Features and Investigative Reports

Doctors say still wrong beliefs and customs in protection and care of newborns exist in some remote areas of the country, including traditional or non-medical cutting of the umbilical cords, which is dangerous.

Some residents of Charchino district in central Uruzgan province have called on the caretaker government to reconstruct homes and shops destroyed during years of conflict and to provide essential public services in their area.

A number of residents of southern Ghazni province have urged the caretaker government to complete long-delayed work on the building of the main provincial hospital, a project that began nearly two decades ago.

In some parts of the country, including central Bamyan province, women remain silent on one of their most fundamental rights -- dower (mahr).

With decreasing rainfall and a shortage of surface water in western Herat province, farmers have increasingly turned to solar-powered systems to extract groundwater for irrigation---an action that has raised concerns about a future water crisis.

Tucked away 30 kilometers from Zaranj city, the capital of southwestern Nimroz province, Baynaz village is home to just a handful of families who are struggling to survive in mud houses on sun-scorched and barren land without even basic facilities.

A growing number of young people in central Parwan province have started learning vocational and technical education due to limited job opportunities in other sectors.

Muska Hotak, an 18-year-old girl from Kabul, has turned to religious studies, English and computer training after the interim government suspended education for females beyond the sixth grade.

In the southeastern province of Khost, a master engraver and miniature artist, Ismail Zadran, reflects with disappointment on a lifetime he dedicated to a fading craft.

Residents of Chah Ab district in northern Takhar province have urged the caretaker government to invest revenues from local mining operations in essential services for them such as construction of roads, clinics and schools.

Residents of Badpakh district in eastern Laghman province have urged the caretaker government to complete the remaining five percent work on an electricity supply project, which was 95 percent completed in the previous government.

Maulvi Gul Ahmad Ahmadi, a widely respected tribal elder in northwestern Nimroz province, has spent the past three decades mediating feuds and fostering peace in his community.