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Ahmed Rashid’s April 2004 EXCLUSIVE FOR THE
SURVIVAL GUIDE TO Ahmed Rashid’s Kabul Ahmed Rashid is author of the bestsellers Taliban
and Jihad and correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and The
Far Eastern Economic Review. More on
Ahmed Rashid. Since the 1960s no city has witnessed as many
dramatic changes and as much destruction as The Cold War was at its height and both the Only after the coup that toppled Zahir Shah in 1973, did the coup maker - his cousin
Mohammed Doud - turn wholeheartedly to the Soviets
for military training for his army and the disgruntled Americans abandoned Wine and cognac were cheap, courtesy of
adventurous Italians who set up a wine factory in Kabul’s elite would then move to the Kabul
Hotel and newly constructed Intercontinental Hotel where foreign bands
offered live dance music. Pasta and saukaraut and
sausages were available in German and Italian restaurants, which were run by
hippies who had decided to stay on. Tourists from neighbouring Pakistan and
Iran would flock to Kabul for weekends in order to shop for duty free foreign
goods, see Indian movies, drink and dance. The communist revolution in 1978 changed the
city as the two warring factions of Khalq and Parcham battled each other in the capital and the first
wave of exiles – mostly royalists - escaped to Pakistan and later the West. A
year later the Soviet invasion bought in tens of thousands of young Soviet
troops who initially acted in the same manner as their Western counterparts –
smoking cheap dope, shopping for carpets and Western electronic goods in
Chicken Street and hanging out in cafes. Then the war started in earnest as the Mujheddin launched guerrilla attacks from Pakistan. The
Soviet troops were restricted to their barracks. Girl students took part in
anti-Soviet demonstrations in the city and were brutally suppressed. At the
same time tens of thousands of Kabulis took part in a massive literacy
campaign launched by the Soviets and many students were shipped off to the Soviet
Union to further their education and to be indoctrinated in communism. However for many women the war was in a sense
a liberating experience. As Kabul’s male population were forced into the
Afghan army, women took over many jobs. Eventually some 40% of jobs in
government ministries, schools and hospitals were taken up by women – many of
them from poorer classes who were for the first time going to work dressed in
skirts and high heels. Although living conditions were hard there
was no major fighting around the city until the Mujheddin
captured Kabul in 1992. That led to the start of the brutal civil war which
lasted a decade and destroyed large parts of central Kabul as well as
creating wave upon wave of refugees leaving the city until there were hardly
any educated or technically qualified people left. The fighting around Kabul
only came to an end when the Taliban captured the city in 1996, bringing with
them relative security, but also harsh Islamic measures that destroyed the
vitality of the city’s population. Kabul quickly became a ghost town; women
became invisible and social life outside the home next to impossible. Cinema
halls were shut down, the radio played only religious speeches and cafes were
shut down. The only place where social interaction took place was the mosque.
The revival of Kabul’s social life after
November 2001 has been dramatic in the extreme. Within days of the retreat of
the Taliban and even though the majority of people were desperately poor, the
bazaars were once again thronged with people, women appeared in the streets
for the first time and music blared in every bazaar. As education and clinics
and hospitals revived with the help of international aid agencies, women were
back at work in large numbers. The future of the city now depends on funds
being made available for genuine reconstruction work – providing water,
sewerage, electricity and a telephone system and rebuilding the battered
roads of the city. Kabulis expectations from the international community are
enormous and fulfilling them will not be easy and will take time. Ahmed Rashid has
established the Open Media Fund for Afghanistan to support the print
press. Donate by
contacting JoAnne Sullivan of Internews
in Washington. Telephone 1-202-833-5740. Fax 1-202-833-5745. FATIMA’S STORY
Jude Barrand, Caritas Internationalis One of the NGOs struggling to put an end to
the vicious trend of landmine victims is Caritas local partner OMAR
(Organisation for Mine clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation). It takes two men 5 1/2 hours to clear 3m2 of
a minefield. There are more than 10 million mines in Afghanistan spread over
824 km2. More than 100 deaths and injuries are caused
every month by the hidden killers. 19-year-old Fatima Abrahim
is one of those victims. She lost her right arm and left leg after treading
on a mine as she played with other children in a field behind her house when
she was 10. Her brothers and sisters ran screaming back to the house, her
friends ran away. Only Fatima's mother ventured into the minefield to rescue
her daughter. Fatima was taken to the small local clinic
where her severed limbs were dressed with temporary bandages. The next day,
Fatima set out on what she says was the most excruciating journey of her
life. Her village was a 3-hour drive from Herat City and the nearest hospital
facilities. Fatima's older brother had died from a landmine
explosion while she was still an infant. Now Fatima thought she too would
die. Despite her terrible injuries Fatima survived. But her recovery was to
be a painful ordeal spanning more than fours years. On arrival at the hospital doctors amputated
her left leg at the knee. Three days later after the first signs of gangrene
began to show they took off four fingers from her right hand. However, her
whole hand became infected and a few days later the surgeons operated again.
This time amputating her hand at the wrist. The poor health care in Herat hospital lead
to Fatima getting tetanus and the infection again spread up her arm. Six
weeks after her first operation, Fatima's arm was amputated just below the
shoulder. The operations were costly and Fatima's
parents were forced to sell their land and home to pay for her
healthcare. Three months later she was
finally able to return to her village where she started learning to walk
again. But for Fatima, it was clear something was wrong with her amputated leg.
As time passed it became more and more painful. After four years she was
taken back to hospital where the doctors told her they would have to operate
again. The bone was still growing. This time they amputated at the mid-thigh
level. Amazingly Fatima fought back from her
injuries and aged 15 she married. At 16 she became pregnant. "It was very difficult for me to carry a
child with only one leg. I spent most of my pregnancy sitting down," she
says. I gave birth to a daughter, but after five months she died of
dysentery." Shortly afterwards Fatima's husband repudiated her, blaming
the child’s death on her disability, and they divorced. Fatima says most of the time she feels very
isolated; she lives alone with her elderly parents whom she supports by working
as a secretary for one of the international NGOs. They have no other source
of income. Fatima cooks and cleans and does the shopping for the household
although, "People stare at me when I go shopping, and sometimes make
rude comments." Fatima has lived almost half her life as a
landmine victim; she says she has accepted her fate, but every now and then
the anger still surfaces. Visit the OMAR Museum in Wazir
Akbar Khan for more details on mines and de-mining. www.caritas-network-for-afghanistan.org |
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كابل،
افغانستان |
The Survival Guide to Kabul©
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