The ties that run across the Herat River, which in one area forms a natural boundary between Iran and Afghanistan, tightly bind the people living on either side of it. There was a time when they were part of a single country. That era formally ended nearly two centuries ago, but it has survived informally through family links, a shared culture and a common language between eastern Iran and western Afghanistan.
This makes the protests that have taken place this week outside Iran’s consulate in the Afghan city of Herat deeply personal. "Where is your humanity?" read a sign held up by one man. He is one of thousands in a city left shocked, humiliated and outraged by a grisly crime suspected to have been perpetrated by Iranian border officers patrolling the river a fortnight ago. READ MORE