Herat
(Persian: هرات) is a province of Afghanistan; together
with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces it makes up the
western region of the country. Its primary city and
administrative capital is also named Herat, and its
proximity to Iran makes it a sensitive area as Iran
seeks to protect its interests in post-Taliban
Afghanistan.
The province was one of the first major battlegrounds in
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and remained an
active area of guerrilla warfare throughout, with local
military commander and mujahideen Ismail Khan leading
resistance to Soviet rule from 1979 until the Soviet
withdrawal in 1989. When the Soviets withdrew, Khan
became the governor of the province, in which position
he remained until the Taliban took control of the
province in 1995. Following the ousting of the Taliban
in 2001 by the Afghan Northern Alliance (supported by
the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan), Khan once again
became governor.
The province was ruled more or less autocratically by
Khan, despite some attempts by the interim central
government (headed by
Hamid Karzai) to weaken the power of local
strongmen. Khan's rule has engendered some controversy,
though Herat has remained largely free of the violence
that has plagued some other regions of post-Taliban
Afghanistan.
