Afghan Central Press
The digital archives of four newspapers from Kabul are available to you as a national licence. Three of them were published in Persian/Pashto and one in English. The issues are mainly from the second half of the 20th century.
Contents
The Afghan Central Press collection includes four Afghan national publications based in Kabul, whose long-standing circulation and prominence provide a focussed perspective for understanding developments in Afghanistan throughout much of the twentieth century. The English-language Kabul Times is presented alongside the Pashto publications Anīs (انیس), Hewād (هیواد) and Iṣlāḥ (اصلاح).
Together, the archives of these newspapers provide a chronicle of events from the fall of the Kingdom of Afghanistan, the founding of the People's Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the Soviet invasion, the rise of the Mujahideen, the establishment of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the invasion by the USA and the subsequent period of reconstruction from the perspective of the capital.
Character recognition
The full text of the archive was obtained by digital character recognition (OCR). Persian/Pashto are difficult languages in this process. Early editions and those based on microfilms have a lower recognition rate.
The documents within the database can be downloaded in their original layout as PDF files. The service is available throughout Germany and at German institutes abroad via the system of national licences accessible free of charge.