The school year in Afghanistan begins with the arrival of spring, because in winter it is so cold that it is then when the school holidays are held. Before the schools reopened on March 28, my journalist colleagues and I repeatedly asked Taliban spokespersons what would happen to girls’ education. We never received a clear answer. Still, there was a small hope that maybe this year would be different.

I have never traveled outside of Afghanistan. I do not know how life is elsewhere, nor what happens in the so-called developed countries when there's a major storm or earthquake. I assume people there can receive help or perhaps are alerted when something like that happens. In Afghanistan, you can expect absolutely nothing. Sometimes I think Afghanistan is at the very end of the world, a place where death returns in a new form every season: war, bitter cold, flood, earthquake. Each disaster feels sharper than the last, and each one reminds us of our vulnerability.

I saw it all with my own eyes: shattered skulls, severed limbs, bodies lying on the ground... The Pakistani bombing of a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul on the night of March 16 was devastating. I am a journalist and I know my job is to go to places, see, and report. But, in this case, what I saw has deeply disturbed me. I am 25 years old. I wonder how many young people my age in other countries have seen what I have seen.

Pakistani airstrikes killed hundreds of patients after striking a major drug rehabilitation center in Kabul late on March 16, 2026, according to Taliban authorities, in one of the deadliest reported attacks in recent months. The strikes targeted multiple locations across Afghanistan, including sites in Kabul, Paktia, and Paktika provinces, amid escalating tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan.

marks the fifteenth day since tensions and clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan began. For the past three nights there have been no Pakistani drones in Kabul’s sky, but earlier in this Ramadan, when people usually wake for suhoor to the sound of alarm clocks, we were waking instead to the roar of Pakistani jets and the crack of gunfire.

Six days after the resumption of fighting, the "Open war" declared by Pakistan in Afghanistan Last week's conflict resulted in hundreds of victims and thousands of displaced people, although the exact number of casualties and refugees remains unknown. While the Pakistani government claimed on Wednesday to have killed 481 Taliban fighters and wounded 696 others in Operation Ghazab-lil-Haq, authorities in Kabul put the death toll of their soldiers at 28. According to the same source, 150 soldiers have died on both sides of the border, known as the Duran Line, which stretches for 2,600 kilometers. The United Nations, for its part, has confirmed the displacement of 8,000 people and the deaths of 42 civilians, including women and children, from artillery fire and airstrikes. One missile attack from Pakistan, for example, landed near a camp housing displaced people. due to the 2025 Kunar earthquakeThe result of this incident, according to data from the Norwegian Refugee Council, has been three deaths and seven injuries. Some 650 families have been forced to flee again. The conflict has already devolved into a war of attrition against fortified positions. The Pakistani Ministry of Information, under the leadership of Attaullah Tarar, claims to have disrupted the Taliban's logistical capabilities by destroying 226 border checkpoints and capturing another 35. According to official reports of the operation, the Pakistani army has eliminated 198 pieces of heavy machinery, including tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces, through airstrikes targeting 56 strategic locations in the provinces of Kunar, Paktika, and Khost. The forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan maintain a contrasting version of the situation on the front lines. According to their statements, their troops captured 10 Pakistani checkpoints and destroyed a tank, in addition to shooting down five surveillance and attack drones. The disparity in damage reports underscores the difficulty of verifying the true extent of the conflict and destruction in border areas that have remained closed to the independent press since October 12.

Pakistan has declared "open war" in Afghanistan. It is the latest escalation of a conflict that has its roots in territorial divisions imposed during the colonial era and has become increasingly complex and multifaceted over the years. We spoke with Gabriel Reyes, a research associate at CIDOB who has extensively studied the tensions between the two countries. Reyes points out that "nothing is new."

The Pakistani army bombed targets in Kabul, Paktia, and Kandahar, Afghanistan, early Friday morning, effectively declaring open war in the neighboring country, with which it shares a 2,600-kilometer border. This wave of bombings marks the most significant escalation to date in the simmering conflict between the two countries, which began last October when Kabul and Islamabad agreed to a ceasefire after a week of hostilities. The current standoff is the most serious since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021. According to the Pakistani prime minister's spokesperson, speaking to the international press, the attacks targeted Afghan military objectives.

“I will bury you right here”. That is what a Taliban officer told me on Valentine’s Day in Kabul. It has been nearly two weeks since February 14, but I am still carrying that day inside me.

Going to the gym has never been a common habit for all women in Afghanistan. In many remote areas, women do not even know what a gym is. For them, being active means working in the fields, carrying water, or spending long hours doing unpaid labor at home.

In a heated appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi faced harsh criticism from Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday. The opposition accused her of corruption, negligence, and of turning the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into a political tool for President Donald Trump's vendetta. Bondi, for her part, asserted that Trump is the most transparent president in the country's history for having released the documents about the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Wednesday night, in The revoltDavid Broncano announced a live connection with Afghanistan to interview one of the world's best doctors. On the other side of the screen, from a street in Kabul, appeared Dr. Diego González Rivas to explain his personal project: the following day he would inaugurate Afghanistan's first minimally invasive surgery hospital and would teach the country's surgeons how to operate with his equipment. The connection was quite poor, via a mobile video call. The doctor expressed his joy at being in the country and showed the three bodyguards who protected him at all times: three men in paramilitary attire, armed with Kalashnikovs, who looked rather unfriendly.Very safe!"," the doctor said. He introduced another surgeon, who greeted the audience:We are really happy!"," he exclaimed. They then entered a restaurant and took an elevator up to a room where there were more men. A few banners advertised this new center. The doctor introduced Broncano to his colleagues:He is my suffering!"He told them. In a previous program, months ago, we learned that this doctor had operated on the presenter. Dr. González Rivas explained that the following day he would meet with the Minister of Health of the Taliban regime and expressed his excitement at being able to operate on the people of the country with a technique to which they had not had access until now, after more than four surgical procedures. In the midst of the euphoria, he introduced a businessman who was collaborating on the project and, with humor, commented that this man had been imprisoned twice when he was young and had burned down an entire library."

A new escalation of violence in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province has left some 200 dead this weekend. The Pakistani army is attempting to regain control after a series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks in several towns and cities across the region. The attacks have killed 31 civilians and 17 members of the security forces, according to Balochistan's Chief Minister, Sarfraz Bugti. The army has responded with further violence, killing at least 145 militants. "Security forces have killed 145 militants over the course of more than 40 hours following the coordinated attacks in Balochistan," Bugti told a press conference Sunday in Quetta, the provincial capital. He specified that the death toll includes militants killed in raids on Friday and Saturday, as well as other fighters killed during the ongoing "clearance operations."

The knock came late at night, the kind of knock that doesn’t belong to ordinary life. It was around eleven. I don’t remember the exact month, but I remember the sound clearly. It froze the air inside our home.

People who have never lived in Kabul often imagine Afghanistan as a dry and warm country. Many are surprised when I tell them how cold it becomes in winter. Kabul is a city situated at an altitude of about 1,800 meters and surrounded by mountains, and every winter it snows and temperatures can reach ten or fifteen degrees below zero. The cold is sharp enough to numb your hands within minutes, and the air itself feels heavy, biting, and relentless.

I had always dreamed of pursuing a master’s degree in journalism. It was not an unrealistic dream,until the Taliban turned it into one inside Afghanistan. Universities closed, futures narrowed, and plans that once felt within reach suddenly became distant.

Madina Ayar writes for the ARA (You can see her eyes, but nothing else, in the photograph accompanying this text) from Kabul, about Afghan restaurants. She explains that "before" they were one of the few leisure venues where men and women sat together, but that the last time she went to one, "the garden area, which used to be where families sat, had become a 'women-only' space and men weren't allowed in." The waiters said, "Ladies, stay here. Gentlemen, you must go to the men's section." They did have a second unisex dining room, but it was like the smoking area in our old bars: no windows, no air.

Not so long ago, going to a restaurant for me was not just about going to a public place; it was a way to breathe. Among the smell of hot rice and fresh bread, among the clinking of spoons and laughter, I could, for a few hours, forget what was happening outside those walls. For my generation -I am 25-, restaurants were something between home and the outside world; a space where family, partners, and friends could sit together and simply be “normal.”

Two years ago, when women’s beauty salons were closed, it felt as if a part of our lives had been locked away behind those doors. I remember the last time I went to a salon; the space smelled of endings, like the day you realize something you’ve grown used to is about to be erased from your life forever. My beautician had gathered all her tools. The small jars of creams and colors, the brushes,she placed them one by one into an old box. The sound of the little containers closing was like gentle taps on the heart.

A woman chasing a ball was never well-received in Afghanistan. But with the Taliban's rise to power in 2021, it became completely forbidden. Women cannot play football in Afghanistan, nor can they participate in any other sport. However, the Afghan women's national football team has risen from the ashes, returning to the pitch this October and participating in an international competition. All thanks to Khalida Popal, the team's first captain, who refused to give up. "It has been a very proud moment and our way of fighting against the ideology that considers women should stay in the kitchen," she says with conviction. Of course, the road has not been easy.