فصلنامه پژوهش های منطقه ای
شماره 7 (تابستان 1390)

The article at hand entails the discussion regarding the role and status of the Afghan scientists and elites in the exceptional culture and grand civilization of Islam, which is discussed with focus on eight main subjects: Tradition and the related sciences, mysticism and Sufism, philosophy and rational sciences, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, art and literature. Within the sciences mentioned, during the era of Islamic culture and civilisation, prominent figures like Avicenna, Abu- Rayhan, Sanaie-Ghaznawi, Mulana-Jalaleddin-Muhammad- Balkhi, Khaje-Abdullah-Ansari, Abu-Khaled-Kaboli and many others emerged from this region, each of which shines like a sun in the blues of knowledge and wisdom.

The social and political system of Afghanistan in the contemporary era has witnessed so many ups and downs and has experienced diverse political systems. The existing challenges in Afghanistan has doubled since the military attack by the Soviets in the 80s and the American invasion, resulting in further complications in the set up of power in Afghanistan. Considering these issues, tracking down of the political factions in this country will be most essential for a well acquaintance of Afghanistan. In this discourse, by recourse to potentialrecognition approach and semantics of Quentin Skinner, the author attempts to identify these factions.

Today’s public media is an inseparable component in Human livelihood, and is among the main causes of social transformations. The Neo-Afghanistan has been the witness to an unprecedented reform in its media and in the new era after September the 11th 2001 and the collapse of the Talibani Empire, innumerable media stations (vocal, video and print), stepped into the social and cultural grounds of Afghanistan. This is while according to the belief of the alert in the field of media, despite the quantitative rise in the Afghan media, qualitative wise a tolerable status is not what is seen in this field in Afghanistan. In this paper, alongside exploring the position of media in the social lives of the Afghan people and citing its historical background, the state of media in the contemporary Afghanistan has been inspected. The author stresses on the hypothesis that, although the contemporary media in Afghanistan are beyond expectations in quantity, in terms of quality they suffer from a very poor condition. The author by analysing the existing challenges in the field of media, is not forward-looking to a lucid stance for the future achievements of these media, which he expects to be due to a poor and undeveloped management, the lack of specialised human resources in the field, extreme commercial-dependence of the media and their remoteness from the sense of accountability.

“Sexual equality” and “Empowering women” is among the eight development goals set by the United Nations for the third millennium, and the objective of these goals is to actualize half the human capital of societies which is owned by women. In Afghanistan following the Bon summit and the collapse of Taliban, based on the achievement of this goal, debates on the implementation of sexual equality in all grounds are going on, to the extend that the presence of women and their share in the social arena has turned into an important measure for the global society in the course of democratization of Afghanistan. Sexual justice in the field of politics will lead to equal political contribution alongside men; this vital issue accounts for the main focus of this paper. Given that sexual justice and women’s empowerment has been laid on the top of the plan for peace, reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, it is appropriate to analyse this key element on the political grounds; since nowdays sexual development and women’s empowerment, to a level that under a set framework women could take active role in decision making and implementing those decisions in a mass scope, has become an essential parameter of development. And this is not possible except through active, conscious and effective political contribution of women in the society. This research is dedicated to presenting an image of what the Afghan women have paid in the way of achieving their social and political right, and to provide an answer for this question that: why through out the history of Afghanistan, the scheme of women’s empowerment is faced with defeat?

The elevated position of education has had, since old ages, an extraordinary station in Human societies especially in divine religions. The first and foremost activity by the missionaries of divine religions has been dedicated to the education of people and their release from the imprisonment of ignorance, unawareness and worldly desires, since man’s elevation and spiritual development, and its means to realization of high positions is achieved solely under the shadow of education. And for the importance of this issue, the presented paper explores the status of Education in the Islamic state of Afghanistan, the historical backgrounds of education, schooling schemes, educational institutions, stages of education and the current status of education, and finally it evaluates the shortcomings and the side affects of educational schemes.

The ancient and archaic region of Afghanistan which was at once part of the “Greater Khorasan” and ancient Persia has, since old past, been the residence and the crossing route of miscellaneous nations, cultures, languages and diverse creeds. This diversity has created a mosaic of populations in this country which exhibit uneven and inconsistent cultural and humanistic structure. In the essay at hand, due to the significance of the two elements of race and ethnicity in the temporary Afghanistan, the author tries to present a complete frame-work of the races andvethnic minorities in Afghanistan.

The author has sought to examine the challenges faced by the growth of religious culture in the layout of thoughts and attitudes of the majority of the Afghan people. The lack of scientific and religious education inside families, and its weakness in the schools, the bias approach by the religious teachers, the promotion of Wahhabism and Christianity and the ideology of secularism are among some of the grounds and causes of ideological dilemma and religious misconduct in Afghanistan.

This article which is extracfed from Encyclopaedia of the world’s nations and cultures, by exploring the typical titles and topics in the Afghan culture, engages in analysing issues such as social and racial relations, marriage, family, socializing customs, religious beliefs, celebrations and events, arts, Islamic sciences and etc.