Opinion makers

Weblogs were briefly famous in Afghanistan and a few of them are still well known, but social networks have taken the domination over blogs. Razaq Mamoon, an Afghan writer based in Australia, is one of the most famous bloggers remaining. He also has a famous website (Razaqmamoon.com) featuring contents that are shared to social networks regularly and discussed immediately among groups and networks.

There are so called “movements for change” with thousands of followers on their social media networks, which are also used to organise demonstrations and other kinds of protests. The most famous one is The Enlightenment Movement, which starts to advocate for the connection of rural areas to power networks. Some personal Facebook profiles are also discussed among people, especially those of people that comment on politics.

Although due to number of explosions into demonstration processes of Enlightenment Movement out in Kabul, the movement changed its approaches, but still, social media tool is very widely used for their influence to the public.

Insurgent groups are also using social networks for recruiting youths to fight against the government. Their websites as well as Facebook pages are regularly followed, especially in the South and East of the country. Insurgents, especially the Taliban are intermittently using different pages in different languages. However, their website in English is always the same (Alemarah-english.org). Some influential social media accounts are also important. People are using them specially to get political information and thoughts. The Facebook page of the (former) governor of the northern Balkh province or the Facebook page of Salahudin Rabani, acting leader of Jamiat party, who is famous for his family background that is involved into Afghanistan politics since 1970s, are two important examples. Youth group pages are also widespread, and the most famous ones focus on popular sports such as football or cricket. For example, the page of Barcelona Football Club Supporters in Afghanistan is followed by thousands of people