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September 28 2001: All eyes are on Afghanistan in the wake of this month's terrorist attacks in the US. With the Taliban so far refusing to release Osama bin Laden and US troops converging on the region, hundreds of thousands of people have left their homes in the hope of reaching Iran or Pakistan. We pick the best links on the country and its humanitarian crisis.
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The Soviet influence
Lemar-Aftaab magazine ran this history of Afghanistan in December 1999, the 20th anniversary of the Soviet invasion. It describes how politics in Kabul became slowly entwined with Moscow in the run-up to 1979.
Lemar-Aftaab
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How America backed the wrong resistance
Julian Gearing of Asiaweek describes how US foreign policy in the wake of that invasion unwittingly helped to establish Afghanistan as "the world's most dangerous breeding ground for terrorists" - by unquestioningly going along with Pakistan on which of the resistance groups to support.
Asiaweek
Benazir Bhutto's view of the Taliban - Newsweek
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The fall of Kabul
Russia withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, leaving behind a civil war of which the defining moment - so far - was the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 1992. Anthony Davis reported on that at the time, also for Asiaweek.
Asiaweek
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Beneath the veil
In June of this year, Channel 4 broadcast the film Benath the Veil, in which journalist Saira Shah went to Afghanistan to document human rights abuses by the Taliban. This is an edited transcript of an online chat with her and the programme's producer, Cassian Harrison.
Channel 4
26.06.2001, Saira Shah: Land of my fathers
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Muslim feminists
Diane Carman, columnist for the Denver Post, speaks to Muslim feminist Fawzia Ahmad about the difference between the teachings of Islam and the extremism of the Taliban.
Denver Post
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The health of women in Afghanistan
JAMA, the journal of the American medical association, published this interview-based study of the health of women in Afghanistan in 1998. The majority of women reported "deteriorating physical and mental health, ... human rights violations by Taliban officials and multiple war-related traumas." Mental health problems were particularly severe.
JAMA
Tyranny of the Taliban - Time
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Shahnaz
Radio Afghanistan publishes this personal account by 12-year-old Shahnaz, a girl who lives in a refugee camp near Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghainstan.
Radio Afghanistan
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Farid Shah Karimi
Farid Shah Karimi's family fled Afghanistan in the wake of the Soviet invasion. He describes the horrific experience of his return in the mid-1990s, in Lemar-Aftaab.
Lemar-Aftaab
Memories of days gone - Mahbub Shansab, Lemar-Aftaab
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Afghan Americans respond
Afghan Americans are united in their condemnation of the attacks on America, but fearful of the US response, reports New York's Village Voice. 'Not only I, but every single Afghan I know shares sympathy and sorrow for what has happened,' said one man. 'We have been through all of this in Afghanistan, so we know how it feels to lose a loved one.'
Village Voice
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Use the northern alliance
Afghan newspaper Omaid Weekly calls for a long-term military campaign against the Taliban, alongside the northern alliance in Afghanistan. It links the attacks in the US to the death of northern alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood two days before.
Omaid Weekly
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Food an important weapon
FT.com says a military victory would not be enough: the US must also win 'a global war for hearts and minds'. 'If the first wave of allied aircraft over Afghanistan carried food, not bombs, Mr Bush might claim a resounding moral victory.'
FT.com
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The displaced
The Seattle Times reports from Pakistan on the new refugee crisis set off by the threat of war in Afghanistan. Pakistan and Iran have so far closed their borders.
Seattle Times
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Averting humanitarian catastrophe
Larry Thompson of Refugees International wrote in the Washington Post of the need to avoid exacerbating the humanitarian crisis that already exists in Afghanistan. The piece is reprinted here in the International Herald Tribune.
International Herald Tribune
Washington Post
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