Nijrāb District, (Pashto/Persian: نجراب), also called Nijrāw, is situated in the central part of

Kapisa Province Kapisa (Pashto/Dari: ) is the smallest of Afghanistan's thirty-four provinces and is located in the north-east of the country. It has an estimated population of 496,840 people and an area of , making it the most densely populated province apar ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. It is located in a valley about 120 km northeast of

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) 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; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

. It borders Mahmud Raqi and Koh Band districts to the west,

Parwan Province Parwan (Dari: ), also spelled Parvan, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 751,000. The province is multi-ethnic and mostly rural society. The province is divided into ten districts. The town of Imam Abu Hanif ...

to the north,

Laghman Province Laghman (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, m ...

and Alasay District to the east and Tagab District to the south. The district center is

Nijrab Nijrāb (Pashto/Persian: نجراب) is a city with five valleys in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country loca ...

, located in the southern part of the district. The population of Nijrab District is 99,600 (2006), making it the most populous district of Kapisa.

Geography

Nijrab District contains very rugged terrain and many areas are still inaccessible. The mountains that form the boundary with Laghman Province are the highest points in the district and reach a height of around 14,000 feet. Snowfall on the mountains melts slowly and flows into the valleys below. The farmers in Nijrab irrigate the melted snow to water their fields. The total population in Nijrab was a lot more than 100,000 back in 1950-1960s. Rivers from the nearby Hindu Kush mountains and springs provide the majority of drinking water for district residents; however, hundreds of hand pump wells have been installed by the National Solidarity Program (NSP). Kapisa and Parwan PRT funded several more wells in late 2008 for Afghania.

Demographics

The population of Nijrab District consists of

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

Tajiks Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Tajik ...

, Pashai,

Parachi Parachi (''Parāčī'') is an Iranian languages, Iranian language. Parachi is spoken by some 600 individuals of the Parachi ethnic group in eastern Afghanistan, mainly in the upper part of Nijrab District, northeast of Kabul province, Kabul, ou ...

and

Nuristanis The Nuristanis, formerly known as Kafiristanis, are an ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan. Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian langu ...

Economy

The Nijrab district's economy is primarily agricultural, growing products such as

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

red beans Red bean is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * Adzuki bean (''Vigna angularis''), commonly used in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cuisine, particularly as red bean paste * Kidney bean, red variety of '' Phaseolus vulgaris'', c ...

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

s, and

pine nuts Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...

Education

The district contains a number of primary and high schools. According to Nijrab's Director of Education Ghulam Mayudin, Nijrab has 44 schools. The Nijrab Department of Education is located in a rented office within the bazaar near the District Center. Nijrab suffers from a lack of qualified teachers, especially female teachers. Many schools in Nijrab have received new schools from several US and international organizations. The countries contributing the most to the funding of new schools in Nijrab are the US, Bangladesh (BRAC), and Japan. Kapisa and Parwan PRT has recently (late 2008) approved funding for Kohi Girls School (Afghania), Shahed Nick mhomad (pachaghan), Mohammed Ayoob (Pachagan), khowaja roshnay walley (pachaghan), Engineer Habib Urahman (Kharj), Abdul Manan (Farakh Shah), and Abdul Salam (Pachagan). Qazi Abdul Jamil (Afghania) and Farakh Shah High School (Farakh Shah) were nearing completion as of December 2008. All areas within Nijrab educate female students to include the Pashtun area of Afghania. There are several girls schools in Afghania. There was an incident in April 2008 in which the Taliban set fire to a girls school in the Afghania area. The villagers extinguished the fire and only one classroom was heavily damaged. Aside from that one act of arson, no attacks, threats, or acts of vandalism toward female schools had taken place during 2008. A large majority of villagers in Nijrab support the education of females and request new school buildings (half of the girls schools in Nijrab are without a building at all) with a perimeter wall for protection and privacy.

References

External links

AIMS District Map
{{coord missing, Afghanistan Districts of Kapisa Province