in the battle. the two countries are still technically at war, and there was a dramatic outcome with south korea scoring in the last minute. they clenched victory and prevents the match from going into a penalty shootout. more news on our website, aljazeera.com. hi i'm lisa fletcher and you are in the stream. afghanistan enters a new chapter in its democracy this week. hear from afghans about their hopes for the road ahead, and what the u.s. is banking on this time around. ♪ my digital producer and

co-host wajahat ali is here, bringing in all of your feedback throughout the show. a lot of activity from our community on this topic. they are also concerned about a rough road ahead. >> yeah, because afghanistan is a country besieged with challenges right now. it has fended off invaders for centuries. er >> and we hope that's not the case with afghanistan. >> now we're going to get our community into this a lot today. >> absolutely. >> this week afghanistan marked its first democratic legelectio.

he appointed his rival to a position similar to prime minister. the war-weary country remains plagued with a list that goes on and on. but security did seem to be at the top of ghani's priority list when he authorized a deal to keep thousands of american troops beyond 2019. the move eased tensions between the government and washington. so what will it take to change the tragic narrative to one of success. and what roll will afghans play in their country's future.

joining us out of afghanistan is a senior advisor to the afghan president. he serves as director of executive programs. from washington, d.c., a senior fellow at the brookings institute where he serves as director of research for its foreign policy program. and from pakistan, a journalist and author of several foreign policy books, including decent into chaos. thanks to all of you for being here. the election was contested for six months. the two disagree on all kinds of issues. so the concept of a unity government sounds good, but what afghans have seen is a complete a lack of unity between the two. so what is the president's plan to change the public impression, and convince both sides that progress is actually possible? >> well, yes, it's been a

difficult and bumpy road, but to us it's a success, because we just avoided a war, and no one in afghanistan wants -- the unity government may not be what the electorates wanted, they probably wanted a clear winner, but the fact that it got into a situation where we could have gotten -- where afghanistan could have once again got into a war, itself, a civil war here, we avoided that, and that shows that despite the fact that democracy is still new, but it showed that there is a lot of pragmatism on the part of both candidates to ensure that we move on in a peaceful way. there are problems as there are anywhere else in the world, but we hope we will get them resolved in time.

>> michael, westerns in particular are accustomed to a winner take all scenario. is there a future to a power sharing government? >> i think they could be. i am a big admirer of how they resolved this process. both candidates were very focused on winning, and they both thought they had won, but when we have had problems like that in the united states, it has taken us a long time to resolve outcomes as in the 2,000 presidential race, and we have a very dispute ta house process right now. but ghani is going to do what is

good for his country, and the unity government has some real promise. so i'm encouraged. >> lisa, we have some great community thoughts. give murray a listen. >> the question on everyone's mind right now is the sustainability of the national unity government. i think it's too early to determine that. however, i am very optimistic about it, because there is an immense need for a balance of power within the government, and that's something the national unity government provides. >> and here is one more. >> the question of whether afghanistan will divide or unite under the new government depends on how committed the two are to bringing change. they must put the population before themselves. failure to do so may cause a

division within the afghan population. >> all right. i have read your books, and you know all of the players. the president, abdullah abdullah, is it possible for this new government to cure the strife in afghanistan? the >> well, the last few months of wrangling have exacerbated the ethnic tension. although the two leaders have been very moderate in their statements, some of their supporters have been very extreme. and as somebody said, we have avoided a civil war, which was very possible. but what will happen now is we'll all watch very closely the formation of the cabinet and the first steps the government takes. if they are able to take important first steps -- and we have seen the reopening of the

corruption case regarding the kaboul bank. we haven't seen any appointments by dr. abdullah, yet. i think critically it is going to be the formation of the cabinet, and how that ethnic balance is going to be worked out and played out over the next few days and weeks. >> president ghani was pretty quick to sign off on the bilateral security agreement, keeping u.s. troops in afghanistan presumably through 2016. what do you say to afghan citizens who don't want u.s. troops in the country beyond that time? we have lost him. why don't you pick up on that for us. >> sure. afghans have many different views. however, i think they recognize some help is smart.

so i think there are more afghans worried about the plan for the united states and its allies to leave in two years, than the number who are upset they are staying until then. in more friendly parts of afghanistan you may have a real antipathy against foreigners, but most of the afghan, political, and economic elites that i know -- and admitted it is not a represented part of society -- but it is backed up community polls, they do still want a limited presence. >> we asked her community what their thoughts about the u.s. troops that will be in afghanistan: >> all right. well, we're going to continue this conversation.

next and explore how far afghanistan has come since the fall of the taliban in 2001, and where it still needs to go. plus she is considered one of the leading voices for young women in afghanistan. she joins us to talk about what female empowerment means to the future of the country, and the democratizing strength of the digital space.

♪ >> i'm an independent journalist, and political activist, and i'm in "the stream" >> welcome back, we're discussing the future of afghanistan under his new president. and joining us in the studio is a women's rights activist and writer. this is your second trip to the show. thank you for joining us again. >> thank you. it's lovely seeing you again. >> you and your family left afghanistan when the taliban entered. you went back in 2001, and your

family opened up a learning center for women there. and now ghani wants to create an peace table and he wants the taliban at the table. how do you feel about that? >> i think we should think deeply about what it means for our country. i do know war is not sustainable. we can't pay for it. we don't have enough troops. only a small percentage of troops in afghanistan are literate. women are less than 5,000 of the f afghan army. so i don't even know if we have the capability to continue this fight. however, i know the threats of the taliban. i see it on a daily basis. i'm wondering what will happen to hundreds of afghan women who are working today, teaching, thousands, 30% of the teachers in afghanistan are women. what is going to happen if the taliban are shareholders in the government.

i hope peace will not come at the cost of justice. and long-term peace cannot happen unless there is justice. >> does the solution with the taliban have to be political? >> definitely. this war cannot end with a victory by either side. and for the last two or three years, there have been efforts by the former president, the americans, and the taliban, to get into talks. now i believe that there is a moderate, if you would like, lobby within the taliban which understand that they can't win on the battlefield, and that they need a political solution. the question is, well, how is the president and dr. abdullah, going to bolster that moderate faction and entice them into a dialogue? at the moment we have a raging taliban offensive, which is very strong in the south, and in areas around kaboul, a very

dangerous situation. i'm just hoping that in the next few months with winter coming, and the fighting subsiding, there might be an opportunity here to reopen the so-called talks. i think there's a good opportunity even though at the moment the taliban are taking a very hard line against the new government. >> we asked our community just that question, and got a lot of responses: you are the advisor to president ghani, how does the government plan on tackling the taliban threat? >> let me be clear. i'm not advisor on security

issues, but as an afghan, i do have an opinion, and i think the incur againsy in afghanistan is multi-dimensional. one factor is the legitimacy of the government itself. people didn't accept democracy as a legitimate form of government, because they felt it was an imported way -- i think i lost the connection again. producer? i lost -- >> i think we're having a little bit of trouble again with his audio. michael i want to switch directions here a little bit. at the top of the show, i mentioned all of these major issues. any of one of which would be enough for a new government. poverty and security issues, which do you think falls right now at the top of the list? >> that's an excellent question. i am encouraged by the quality of some of the people involved. ghani and abdullah are both

outstanding individuals, i think, in terms of their commitment to the country. so that's going very favorably. i'm encouraged by the reopening of the kaboul bank investigation. and i think fighting the culture of corruption will be crucial. i don't see how you can put that on the back burner. but security has got to be at the top of the list as well, because, for the reasons we have been discussing, thor -- the insurgency is very strong. so i think it has to be as close to the top as anything else. >> michael, we talked about how do you assure afghan women security in this new government. we asked our community how ask afghanistan protect female

rights and ensure education: and here is a facebook page for afghan women. and here is a great video comment. >> my hopes for women is that the women make and have a permanent place in society. and with the assistance, guidance, and participation of the first lady alongside the president, this is very doable. there will be challenges along the way, but it's definitely a fight worth fighting for, for a better tomorrow. >> can this new government overcome some of the biases, the taliban threat to really ensure women have a voice, and there's more women rights. >> it's a long way to go.

afghanistan has a very long way to go to gender equality, or even ensuring very basically rights to women. but they have already done symbolic things that give hope to the people and women of afghanistan. for example, the fact that the first lady was there when ghani was running. she was there during his inauguration speech, and he mentioned her in the speech and thanked her for supporting him, i think give many women a chance to think maybe this new government will be different in the way it treats women. of course i'm wary, because this has happened before. we remember [ inaudible ] and the way he was so supportive of women's rights, and his wife was given monarchy. and that didn't go so well. there was a lot of backlash. so i think this government will

have a very hard time addressing those things, ensuring women's rights and also talking to taliban and inner is againsy who are not in support of women's rights. and women's security must be on the forefront. women's security especially. we have lost so many female activists. we have lost female musicians, female filmmakers -- >> lots of bloggers like yourself. >> exactly. >> talk a little bit -- and we're almost out of time -- talk about how the blog-sphere has been so important for women. >> yeah, i think it has really created a space for women to speak out about their rights. the other important thing is it allows women to be anonymous which gives us the illusion of security. i do know of a blogger who was

killed two years ago because of her blogging. and the case was immediately shut off. nobody talked about it. so i'm glad to be given the opportunity to talk about it. however, the facebook page that you mentioned is one that i run, and we get submissions from women around the country. i have so far published the works of 76 female authors, who have sent works to me from all over afghanistan, and it's not the only page. afghan women are using social media specifically to bring their voice to the forefront, and also creating platforms themselves, taking initiative to create platforms. an example is the afghan women's news agency, which does a lot of the work that i do, but in a more formal way. >> i want to thank our guests. still ahead, they have grown up in war, and may have the most at

stake. we'll show you how afghanistan's young people are mobilizing to ensure a day in their country's future. ensure a day in their country's

♪

welcome back. we're discussing the future of afghanistan, after the country experienced its first democratic transfer of power this week. joining us on skype to discuss how young people are leading change in the country, cofounder of the youth-lead organization. thanks for being here. there was a very robust use of social media during the election. but president ghani plan on continuing that interaction with afghans, particularly young people? and if so how? >> yeah, so social media here, before the previous government used it as a broadcast method mostly. during the campaign, we used social media not only to interact with -- with the electorates, but also to get their feedback on how things

should be done, what -- what should the government policies be? and we want to continue that, so that we can get every policy that gets done, we want to see what the reaction is, and then -- and then make it fit around that. one of the example is the latest news on bsa and the kaboul bank case. we analyze what the feedback is, and give back to it. also there is a scorecard. the campaign keeps its own scorecard, the promises it made during the campaign, and the campaign platform to be able to deliver, and through social media, we want to deliver those messages to say these are the campaign, so that can set a trend that whatever promises are made during the campaign, the population can expect they will be delivered. >> here is ghani's twitter page.

he signs his own tweets with a g, and we ask our community how can young afghans help steer the future of afghanistan: i want to bring you in the conversation, let's talk about economic development. there are so many challenges right now. the united states is planning to give $2.1 billion. congress has approved about half of that. and we just read afghanistan needs $7 billion annually, just to sustain its government. so how can the government economically empower afghan youth, 70% of whom are under the

age of 25? >> we trust our president in the national unity government. that's why everyone went out to vote for this cabinet because of their plans, and as we discussed with the president and the national unity government, that priorities were jobs, security, and a country free of corruption, so we strongly believe once we have started the fight against corruption, we will be able to start working on the natural resources. it's a rich country with the minerals and all of the natural resources, so through that, and then reforms in creating jobs, ensure that afghanistan can contribute on all of its campaign promises. >> he just brought up this concept of corruption and what an issue it is in afghanistan to deal with.

part of creating society that you and the rest of the administration want, is to have a system where the government can be held responsible. that is key to a civil society. what do you think the mechanism is? or what is the mechanism that president ghani would like to put in place to have that accountability that doesn't seem to have existed in previous administrations? >> like i said earlier, we're -- the campaign -- the -- the promises that were made, one of them was curbing out corruption, and that's part of the scorecard that we are maintaining, so when we'll be doing reports on this and getting used to the idea that people give feedback on how bad it is. there is going to be a call center where people can report corruption. the doctor clearly specified that no one can misuse government or use his name to do

anything in this the government. so the reports are that the population is going to come back with the complaints that they register against any officials. there will be quick action against them. and hopefully in time, people will realize that there is no way around it. the corruption has to end. >> we have less than a minute left in the show. what do you have to see from the unity government to feel confident that this new government has a chance another creating meaningful change? >> i hope they will really invest in the economic empowerment of afghan women. when women are empowered economically they do better socially and have more say in their families and they will contribute to the development of afghanistan. every women given equal opportunity in the economy of the country, there's no way things can change. we know that.

and that's should be a priority. >> all right. thanks to all of our guests. until next time, waj and i will see you online. ♪ . >> watching al jazeera live from doha. also ahead. >> the battle for control, isil fighters lose ground to troops. seven soldiers are killed during violence in eastern libya. and hard times for the circus in bangladesh, were