An Introduction to Afghanistan - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

About This Presentation
Title:

An Introduction to Afghanistan

Description:

An Introduction to Afghanistan The Flag of Afghanistan On the coat of arms are 2 Muslim inscriptions written in Arabic: God is Great There is ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:299
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 21
Provided by: Computi420
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: An Introduction to Afghanistan


1
An Introduction to Afghanistan
2
The Flag of Afghanistan
  • On the coat of arms are 2 Muslim inscriptions
    written in Arabic
  • God is Great
  • There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the
    Prophet of Allah.

3
The Government
  • Afghanistan does not have a functioning central
    government. It is ruled by factions.
  • 90 of the country is ruled by the Taliban. The
    United Nations, however, does not recognize the
    Taliban as the official government of
    Afghanistan.
  • The capital city is Kabul.
  • There are presently 30 Afghan provinces.
  • The Constitution of 1964 is no longer in use.

4
Religion
  • Photo Blue Mosque
  • Ninety-nine percent of Afghanistans population
  • is Muslim.

5
The People
  • The people of Afghanistan are called Afghan(s).
  • Afghanistans population is 27,000,000.
  • The people of Afghanistan have a life expectancy
    of only 45 years.
  • Many ethnic groups make up the Afghan population.
    The largest is the Pashtun (38) followed in
    size by the Tajik (25).

6
The People
7
The Geography
  • Afghanistan is about the size of Texas.
  • Its 647,500 square miles are landlocked.
  • It is located in Southern Asia. It shares
    borders with Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
    and Tajikistan, Iran, and China.

8
The Geography
  • The terrain is mostly rugged mountains, but there
    are plains in the north and southwest portions of
    the country.
  • The climate is arid-semiarid. The winters are
    cold and the summers are hot.

9
The Economy
  • Afghanistan is a poor country with few modern
    conveniences.
  • It depends on farming and livestock raising
    (sheep and goats).

10
Exports
  • Afghanistans main export has been the opium
    extracted
  • from the poppy plants grown over much of the
    country. The
  • Taliban has recently put a ban on the cultivation
    of poppies.
  • Because poppy farmers have little else to fall
    back on, many
  • now have to face devastating poverty.

11
The History
  • 1919 Independence from British control.
  • 1973 A coup overthrows the King.
  • 1979 Invasion by Russian troops.
  • 1996 The Taliban take power.

12
1979 - 1988
  • The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with 80,000
    men
  • in December, 1979, in an attempt to impose
    control for its puppet Afghan government.
  • After losing tens-of- thousands of soldiers, the
    defeated Soviets retreated in 1988.
  • 1,000,000 Afghans lost their lives in the fight
    against the Soviet Union.

13
1996 - Present
  • The Islamic fundamentalist movement known as the
    Taliban began to take political and physical
    control of the country in 1994. With its
    takeover of Kobul in 1996, the Taliban became the
    self-proclaimed government of Afghanistan.

14
  • In 1979, Afghanistan was unsuccessfully invaded
    and eventually controlled by the Soviet Union.
  • In 1995, the Taliban, promising traditional,
    Islamic values came into power, imposing strict
    Islamic law, including revoking many womens
    rights.
  • In 2001, American troops force the Taliban from
    power.
  • In 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first elected
    Afghan president.

15
Afghanistan Today
  • After more than twenty years of civil war,
  • Afghanistans economy and infrastructure lie in
    ruin.

16
Afghanistan Today
  • The civil war which Afghanistan has been fighting
  • continues as the Taliban supporters face the
    forces of
  • the Northern Alliance.

17
Afghanistan Today
  • The Taliban has been ridding
  • the country of all non-Islamic
  • relics. Two sandstone
  • statues of Buddha had stood
  • carved in the side of a cliff.

18
Afghanistan Today
  • But on March 3, 2001, the
  • Taliban used rockets and
  • mortars to destroy the statues
  • in a campaign to rid the
  • country of un-Islamic and
  • idolatrous representations of
  • the human form.

19
Afghanistan Today
  • Women no longer have as
  • many rights as they once
  • did. The Taliban does not
  • allow women or girls to
  • study, work in most jobs, or
  • vote. Women have to be
  • completely covered when
  • walking in public and should
  • be accompanied by a male
  • from their family.

20
President Karzai
  • President Hamid Karzai was the first elected
    president in the history of Afghanistan. He came
    to power after the Taliban was overthrown in late
    2001. Karzai has survived numerous assassination
    attempts and has been assigned the task of
    rebuilding Afghanistan.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com