An Introduction to Afghanistan

1
An Introduction to Afghanistan
2
The Flag of Afghanistan

• On the coat of arms are 2 Muslim inscriptions
  written in Arabic
• God is Great
• There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the
  Prophet of Allah.

3
The Government

• Afghanistan does not have a functioning central
  government. It is ruled by factions.
• 90 of the country is ruled by the Taliban. The
  United Nations, however, does not recognize the
  Taliban as the official government of
  Afghanistan.
• The capital city is Kabul.
• There are presently 30 Afghan provinces.
• The Constitution of 1964 is no longer in use.

4
Religion

• Photo Blue Mosque
• Ninety-nine percent of Afghanistans population
• is Muslim.

5
The People

• The people of Afghanistan are called Afghan(s).
• Afghanistans population is 27,000,000.
• The people of Afghanistan have a life expectancy
  of only 45 years.
• Many ethnic groups make up the Afghan population.
  The largest is the Pashtun (38) followed in
  size by the Tajik (25).

6
The People
7
The Geography

• Afghanistan is about the size of Texas.
• Its 647,500 square miles are landlocked.
• It is located in Southern Asia. It shares
  borders with Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
  and Tajikistan, Iran, and China.

8
The Geography

• The terrain is mostly rugged mountains, but there
  are plains in the north and southwest portions of
  the country.
• The climate is arid-semiarid. The winters are
  cold and the summers are hot.

9
The Economy

• Afghanistan is a poor country with few modern
  conveniences.
• It depends on farming and livestock raising
  (sheep and goats).

10
Exports

• Afghanistans main export has been the opium
  extracted
• from the poppy plants grown over much of the
  country. The
• Taliban has recently put a ban on the cultivation
  of poppies.
• Because poppy farmers have little else to fall
  back on, many
• now have to face devastating poverty.

11
The History

• 1919 Independence from British control.
• 1973 A coup overthrows the King.
• 1979 Invasion by Russian troops.
• 1996 The Taliban take power.

12
1979 - 1988

• The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with 80,000
  men
• in December, 1979, in an attempt to impose
  control for its puppet Afghan government.
• After losing tens-of- thousands of soldiers, the
  defeated Soviets retreated in 1988.
• 1,000,000 Afghans lost their lives in the fight
  against the Soviet Union.

13
1996 - Present

• The Islamic fundamentalist movement known as the
  Taliban began to take political and physical
  control of the country in 1994. With its
  takeover of Kobul in 1996, the Taliban became the
  self-proclaimed government of Afghanistan.

14

• In 1979, Afghanistan was unsuccessfully invaded
  and eventually controlled by the Soviet Union.
• In 1995, the Taliban, promising traditional,
  Islamic values came into power, imposing strict
  Islamic law, including revoking many womens
  rights.
• In 2001, American troops force the Taliban from
  power.
• In 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first elected
  Afghan president.

15
Afghanistan Today

• After more than twenty years of civil war,
• Afghanistans economy and infrastructure lie in
  ruin.

16
Afghanistan Today

• The civil war which Afghanistan has been fighting
• continues as the Taliban supporters face the
  forces of
• the Northern Alliance.

17
Afghanistan Today

• The Taliban has been ridding
• the country of all non-Islamic
• relics. Two sandstone
• statues of Buddha had stood
• carved in the side of a cliff.

18
Afghanistan Today

• But on March 3, 2001, the
• Taliban used rockets and
• mortars to destroy the statues
• in a campaign to rid the
• country of un-Islamic and
• idolatrous representations of
• the human form.

19
Afghanistan Today

• Women no longer have as
• many rights as they once
• did. The Taliban does not
• allow women or girls to
• study, work in most jobs, or
• vote. Women have to be
• completely covered when
• walking in public and should
• be accompanied by a male
• from their family.

20
President Karzai

• President Hamid Karzai was the first elected
  president in the history of Afghanistan. He came
  to power after the Taliban was overthrown in late
  2001. Karzai has survived numerous assassination
  attempts and has been assigned the task of
  rebuilding Afghanistan.