The Embassy of Spain in Kabul has organized a series of conferences on cultural heritage and development in Afghanistan.
Despite the numerous conflicts it has suffered throughout its history, Afghanistan still conserves a rich and varied cultural heritage derived from its multiethnic and multicultural nature that constitutes a valuable instrument for its projection into the future. Despite the existence of legal and administrative means of protection, this cultural heritage is in a high level of deterioration and disappearance.
This is the first conference on the Conservation of Heritage of Islamic Tradition: Resilience of Historical Areas to Conflicts and Inclement Weather. Lessons from Afghanistan and Spain.
A 2nd conference deals with new technologies for the conservation of cultural heritage. Lessons from Afghanistan and Spain.
The speaker, Dr. Khojaste Kawish, is dean at the University of Herat. The University of Herat is one of the most renowned higher education institutions in the country, located in Herat, known as the capital of culture in Afghanistan.
The beneficiaries are students of the University of Herat, professors, opinion leaders in civil society organizations and concerned citizens.
The two conferences are aimed at the contribution of culture to the culture of peace, in a vibrant political moment when peace is occupying the public sphere of the country, with the intra-Afghan negotiations as a background, which began last Saturday, September 12. The knowledge but also the values that would be transmitted in this cycle contribute to launch a constructive message of peace in the framework of the Agenda 2030.
It promotes cultural diplomacy, since one of the defining elements of Spain's international identity and foreign policy is the richness and plurality of its culture, with a heritage of enormous value, which is renewed with each generation, as evidenced by the contemporary debates that are introduced in the cycle around tradition and modernity: current challenges and new technologies.
This cultural cooperation is in line with the objectives of the Asia Plan 2018-2022.
They are also in line with the objectives of the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation (AECID), in its 2007 Culture and Development Strategy. It also follows the guidelines of the AECID Guide for the Transversalization of Culture
All this contributes effectively to strengthening friendship and cultural ties between Afghanistan and Spain, to making Spanish culture more visible and to reinforcing Spain's presence in Afghanistan.