Mass. Native Killed in Afghanistan
Major Michael Donahue was one of two people killed in a suicide bombing outside an American military base in Kabul.
By: WPRI
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Mass. Native Killed in Afghanistan - Video
Afghanistan veteran struggles in #39;Fort Bliss #39;
The movie "Fort Bliss" is out in theaters in the US. Starring Michelle Monaghan and Ron Livingston the movie follows an Afghanistan war veteran, also the mother of a little boy, as she returns...
By: AFP news agency
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Afghanistan veteran struggles in 'Fort Bliss' - Video
In many families of Afghanistan, the birth of a girl is mourned. While boys are seen as blessings, girls are considered burdens and forced to live a strict life of limited options. They can't leave the house alone; they're not educated; and they're dressed in clothes that conceal them and literally restrict their view of the world.
But some young girls find a way to fight that for at least a few years.
In 2010, Jenny Nordberg wrote the first stories about the bacha posh, girls who dress up like boys to live as a boy as long as they can. Those stories appeared, to much interest and acclaim, in The New York Times. She has now expanded her reporting into a new book called The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan.
Nordberg tells NPR's Scott Simon about how common the bacha posh are in Afghanistan, and what's expected of them once they hit puberty.
On discovering a bacha posh among the children of a female Afghan parliamentarian
This was the very first time I was invited to her house, and I came to interview her about being a parliamentarian in Afghanistan. ... And I was with the two little twin girls, and they spoke a little bit of English, like a limited English, and we had a conversation that was mostly about, "What color do you like? What do you want to be when you grow up?" And all of a sudden, one of them said, "You know our brother is really a girl." And I looked at her, and I was like, "Yeah, yeah." And then the other said, somewhat annoyed that I didn't take her seriously, she said, "No, no. It's our sister." And at that point, I hadn't met the youngest in the family. She had four children all together, and I knew them as three girls and a youngest boy.
In 2010, Jenny Nordberg was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism for a television documentary on Afghan women. Magnus Forsberg/Courtesy of Crown hide caption
In 2010, Jenny Nordberg was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism for a television documentary on Afghan women.
On how common a practice it is in Afghanistan
Every single Afghan I have spoken to, except for those who have been abroad for a very long time and are essentially expatriates, they will know of someone. They will have a neighbor, someone in their extended family, a great-grandmother, a colleague, there will usually be one in a school. In more conservative areas, there might be more. But every Afghan will know about this, and every Afghan has a story to tell.
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Why Afghanistan's 'Underground Girls' Skirt Tradition To Live As Boys
Kabul, Afghanistan Afghanistan's drawn-out presidential election may finally be coming to an end.
Nearly six months after Afghans cast ballots in a first-round vote, the country's election commission on Saturday said it would announce final, audited results on Sunday from a two-man runoff held in June.
U.N. and Afghan election officials spent weeks auditing the runoff results after allegations of vote fraud, a common occurrence over Afghanistan's last two presidential elections.
The announcement that vote results are coming would appear to override one of the negotiating stances of candidate Abdullah Abdullah: that vote results are not released because, he contends, undetectable fraud invalidates the results.
Despite the recount and audit, the drawn-out race does not appear to be coming down to a precise vote tally. Rather, high-stakes negotiations will settle the country's power structure.
Boiled down to their simplest formula, the talks pit the northern power brokers backing former Foreign Minister Abdullah against the southern and eastern Pashtun supporters of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former finance minister and World Bank official.
President Hamid Karzai excused himself from a memorial ceremony in honor of a deceased former president on Saturday to prepare for what is hoped to be the final agreement on a national unity government.
"If you give me permission I want to leave and prepare for another meeting in which our jihadi leaders, elders and candidates will attend and we will have good news for the Afghan nation, God willing," Karzai told the gathering.
As of mid-Saturday evening, though, a campaign aide to Ghani Ahmadzai said a meeting between the candidates had not yet begun and it wasn't clear if one would be held.
The two candidates have been negotiating a deal that would divide responsibilities between the president and the newly created office of chief executive. Those talks have been dragging on for weeks despite two in-person visits by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and many follow-up phone calls.
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Afghanistan election results announced Sunday. Will they matter?
Afghanistan's messy post-election uncertainty appeared close to resolution on Sunday. The commission that oversaw June's election said it would publish the final results. And, aides to the candidates said both would sign a power-sharing deal.
The moves could break a three-month political deadlock that has further destabilized Afghanistan as the US-led military coalition prepares to end its 13-year war against the Taliban.
A spokesman for outgoing President Hamid Karzai, Aimal Faizi, said late on Saturday that "both candidates are expected to sign an agreement on the structure of a National Unity (government)" during a ceremony with Karzai.
Faizullah Zaki, a spokesman for ex-finance minister Ghani said "both camps have agreed 100 percent on everything."
Mujib Rahimi, a spokesman for former foreign minister Abdullah also confirmed that a deal had been struck, but did not give details.
Speculation on posts
Media speculation suggested that Ghani would become president, with Abdullah nominating who would fill the post of "chief executive," possibly taking on the post himself.
Ghani is widely supported by Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, while Abdullah derives his support from the ethnic Tajik and Hazara communities.
Independent Election Commission (IEC) spokesman Noor Mohammad said the "final result" would be announced on Sunday.
Fraud accusations engulfed the election count after polling in the June 14 run-off. Ghani and Abdullah had emerged as finishers in April's first round.
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Afghanistan awaits promised deal, poll results