Afghanistan

Afghanistan

In 642 AD the Arabs invaded Afghanistan and introduced Islam.

Afghanistan is the world's 41st largest country with 647 500 km2 of land. It shares borders with Pakistan in the East, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far east. Afghanistan is often described as being located within South Asia, Central Asia and sometimes Western Asia (or the Middle East). It is landlocked and moutainous.
 * __Geography:__**

In ancient Afghanistan the population wasnt as high compared to how it is in modern times because not much of it had been discovered but there has been a rise in citizens in Afghanistan by an estimate of 16.5 million people. Ancient: (15.5 million people) Modern: (32.0 million people)
 * __Population:__**

When the arabs first tried to convert the afghans, the buddhist and the hindus resisted to the conversion. But in time an Afghan form of islam took shape. Afghanistan is the birthplace of many sufi teachings eventhough 84% of the population is Sunni and 15% is Shi'a. A lot of violent conflicts occurs between these 2 groups.During the 1980s, two Sunni movements became a lot more popular in the country.Wahhabism is an ultraconservative branch of Sunni Islam that emerged in Saudi Arabia in the 1700s, and Deobandism is a fundamentalist, pan-Islamic movement that developed in South Asia in the 19th century.Both greatly influenced the philosophy of the Talibans.
 * __Religion:__**

In its early days Afghanistan got several rulers, but then the British invaded. The country became independant from the british in 1919 but the monarchy got abolished only in 1973. The soviets army troups invaded in 1979. But the Afghans started to fight for the power. Severals islamic groups tried to take control of the capital which is Kabul. But the most powerful of all these groups were the Talibans. They took the power in 1996 and implented an harsh version of Sharia, which is a muslim law. The women had basically no rights. The reason why the citizens had trouble getting rid of that dictatorship is because the most supreme leader of the Talibans, Mullah Omar, was the kaliph and the emir of all muslims in Afghanistan. Obeying the emir was fundamental. It was a law called Fardh-God's demand that must be practiced. The Talibans ruled until 2001. Because that year the Northern alliance and the United states took control of most of the country. They are currently trying to put a whole new government.
 * __ Government: __**

Back during ancient times Afghanistan's per capita was one of the lowest in the entire world because of the misery and decades of war wore them down wit debts but back then at it was: $501.00 (per capita income). Then came the modern times and their economy grew as did their per capita income because their wars had been faught and were finding ways to get out of debts and eventually they raised their (per capita income) to: $1,103.00.
 * __Per Capita Income:__**

Afghanistan was also a solid country besides all the cruelty brought to them through war and the talibans attacking them to take control. But throughout ancient and modern times they have become an advanced civilization in general with some main imports and exports: They had macheinery, natural rescourses; animal skins, carpets, cotton, textiles and some other natural resources, included petroleum, natural gas, zinc, iron ore, coal, and copper, (but there is very little left to go around, package, and transport them to domestic or international markets.) Also about 85% of the population is forced to depend on agriculture to make a living, eventhough farming is something thats done day to day and is done well on a solid agricultural level. Pakistan and India buy most of Afghanistan's exports, which are mainly agricultural and are found in Afghanistan, including dried fruits, hides,, and wool. According to United Nations estimates, during the late 20th century, Afghanistan was the world's leading source of [|opium], the main ingredient for [|heroin] .Then as time passed they became accessable to some froms of transportation like motor bikes and cars.
 * __Imports/Exports:__**

__**Culture:**__ __**Bibliography:**__
 * Nawruz** is like a big new years party and its also a well known tradition, during Nawruz the Afghani people get together with their family and partake in rituals and dancing to music they call Afghan music. Afghanistan people play a game called **Buzkashi,** its like polo but not completely the same; what they do is ride on horse trying to avoid players on the other team and the team who gets the most cattle will still stading on there horse wins. The Afghanistan people wore alot of turban type clothing with the robes as well it was a traditional thing. When a man is going into a room a place he must greet every man in the room with a handshake and not a women because she would have to be the one to ask for his hand.For a women it would be the same but the man would have to ask for her hand first. Lastly one main reason the Afghanistan ended up like this was because of the Talibans attacking them and introducing them into Islamic ways.


 * **__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan__**
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 * **__http://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/afghanistan/history/__**