Decolonizing Afghanistan

As the first comprehensive volume to explore the impact of empire on Afghanistan's past and present <i>Decolonizing Afghanistan</i> marks a decolonial turn in Afghanistan and American studies. Featuring new and often sidelined ground-up perspectives this collection examines how Afghan communities have subverted resisted and participated in colonial projects from the early twentieth century to the present with a particular focus on the US intervention that began in 2001. Contributors interrogate the relationship between knowledge and power to analyze how narratives about Afghanistan have framed and legitimated imperial governance. Topics span the contradictions and consequences of the US Forever War the rise of private security contracting the deployment of biometric and surveillance technologies the politics of US and Taliban countermedia operations the evolution of gender discourses and the mobilization of Afghan Americans and Afghan culture among others. Throughout contributors draw important connections and insights to ongoing global anticolonial struggles and offer paths to decolonial futures.<br><br>Contributors. Matthieu Aikins Dawood Azami Purnima Bose Paula Chakravartty Robert D. Crews Marya Hannun Ali Karimi Nivi Manchanda Sabauon Nasseri Tausif Noor Wazhmah Osman Hosai Qasmi Zohra Saed Gazelle Samizay Morwari Zafar Helena Zeweri