UBC faculty, staff and students can now access the Afghan Serials Collection (DA-ASC) Partisan Publications from the Wahdat Library as well as the Afghan Central Press digital archive, addressing in part the needs of students and faculty conducting research in Afghan Studies.
The Afghan Serials Collection spans 46 newspapers and journals from the 1970s to the 1990s. It includes over 2,500 articles published in Persian, Pushto, Arabic, Urdu, and English.
The Afghan Central Press digital archive includes four national publications including the English-language Kabul Times, as well as the Pushto publications Anīs, Hewād, and Iṣlāḥ.
Dr. Naveena Naqvi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies in the UBC Faculty of Arts, sees these databases as valuable resources for students and scholars with an interest in Afghan history: “The materials comprise newspapers, periodicals and journals in Persian, Urdu, Pashto and English from the era of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan prior to the Soviet occupation in 1979 all the way up to the present. These include complete collections of publications like Kumak and Parcham that were run by Afghan leftists in the 1960s and 70s as well as the archives of English-language publications like Kabul Times.”
The Afghan Serials Collection is fully searchable and available remotely to UBC Library users with a CWL through Indexes and Databases and the library catalogue. The Afghan Central Press digital archive is similarly available through Indexes and Databases and the library catalogue to all UBC Library users.
“Both databases offer much-needed access to public discourse by Afghans, about Afghanistan and its place in the world,” says Dr. Naqvi. “Not only do these materials shed light on high-political news items that dominated the context of the Soviet, US and Taliban take-overs of Afghanistan, they include writings that offer insight on Afghan realia. Between stories of civil war or political coups, we find debates about the prices of household items, and discussions about music, science, history and religion that foreground the humanity of modern Afghan society.”
Dr. Naqvi notes that she intends to use these resources in her future course offerings, most notably Studies in the History of a Major Asian Civilization (ASIA 310), which will focus on Afghan history when it is offered in Winter Session Term 2, 2023.
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to create and deliver responsive collections.
Learn more about our Strategic Framework.
