Badghis Province

Badghis Province is located in the isolated hills of northwestern Afghanistan and shares its borders with Herat, Ghor, and Faryab provinces as well as Turkmenistan. The province has a total area of 20,591 km².^[6] Hydrologically, the province is dominated by the Murghab River which is used for irrigation.^[7] It contains some mountains but is predominantly characterized by rolling hills divided by ravines.^[8]

The province is very windy; the name "Badghis" is a corruption of the Persian compound "bâd-khiz", meaning "wind source", referring to the steppe winds that blow into the province from the north and northwest. Its northern border extends to the edge of the part of the Karakum desert known as the Sarakhs desert. Northern Badghis includes the loess and other aeolian formations, known locally as the "chul",^[9] through which the Turkmen-Afghan boundary runs.^[10] Across the border in Turkmenistan is the Badhyz State Nature Reserve in the Badkhiz-Karabil semi-desert.^[11]

Before the Arab conquest, the province was the center of the Kingdom of Badghis, whose king Tarkhan Tirek resisted an Umayyad invasion in 709 AD. After the Arab conquest, the province was rebellious and it served as a haven for religious dissenters until about 1000 AD.^[8] Badghis' excellent grasslands were used as summer pastures by the Timurid dynasty in the fifteenth century. By the late 19th century, the province was devastated by Turkmen raids.^[8] In 1964, the province was carved out of portions of Herat Province and Meymaneh Province.

The province was one of the last captured by the Taliban in their military offensive before the American invasion in 2001. The province was quickly retaken by Northern Alliance forces as the United States initiated hostilities.^{[citation needed]} Badghis Province came under complete control of the Taliban in 2021.

In January 2022, the province was struck by a 5.3 earthquake, killing dozens.^[12]

Like in the rest of Afghanistan, no exact population numbers are available. The Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation & Development (MRRD) along with UNHCR and the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) of Afghanistan estimated the population of the province to be around 559,297 in 2021.^[3][13] In 2013 – the single year for which the data is available at the moment – Badghis male population was 241,200, and the female was 230,700.^[14] Tajiks, and Pashtuns make up the majority of the province's population with smaller numbers of Hazaras (mostly Sunni Hazaras^{[citation needed]}), Uzbeks, Turkmens, and Balochs.^[4]

The major political parties are:^[15]

• Jamiat-e Islami (Islamic Society of Afghanistan)
• Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin
• Islamic Council of Herat

At the province was a Provincial Reconstruction Team, which was led by Spain.^[15] In January 2019 a US service member from Texas, serving with the 75th Ranger Regiment, was fatally wounded during a combat operation in the province.^[16]

Badghis is counted as one of the most underdeveloped of the country's thirty-four provinces.^[17] Not only does it have the little infrastructure, and poor roads, it has a chronic shortage of water.^[17][18] Agriculture is the main source of people's income and the existence of the Murghab River makes the available land suitable for cultivation. The province has suffered from severe drought beginning in the late 1990s and continuing. It has caused tens of thousands of residents to flee to refugee camps outside Herat.^[19] The drought has been exacerbated by the excessive cutting of forests since 2001.^[18] Badghis is the leading province in Afghanistan in pistachio production. It is also one of the carpet-making areas of the country. The province produced Karakul sheep until the late 1970s.^[8]

Badghis Province suffers from a lack of adequate transportation. A single airport exists at the provincial seat--Qala i Naw Airport (OAQN), which is capable of handling light aircraft.^[20] Work on a 233 km section of the Afghan ring road started up again in 2012.^[21] This section would connect Bala Murghab with Herat in the southwest, and Maymana and Mazar-i Sharif in the northeast.

The percentage of households with clean drinking water fell from 11.6% in 2005 to 1% in 2011.^[22] The percentage of births attended to by a skilled birth attendant increased from 15% in 2005 to 17% in 2011.^[22] Official government figures for 2007 indicated that 17% of the Badghis population had access to safe drinking water, while only 1% of births were attended by a skilled person.^[23]

According to information from the education department, there are 457 schools with 75 high and the rests are primary and secondary schools. There are as many as 120,000 students, with 35% of them being female students. There is one vocational high school of agriculture and one midwife training Institute in the province as well. However, as of 2007, the overall literacy rate was only 9.5%.^[23]

Badghis province is divided into seven districts.^[24]

Population^[25]

Area^[26]

Pop.
density

Ethnic groups

83,169

2,311

36

80% Tajiks, 20% Pashtuns.^[27]

62,311

1,782

35

97% Pashtuns, 2% Aimaqs, 1% Baloch.^[28]

89,148

6,105

15

Mixed Pashtuns and Tajiks.^[29]

26,838

620

43

Mixed Pashtuns and Tajiks.^[30]

109,874

4,237

26

85.6% Pashtuns, 7% Tajiks, 7% Turkmens, 0.3% Uzbeks.^[31]

102,833

3,391

30

Mixed Pashtuns and Tajiks.^[32]

75,410

841

90

Tajiks, Uzbeks, Pashtuns, Balochs, Turkmens, and Hazaras.^[33]

549,583

20,794

26

Ethnic Groups: 62% Tajik, 28% Pashtun, 5% Uzbek, 3% Turkmen, 2% Baluch;
Religious Groups: 90% Sunni, 10% Shi'a^[34]

• Provinces of Afghanistan

• Map of Badghis Province Archived 27 October 2005 at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
• Badghis Province Overview - Slides (University of Montana)
• Afghanistan Information Management Service Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine