Stamp of Afghanistan - 1951 - Colnect 487673 - Buddha of Bamian

Afghan Post is the national

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and

courier A courier is a person or organization that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...

organization of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

with its headquarters in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

. It has offices in all 34

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

and 420 or so

districts of Afghanistan The districts of Afghanistan, known as ''wuleswali'' (, ''wuləswāləi''; , ''wuləswālī''; ''ulasvolik''), are secondary-level administrative units, one level below Provinces of Afghanistan, provinces. The Afghan government issued its fir ...

. Most homes in Afghanistan, particularly in older neighborhoods and in the rural areas, do not have street addresses. Names and other descriptions may be used in place of street addresses.

History

The first postal arrangements in Afghanistan are credited to Sher Ali Khan, who established a

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

in the 1860s as part of a program to modernize the country. In the late 1970s, it had grown into one of the stronger regional postal services, able to send and receive letters from anywhere in the world.

Timeline

*1870: Establishment of Balahisar Post office in Kabul and a post office in the center of each province of the country serving Primary Postal Services Affairs and Postal Stamps. *1892: A Post Office near Arg was established. *1908: Postal network developed more. *1918: General Directorship of Post and Telegraph & Telephone was included in the Organization of the Interior Ministry. *1918: A Post office was established in each of the big

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

. *1925: International post services began between Afghanistan and

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

via Torkham. *1928: General Directorship of Post and Telegraph & Telephone becomes and Independent Administration. *1928: Afghanistan became of a member of the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member states and is headquartered in Be ...

. *1928: After having joined the Universal Postal Union and some other individual company agreement were signed. *1929: Post is conveyed towards Torkham and

Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...

by vehicles. *1929: Various type of deliveries such as letters, postcards, newspapers, magazine and other printed materials as well as parcels are made inside and outside of the country. *1934: Title of the post administration from General Directorship of Telephone and Telegraph was changed into the Department of Telephone and Telegraph, and later on it was elevated to the Ministry of Communication. *1973: Law of postal services was amended. During the 1990s, the Afghan postal service was suspended due to a civil war in the country. Sending a letter usually meant having to find someone traveling in the direction of the recipient willing to carry a note and hoping for the best. It gradually began to develop in the mid 2000s during the presidency of Hamid Karzai, especially on mail and parcel delivery. Under director Ahmad Wahid Wais from 2017 to 2021, Afghan Post expanded its activities on freight, e-commerce and providing data services to government agencies.Peter Hornung, "" (Philately in the land of Talibans), '' Timbres magazine'', April 2023, p.24-29. As of the early 2020s, there are around 3000 postal points for the public to access these services: one or two post offices per province and at least one postal agent or agency per district. Wais extended the activities to freight and e-commerce. Since the mid-2010s, mail from Afghanistan has generally not been posted with postage stamps.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Postal administrations of Asia Communications in Afghanistan Philately of Afghanistan Postal organizations Postal systems by country

History

Timeline

See also

References

External links