The hardest hit areas were remote farming villages in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika. "All the village completely is destroyed," said one man, showing collapsed homes on a cell phone video.

In NPR's first visit to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over almost a year ago, Diaa Hadid discusses the changes she's observing in Kabul since she last visited there in pre-Taliban-ruled 2020.

In a rare journey down the length of the Indus River, a filmmaker and environmental activists survey damage done to Pakistan's main water artery and meet the people who live on its ancient banks.

Pakistan doesn't recognize Israel. After a delegation visited Israel and even met with its president, Pakistani senators were outraged and one visitor got fired.

A delegation of Pakistanis and Pakistani-Americans visited Jerusalem, as Israel tries to open more diplomatic relations with Muslim-majority countries.

The crisis in Ukraine is causing more food insecurity for people in Afghanistan, who are already going hungry in a country roiled by conflict, drought, pandemic and a freeze on national assets.

The Taliban in Afghanistan have instructed that women cover up in public from head to toe, including their faces. NPR correspondent Diaa Hadid has been talking to women affected by the change.

The decree, which calls for women in Afghanistan to show only their eyes and recommends they wear the burqa, evoked similar restrictions during the Taliban's previous rule.

For 9 months, teen girls have been pretty much unable to go to school. Protests have been shut down. Now clerics — including some affiliated with the Taliban – are urging an end to the school ban.

Afghans are protesting the Taliban's ban on girls attending secondary school, including a surprising cohort: pro-Taliban clerics.

Bomb attacks in Afghanistan have shattered a relative lull in violence that had held since the Taliban seized power eight months ago.

An attack that hit a boys' school in Afghanistan's capital has left students dead and wounded. It's the latest in sectarian violence against Shia Muslims since the Taliban took control in 2021.

Pakistani men cram into so-called "dirty theatres" where women dance suggestively in tight clothes. The theatres survive, despite increasing conservatism.

Pakistan's Imran Kahn has been ousted from leadership, but the former prime minister is not going quietly.

Pakistan's turbulent politics took another turn Monday when the parliament elected a new prime minister. It came after the former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence motion.

The no confidence vote came after the speaker of the house resigned, saying he could not oversee the ouster of his close ally of 30 years, and after Khan's own lawmakers delayed the vote.

The Pakistan parliament is holding a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Imran Khan, which will lead to his ouster. Opponents accuse his government of economic mismanagement.

The country's Supreme Court said a move by Prime Minister Imran Khan to dissolve parliament rather than face a no-confidence vote was unconstitutional. What happens next isn't entirely clear.

Pakistan's supreme court has ruled that a move by the prime minister to dissolve parliament is illegal, ending a political crisis — for now.

Taliban's hardliners appear ascendant as a ban on girls attending secondary school is extended and men are ordered to grow beards.