AFGHANISTAN BACK TO STONE AGE UNDER NEW TALIBAN RULE

“In recent years women and girls had thronged the streets in colourful scarves, some in jeans and shirts, often laughing and smiling. Now there were almost no women to be seen, and the handful who had ventured out were clothed in black and hurrying to their various destinations, heads down,” 

Three weeks into Taliban rule, people in Kabul are still in shock. A owner of VIP Salon, embodies this despondency “we used to get 10 to 15 [customers a day], but now no one wants their hair cut, as they think men will be told to grow beards like before.” The fear is that, they are heading back to the age of controlled and unindependent life.

Before the occupations of the United States military, there was no snooker, cappuccinos and the Apple store, but all these were introduced and  Afghanistans have warmed up to the western lifestyle. But recently, the undercurrent of fear is palpable on the once-vibrant streets of Kabul through the patronage of these lifestyle.

One judge, 33, told Christina Lamb she and her husband were moving every two or three days, unable to trust even relatives. She had worked on violence cases against women and convicted several Taliban, who have now been released and roaming the street tasked with revenge layered with the Taliban ideology.

One in particular, who shot his wife through the heart a month into their marriage in an honour killing after finding she had previously seen someone else, warned the judge: “You convicted us under the laws of the infidel, and once I’m released, I will get my revenge.”

The atmosphere in Afghanistan is deadly for those who embraced modern or western ideology and they constantly live in fear.