library tourist reporting . . .

two more kabul library visits today! interestingly, at both places, we ended up getting into discussions about the taliban. i think that they are much on everyone's minds as we hear news of more incursions and with the present uncertainty of afghanistan's governmental foundations--the uncertainty creating a wedge that can be exploited . . .



first up: the academy of sciences. unlike so many places, the academy of sciences' library was neither bombed nor looted during the civil wars. the academy has an eclectic collection that dates back about 100 years and includes some extremely significant and fragile manuscripts. despite the name, the academy of sciences holds books and periodicals on other subjects -- high points are the archeological and literature materials.



both of these gentlemen recall wearing turbans and growing long beards during the taliban era. their female colleague in the library was not allowed to work when the taliban were in power, but the academy mailed paychecks to her home, anyway -- at least until the end of the first year, when the money ran out. she returned to work when the taliban fell.



and next: the ministry of women's affairs. predictably, this ministry did not even exist when there was a taliban government. the library is run by two women who work hard to keep things going, despite the fact that they have not had electricity there in over a week. they serve the staff of the ministry as well as students who come there to do research on women's issues.



this is the poetess after whom the library is called whose name i failed to catch (i am at a loss for not speaking dari or pashto on these visits - v. rarely do the librarians speak english. my pal, royce, translates). the ministry is in the process of setting up libraries in several provinces, all of which will be named after prominent afghan female cultural figures.



time and again, we enter these libraries--often unannounced--and are greeted warmly with tea and sweets. the staff take a tremendous amount of time discussing the collections with us; showing us around; and relating many disheartening stories about abysmal salaries, ruined collections, fickle government policies, discontinued training programs, and the lack of what
most would consider basic functional library tools (electricity, desks, computers, internet).



and yet i hear the other side from library colleagues here: of tremendous sums of money having been put toward the city's collections, to little avail. this seems some to have to do with corrupt intermediaries who ciphon funds for other purposes but probably more specifically with various fiefdoms that exist here. there is v. little coordination amongst funders (so efforts are often duplicated, to confusing effect) or amongst local heritage institutions, or even departments within institutions (as is the case with kabul university). when one initiative ends, there is very little follow-through to assure continuation of services (for example, internet access) or even preservation of data (so many stories of massive loss of critical information -- lists of holdings, translations, etc.).



it feels like a terrible puzzle, trying to determine how best to help--and how not to perpetuate more of the same . . .

thank you, new york times

do not delay in checking out the new york times' wonderful article and stunning archival photo essay on afghanistan between the 1930s and 1970s, when the country was considered "the paris of central asia."

v. sad to think that most of the afghans i know here weren't even alive for this . . .

a friend, bahar jalali, is soon to be coming out with a book (uc press, 2010) based on her dissertation that will further help us to understand how much afghanistan has changed in the past 35-odd years. her work centers on the period of 1963-1973. bahar's mom was married in the early 70s, in afghanistan, in a miniskirt. a far cry from afghan weddings these days . . .

my question is this:

will the dear donkeys of afghanistan again be called upon to carry ballot boxes up treacherous northern mountains?



esp. with the snows coming soon?

karzai: no!

u.n. electoral complaints commission/west: yes!

independent elections commission/afghans: leaning toward no . . . "not all the findings of the investigation may be implemented"

sky god

overmuch transport-van-riding today!


shopping errands + the like.



goats + big hineyed-sheep consuming roadsight garbage are part of the daily landscape - giant hands, not as much . . .



"if you're holding onto that sky god, i'll nose him out, ten lengths every time." -- whiling away the remainder of the day with tim reiterman's raven, on jim jones + the people's temple.



dhl boxes = packing for home soon!


xoxo

runoffal

it looks likely that an abdullah/karzai election runoff will occur.



the afghans whom i know do not seem to be particularly heartened by this news, feeling that even a runoff is unlikely to really change anything here. life goes on.



on the streets, things have been obviously tense. traffic has been horrific. there are lot more heavy-duty military folks around, scaring everyone at checkpoints by brandishing killer weapons.



a lot of important people from elsewhere have been arriving over the past few days, expecting an election announcement. apparently, john kerry in town yesterday, meeting with general mccrystal, although he was not spotted out on the town at latmo or otherwise.

not in bamiyan/band-i-amir this weekend, as planned, but perhaps it's better to stick close to home for now . . .

lady drivers

i loved this so much, i wanted to post it in its entirety! original article was in the los angeles times.




In Afghanistan, more women are driving

As more Afghan women obtain driver's licenses, they continue to face resistance from their male-dominated Muslim society.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - Karima Yousafzai jumps behind the wheel of her 1994 Toyota Corolla and heads into traffic, deftly negotiating around wannabe motocross champions, oblivious pushcart peddlers, a roadside herd of sheep and several contenders for the crazy-driver-of-the-year award. She takes little notice of the looks directed her way.

"I've stopped caring about the stares men give you," the 43-year-old university professor says. "I just ignore them."

A female driver in Afghanistan is something of a rare bird.

In the first six months of the fiscal year that began April 1, the number of driving permits issued to women in the Kabul area was up fourfold. That sounds great until you consider that officials issued just 180 licenses to women in the last 18 months, compared with 27,985 for men.

Men own the roads of Afghanistan, and many of them want it to stay that way. They say it is un-Islamic and culturally offensive for women to get behind the wheel.

Yousafzai, who teaches the Koran for a living, disagrees. The holy book makes no mention of internal combustion engines, automatic transmissions or driving restrictions on women, she says.

"When men say women aren't capable of driving, my response is, 'I'll challenge you any time,' " says Yousafzai, wearing a head scarf and dark glasses.

Afghanistan, a male-dominated Muslim society, has often discouraged women from participating in public life. That includes driving, especially from 1996 to 2001, when the fundamentalist Taliban government all but outlawed it. It is "against Afghan traditions and has a negative impact on the environment," the Taliban declared in May 2001.

After the Taliban was ousted at the end of that year, President Hamid Karzai pledged to respect women's rights. There was an initial jump in the number of female drivers, but tradition dies hard, and Karzai's promise has faltered.

Men commonly contend that women shouldn't be subjected to the unpredictable Afghan traffic and that their security could be compromised, given all the violence.

"Imagine if a woman had an accident," says Abdul Habib, a 20-year-old student, strolling with two male friends. "Hundreds of men would gather around and curse at her. Then I'm sure she would cry.

"After that she'd probably call her brother or husband for help," he adds, to the amusement of his friends.

Freshta Nahad, 21, a Kabul University economics student, sees little humor in such jibes. "If men obeyed the law," she says, "we wouldn't have so many problems."

"Security's a problem all over Afghanistan," says Fatima Maisjadi, 17, a carpet weaver who has driven a few times off-road with her family. "Why blame it on women?"

At the Mamozai Driving Academy in the basement of a Kabul shopping center, founder and instructor Summer Gul Khan runs students through a tutorial in a grubby room with road sign posters and disemboweled car parts.

"Carburetor, drive shaft, engine block," says the instructor, tapping each component with a stick.

Mamozai was the country's first private school to offer driving classes to women, nearly a decade ago. During its first two years, under Taliban rule, there were just two female students. Both worked for charity organizations and would remove their burkas while in the classroom, then dive back under the all-encompassing garment before driving, peering through the small eye-slit to see the road.

Now 20% of his several thousand students each year are women, Khan says, although few of them drive regularly after getting their licenses.

"Their families aren't comfortable letting them," he says. "Maybe they'll only do it in emergencies, or for short trips."

Khan, who charges $70 for the course, thinks Afghan women and men are equally suited to driving. The problem is that society doesn't offer women much encouragement or opportunity to practice, so they often lack confidence. Many of the men who bad-mouth them are illiterate and feel threatened by women's (slowly) rising status, fearing that they will take away their driving jobs one day, he says.

Policeman Mohammad Usman Nawabi, 53, says women are better at driving than men because they drive defensively.

"Some of these guys seem to think they're doing loop-the-loops in an airplane," he says.

During Soviet occupation, women were encouraged to drive, at least in Kabul, the capital. Safer Ali, 70, a snack cart owner, says that in subsequent years, the main cities filled up with conservative migrants from the countryside who bridled at even limited freedoms for women.

Zubaida Akbar, 19, a student and government employee, has been driving for less than a month. She doesn't have a license. "Getting a license isn't easy," she says. "You either have to know someone or pay money."

She started driving anyway, she says, because it was such a hassle to have a male relative drive her every evening to her visual arts classes.

"These roads are terrible," she notes, negotiating a 5-inch pothole.

"As you can see, I'm still learning to park," she says as a three-point turn morphs into at least a five-point.

She'd learn a lot more quickly if male drivers would stop doing stupid things that tear at her confidence, she says. Many Afghans are afflicted with road rage these days, which mirrors the stress and violence in their everyday lives.

When they see her at the wheel, some men race past her, then slam on their brakes in some version of "chicken."

"Sometimes I give them the finger," she says, a gesture she learned from foreign friends. "Of course, I should just try and ignore them, but we're all human."

Akbar says she nonetheless worries that if she gets into an accident, or if a soldier or policeman stops her on a lonely road and sexually harasses her, she'll be blamed.

"They automatically say it's the woman's fault, even when it's not," she says, heading around a traffic circle twice after getting some bad directions from her cousin. "Women here are defined by men. We don't even know who we are sometimes because they make all the decisions for us."

At the same time, the independence and self-esteem that come with driving are mostly worth the aggravation, women say.

"It's made me so proud," says Yousafzai, who two years ago had long arguments with her husband and father before they relented and allowed her to drive. "I was over-the-moon happy when I got my license, and I still am now."

youth culture

if you don't already, you should know about skateistan, afghanistan's first skate school!



brave young ladies in hijab rockin it on skateboards, yeah!



speaking of rockin, skateistan is planning a fall concert in kabul for which they have invited guns n' roses to headline, can you imagine?



a new york benefit is in the works, too. know any artists who might be willing to put one of their drawings on a skateboard for auctioning? how about galleries/artspaces willing to host?

and i can't believe i've neglected thus far to direct you to our wonderful school newspaper, written + edited by students, the auaf free press. the top story this week: the staggering cost of afghan weddings. check it, if you please!