Afghanistan’s war scars disappearing
KABUL: The ageing Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 took off from Islamabad, Pakistan, with about 10 passengers, myself included, huddled near the exits, bound for wartorn Kabul months after the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
The Afghan capital had been consigned to rubble by rocketpropelled grenades and artillery fire, first in fighting between mujahideen warriors and the Soviets after their invasion in 1979, and then between different mujahideen factions.
The airport was fringed with burntout fighter planes and scores of people, a skewer in each hand, scouring the tarmac for landmines. Someone put a ladder up against the fuselage, opened a flap, poured in some liquid and threw the empty can over his shoulder. Fastforward 16 years.
I fly in from Dubai, sipping red wine as we descend into Kabul, once famous for sprawling palaces and scented gardens, where security has deteriorated in recent months but where many of the scars of decades of war have disappeared.
Shining blocks of flats in the west of the city have replaced the debris, behind lines of stalls and shops selling fresh vegetables, smartphones, fashion and kitchenware and building materials.
The memory of women bowed by the allenveloping burqa, enforced under Taliban rule, trudging past destroyed homes has also been wiped clean amid talk of possible further Taliban ceasefires, elections, the national cricket team’s first ‘‘test’’ match against India — and the World Cup.
‘‘The city has been transformed,’’ said Omaid Sharifi, cofounder of ArtLords, a grassroots movement promoting Afghan culture, a play on words on ‘‘warlords’’.
‘‘On the street, boys and girls are walking together. The community is more tolerant and outgoing. There is art, culture and music. People are contributing. People are being more kind.’’
The heavy security presence across Kabul underscores the danger that continues to face the city, where hundreds of civilians have been killed and wounded in attacks this year and where regular blackouts and flooding make life a misery for many.
But amid the danger, prosperity has improved for members of Kabul’s middle class, which grew up on the flood of money that came in following the USled campaign that overthrew the Taliban in 2001.
Four women, their madeup faces free of veils, giggle as their car takes on the hectic traffic of workaday Kabul. A topofthe range tailor shows off his wares in a long, airconditioned shop that would not be out of place in Paris.
‘‘Business is good now and getting better,’’ the tailor said.
‘‘My quality is number one. European standards. I am happy.’’
Cafes have popped up down lanes where musicians and artists, who thrived in the preSoviet invasion days, have returned. But this area is also home to many fairskinned Hazaras, an Afghan minority often targeted by militants.
The Taliban took control in 1996, imposing strict Islamic law, and the city has suffered wave after wave of bomb attacks since their ouster in 2001. The diplomatic centre of Kabul remains a grim array of concrete channels, lined by reinforced concrete walls, barbed wire and security posts.
‘‘That was the darkest period,’’ Sharifi said, of the Taliban years.
‘‘You couldn’t even listen to music.’’ He remembers going to football with his father. Twice, the games were preceded by executions.
‘‘My father tried to protect me and close my eyes. But a kid’s curiosity — I could see with one eye. A bunch of guys turned up in three cars and killed the men. Like sheep.’’
So what next for the fastgrowing capital, sitting between the khaki mountains of the Hindu Kush?
An unprecedented threeday ceasefire by the Taliban over last month’s Eid festive period raised hopes for many of a longer peace.
‘‘You can’t ignore the Taliban,’’ Sharifi said.
‘‘But there are red lines. If they come back and join the political process, we will be there with our art. People can’t just keep killing.’’ The tailor agreed.
‘‘If the Taliban come back, it will be with a new government, not like before,’’ he said. ‘‘We will have a good future if there is no fighting.’’