Interview with Afghan Warrior

Global Voices has started a series of interviews with Afghan bloggers. Our first guest is Waheed from Afghan Warrior.

1 Q: How long have you started to blogging and why an English one?
1 A .I have been blogging since March 8, 2005. I wanted to raise my voice, and my people's voice, to the world. Since the English language is an international language I decided to write my blog in English so people from different countries should be able to read it.

2Q: Are there any statistics to provide any estimation about the number of afghan bloggers and the language that they use?

2 A : I do not have any statistics estimation to provide about the number of Afghan bloggers and the language they use, but I think there are more than 10 Afghan bloggers that are blogging in 3 languages – English, Dari and Pashtu.

3Q:I noticed (may be I am wrong) that a couple of years ago there were more active Afghan blogs than today.Why?

3 A: I don't think there were more active Afghan blogs a couple of years ago than now. Freedom of speech is improving day by day in Afghanistan and the number of the Afghan writers and bloggers is increasing and we will see more active Afghan blogs in the future.

4Q:In Afghanistan, there are many journals and private radio or TV program which express themselves with freedom. What can blogs provide more in your opinion?

4 A: In my opinion blogs can provide information with more freedom than the private radio or TV programs. Sometimes the private TVs and radios are not expressing some realities because there are still some former warlords in power that were involved in the 1992 civil war that killed thousands of people and destroyed the capital Kabul.

5 Q: How you see evolution of blogging in Afghanistan in recent years?

A 5: I see the evolution of blogging as very positive. In the recent year it is a great source of sharing and expressing the reality about what is going on in Afghanistan. I have seen some new bloggers that have started their blogs late last year. I have linked 2 Afghan bloggers to my blog site so they are making some progress.

6Q:Are many afghan bloggers living abroad rather in country?

A 6: I think there are more Afghan bloggers living abroad than in-country. There are some Afghan bloggers blogging from USA, England and some other countries.

7Q: Afghanistan is a country with important ethnic divisons. Do you feel same thing in blogs? In other words, are there ethnic divisionss in the blogging world?

A 7: My blog is representing the whole people of Afghanistan. Even though Afghanistan is a country with important ethnic divisions, they are one united nation and my blog is not representing any ethnic division.

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