Selected excerpts from Afghanistan- Hearts & Minds
REPORT 1
Afghans grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruits like pomegranates, melons, apricots, and grapes. They also grow nuts, wheat, and cotton.
Bread, called naan, is a staple at every meal and is baked fresh each day at the local bakery. Often times, naan is used in a spoon-like fashion to scoop up meats and stews while eating.
Kabul men wear a variety of both Afghan and foreign clothing. Popular Afghan menswear is the Salwar Kameez (a long tunic top and matching baggy pants), elaborately tied turbans, embroidered skull caps, or round wool pakol hats.
Women’s fashions include colorful headscarves or the conservative blue burqas that cover them from head to toe and have a small, mesh screen at the eye area for them to see out.
Just like in many countries, the younger generation enjoys wearing the newer, trendier styles.
Women’s fashions include colorful headscarves or the conservative blue burqas that cover them from head to toe and have a small, mesh screen at the eye area for them to see out.
Just like in many countries, the younger generation enjoys wearing the newer, trendier styles.
Afghanistan- Hearts & Minds, page 11
It was mid-morning and Kabul was bustling with energy. Roads were filled with cars, pickups, buses, bicycles, motorcycles, minivans, military convoys, UN LandRovers, and donkey carts coming and going every which way. Traffic signals and speed limits seemed to be more of a suggestion than an actual rule.
Buildings ranged from tin-sided shops, glass-covered banks, and shiny wedding halls to the skeletal remains from the previous wars. More important buildings— like government offices, military bases, and hotels— were surrounded by high walls barricaded with sand berms, and topped with scribbles of razor wire. Wartime architecture.
Colorful arrays of produce stacked outside markets, and small businesses lined the sidewalks selling fresh-baked naan, jewelry, rugs, clothing, pirated music CDs, and sheep. Everyone from beggars to businesspeople were just going about their day— like things may not have been ideal, but life went on.
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Photo CreditsBuildings ranged from tin-sided shops, glass-covered banks, and shiny wedding halls to the skeletal remains from the previous wars. More important buildings— like government offices, military bases, and hotels— were surrounded by high walls barricaded with sand berms, and topped with scribbles of razor wire. Wartime architecture.
Colorful arrays of produce stacked outside markets, and small businesses lined the sidewalks selling fresh-baked naan, jewelry, rugs, clothing, pirated music CDs, and sheep. Everyone from beggars to businesspeople were just going about their day— like things may not have been ideal, but life went on.