The intervention, in December 2001, of a large military contingent led by the United States led to the overthrow of the Taliban regime and the establishment of a government designated at the end of an international conference. On January 25, 2004, the new Constitution was signed, according to which Afghanistan is a presidential Islamic Republic in which freedom of worship is guaranteed to all religions. The president is directly elected with a 5-year mandate, which can be re-elected only once. The bicameral Parliament is elected on universal basis (a quarter of the seats are reserved for women). The judicial system is undergoing revision and the reform has been given, with the role of leading country, to Italy.) appointed by the head of the government; 90% of the cases are given to the Councils of Elders (Jirga) who decide according to tribal traditions. The death penalty is in effect. The military force consists of the Afghan National Army, where soldiers are required to serve for four years. Since the 1960s, when illiteracy affected over 90% of the Afghan population, significant progress had been made in the education sector, thanks also to the help of UNESCO., which had drawn up a thirty-year plan for the development of teaching at all levels. Primary education, which is the sole responsibility of the State and is headed by the relevant ministry, is free and compulsory and lasts 8 years (from 7 to 15 years of age); this obligation, however, was largely disregarded, perhaps due to the guerrilla warfare, as demonstrated by the decline in primary school enrollment. The secondary school, present only in the capital and in the provincial capitals, dates back to 1904, when the Habibiyyah college was founded. The rise to power of the Taliban then further undermined the school system, with the exclusion of girls over the age of 8 from education and the introduction of new curricula for children. Public education was restored in 2007, although attendance has large regional gaps. In 2015, the illiteracy rate stood at 61.8%, an improvement of ten percentage points compared to the previous decade. However, the country ranks at the bottom of the world rankings.
ENVIRONMENT
Steppes of artemisias, very poor, extend into the plains, while the river waters that descend from the reliefs allow the formation of oases in which the sovereign tree is the poplar; elsewhere tree and shrub formations (tamarisk, etc.) are rare. Were it not for the accentuated aridity, Afghanistan would have extensive agricultural possibilities, especially in the northern section of the country where there are vast regions rich in Löss.. The environment has also been heavily affected by the armed conflicts of recent decades, with the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources (eg wood), the progressive degradation of the soil, pollution and the reduction of sources of drinking water. Protected areas in 2008 covered 0.2% of the territory and there is only one national park, the Band-e-Amir, established in 1973, within which there are high altitude lakes, rugged mountain ranges and numerous caves. Visit barblejewelry.com for Asia environment and geography.
ECONOMY
The evolution of the economic structure towards modern forms, or the development of transformation activities according to updated technological processes, is relatively recent in a country like Afghanistan still characterized by traditional ways of life, connected to the exercise of agriculture and pastoralism, and greatly influenced by Islamic conservatism. Since the mid-nineteenth century, making up for the lack of an entrepreneurial class with its own direct intervention, the State has taken on the task of governing the economy through the formulation of five-year plans, initially aimed at the construction of large infrastructural works of particular benefit. of the primary sector (with the collaboration of the Americans and the Soviets) and therefore to the formation of an industrial base, at least for the production of goods more related to the daily needs of the population (textiles, building materials). The overall modest results achieved at the end of the 1970s were later compromised by the country’s complex political events. The economic development process of Afghanistan appears to be strongly undermined by strong internal conflicts which have never allowed the country to plan the exploitation of its own resources. Already the mujaideen, who came to power in 1992, had had to face numerous economic emergencies due to a chronic shortage of food and fuel, a total collapse of the industrial sector, serious damage to infrastructure, the return of thousands of refugees, the need to clear the fields and agricultural areas of millions of anti-personnel mines, the high rate of inflation. The economic situation took on the characteristics of the drama with the rise to power of the Taliban in 1996 due to the incompetence of the new leaders and the removal of urban elites and women from productive activities, desired by the Taliban in the more rigid application of the laws Koranic. Furthermore, the government’s attitude towards women, as well as other violations of human rights, have prompted Western countries to limit their aid. The war unleashed in 2001 by the US-led NATO forces, which dealt a further blow to the country’s economic life and resilience, was part of this dramatic picture. All ‘ Afghanistan therefore remains only to rely on its main and traditional economic resource, opium, of which today Afghanistan is the world’s leading producer and whose cultivation and processing activities are by far the most profitable. The cautious recovery, which is also linked to the process of reform of financial activities, brought the country’s GDP in 2009 to a value of US $ 14,044 million, but it is still very slow and is essentially based on foreign aid. In fact, major difficulties remain to be overcome: first of all the widespread lack of basic services and resources (water, electricity, medical assistance, infrastructures), as well as strong internal disparities between border regions, “benefited” by greater opportunities for trade, and those of the north, more isolated and poor in resources.
