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Lt-Col Malalai Kakar shot dead in Afghanistan

Malalai Kakar, Afghanistan’s top female military officer, was shot dead earlier today in Kandahar. Malalai Kakar hails from a family of army generals and officers and her assassination is a huge blow to the Karzai Government as well as allied forces currently active in Afghanistan.

Soon after the assassination, Taliban officials released a news briefing that they have indeed killed Malalai Kakar and take full responsiblity for her assassination.

Along with Ms. Kakar, her son was also travelling in the convey which came under attack. He is currently in critical condition in Kandahar hospital.

Homaira Rahman - Complete story of her Murder (Washington City Paper)

Following is a story send to us by an anonymous sender (THANK YOU!) which appeared in WASHINGTON CITY PAPER. Full story by Angela Valdez.

On the balmy evening of July 3, 2008, three young women met in the stands of a soccer stadium in Woodbridge, Va. They were there to watch a preliminary match in the 2008 Afghan Cup, an annual event that draws hundreds of Afghan-Americans to the Virginia exurbs for a weekend of sports and music. The three friends, who all grew up in Northern Virginia, were waiting for one more to complete their group. Homaira Rahman, a tall, pretty 25-year-old, arrived around 9 p.m. She was her usual bubbly self.

Within half an hour, Rahman’s phone rang. It was Ehsan Amin, a man she had dated off and on for about two years. She had recently tried to finally, completely end contact with him. But his calls never stopped. This time, as usual, he wanted to know where she was. Rahman took the call and tried to be brief. She told him she was at the soccer game with friends, no big deal. She hung up. He called back. Again and again. Each time the phone rang, Rahman got more distressed. He was threatening her again, she said. Her friends were exasperated and worried. Amin’s bullying was an old source of anxiety.

When he called again, Zarlacht Osmanzoi, 19, asked Rahman to hand over the phone. “I was like, ‘Give it to me, I’m going to talk to him,’” Osmanzoi said two months later, in a courtroom. She told Amin that everything was fine. Rahman was with the girls. He said: “I don’t give a fuck who you are. Give the phone back to Homaira.”

Amin was in a rage. He threatened to hurt Rahman, and just as frightening, he had driven to her parents’ home in Vienna and said he was prepared to go inside and tell Sohail and Jamila Rahman about their relationship. Rahman begged him not to do it. Like many Afghan immigrants, Rahman’s parents did not approve of their daughter dating. She told Amin to go back to Woodbridge, were he lived with relatives.

Rahman’s friends thought they’d seen the last of these tantrums. She had finally dumped Amin, with no possibility of friendship, about three months before. But that night at the soccer game, they realized he wasn’t going to quit. “That’s when we all decided we needed to take serious action,” says a friend, who asked that her name not be used. “I said, ‘Listen. This is not the end. We need to fix it.’” The police wouldn’t do, stirring up too much attention and perhaps just making him more angry. Perhaps, they thought, they could report him to immigration authorities, since Rahman knew he was in the country illegally.

After the game, Rahman called Amin’s house and got word that he was headed home. Convinced the moment of danger had passed, she got into her car, still crying. Her friends told her they’d figure out what to do in the morning. “I thought, the most he’ll do is go and tell her parents,” the friend says. “I would not just let her go home.” She called Rahman from the road. “Everything is fine,” she said.

Rahman and Amin were both part of the 20,000-strong Afghan community in Northern Virginia, but their origins couldn’t have been more different. She was born in this country, had graduated from George Mason University in 2005, and had a good job in human services at Chevy Chase Bank in Tyson’s Corner. Like many unmarried Afghan-American women, Rahman continued to live in her parents’ home after graduation. Since she paid no rent, she could spend most of what she made. And although friends and family nagged her to save, she indulged her material desires, buying closets full of designer clothes and gaining a reputation as a fashionista who never wore the same outfit twice. She joked that Tyson’s Corner was her second home.

Amin had been in the States only a few years. He had entered the United States legally, possibly by virtue of a marriage confirmed by friends and law-enforcement sources, but the terms of his welcome had expired. Even Rahman knew he used an alias. His real name was Ajmal Hashemi.

Rahman had taken note of Amin’s handsome features when she first saw him waiting tables at the Afghan Kabob Restaurant in Springfield. Sparks flew, and she told her friends she thought their server was cute. Rahman’s interest in romance thrilled her friends. Rahman was shy and had never had a boyfriend. “For us it was, ‘Oh, finally! She finally thinks someone’s cute,’” a friend says.

An aunt, who was less conservative than Rahman’s parents, knew Amin and offered to set them up, according to a friend. It took several weeks, but pretty soon a romance blossomed. They were as much of a couple as they could be without telling Rahman’s parents or many of their friends or relatives. Amin’s career prospects improved soon as well. He got a job selling used cars at Autoquest of Stafford.

But the relationship quickly became dysfunctional, according to friends. (Family members say they are not convinced Rahman and Amin actually dated.) Amin, who seemed sweet and introspective at first, lost his temper if he didn’t know where Rahman was and who she was with. If she went out to clubs in D.C., he’d call before 11 p.m. and convince her to head back to Virginia. Rahman told her friends he went out without her and lied about his own activities.

Rahman was not entirely open about the details of her relationsh ip. She spoke about Amin in oblique terms, hinting that she wanted to move on but couldn’t quite make that happen. Whenever his calls interrupted shopping trips at the mall or outings in D.C., Rahman would wander away to answer the phone and return distraught.

On several occasions, friends say, Rahman broke up with Amin, but she never totally severed contact. “He just would somehow come back into her life,” says one friend. “I guess he just made her believe that no one else could love her like he did.” Whenever she dumped him, he’d shower her with perfume and flowers the next day. A friend says he acted like most players who “yell at their girlfriend, treat them like shit and then the next day buy her flowers.” Osmanzoi, testifying in court, said she’d seen Rahman and Amin together and happy just six months ago, when the three of them went out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Tyson’s Corner.

Still, friends urged Rahman to end things. “There was no trust at all,” one says. “I asked her, ‘Where do you think this is going?’” When Rahman finally cut off contact with Amin, she says, “I was very relieved.…Little did I know.”

Sometime before midnight on July 3, Mary Just pulled onto Litwalton Court in Vienna and saw Rahman, her neighbor, standing in the street with a man. Rahman looked distressed and waved at Just as if she needed help. The man, whom she didn’t recognize, had his hand around Rahman’s upper arm. Just pulled into her driveway, got out and walked over to a friend who had arrived first in another car. “Do you think we should go check on that couple?” she asked. “What couple?” her friend said. When she turned to look, Rahman and the man had vanished.

The next morning, a man walking half a mile from Rahman’s home discovered her body lying in a pool of blood on a sidewalk. She’d been stabbed 91 times and beaten around the face. There were bite marks on her arm. Her purse and a broken pair of scissors lay on the concrete.

Fairfax Police Detective Steve Shillingford got the page at 7:45 a.m. At the crime scene half an hour later, he identified Rahman from the driver’s license in her purse. But there were few other clues to work from. Her parents knew nothing about her relationship with Amin, or his threats.

Shillingford realized that Rahman’s cell phone was missing and arranged for a “forced dump,” allowing police to collect data sent to or from her line. One number showed up again and again. It was a land line connected to a home in Woodbridge. Shillingford and his partner drove to the house and spoke with a man who told them that his cousin, Ehsan Amin, had been in a car accident and was being treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The detectives drove to the emergency room where they found Amin asleep on a gurney in triage.

According to Virginia State Police, Amin had caused a three-car collision on I-495 early that morning—probably less than an hour after Rahman’s neighbor saw her standing on the street. At 12:06 a.m. on July 4, a 2006 Mercedes E350 lost control on an exit ramp at the Springfield interchange and sideswiped a Honda Civic. The Mercedes then veered into a 2001 Lincoln Navigator, forcing it off the road. The Mercedes didn’t stop. It careered off the road to the left, hitting the guardrail and crossing back over the southbound lanes of traffic. The car finally came to a rest after colliding with the Jersey wall on the right side of the road. The driver fled on foot. Police traced the Mercedes to the Stafford dealership where Amin worked.

It’s unclear how Amin ended up at the hospital, but by the time homicide detectives arrived around 2 p.m., he had already been charged with reckless driving and felony hit-and-run. He was in bad shape. In addition to a slash wound on his throat, later determined to be self-inflicted, he had cuts on the fingers of his right hand, an injury police believe was allegedly caused when his hand slipped down the blood-coated scissors he used to stab Rahman. Doctors had cleared him to leave, pending an evaluation in the psych ward, which might not have fared well. Amin told hospital staff that he’d broken up with his girlfriend and wanted to kill himself.

An attendant wheeled the bandaged suspect into a private room. Shillingford introduced himself and placed a small recorder on the gurney.

Amin started talking. “Something bad happened,” he said, repeating it again and again. “Something bad happened.”

He went on: “I think I beat my girlfriend,” he said. “I didn’t mean to do it. I loved her so much.” He told the detective he’d been drinking when it happened.

Shillingford didn’t place Amin under arrest, not just yet, but he did read him his rights. Then he got to the point: Did you stab your girlfriend?

Amin responded, “With what?”

“That’s what I’m asking you,” the detective said.

“Well, she had some scissors,” Amin said.

It was enough to convince Shillingford, who placed Amin under arrest. He was charged with first-degree murder. If convicted, he stands to serve 20 years to life in prison, after which immigration officials would seek to have him deported.

Amin’s trial promises to reveal many details about the crime and the relationship between Amin and Rahman, details she had carefully hidden from her family and many friends. Rahman’s loved ones are bracing for their community’s reaction to a public airing of a very private relationship. One relative told me that gossip, and the subsequent pain and humiliation, would hurt her family as much as the murder itself.

Within hours of Amin’s arrest, speculation about the crime began erupting on local message boards and online Afghan forums. The posts included cruel rumors and criticism of everyone involved: Rahman, her friends and family, and Amin. Anonymous writers suggested that Rahman deserved what she got because she had abandoned tradition. If her parents had allowed her to date, others asked, might she have been comfortable enough to tell them she was in trouble? When several women spoke up about the dating difficulties of Afghan-American women, they became the subjects of personal attacks themselves.

Rahman’s friends and family have tried to counter the vitriol on the Internet by sharing stories of a young woman who strived to fulfill the expectations of two cultures.

Rahman’s generation of young, prosperous Afghan-Americans led busy social lives that served to preserve their culture and, at the same time, break down many old conventions. The Afghan Student Association at George Mason, which Rahman helped start, opened the door to mixed-gender outings that would have been impossible a decade ago. Rahman and her friends went clubbing in D.C., even though many of them didn’t drink, and attended concerts given by Afghan pop singers in hotels in suburban Virginia.

At a memorial service at George Mason in July, which drew a crowd of several hundred, Rahman’s friends and relatives took turns at the mic. Her girlfriends, clutching loose, unfamiliar head scarves, talked about “Homy’s” unending positive attitude, her giving nature. “She taught each one of us a powerful lesson,” one cousin said, quoting from Rahman’s Facebook page: “Live each day to the fullest, for tomorrow may never come.”

Homayun Yaqub spoke of growing up in Vienna with Rahman, who was his cousin but always felt more like a sister. Their parents had moved to Virginia in the 1980s, following the 1979 Russian invasion. They were educated and had the means to afford relocation but still struggled, working long hours at low-paying jobs so their kids could have a chance. Rahman’s generation took on the next challenge: assimilating to American culture while preserving their ethnic identity. Rahman and her cousins would speak English, not Farsi, when they hung out together, Yaqub said. But they still went to mosque and attended the countless engagement parties, weddings, and funerals that brought the community together.

Rahman’s taste for nice things reflected the importance of prosperity in the Afghan-American community. Every time I ask about her parents, people tell me her father is a successful businessman. Sohail Rahman did indeed provide well for his family, and he did it driving a cab.

Yaqub remembered seeing Rahman after he returned from an overseas assignment with the Army. His goofy little cousin had grown into a striking young woman who stood taller, in stiletto heels, than most men in the family. He called her “Stretch.”

While family members often scolded Rahman for her spendthrift ways, at the memorial her extravagance became a virtue. Yaqub recalled chastising her for spending $250 on a Dior bracelet when she could have purchased a knockoff for $10. “But it’s not the real thing,” she said, and that was that. When her grandmother fell ill for the last time, Rahman hurried to the hospital everyday after work with gifts of candy and perfume. Again, family members lectured about the excess, but Yaqub says Rahman had been right to do it. The attention made a dying woman happy.

“She was the wiser of the both of us,” he said.

The last to speak was an aunt from California, who walked slowly across the stage, her head wrapped tightly in a shawl. She spoke of the Quran’s instructions, written 1,400 years ago, for how women should dress. “God knew what the condition of the world would be like 1,400 years from then” she said. He spelled out “boundaries for women not to cross and that was for the safety of women.” She told the audience to read a page of the Quran every day. “That’s what’s going to help you, not the material life.” She worried that the American obsession with individuality would erode the Afghan community’s sense of collective identity.

Many Afghan-Americans I spoke with described their community, somewhat lovingly, as a network connected by gossip and judgment. While many things have changed, reputation and family name hold a powerful sway over individual lives. If a young woman gets a bad reputation—for dating openly or showing too much skin—her parents will share the blame for her behavior. Both young adults and parents I spoke with said the best option is often something like don’t ask, don’t tell, only vaguer. It might be acceptable to go to dinner with a young man; going out to dinner with a different man the next week could spell trouble.

Since dating is considered taboo in most households, especially for young women, most romances spring out of friendships that develop in public settings, like school or social gatherings. Lately, the Internet has provided an opportunity for unsupervised exploration, but even then, face-to-face meetings are carefully planned.

Ameena Kazem, 27, a friend of Rahman’s, says views about dating and gender roles have changed drastically just within the last five years. “The dynamic of the entire community has changed,” she says. “It’s very common now to see groups of girls and guys together. There are more independent women. Friends know who’s dating who. It used to be more hush-hush.”

Parents have been slow to accept the changes brought by their children, Kazem says, because their life experiences are so vastly different. “They grew up and got married in their teens. There was no dating involved,” she says. Add to that the importance of reputation, and parents become very fearful of sanctioning change. “Public embarrassment,” Kazem says. “That’s what it comes down to.”

“It’s a cultural thing,” says Yama Azami, who helped start the student association at Mason with Rahman. “To be honest with you…it’s unfortunate…most of the stuff that happens is kind of hidden.” The stigma against dating, he says, does not apply across the board. “It’s OK for guys but it’s not OK for girls,” he says.

Azami says the solution is not simple. Even if Rahman’s parents had given her permission to date, she may not have been comfortable with that freedom or the social implications of blatantly challenging the rules.

At a preliminary hearing on Sept. 3, Amin’s defense attorney, Peter Greenspun, argued that the prosecution’s case relied on speculation and that the evidence did not point to premeditated murder. “This man cared for her,” he said. No one could say who started what on the night of July 3, he said. “You can say who ended it perhaps,” he said, but the evidence supported “manslaughter, at worst.”

Amin turned around just once during the hearing, looking over his shoulder at the two groups of family and friends, his and hers, on opposite sides of the courtroom. A frown drew deep, triangular creases in his face. At the end, as his people walked out in silence, a woman from the other side said aloud, “He’ll pay for this.”

Outside in the hallway, a group of Amin’s friends stood waiting for Greenspun. They said they couldn’t talk about the case, but told me to remember that every story has two sides. “The truth will come out,” one said.

Weeks later, I get a call from a friend of Amin’s in the middle of the night. He tells me his friend is not a monster. He loved Rahman and wanted her to be his wife. She should have gone to her parents, the friend says, and told them that Amin was the man she wanted to marry. The friend says Islam dictates one man for each woman; Rahman chose Amin as her one man by choosing to spend time with him romantically. He knows Americans have a different take on what dating means. But, he says, “We are Afghans.” On the night of the murder, Amin asked him if he wanted to go to the soccer game. “If I had gone,” he says, “this never would have happened.”

Dr. Farid Younos : Democratic Imperialism

Dr. Farid Younos is an Afghan intellect living in California, USA and who also runs a popular TV show on Ariana TV. He is also the author of several publications and books.

In his book DEMOCRATIC IMPERIALSIM, Dr. Younos claims that the form of Democracy that the western world enjoys cannot be applied to the muslim world, specially Afghanistan.

I thought about his premise and wondered to myself - How come thousands and thousands of Afghan families, or millions of other Muslim families who have fled their home countries, live normal, happy, affluent life styles here in the west ?? How did they manage to immerse themselves within the Western doctorine of Democracy - WITHOUT ANY FORCE - and reap benefits from it ?

Here is an example. Last year, a very conservative Afghan family, whose extended family have lived in Tora Bora region of Afghanistan for eons, decided to sponsor the two aunts whose husbands were mujahideen fighters and who were boht butchered by another mujahideen tribe. (They are pashtoons and hence the anmosity amongst their tribes).

Anyways, the two aunts came to canada with their combined 9 or 10 teenage kids. And once again, I need to emphasize that these are some seriously tribal families who only knows ”Ze Musilam yam…Ze pakhtoon yam” ..[I am Muslim and I am pashtoon]. The teenagers knew nothing but Islamic teachings, War, and scavenge for food.

Now, recently I got to see those teenagers at an Afghan wedding and the transformation was miraculous. They wore beautiful suits, they were very well mannered, they spoke of being in love with some girl…and in their eyes you could see that now they had a purpose in life, a goal, a light, a reason to live and enjoy life, a freedom to choose, a freedom to get education, a freedom given to them by the Western Democracy.

Now, how could such individuals from the mountains of Afghanistan, not go insane and deranged…infact, adapted beautiful to the new life style and this was not adaptation by force. This is a willing adaptation and the outcome has been spectaculor.

Examples like this would fill many many pages of this blog, but the bottom point is - Dr. Farid Younos has failed to acknowledge that the basic human need irrespective of ethnicity, religion, nationality is to find food, have a shelter, live in peace, and nurture love and affection. Now if a form of governance could champion such cause with absolute freedom, why can it not be applied to Islamic states?

He would probably bring in religion and how western democracy is not in fine terms with it … but what about millions of muslims in US or CANADA… are they living/leading a suffocating life style? NO - they still practise their religion, they still go to their mosques… yet at the same time benefit from what is provided to them by the western democracy.

The other thing I must point out… in one of the episodes He mentioned of how terrible the US is…and his proof was “Confessions of an Economic Hit man” … and it just made me turn off the TV and play GTA on my XBOX 360…and jump off Empire state building.

Homaira Rahman’s Killer, Ehsan Amin goes to Court: details of murder released

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 4, 2008; Page B06

Just hours after the body of Homaira Rahman was found on a sidewalk in the Vienna area in July, police found the man she sometimes dated lying on a gurney at Inova Fairfax Hospital. When investigators asked Ehsan Amin why he was there, he said, “Something bad happened.”

Detective Steve Shillingford testified yesterday that he asked Amin what he meant, and Amin said, “I think I beat her. I didn’t mean to do it. I loved her so much.”

Amin was charged in a warrant that day with murder, and, after a preliminary hearing yesterday in Fairfax General District Court, Judge Penney J. Azcarate sent the case to the grand jury for possible indictment.

Ian M. Rodway, chief deputy commonwealth’s attorney, said at the hearing that Rahman, 25, had been stabbed 91 times with scissors and had been beaten on the face and bitten on the arm. Police found a broken pair of scissors not far from her body, which was discovered on a sidewalk in a cul-de-sac in the 2300 block of Malraux Drive.

Rahman lived about a half-mile away, in the 8700 block of Litwalton Court, and a neighbor testified that she saw Rahman and Amin arguing in the street there shortly before midnight July 3. “She looked distraught,” Mary Just said.

Earlier that night, Rahman and some friends had attended a soccer game in Woodbridge. One of the friends, Zarlacht Osmanzoi, said Amin repeatedly phoned Rahman at the game. “She was afraid. He was threatening her,” Osmanzoi testified. She said that as Rahman left the game, “she was crying; she said she was afraid.”

Rahman graduated from George Mason University in 2005 and worked in the financial industry. She was of Afghan descent and was active in the Afghan American community.

A man out for a walk on the morning of July 4 found her body. She was fully clothed, and her purse was nearby.

Shillingford said he and Detective Chester Toney took out Rahman’s cellphone and later learned that someone in Woodbridge had called it repeatedly. That led them to Amin, and a family member of his told the detectives that Amin was at the hospital after having been in a car accident.

Amin had a cut on his neck and on his hand, both self-inflicted, Shillingford said. Shillingford said he discreetly slid a small tape recorder onto the gurney above Amin’s head and recorded his comments.

“Something bad happened,” he said Amin told him. Shillingford asked what he meant, and Amin said, “My girlfriend was arguing with me; she was cursing me out, and something bad happened. I think I beat her.”

Shillingford said he asked, “Did you stab her?” He said Amin responded, “With what?” Shillingford said, “That’s what I’m asking you.” He said Amin replied, “She had scissors, but I don’t want to talk about it.” That scissors had been found near the body was not publicly known.

Economics and Politics of Free Market in Afghanistan

Article by Sanjar Qiam:

Does the open market economy of Afghanistan takes into estimation extra-market conditions, including history?

Afghanistan economy has always been open market; in the sense, it was never regulated. Non-market institutions and forces have been determinants of trading in Afghan economy. The strength of informal market forces has been stronger than market forces. The creation of informal markets is a resultant of market adjustment to operate under the shadow of political forces. Informal markets and patterns of trading that have developed over many years and operate according to well-established patterns. Market performance depends on extra-market conditions, including history and non-market institutions. The influence of political forces on the market combines market performance elements to exclude many from taking part and enjoying the benefits of participation. Some aspects which could result in exclusion are social and economic structures, gender relations, ethnic identities and spatial patterns of production. In the present condition this pattern of market performance is reinforced and they have the potential to destabilise the country politically.

The booming non-formal economy is highly regulated by informal institutions and is said not to be free. The appearance of economic dynamism hides the fact that informal social regulation actively restricts competition and participation. This lack of competition means that the distribution of the benefits of markets (and therefore of economic growth) is skewed towards those who are already wealthy and powerful.

The way markets are currently functioning is also having a negative effect on political governance and “state-building.” There are close, mutually beneficial links between big business and political and military power holders. Businessmen receive security, tax exemption, credit and in some sectors (such as construction), access to lucrative contracts. For power holders, the linkages provide a means of investment and the potential for money laundering. The accrual of benefits from these markets provides them with the resources to strengthen their military and political power still further.

The costs of these trends to social equity, further growth, political stability and environmental protection are considerable.
A close look at; how Are Markets Run? Who is doing business? What sorts of market tactics are deployed? What sort of business are they doing? How are markets regulated? Despite their usual description as “informal,” markets are heavily regulated by “non-state” forms of regulation. Many of these regulations are embedded in social and ideological norms and institutions. How are government attempts to regulate markets effecting?

The keys areas across Afghan major market sections are: The construction business: a growing sector controlled by a politically-connected oligopoly. this business is highly lucrative. Contracts worth billions of dollars have been assigned to afghan construction companies to build NATO basis, garrisons for afghan armed forces, road construction and many reconstruction projects. Second; The carpet market: a growing sector, but with benefits for whom? And third; Raisin exports: government bureaucracy and bribe-taking, but no quality control or support. Fourth; the aviation industry. Several companies have started their operation in the last couple of years. Carrying passengers internally and internationally. And fifth is the oil business; companies like gas group with close link to the northern alliance have started to operate in the last few months.

The Negative Reality of Afghan Markets

There are four major reasons why the issues identified here matter:

Inequality is worsened by the skewing of benefits from markets. Many of those who emphasise the importance of growth, also recognise that it is not just the quantity of growth that is important, but also the quality. How would the current business environment effect inequalities?

Future growth is constrained: Private sector led development is considered the key to Afghanistan’s longer-term economic development. However, discussions about private sector activities are often based on an assumption that markets in Afghanistan are open and all that is needed is the stimulation of “entrepreneurship” among Afghans. In the current non-competitive environment, those opportunities that are provided are not open to all, but are captured by those who are in a position to do so, creating a self-reinforcing pattern of exclusion.

Existing patterns of political and military control are reinforced and “state-building” diminished. The operation of markets in Afghanistan is closely linked to broader political economy issues. Insecurity reigns throughout the country and the disarmament of warlords and militias in Kabul and elsewhere has been impeded by internal and external politics. The military and political control exerted by regional and local commanders is underpinned by financial resources that come from a variety of licit and illicit sources, including the narcotics trade, customs revenues, revenues from mines in some regions, and unofficial taxation.

The failure to understand linkages between political power (both inside and outside central government) and the economy sometimes leads to an assumption by policy makers of an inherently mutually positive relationship between economic growth and “good governance,” with a lack of clarity about the direction of causality. The realities of the Afghan political economy are that while improved governance may improve the distribution of economic benefits, economic growth will not necessarily lead to improved political governance. Indeed, unless there are concurrent changes in the ways that markets function and in the distribution of the benefits of economic growth, the chance of genuine democratic change and increased security may actually decrease with further economic growth.

Rohullah Nikpai Afghan Olympian’s return to Kabul Afghanistan

Following images are once again courtesy of FARDIN WAEZI @ Thru Afghan Eyes :

[For uptodate current event pictures, please Bookmark his Blog]

So previously we brought you the videos and images from Beijing, where Rohullah Nikpai won Afghanistan’s first Olympic Bronze Medal. Now, courtesy of Fardin Waezi, Photo journalist in Afghanistan, we bring you pictures of Rohullah Nikpai and other Afghan Olympian’s recieving a warm welcome upon their arrival in Kabul Afghanistan.

Rohullah Nikpai swarmed by fans upon his return to Kabul

ohullah Nikpai and other olympian’s motorade on a road cruise around Kabul to share the jubilation with the rest of his country men.

Kam Air (Afghanistan’s privately owned airline company) presents another Cheque to the Champion Rohullah Nipkai.

Rohullah Nikpai recieving a Cheque for $500,000 (AFG D)

Thousands of Afghans gathered at Ghazi stadium to celebrate Afghanistan’s Olympic Medal

Rohullah Nikpai along with Robina Moqimyar. Although she was hoping to return home with a Medal but her presence on a world stage is a Medal to herself and the rest of the Afghan populace.

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Image Copyright:

©FARDIN WAEZI / (thruafghaneyes) / AFGHANISTAN
Address: Shahr-e-Naw Charahe Ansari square opp. Of Ghazna Business Center Kabul Afghanistan House # 15
Cell Phone: 0093 0799 33 50 87

Sarah Rahmani Takesh

SARA Rahmani’s best-selling fashion design last year was a shirt made from a burqa remodelled into a peasant blouse with just a hint of cleavage.

This year the 38-year-old Afghan designer shows off her new season’s success, a jacket made from the black turbans worn by the Taliban and Pashtun men from the south and east of the country.

Ms Rahmani’s company, Sara Afghan, is one of three Kabul fashion labels that operate in an environment far removed from the baby doll fashions sweeping European catwalks.

The majority of women who buy from them locally want tailored clothes that are in keeping with local cultural sensitivities.

“This jacket is very popular,” Ms Rahmani says. “I used to make shirts made from burqa, but I think it is important to change with the season.”

Arian Yaqubi is back!

You heard it right! Arian is back with her new show on Pyam-e-Afghan. The show will go on air this Tuesday, the timetable are still to be announced. Arian rose to fame by interviewing several famous afghan celebrities, including Valy, Mozhdah, and Sharif brothers.

Few months ago she announced her resignation from the television, which came as a shock to her viewers. However, after several months now she is back with her brand new show!

Hawa’s Hot Afghani Clothes!

Few nights ago Hawa appeared in a different show on AATV, with her new Afghani clothing. If people watched AATV or not, but that night immense number of callers were throwing more compliments at Hawa, than the actual show or the real host lol. Hawa turned famous with her International Music show, in which she played brand new video clips of different countries singers. she has appeared on several other shows on AATV as well, and surely with her latest show she has risen AATV’s Viewers.

Zohre Esmaeli

Another hot Afghans model Zohra Esmaili, is an aspiring young Afghan supermodel who grew up in Germany and is now currently pursuing a full time professional modeling career in New York, USA.

Now, as I have seen it on many pages of AfghanHa.com, a lot of the site users would leave negative comments and most of those comments stem from a cultural or islamic point of view. But let us face it. A lot of Afghans who grew up in the west, do not have the mentality of you and me. Yes its true, that because of their birth place or their ancestar’s birth place, they are considered Afghan but they embody liberal ideologies of the west, they embrace the western attitude towards life… which is totally fine. Why not.

Who can judge what is wrong or what is not. Who can judge if the Afghan way of living is better than German or vice versa. Just because one is born in an Afghan family or Islamic family does not give us the right to bash someone else because of what they believe in or where they were raised or ….

Infact, once you strip off an individual based on their ethnicity, geographic labelling, religion, material belongings etc… we all become the same. The difference would lie on the premise of whether we are morale or not, whether our actions would lead to hurting someone else or not…whether our integrity and honesty would remain unfaltered or not…

Hence if Zohre Esmaeli is pursuing a modelling career… then good for her ! Who are we to judge !

Naghma’s Daughter as hot as her mother?

AfghanHa bring the hottest rumor going around these days are that Naghma’s daughter will be joining the Afghan music industry very soon. She was last spotted in a concert in Peshawar, where she received more media attention then the singer performing that night. Wether she will join the industry or not is still a matter of time, however one thing is for certain that she will make one hot singer if she does join. Despite the fact that she is daughter of a legendary afghan female singer, Her looks mostly resemble those of Sonali Bendre of Bollywood.

Sediq is back!

Sediq Shubab is back into music industry with his new style. Last year in all his concerts tickets were sold out, and immense number of people left the concert happily. This year the rumor is going around that Sediq is working on his new album, which will be out in market after Eid. Sediq has lately received hardly any media attention, his latest interview aired on BBC. After which he had his second interview with ATN, in which he complained from different television channels. “My fans support is one thing, and appreciating my work by media is another.”

His latest video clip:

Afghan Olympic Medal Beijing 2008 Olympics

CONGRATULATIONS Rohullah Nikpai FOR AFGHANISTAN’S FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL !!!
TABREEK TABREEK TABREEK
Noor Ahmad Gayezabi said a silent prayer while watching the small family TV with his 13-year-old son. ”Help Nikpai. Help Nikpai. Help Afghanistan.”
Then he watched his country win its first-ever Olympic medal.
Rohullah Nikpai defeated world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain on Wednesday to earn the bronze medal in the men’s under 58-kilogram taekwondo competition, sparking applause, wide smiles and laughter in homes, restaurants and ice cream parlors around the country.
”When I saw that he won, I jumped up and hugged and kissed my son,” Gayezabi said. ”I was crying.”
President Hamid Karzai immediately called to congratulate Nikpai. He also awarded him a house at the government’s expense, said Humayun Hamidzada, the president’s spokesman.
”I hope this will send a message of peace to my country after 30 years of war,” Nikpai said.
The victory led all of Afghanistan’s evening newscasts.
”I am so happy. I cannot express my feelings in words,” said Mohammad Akbar, 33, who watched on a TV at his Kabul pharmacy. ”While I was watching the match I was clapping I was so happy.”
Nikpai, who is 21, started learning the Korean martial art when he was 10 because his brother had found a club in Kabul to train. Not only was it an escape from the daily rigours of life in a country that not been at peace since the 1970s, he turned out to be good at it.
Exceptionally good.
When Gayezabi met Nikpai, they were both living at a refugee camp in Iran during the years of war that embroiled Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. The two competed together on a refugee taekwondo team.
Nikpai came to Kabul four years ago, Gayezabi said. In the mornings he lifted weights and in the evenings he practiced martial arts. In between he earned money cutting hair as a barber.
With success came better training conditions. After being selected for the national team six months ago, he was able to use a special gymnasium.
But in a country where sports take a distant place behind the realities of war, few resources are dedicated to training athletes.
”My training situation is a lot like the situation in my country,” Nikpai said. ”It’s not good.”
Gayezabi had a lucky few hours of electricity that allowed him to watch his former teammate’s victory. He feared he would only be able to listen on the radio since Kabul averages about four hours of municipal electricity a day.
”I was crying because I was remembering back when we were both on the Afghan refugee taekwondo team in Iran,” Gayezabi said.
Only four Afghan athletes came to Beijing, representing a country that had never won an Olympic medal and is sinking ever deeper into war as the Taliban insurgency escalates.
Sprinter Robina Muqimyar - who in 2004 broke the gender barrier on the Afghan Olympic team - was last in a field of 85 women in the 100 metres, with a time of 14.80. She ran with a scarf covering her head.
Teammate Massoud Azizi finished 76th in the men’s 100. He trains in Kabul’s National Stadium, where the Taliban once staged regular public executions, wearing jogging shoes because his spikes won’t dig into the track’s cracked, concrete surface.
But Nikpai, who is 21, has claimed a spot among his sport’s elite.
Afghanistan will get another chance at a medal in taekwondo. Nesar Ahmad Bahave is competing in a heavier weight class.
Hussein Rachmati, a taekwondo teacher who works in the gym where Nikpai trains, said Nikpai prepared for the Olympics with a Korean teacher. He placed second in the World Taekwondo Federation’s qualifying event in Vietnam last year.
Afghans gathered around an ice cream shop TV in Kabul broke out in wide smiles and passed around congratulations to one another after watching Nikpai’s win, said Abdul Wafi, a 28-year-old university student.
”It is wonderful that an Afghan athlete can win a medal in the world Olympics,” said Wafi. ”It is a great achievement for Afghanistan.”
The top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the Olympic win shows that the country can compete on the global stage against the world’s best athletes.
”Young people should draw hope and inspiration from this Olympic win,” Eide said in a statement. ”Today, Afghanistan has demonstrated that it can and will succeed in the face of adversity with the determination, commitment and hard work of its most precious resource - the young people of Afghanistan.”
Along with the president’s offer of a house, Nikpai’s bronze medal comes with a cash prize.
Ehsanullah Bayat, chairman of the Afghan Wireless Communication Company, earlier announced that he would award any Afghan athlete who won an Olympic bronze $10,000, along with $50,000 for a gold medal and $25,000 for a silver, said Khalid Andisha, a spokesman for AWCC.
”It is a great victory for Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Sukran, an 18-year-old student. ”In a country like Afghanistan, the only thing we hear about all the time is violence and fighting. This is finally good news for Afghanistan.”