Ajam Media Collective
Afghanistan
Do you Ajam? Call for Editors
Ajam is looking to add Regional Editors to our team, with the intention of broadening our coverage and improving our analysis across the region. Applications due March 3, 2013! Continue reading
Overland from Yerevan to Kabul: Trekking the Villages and Valleys of the Wakhan Corridor
Guest writer Felix de Rosen last year traveled from Armenia to Afghanistan, passing through Iran and Tajikistan en route. This article is the third part in a series about his travels (first part in the Caspian foothills of Iran can be found here and second part in Western Afghanistan here). The village of Sarhad feels like the edge … Continue reading
Afghans in Iran: Contradictory State Policies and a Grassroots Anti-Racist Movement
Part III of a series on Afghan refugees in Iran. Earlier this year, I begun a series highlighting the experiences of Afghan refugees in Iran. By focusing on cultural production, particularly film and literature, I wished to elucidate the conditions of 2-3 million individuals making a living away from their war-torn homeland as well as … Continue reading
Overland from Yerevan to Kabul: Between Poets, Saints, and Madmen in Northern Afghanistan
Guest writer Felix de Rosen last year traveled from Armenia to Afghanistan, passing through Iran and Tajikistan en route. This article is the second part in a series about his travels (First part can be found here). The sun was up. After a night of cool, fresh temperatures, I feared the sun; it would not … Continue reading
Far From Home: Portrayals of the Afghan Refugee in Iranian Cinema
Part II of a series on Afghan Refugees in Iran. Earlier this month, I completed a post discussing how works of literature from prominent Afghan writers voiced the conditions of millions of undocumented Afghan refugees residing in Iran. These members of the Afghan diaspora have been able to draw upon their own personal accounts as … Continue reading
Afghan Diasporic Literature: A Refugee Narrative from the Heart of Urban Tehran
Part I of a series on Afghan refugees in Iran. Iran is a culturally heterogeneous society that has been shaped by waves of migration over many centuries. While much of the domestic political and academic rhetoric chooses to highlight Iran’s resistance to foreign influence, the invaluable contributions of migrant communities have often been ignored or … Continue reading
Afghanistan: Touch Down in Flight + Dancing American Soldiers
Some years ago a cousin of mine went to Afghanistan for work. His company (a shoe manufacturer) was expanding its operations into a new mall being set up in Kabul and had asked him to head across the border for a week and help set up shop. On his return to Iran, he showed me … Continue reading
