The Survival Guide to Kabul©
Published
internationally in July 2003 as Kabul: The Bradt Mini Guide.
First published in Kabul in September 2002
as a pamphlet.
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March 2003 November 9 2003 Photos: Remembrance Sunday service at the British Cemetery. British Army Chaplains web page on the cemetery.
The cemetery guardian, 60 year-old Rahim Mullah has been tending the graves for 17
years and can give lots of extra insights into the history of those buried
here. For Rahim the Taliban period was a difficult one. He confesses that he
was heavily criticized during that time for continuing to tend the cemetery.
And though he was salaried, his income dried up after the NGO who was paying
him, International Organisation for Migration, was bombed and pulled out of
the country. Money was sent in from Peshawar in Pakistan, but it was an
uncertain trickle of funds. He was even confronted by Mullah Omar three
months before the fall of the Taliban in November 2001. The Taliban
headquarters were in the buildings that line the right wall of the cemetery
as you enter. One day, the famed, one-eyed leader of the Taliban movement
decided to see the graveyard for himself. He was shown around by Rahim and
stayed for twenty minutes. But before leaving Mullah Omar asked Rahim what he
thought he was doing working in such a place. “I am an illiterate man,”
answered Rahim. “And everyone knows that to be illiterate is like being blind
(and therefore ignorant).” To which Mullah Omar is reputed to have replied,
“But I too am blind!” before clapping Rahim on the back and bursting in to
laughter. Today the British Embassy in Kabul pays Rahim’s salary and he looks
forward to passing the mantle of service on to his oldest son. Around 50
people visit the graveyard every week.
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كابل،
افغانستان |
The Survival Guide to Kabul©
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