Glimpses of Hope in the Shadow of War

Afghanistan and its people have been wracked with almost four decades of war and violent conflict. More civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict in 2018 than at any time since records have been kept, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office.

Among the documented 3,804 civilian deaths were 927 children, the highest recorded number of boys and girls killed in the conflict during a single year. The data clearly shows that children and adolescents, that amount two third of the country‘s population, have been significantly affected by this violence.

The experiences and voices of the Afghan youth, however, are still underrepresented in scientific and political debates that primarily focus on political and military ‘powerful’ national and international actors. The Afghan Youth Project that has been conducted by Prof. Phil C. Langer and his team since 2016 in Afghanistan has put the Afghan youth into the research’s focus, since it is the young generation that shapes the country’s future.

It aims at understanding their possible role in the process towards sustainable peace in Afghanistan. It focuses on understanding how experiences of everyday violence affect the identity and integrity of young people, shape their imagination of a different Afghanistan, and their agency to contribute to a societal and political transformation.

At the symposium, key findings of the Afghan Youth Project will be presented, contextualized, and discussed in an interdisciplinary manner. Renown international fellow researchers, policy makers, mental health and education experts and activist from Afghanistan, Germany and other European countries are invited to think collectively future perspectives of the Afghan youth.

The Afghan Youth Project was developed, designed, and conducted within a participatory framework that included (in alphabetic order): Aisha-Nusrat Ahmad, Prof. Dr. Angela Kühner, Farhad Majidi, Hamid Aaqil Shah, Khesraw Majidi, Nasera Faryabi, Obaid Majidi, Prof. Dr. Phil C. Langer, Shaista Alikan, Shamsia Mohammadi, & Ulrike Auge.

We greatly appreciate the funding of the Afghan Youth Project by the German Foundation for Peace Research, the grant by the Stiftung Analytische Psychiatrie for conducting the symposium, and the logistic support by the International Psychoanalytic University. -– the organizing team