Golnaz Esfandiari is a senior correspondent with RFE/RL.
A video of confessions by several Afghan women who had gone missing in Kabul has led to anger and accusations that the Taliban pressured the women to say they had been encouraged to demonstrate for their rights by activists based outside the country.
After 20 years of a U.S.-led war against insurgent groups and international assistance to Afghanistan, the Taliban is back in power and some are wondering if the societal gains are in jeopardy of being lost.
What do we know about the Islamic State-Khorasan militant group, which has claimed responsibility for the massive bomb attack outside Kabul airport as people clambered at the gates in hopes of being evacuated?
Iran is carefully watching the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban amid concerns about a refugee influx, potential instability, and terrorist groups finding a permanent foothold in a neighboring country.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the founding members of the Taliban and the group's most public face, could play a senior role in ruling Afghanistan.
Staying in Afghanistan to fight against Taliban forces would have ended badly, several Afghan soldiers who recently fled to Tajikistan told RFE/RL's Tajik Service.
Analysts say the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan could allow Iran to expand its influence in the region, though any uptick in violence after the pullout could create additional burdens for Tehran.
Iran recently hosted a senior Taliban delegation for a week in a move that analysts say is aimed at cultivating ties with potential members of Afghanistan's future government.
A budding doctor who came to Iran on a medical scholarship has been working to save coronavirus patients since volunteering at one of the country's biggest hubs of COVID-19 care.
Persian is thought to have around 110 million speakers worldwide, including in Iran, Tajikistan, and much of Afghanistan. Its alphabet is a modified form of Arabic script.
Current and former Afghan officials and observers of events in the war-torn country are criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that the Soviet Union was “right” to invade in 1979.
Conservatives challenge cineastes' submission for the Oscars over its gloomy depiction of life in Iran, saying a more patriotic choice lionizing Iranian efforts in Syria would have been better.
Iran is applauding an Afghan-born immigrant for her scientific contributions, including a pollution-monitoring device that is expected to be used in a major underground tunnel in the Iranian capital.
Two London-based Iranians developed a new version of the popular social media app Telegram to counter a ban by Iran's hard-line judiciary.
Iranian journalists have criticized a government offer to provide 100 of them with free Internet, saying they'd reject such a privilege because unrestricted Internet is everyone's right.
A shocking video shows a young, burqa-clad Afghan woman brutally beaten by a mob that included her own relatives.
One by one, Iranians are publicly defying the so-called hijab rule in echoes of an iconic protest by a 31-year-old mother in Tehran.
Reports suggest the United States could designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization. Tehran has warned that such a move would be met with a "firm, decisive, and crushing" response.
Iran's latest arrests of alleged Islamic State extremists has added to the scrutiny of the group's presence in Iran
An Afghan group is seeking to end long-held taboos in society and restore a basic right to women -- for them to be identified by their own names.
Load more
