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KABULl // Having withstood time, the elements, looters and war, a spectacular Buddha restored and removed from one of Afghanistans most dangerous regions is to make its public debut in the countrys national museum.

The statue, which depicts the sage in a purple shroud offering his hands to the heavens, had been hidden beneath layers of soil and silt since some time between the third and fifth centuries, according to the archeologists who discovered it.

The exceptionally well-preserved piece, with its colours still vibrant, was found in 2012 at the Mes Aynak site about 40 kilometres southeast of Kabul, in the now Taliban-held Logar province.

Its discovery was made possible after a Chinese consortium began digging a copper mine that uncovered an ancient monastery complex stretching out over an area of four square kilometres.

"The statue was almost whole when it was discovered, with its head present, which is rare," said Ermano Carbonara, an Italian restoration expert. "It was placed in the centre of a niche, which itself had been decorated with painted flowers, in the heart of a great centre of (an area used for) prayer.

"It was better to remove it from the site to protect it," he added.

The clay used in the sculpture was taken from the Mes Aynak river and is particularly sensitive to moisture.

"A night of rain could destroy it," said Mr Carbonara, adding the details of the face, the black curls of the Buddhas bun, its pink cheeks and deep blue eyes pointed to a "truly sophisticated technique" of craftmanship.

A lust for looting in a country wracked by violence for the past four decades left Mr Carbonara with little choice: the Buddhas head, its most valued part on the black market, had already rolled to the ground either the result of an unfortunate strike of an excavators spade, or the first attempt at plundering.

"We find plenty of headless statues. If wed left it be, its head wouldnt have lasted a long time," said Julio Bendezu, director of Dafa, the French government archaeological mission in Afghanistan.

Once in Kabul, a team of Italian, French and Afghan workers re-attached the head and placed the Buddha back in the recess, along with one of two accompanying characters, who appear to be either monks or patrons. The second is already in the museum and will also be returned to its original place.

"Often, those who financed the construction of the statue and its housing wanted themselves represented by its side," explained Mr Bendezu.

The restoration also allowed experts to study the statues inner structure of straw and wood, revealing a Greek influence brought by Alexander the Great when his armies swept through the region around 330 BC.

The Buddha left DAFAs workshops earlier this week under military escort and was brought to the National Museum of Afghanistan in preparation for its public unveiling.

A vast room has been dedicated to the excavation and treasures of Mes Aynak, testifying to the pre-Islamic past of Afghanistan.

* Agence France-Presse

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Afghanistan museum unveils restored ancient Buddha - The National

Asia & Pacific

10:50 17.03.2017(updated 10:51 17.03.2017) Get short URL

BAKU (Sputnik) Azerbaijan has always played an important role inrestoring peace and stability inAfghanistan, Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai said Friday inBaku ata session ofthe Heart ofAsia Istanbul Process regional conference.

"Azerbaijan plays a vital role inrestoring peace and stability inAfghanistan. As one ofthe key countries inthe Heart ofAsia format ofIstanbul Process and Afghanistan's close partner, Azerbaijan has supported this process and continues toplay an essential role inefforts related todifferent spheres," Karzai said.

The deputy foreign minister expressed hope that the next session ofthe Heart ofAsia Istanbul Process conference, planned totake place atthe level offoreign ministers inBaku soon, will have positive results interms ofrestoring Afghanistan's infrastructure and further efforts concerning peacekeeping.

Afghanistan is ina state ofpolitical and social turmoil, withgovernment forces fighting the continuing Taliban insurgency. The instability has persisted inthe country sincethe 2001 US-led invasion todefeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda inthe wake ofthe 9/11 attacks inthe United States.

The lack ofcontrol and instability turned the country intohome tothe largest opium poppy production and distribution network inthe world.

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'Azerbaijan Plays Vital Role in Restoring Peace, Stability in Afghanistan' - Sputnik International

While India debates on the nuances of feminism and the distinctions between a feminist and a feminazi and the various meanings of women empowerment and human rights, let us find out what it means for an ordinary woman in Afghanistan who is not even allowed to move outside her home in most situations.

Im here so that I can learn something, so that I can serve my village and country, says Abida. Im really proud to be able to do this. I make efforts to study as hard as I possibly can.

Abida Nowroz, a native of Jalalabad, is training to be a nurse in a country where womens rights have little space in the patriarchal scheme of things. However, she is determined to change the situation in the repressive society.

Her small effort is actually a storm in an ocean, keeping in mind her social context. She comes from a place where traditionally women have been restricted to the home and are prevented from venturing outside.

I dont waste even a single day without any kind of learning, explains Abida.

Globally, Afghanistan has extremely high infant and maternal mortality rates- in fact, one of the highest in the world. There is utter absence of healthcare facilities, particularly in rural areas. Together with a paucity of female health workers, the situation means that several Afghan women fail to receive basic healthcare that they desperately need.

I do not want to see mothers die on their way to clinics and healthcare centres, or see their children become orphans, explains Abida.

Abida will graduate from the training school in 2017 and will work in the poorest villages of her province in Afghanistan. But she is not alone in her efforts to change the situation of women in Afghanistan. She has 200 other colleagues- all fired by the same passion to serve their society and ensure womens rights.

The Jalalabad nursing school is one among six spread across the country and will be training more than 200 nurses every year. They have been set up by the ministry of public health of Afghanistan and supported by the UNDP. The objective of the nursing centre is to raise a new generation of female health workers.

Abida is part of the first batch of graduates who would bring desperately needed healthcare to women in the remotest of areas and reach cut-off communities.

Throughout history and particularly during the Taliban rule in the last decade of the 20thcentury, women were a repressed lot. The Taliban prohibited them from going to work and decreed they could not leave their homes until they were accompanied by a male family member. And when they did go out they were ordered to wear a head to toe all-cover burqa.

Women continue to struggle for basic freedoms and independence in a society that is chiefly male dominated. Violence against women is high in Afghanistan but things are changing for the better as the country slowly makes its way to progress.

Also read:India needs to side with Afghanistan to isolate Pakistan

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How a woman in Afghanistan is fighting the Taliban - DailyO

Iran, one of the states targeted by Donald Trumps Muslim ban, is a country from which the US could learn a lot on the resettlement of refugees, the UN has said.

The Soviet War in Afghanistan displaced six million people to neighbouring Iran and Pakistan in 1979. Almost four decades later, the Tehran government still shelters around one million registered Afghans, and up to two million are thought to also be living in the country - making Iran home to the worlds fourth largest refugee population.

The leadership demonstrated by the Iranian government has been exemplary in hosting refugees and keeping borders open, Sivanka Dhanapala, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Tehran, said on Wednesday.

It's a story that's not told often enough.

The remarks come as Mr Trumps administration tries to resuscitate its travel ban on peoplefrom seven Muslim-majority countries, and halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

The new ban - which could affect the one million Iranian nationals living and studying in the US - was slapped down on Wednesday by a federal court in Hawaii on the grounds it could cause irreparable injury.

It was ironic, Mr Dhanapala noted, that Iranians could be barred from the US while continuing to deal with the human fallout of the American conflict with the Soviet Union.

While Afghans resident in Iran - especially those who are undocumented - are often marginalised to the fringes of society as poorly paid manual workers, and are not allowed to apply for citizenship, the Tehran government has also recently taken positive steps such as ordering schools to take in all Afghan children, and embarked on a health insurance scheme that covers refugees.

The UN is fostering hopes that the country will ease work permit restrictions and register more undocumented Afghans in the future.

They are unlikely to return home voluntarily as Afghanistan becomes more unstable that it has been in years and its economy continues to stagnate. Worldwide, the average amount of time a refugee spends outside their home country is 20 years.

In a world where you have multiple bad stories about hosting refugees, I think Iran is really a good news story, Mr Dhanapala added.

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Iran's 'exemplary' refugee resettlement efforts praised by UN - The Independent

Iran is on track to out-produce Qatar, the worldsbiggest LNG exporter, at the vast natural gas deposit they share in the Persian Gulf.Its officials want to gain market share and attract foreign capital, even as U.S. President Donald Trump ratchets up confrontational rhetoric against Iran. But as much as they might want, the Iranians wont have much gas to export because they are likely to use most of the new production themselves.

Almost nothing. Iran has 18.2 percent of proven gas reserves, ahead of Russia and Qatar, according tothe BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Unlike its competitors, which have built far-flung pipelines and liquefied natural gas plants to reach foreign buyers, Iran exported 8.4 billion cubic meters (300 billion cubic feet) in 2015 while importing 7.5 billion cubic meters the same year. Until recently, it was a net importer, buying or bartering for gas from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan because its domestic distribution network doesnt supply the entire country. Iran exports less gas by pipeline than Myanmar or Kazakhstan, which together hold less than 1 percent of global reserves.

Half of it goes to warming homes, 21 percent to generating power and 18 percent for industrial use, including petrochemicals production, according to Cedigaz, an industry research group. Iran, withabout 80 million people, is the fourth-biggest market for natural gas, after the U.S., Russia and China. New production can barely keep up with demand. Gas consumption almost doubled to 191.2 billion cubic meters in 2015from 102.7 billion in 2005, according to BP statistics, while output rose over the same period to 192.5 billion cubic metersfrom 102.3 billion.

Iranplans this year to start sending gas by pipeline to Baghdad in neighboring Iraq, a step that would make it the 15th-biggest exporter, up seven spots from its current rank. But Iraq is planning its own pipeline to export gas to Kuwait and may not prove to be a long-term customer. Irans development of LNG plants stalled for years due to international sanctions, and such facilities arent a priority given the impending glut of liquefied gas.

The country is considering pipelines to Oman, Pakistan and other countries, though cross-border links are scarce in the turbulent region.Floating LNG plants, a temporary fix until permanent facilities for liquefying gas can be built, are also an option. Ali Amirani, marketing director at the National Iranian Gas Export Co., concedes that the nation will consume most of its gas until at least 2024.

By March 2018, Irans outputat the giant South Pars gas field in the Gulf will have surpassed Qatars production at the connected North Field,Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on March 7.Additional development phases at South Pars should give Iran more room for exports in the future. For now, Irans motivation for producing more gas is to re-inject it underground into crude reservoirs, especially into some of the shared oil fields with Iraq. The other incentive is to supply the domestic market, Stephen Fullerton, a research associate at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said in a January interview.

Gas re-injection, which isnt considered part of marketed consumption, can increase the production and recoverable reserves of oil. The entire output from one South Pars phase went into Iranian oil fields, Fullerton said. They have huge demand for that, especially with the ramp-up of new projects for oil, he said.

For more on Irans natural gas export plans, click here.

Exactly. Iran is seeking to attract $100 billion of foreign investment into its energy industry. To boost crude output, it needs gas -- much more gas than its currently injecting. Iran required 93 billion cubic meters of gas for re-injection in 2014 but could only allocate 32 billion, according to Cedigaz. Gas used for oil production,together with domestic consumption of the fuel, is sapping volumes available for export.

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Qatar has placed a moratorium on new drilling in the North Field since 2005, and its international expansion signals a plan to preserve domestic reserves for as long as possible.The North Field-South Pars reservoir has enough gas for both countries to exploit, according to Wood Mackenzies Fullerton. Even though science shows few risks to the field from shared production, a perception that Qatar has already extracted at least twice as much gas as Iran may cause tensions, Jean-Francois Seznec, a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, wrote in an August study.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar Petroleums chief executive officer, denied that his company halted drilling to allay Iranian concerns. Irans development of South Pars has nothing to do with what we do with the moratorium, he told reporters in February. It never did and never will.

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Why Trump Doesn't Have to Do Anything to Stop Iran's Gas Plans - Bloomberg