Central Asia
The region of Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea to western China and Mongolia. Encompassing differing cultures and diverse geographies, we aim to present a broad range of stories.
We explore China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, the climate catastrophe of the Aral Sea and the lives of nomadic herders living in Mongolia. Here you read our journalism on Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many more.
The dragon and the bear on the roof of the world
Cash-strapped but strategically important, Tajikistan is undergoing rapid change with its future increasingly being shaped by a power play between China and Russia. Klas Lundström reports.
New year, fearful past
At Persian New Year, Sahar Fahimi speaks to Afghans about the humanitarian crisis tearing through their country.
‘Let’s not make the same mistake again’
Ritu Mahendru speaks to Afghan aid organizations who claim international sanctions are making it harder to feed people in a country on the edge of famine.
Hall of infamy: Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
Despite mass unemployment and a deep food crisis, Turkmenistan’s image-obsessed president claims poverty does not exist in his country.
Introducing...Hibatullah Akhundzada
Richard Swift on the Taliban leadership that now governs over 40 million Afghans.
Afghan teenagers turn homeschoolers
Blocked from education by the Taliban, Ritu Mahendru speaks to young women risking their safety to teach younger students.
‘I fought so hard for my rights’
Ritu Mahendru speaks to Afghan women at the forefront of resisting the Taliban’s oppression, including on the streets.
‘We have lost everything’
For Afghans forced to leave their country and flee to Europe there is no place called home, writes Ritu Mahendru.
Afghanistan – what can I do?
The question so many of us are asking. Vanessa Baird has a few suggestions.
Where football meets politics
In tiny Abkhazia, outcast from the world stage, football is a source of hope. Robert O’Connor reports.
No room for dissidents in Georgia and Azerbaijan
Georgia was once hailed as a ‘beacon of democracy’, but geopolitics have taken priority over human rights, writes Onnik Krikorian.
A look at Uzbekistan today
In December, the country elected the successor of long-time dictator
Karimov. But things might not get much better.
Death and re-birth of a lake: How water came back to the dry Aral Sea
The once-world's fourth biggest lake was thought gone forever and a source of decades of environmental disaster. But something is changing.
Yezidi refugees: stranded sisterhood unites to draw strength through adversity
Thousands of Yezidi women and children remain hostages of Islamic State. Maria Serrano reports.
Where is Asia in the world?
Iris Gonzales reports on a conference seeking to create a fairer economy for a region notorious for cheap labour and exploitation by the West.
Dirty games
Azerbaijan will be showing its friendly face this month as it hosts the European Games. But it’s what is going on behind the scenes that is important, argue Emma Hughes and James Marriott.
Kyrgyzstan
Nick Megoran revisits one of the poorest of the former Soviet republics and finds that instability, corruption and ethnic tensions remain.
Georgia
Looking ahead in Stalin's own country: a miner waits for his shift in a coalmine in the town of Tqibuli, near Kutaisi.
A sea returns to life, a sea slowly dies
Paul Lauener’s stirring report from the Aral Sea, scene of both environmental miracle and disaster.
I put a spell on you...
Zuhra Bahman gives the inside story on how male sorcerers are keeping women down in Afghanistan.
No sanctuary
In 1996, in the midst of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, my cousin Saboor, a fresh-faced and ambitious 20-year-old, left Afghanistan to seek refuge in Iran. He was hoping to find work and save enough money to migrate to Europe and get an education. He was never heard from again.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is arguably the country that has been most affected by 9/11. Less than four weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the United States began a bombing campaign that toppled the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
