# CNN maps of Afghanistan
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 24, 2001, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014 "2001-11-24T13:24:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/1 "2001-11-24T13:24:20Z")
Whenever there’s a map of Asia or Afghanistan on CNN, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a broad red line, while other national borders on CNN maps are thin and white. Why?
---
### Author:  [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/2 "2001-11-24T14:35:52Z")
Can you provide an example? On [this map](http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/n.alliance.occupation.html), which I found right on the CNN homepage, there’s no red line – they’re all thin and white.
---
### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/3 "2001-11-24T15:55:33Z")
Well I don’t have a picture available, since I’ve only seen it on air, but they had this red line between Afghanistan and Pakistan (and only there), even if it’s a general map of Asia and the particular bit of news is not at all connected to the Afghansitan War.
---
### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/4 "2001-11-24T17:09:10Z")
Schnitte is correct about the red border line. Wondered about it myself.
---
### Author:  [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/5 "2001-11-24T17:32:22Z")
Might it be that red is the standard border colour? I thought all the other countries adjoining Afghanistan had sealed their borders, so maybe they are in a different colour to indicate this?
---
### Author:  [@hegel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hegel)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/6 "2001-11-24T17:37:22Z")
that usually means the border is being disputed.
---
### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/7 "2001-11-24T18:09:24Z")
I have also seen CNN’s red line on the Pakistani-Afghan border, and wondered about it. A _possible_ explanation:
As **hegel** notes, the red line may indicate a disputed or not formally defined border. The Pakistani-Afghan border dates back to the late 19th Century and the British Empire in India. It is known as the “Durand Line” after the British colonial official who devised it. The British essentially partitioned the territories of the Pashtun or Pathan tribes, who are an important ethnic minority in Pakistan, and form the dominant ethnic group (either a plurality or a majority) in Afghanistan. The Pashtuns tended to be resistant to colonial rule, and in effect the British divided them, with some going to British India’s North-West Frontier Province, and the rest going to Afghanistan (the British made several notoriously unsuccessful attempts to secure Afghanistan as part of their colonial empire or at least sphere of influence, but the country mainly served as a buffer state between the British in India and the Russian Empire which was expanding into Central Asia during this period).
Many Pashtuns on both sides of the line have never really accepted the validity of the Durand Line, and this attitude has at times been officially reflected by the government of Afghanistan (conversely Pakistan has been eager to have the line’s status as a recognized international border confirmed). As the [_Columbia Encyclopedia_](http://www.bartleby.com/65/af/Afghanis.html) notes:
> [@](#):
>
> When British India was partitioned (1947), Afghanistan wanted the Pathans of the North-West Frontier Province, who had been separated from Afghan Pathans by the Durand Agreement of 1893, to be able to choose whether to join Afghanistan, join Pakistan, or be independent. The Pathans were only offered the choice of joining Pakistan or joining India; they chose the former. Since then relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been embittered. Afghanistan in 1955 urged the creation of an autonomous Pathan state, Pushtunistan (Pakhtunistan). The issue subsided in the late 1960s but was revived by Afghanistan in 1972 when Pakistan was weakened by the loss of its eastern wing (now Bangladesh) and the war with India.
As [this page](http://www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/dev_xyz/cc/dr_roashan/2001_08_11_unholy_durand_line.htm) shows, this is very much a live issue in some quarters.
So, this controversy _may_ be what CNN is reflecting with its peculiar red border.
---
### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-maps-of-afghanistan/95014/8 "2001-11-24T18:27:30Z")
It could be that they are using a red line just for emphasis to show that the border between the two countries is an area where most of the fighting is going on and stuff like that. It could just be for emphasis.