New Lives in the City: How Taleban have experienced life in Kabul
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This article relays the experiences of some Taliban fighters who moved to the Afghan capital Kabul after winning the war to work new jobs, experiencing a lot of urban discontent in doing so. Coming from scrappy rural warriors to urban salarymen was quite a change as well as all the expectations that come from running the country. Not sure what they expected really.
You should read the article for yourself as my comments will ruin it for you, but it seems as if building Kabul is the most effective weapon the Americans have deployed as these Talebs are stuggling to uphold the values they came with while fighting in the rural areas. The one guy can’t help but bop to music. Another guy learned how to use computers and is now extremley online. They’re mostly annoyed that they can’t fuck around like they used to and have to work a 9–5 office job complete with urban traffic and high rent.
Funniest of all if their relationship with w*men1. Not saying that they treat w*men well—the Taliban removed them from their jobs which is definitley intelligent. I just thought thought they’d be a lot stricter with what w*men wear but it seems as if they can’t do much about it. Also, they were petrified of talking to women to the point where one guy was told by his cleric boss that talking to women is okay because it’s his fucking job. As for another guy:
During the first few days, many of my comrades and I hardly dared to make our way to the bazaar because of them [w*men]. We hoped the situation would soon get better, but it didn’t. Even worse, one of my classmates in his computer course is also a woman. We sit in the same classroom. Although I despise women that don’t wear proper clothes, nonetheless, I can’t turn my back on the bazaar or my class because of them. If they’re unashamed, let us also be so. This is the only thing I never imagined a Taleb would encounter in his lifetime.
Honestly, besides being Muslim extremists, they’re human like the rest of us. Honestly, I’d love to see a Taliban sitcom. Maybe Chuck Lorre can work on that instead of the shitty United States of Al? Then again, it might get cancelled like the last time something similar was tried. Seriously though, I think the Taliban might do well if they adopt some pragmatism, like treating women like human beings and let them contribute to the success of the Empire.
The way they talk about women is as if they’re gonna puke hence me censoring the word woman. Like they can’t comprehend that women are actually people. ↩︎