurt anyone."

Sherzad does not believe the Taliban will come back to power here, but she is under no illusions about the position of women in the communities around her.

"Women are still second-class citizens in Afghanistan. In the bazaar, things are getting better for women very slowly. You can see them around and the young girls are going to school. But in the rural areas it is the same as it was 20 years ago. They are doing the harvesting and getting the wood for the fire."

There is no official women's shelter in Helmand because it was feared the Taliban would make it a prime target and put the women in even graver danger.

So with no other means of protecting them, women have to be put in jail for their own safety. This is still a country where running away from your family is considered a criminal offence, and a man who murders his wife can be freed the next day if he pays 200,000 afghanis – approximately £3,000.

Sherzad runs workshops at her centre and gives lessons on human rights. But she relies on handouts to keep the building open, and needs donors to support her work.

That work will be difficult even if the Taliban remain sidelined. Like many of Afghanistan's southern provinces, Helmand is Pashtun, and women here have never had equal human rights. There are cultures that will take generations to challenge.

One official cautioned it would be wrong to assume that the issues women face are just insurgent-related. Far too many men have yet to understand it is not a natural right to "rape and beat a woman". The problems are so entrenched, the official said, that it was extremely difficult to target.

The government in Kabul has made some efforts to change the culture; it set up a ministry of women's affairs, and the country has a constitution that enshrines women's rights to equality, work and education. In 2001, only 5,000 girls were enrolled in schools across the country – by last year that figure had shot up to 2.7 million.

There are 69 female members of parliament, making up more than a quarter of the total (27.7%) – a higher proportion than in France, Canada and the UK – and in 2009, the Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women was passed.

However top-down legislation doesn't work well in Afghanistan's highly patriarchal, tribal society; what is said and done at local level remains paramount. The new laws are not applied evenly, or policed strictly – which is hardly a surprise given the views of President Karzai's justice minister, Habibullah Ghalib.

In June, at a conference on women's rights, he described shelters for abused women as dens of immorality and prostitution. A week later, he was forced to apologise.

Blaming the precarious security in some provinces, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission last month reported an increase of violence against women, saying that in the last three months there had been "58 cases of violence aimed at murder or [which] led to murder, most of them honour killing or killing after rape.

The report concluded: "This figure indicated that women are in danger in different parts of the country due to lack of security, lack of government control, excessive emotional and family violence or presence of armed forces and Taliban."

And there are broader concerns that women's rights will become a negotiating tool in any forthcoming discussions with the Taliban. Oxfam has warned that women "now live in fear that if the Taliban is given a share of power then life will become miserable again."

Women, it seems, have most to lose once Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has gone.

"The women living here are quite happy to have Isaf around," said one of the female police officers. "The girls are going to school again.

"We don't want the old tribal wars to come back. It has become more peaceful, especially in the bazaar. We don't want to go back to the Taliban days when Isaf goes."
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Afghan Cycles London to Kabul to Show Nation's Prowess
TOLOnews.com By Mir Sayed Thursday, 27 September 2012
A 29-year-old Afghan man living in Britain for the past 12 years cycled from London to Kabul, arriving in the Afghan capital Thursday morning after the three-month trek.

Mohammad Walid Nawrozi left London in June and crossed Europe with the goal of raising awareness for Afghanistan, particularly in its sporting capability.

"I left London three months ago and after crossing 17 countries I am now in Kabul," Walid told TOLOnews Thursday, after he arrived.

"The aim of this trip was to show the world that Afghans are not only terrorists or drug traffickers but they are also sportsmen who can do great things," he added.

The journey took Walid through France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Walid's father, who is still living in Kabul, said he is proud of his son and that he only wanted Afghanistan to have a better image in the world.

"My only wish is that Afghanistan has a good image in the world and I am proud that my son has achieved this honor. It's a huge moment for Afghanistan," Mahmood Nawrozi told TOLOnews.

Walid, who has British citizenship, left Afghanistan around 12 years ago to escape the Taliban after suffering beatings twice at the hands of the regime. A young student at medical school at the time, Walid said he fled to Pakistan without his family, and then went to the UK where he has been living ever since.

Walid added that if he is supported by the Afghan government and the business sponsors, he will continue to travel throughout the globe with a bicycle to raise awareness of Afghanistan.
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British-built schools in Afghanistan may be forced to close
Dozens of schools and health clinics built by the British military in Helmand may be forced to close down because the Afghan government can no longer afford keep them open, it was reported last night.
Telegraph.co.uk 27/09/2012
Millions of pounds were spent across the war-torn province over the last decade in an effort to win over hearts and minds and convince civilians to side with British troops rather than the Taliban.

However, a confidential report admits that Britain "built too much" during the wave of construction and that the Afghan government would not be able to sustain the costs of the extensive programme.

British officials have now reportedly been ordered to identify which facilities are "critical" to the people of Helmand and to begin closing down the others by the end of 2014.

The exact number to be shut is unclear but several dozen are thought be facing closure, with rural areas understood to be most at risk.

Sir Richard Stagg, Britain's ambassador to Kabul, said that the construction programme had been motivated by a desire to show Afghans the the West was "serious" in its commitment to rebuild their country.

"With the best of intentions, between the period of 2003-2008 we developed a very expansive view of how we could help Afghanistan, and many countries invested a lot in that mission," he told the Guardian. "We focused on the physical and visible rather than the human capital which would manage the country in the longer term."

Further construction in Helmand has reportedly been halted until a sustainable budget programme can be agreed with the Afghan government.
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