The History Week is an initiative that seeks to address the challenges faced by the study of Afghan
history in the wake of war and destruction. The prolonged conflict in Afghanistan not only resulted in
the destruction of infrastructure but also threatened the preservation of cultural memory through the
destruction of libraries, museums, and other historical sites. Additionally, the pressures of war have
forced young Afghans to pay less attention to their past, and most of the scholars who have studied
Afghan history have been foreigners living outside of the country. This has led to a lack of contemporary,
indigenous research on Afghan history.
To address these issues, The History Week was created as an annual event, usually held every year
around the first week of January, to honour the legacy of two prominent Afghan historians, Dr
Mohammad Hassan Kakar and Mullah Faiz Mohammad Kateb Hazara. Both of them passed away in early
January, Dr Kakar in 2017 and Mullah Faiz Mohammad in 1931. Through this event, the classical and
traditional history writing of Afghanistan, as well as modern historiography approaches and sources, are
examined and critiqued. This serves to enhance popular historical awareness, promote rigorous
research, and train new historians.
The one-week program of The History Week includes a variety of activities such as discussions, debates,
observations, trips, and publications. These events aim to achieve the following objectives:

• Generating and disseminating knowledge about historical events through discussions of new
  and classical scholarly work made available in the local languages;
• Encouraging the empirically grounded study of past events with an eye to lessons for examining
  and overcoming current issues and problems;
• Assessing the past and present of Afghan historiography, focusing on existing barriers to
  strengthening scientific and philosophical perspectives;
• Promoting the utility of history for aesthetic purposes and underscoring the role of the public in
  documenting local histories through interventions in the arts and culture.