The war on terrorism, currently being fought in Afghanistan, targets the al-Qaeda terrorist network and its sponsors, rather than the Afghan people. However, the interest of the world in the country of Afghanistan has been piqued. Some of the Web sites listed here will allow the reader to become better informed about the people, the history, the culture and the land of Afghanistan.

A good chronology of Afghan history can be found at Afghanistan Online http://www.afghan-web.com/history/. Divided into four parts, it covers a time span from the prehistoric era up to the present, although it does not include the events of the past two months. The site also contains the texts of the five constitutions in place from 1923 to 1990, and also features more in-depth articles on such historical topics as "Medieval Jewish community of Afghanistan" and "The Role of Afghanistan in the fall of the USSR."

The Toronto-based Afghan Network http://www.afghan-network.net/Culture/ devotes a great deal of its Web site to Afghanistan's culture, including holidays, traditional costumes, musical instruments, sports, languages and literatures, among other aspects. The site also contains "Islam: An Overview," which explains core beliefs of the religion and its sacred texts.

The Illinois Institute of Technology offers the Afghanistan Country Study http://www.gl.iit.edu/govdocs/afghanistan/, an online book detailing "the dominant historical, social, economic, political and national security aspects of contemporary Afghanistan." This is part of the country studies/area handbook program published by the Library of Congress.

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan http://www.rawa.org is a political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in Afghanistan. This site posts many reports from inside Afghanistan, detailed information on women's lives under the Taliban and many useful links to other organizations and to reports on human rights in Afghanistan. Another interesting site that does not focus solely on Afghanistan is Women Living Under Muslim Laws International Solidarity Network http://www.wluml.org.

A good introduction to Afghan music is accessible through Radio Afghanistan http://www.radioafghanistan.com/. This online station provides not only 24-hour broadcasts of music, news and political and cultural commentary, but offers a basic presentation of musical culture through text and illustration, including prominent musical instruments and folk and classical traditions.

The University of Nebraska's Centre for Afghanistan Studies http://www.unomaha.edu/~world/cas/cas.html is the only American scholarly institution devoted to Afghan culture. The center's focal point is the Arthur Paul Afghanistan collection, the largest outside of that country. Key to the Web site is the Afghanistan Atlas Project, which supplies maps that can be enlarged, as well as assorted geographic and historical data.

Finally, do not neglect the entry of Afghanistan in Britannica Online http://www.search.eb.com/, offered as one of BISON's online resources. The article's contents cover geography, economy, ethnography, politics, cultural life and history. There also is a superb bibliography of print resources and links to reputable online sites, including many of the above.