Since the return of the Taliban to power, concern has been growing over the “Islamisation” of Afghan society – including the education sector.

The Taliban announced on Sept. 7, 2021, that Mullah Hasan Akhund has been appointed interim prime minister of Afghanistan. The decision comes more than two weeks after the militant Islamist group seized control of much of the country, including the capital, Kabul. The Conversation asked Ali A. Olomi, a historian of the Middle East and Islam at Penn State University, to explain who Mullah Akhund is, and what his appointment may portend for Afghanistan amid concern over human rights in the war-ravaged nation.

As the latest conflict between Israel and Palestine approaches the two-week mark, it’s worth asking what the crisis means for South Asia, which borders the Middle East

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcas, as India’s COVID-19 crisis continues, we look at what’s holding back the country’s vaccination rollout and how a shift in strategy on distribution and pricing is causing concern. And we speak to a researcher who went hunting for fungi in the world’s largest seed bank.

The second wave of the pandemic has struck India with a devastating impact

There have been many predictions about how many people have had COVID-19 and whether or not this or that country has reached herd immunity. We have seen this before in Manaus, Brazil, and in. The optimism is alas always misplaced and occasionally used irresponsibly

Hindu devotees attend evening prayers on the banks of the Ganges River during the religious Kumbh Mela festival in Haridwar, India

Hussain Ali Rezaie takes a break from the backbreaking labour of working his land by hand. He expresses concern about a lack of snowfall this winter in his mountainous province of Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan – and what it might mean for his potatoes

Padam does not remember when he began keeping elephants at his hotel

India has stepped up its global ambitions and foreign policy re-engagement with African countries in recent years. Its bilateral trade from $7.2 billion in 2001 to $63 billion in 2017/18. India is now the third largest export destination and the fifth largest investor on the continent

Plans to build Nepal’s biggest ever hydropower project have gone through a bewildering series of politically motivated changes since 2011

Twice a week, 50-year-old Brajasundari loads a collection of jerrycans onto a pedal cart, climbs aboard and travels three kilometres from her village Kanchrahati to buy water

The allocation of the waters of the Indus river system between the provinces of Pakistan was a historic agreement

After the Hindu festival of Dashain in October, farmers across Nepal head to their fields to harvest their prized rice paddy crop

The Hindu Kush Himalayas may finally get a united eight-country voice to safeguard its ecosystem, if the governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan keep the promises made by their ministers and representatives at a virtual summit this October