Badghis (Persian:
بادغیس) is one of the thirty-four
provinces of Afghanistan. It is located on the
northwest of
Afghanistan, between the
Murghab and
Hari Rud rivers, extending as far northward as the
edge of the desert of
Sarakhs. The province was carved out of portions of
Herat and
Meymaneh provinces in
1964 and has a total area of 20,591 km². Its name is
from
Persian بادخیز Bâdkhiz meaning "where the
winds arise" or "home of the winds".
The province has a mixed population of
Aimek,
Uzbeks,
Turkmen,
Tajiks and
Pashtuns and is counted as one of the most
underdeveloped of the country's 34 provinces.
Qala i Naw, a small town half-way between Shiberghan
and Herat serves as the provincial center. Badghis is
home to what some say the first Persian poet,
Hanzala Badghisi.
Economy and Culture
Agriculture is the main source of people's income
and the existence of
Murghab and
Hari Rud rivers makes the available land suitable
for cultivation. The province faced severe drought
during the late 1990s and early 2000s, causing tens of
thousands of residents to flee to refugee camps outside
Herat. The situation has since improved. Badghis is also one of the carpet-making
capitals of the country.
Recent History
The province was one of the last captured by the
Taliban in their military offensive previous to the
American invasion in 2001. Even after their official
takeover of the province, the largely Uzbek and Turkmen
population of the province never welcomed the Pashtun
Taliban. The province was quickly retaken by
Northern Alliance forces as the United States
initiated hostilities, which was followed by a brutal
cleansing of the
Pashtun minority in the province.
Various influential warlords have traded control of
the province in recent years, including
Abdul Malik,
Rashid Dostum,
Juma Khan and
Ismail Khan. During the fight against the Taliban,
the
Northern Alliance commanders received military aid
from
Shia
Iran, fearful of the
Sunni Taliban. In one notable incident, Malik
temporarily switched his allegiances from Dotsum,
allowing the Taliban to gain control of the province.
Currently, like most of northern Afghanistan, armed
commanders still exert considerable influence over the
province, often running private jails, seizing land, and
controlling the
opium poppy harvest. The province has been
relatively peaceful since the full of the Taliban,
notwithstanding sporadic conflicts between rival
warlords.
