culture
Islamic women’s attire ~ from least to most veiling…
Cross posted from: http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/GO/attire.html
Zahed Missed His Garden All These Years
Zahed is a forty something years old Afghan-German who lives in Germany with his family. He’s lived there for over two decades now. About two and a half weeks ago, he came back to Afghanistan to visit his hometown in Surkhrod area of Nangarhar Province. He missed his relatives and friends and his garden. He had a beautiful garden near his Qalla or village house where he used to sleep under the shade of its trees in some peace and…
Special Announcement for Afghans
I was flying from Delhi back to Kabul after having been on a few flights in Southeast Asia. Normally, in-flight safety announcements for passengers in airplanes were all similar. Since the flight from Delhi to Kabul was mostly Afghans so the announcement was a bit more tailored to us. The announcement said, smoking in the airplane is strictly prohibited. Then it added, “not even in the toilets”. They’d obviously found cigarette butts in the toilets before that and decided to…
Pul-e-Jawan: A Regional Peace-building Team
Pul-e-Jawan, which literally means “bridges of youth” in Dari, Urdu and Hindi, is a group of regional peace building and active youth from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. In September 2011, Internews, Afghanistan took initiative and invited five citizen journalists with an interest in peace and reconciliation issues from each of the above countries (a total of fifteen people) to meet in Kabul. The aim of Pul-e-Jawan is to provide an exchange for the youth and to bridge any gaps and issues…
Support Afghan Female Boxers Fighting their Way to London Olympics
In the basement of once notorious Ghazi National Olympic Stadium of Afghanistan is where the Afghan national team of female boxers train tirelessly hard for the Olympics 2012 in London. Once known as the stadium of death the venue was used for holding public executions and stoning under the brutal Taliban rule, 1996 to 2001. Under the Taliban women were completely forbidden from participating in any sports, not even as spectators. Refurbished by the US government, Ghazi Olympic Stadium reopened…
That’s what I do
I was in Dara-e-Noor, a district far to the north of Jalalabad city. My team members and I were there for a mapping survey for which talking with a local resident helped us make better and more accurate maps for any given area. Here, we ran into Baghcha Gul. We were talking about the village and names of the roads, public buildings, etc. and my colleague, Akbar asked this random question: “How many children do you have?” “I have only one…
No, There Is only One God!
When I was taking this picture I raised my index and middle finger and parted them asking the gentlemen to make peace gesture. The senior man in the back shouted, “No, there is only ONE God!” “There are not two Gods”, he added. I almost got into a big trouble. They probably thought I was trying to convert them or something. It was in my own city of Jalalabad but these folks seemed alien. Some people in Jalalabad know what…
Team Work
Photo credit: Najib Bismil People in rural Afghanistan build their mud houses with thick and high walls, Qalla. They usually tie two or more ladders together to pass the mud to the mason.
The Irrepressible Pashtun Sense of Humor
Pashtuns like to have a very loose schedule. We spend a lot of time trading jokes with other ‘comrades’, especially if there is green tea and a nice little Hujra(guest room). No matter how sad or troubled we are, we make fun of the misery and laugh about it. Interesting read in Dawn: The Irrepressible Sense of Humor of the Pashtoons Part of the article: ‘Where is Comrade Amin, our first Socialist Leader?’ ‘He’s dead, Comrade.’ ‘And where, Comrade Information officer…
Things that Make Me Fall in Love with Bamyan
The amazing and natural beauty of Bamyan city The happy and playful kids of Bamyan The extremely friendly and helpful people And most importantly, the stunning smile of these people. When Hazaras smile, their eyes look amazingly beautiful!