At Afghan orphanage, friends from different sides of the war
(Lorenzo Tugnoli / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)
In Kandahar, where vengeance and pride so often dictate action, two boys might have been expected to inherit their fathers’ allegiances. Instead, they started fresh, embracing each other.
For Afghans next to U.S. firing range, unexploded ammunition poses peril
Civilians who graze animals or collect metal on the range are often injured by ammunition that’s been left behind.
Underground school for girls defies Taliban
Two brothers — among the few literate men in their Eastern Afghanistan village — are quietly trying educate Afghan girls.
Afghanistan’s rich and powerful flaunt ‘dancing boy’ companions
The practice of men taking underage boys as sexual partners is on the rise in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
About this series
This series examines what U.S. forces are leaving behind in Afghanistan after more than a decade of war.
U.S. and Taliban fight for key Afghan highway
Highway 1, which links the capital to Kandahar, is seen as essential to holding Afghanistan together.
The man who retrieves Taliban’s dead
An Afghan facilitator plays a crucial role in returning insurgents’ bodies to their families.
Afghan history, without the wars
Education officials, anxious not to inflame tensions, have left the past four decades out of textbooks.
Photo Galleries
Accidental victims
Scrap metal collectors are reaping injury, blindness and burns from unexploded ordnance in an unfenced field in Afghanistan.
Underground girls’ schools defy Taliban
In Afghanistan, girls attend informal school in family’s living room, defying Taliban edict.
The exploitation of Afghanistan’s ‘dancing boys’
A growing number of Afghan children are being coerced into a life of abuse.
