In recent years, online games have become a popular form of entertainment among youth in Afghanistan. With greater access to smartphones and the internet, online gaming has replaced physical games and exercise for some youth and has taken up a significant part of their time each day.
Farah Province has been one of Afghanistan’s major agricultural regions for many years. But today, parts of the province are clearly showing signs of a deepening water crisis. This crisis has placed a heavy economic burden on poor farmers. Drilling a deep well costs between 300,000 and 500,000 Afghanis, an amount that many rural families cannot afford.
A number of women interviewed by Salam Watandar complain about the challenges they face when giving birth at home and in health centers. For this report, 10 women aged 20 to 48 from eight provinces, all of whom had given birth at home or in a hospital during the past year, were interviewed. The findings show that these women faced challenges such as the cost of childbirth and medicines, long distances and a lack of transportation, shortages of health workers and facilities, bleeding and severe pain during home births, as well as inappropriate treatment and inadequate facilities in hospitals.
Obstetricians and gynecologists say endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. According to them, the disease can affect the ovaries and fallopian tubes, causing severe pain during periods, pelvic pain and, in some cases, infertility.
Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Islamic Emirate, said in Article Five of a decree on women’s rights issued in 2021 that a woman has the right to a fixed share (Ashab-ul-Furud) and a residual share (Al-Asabat) of the inheritance of her deceased husband, children, father and other relatives. No one can deprive her of this right.
Consecutive years of drought in Ghor have left pastures with little fodder and forced many livestock owners to face high costs to feed their livestock. Some have also sold part of their livestock to keep the rest alive.
In a corner of her small, simple workshop, Farida carefully works on a new piece. The silence is broken only by the sounds of the tools she works with. The atmosphere reflects hard work, creativity and hope.
Despite the interest of some youth in learning foreign languages and digital skills, high fees at private educational centers have limited their opportunities to continue their education. They say that financial problems have caused them to temporarily stop their courses or face difficulties paying the fees.
A number of youth say that, for various reasons, they have not had the opportunity to learn certain academic and technical skills at schools and universities. However, through hard work and perseverance, they have acquired these skills through self-learning and, after gaining the necessary abilities, found jobs and started earning an income in the same fields. Salam Watandar’s interviews with 24 youth aged between 20 and 35 from six provinces of Afghanistan show that self-learning has helped them acquire various skills needed in the labor market.
Long distances to health centers, economic problems, and shortages of female doctors, medicines, and medical equipment have created serious difficulties for women in rural areas in accessing healthcare services. According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Health, more than 4,000 health centers are operating and more than 35,000 health workers are currently working across Afghanistan.
Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Islamic Emirate, has emphasized the importance of an adult girl’s consent in matters of engagement and marriage in a decree issued on March 19, 2025. The decree states that a girl’s guardian must consult her and consider her consent when arranging her engagement, and that he cannot force her to marry without her consent.
A warm evening wind blows across the dry plains of Ab Kamari district in Badghis. The strong summer sun shines on land that was once covered with golden wheat fields. But now, many of those green fields have turned dry and cracked. In one corner of the plain, 29-year-old Parwana, a farmer, stands wearing a black headscarf and looks at the land that has been part of her life and memories for years.
