Afghanistan
There’s more to Afghanistan than war. Hospitality is a core value of the people and those who visit will be invited again and again for tea. Poetry is so important than the city of Herat has a poetry night every Thursday along with sweet tea, pastries and traditional Herati music. Click here and here for two Herati songs.
The ancient Silk Road from China to Rome once passed through the northern part of the country. Along the Silk Road route, Balkh, was home to the Persian poets Rumi and Rabia Balkhi. Balkh in the north and Mundigak in the south are the oldest existing towns in Afghanistan, each about 4,000 years old.
The two-humped Bactrian camel came from the area of central Asia that was once called Bactria and is now northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan, and southern Tajikistan. The ancient city Balkh (also called Bactria) was its capital.
Making a map is a great way to learn a country. The dark green shows higher elevation, lighter shades lower.
Key features are the Hindu Kush mountains, the Wakhan Corridor to the northeast with Noshaq, the highest point (24,580 ft, 7,492 m) in the country at the border with Pakistan.
Salang Pass (tunnel through the mts) just north of the capital, Kabul, and just to the east, the Tora Bora caves and the Khyber Pass.
Bamyan where the famed Buddhas once were is to the west and further west is the Minaret of Jam and Herat with a citadel and famed mosque. The ancient city of Balkh is to the northwest near Mazār-e-Sharif with its stunning Blue Mosque.
To the south, there is the city of Kandahār and desert areas that include the Sistan Basin, one of the driest places on earth.
The longest river, Helmand Rōd, runs from the southwest to the Hindu Kush.
Some crops are noted on the map, mostly fruit. Afghanistan produces an estimated 90% of opium/illicit heroin produced globally. Other resources include wheat, wool, mutton. Lapis lazuli is mined northwest of Kabul.
The colors of the flag of Afghanistan are black past, red blood, green future. The white emblem in the center includes the following: 1. the Shahada, an Islamic creed, in Arabic at the top, 2. a mosque in the center with a mihrab (semi-circular prayer niche) and a minbar (the place from which the imam addresses the congregation), 3. attached to the mosque are two flags of Afghanistan, 4. underneath the mosque is the year Afghanistan gained independence from the British, 5. there is a wreath made of sheaves of wheat around the mosque. At the bottom of the wreath is an inscription of the name of the nation.
The national sport of Afghanistan is Buzkashī, which means “goat grabbing.” Horse-mounted players vie for a goat or calf carcass to place it in a goal. Primarily in northern Afghanistan, Buzkashī is often played on Fridays as a spectator sport. The game is said to have begun with the Turkic-Mongol people. A champion buzkashī rider is called a chapandaz.
Landlocked and bordering six countries (Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran), Afghanistan is a place caught in the middle. Called by some the “Graveyard of Nations” because of the tendency for regimes (e.g. the Soviet Union) to fall once they’ve been rousted out of the country, resilience is the primary characteristic of the people of Afghanistan.
One of my favorite books is A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, known primarily for his first novel, The Kite Runner. A Thousand Splendid Suns is not an easy read. It provides a glimpse into the terrors of life for two girls growing up in a war-torn country, where any second the close friend of a fourteen year old girl might suddenly get blown out of existence. The way women are treated is difficult to understand.
There are many efforts in the works to empower women in Afghanistan. The documentary detailing one such effort won the Academy Award for Documentary (Short Subject) in 2020: “Learning to Skateboard in A War Zone (If You’re A Girl).”
On August 10, 2018, Hanifa Yousoufi was the first Afghan woman to summit her country’s highest peak, Noshaq. After a grueling climb to the summit that almost didn’t happen, Hanifa held the flag of Afghanistan over her head and shouted over and over, “Long live the girls of Afghanistan!” Illiterate from a poor family in Kabul, Hanifa was married to an older man from Pakistan when she was 14. She decided that she did not want a loveless life living like a slave and, risking disgrace to herself and her family, she divorced him and returned home to Kabul where she got involved with “Ascend: Leadership Through Athletics,” a US based not-for-profit organization working in Afghanistan to empower young women through mountaineering based leadership training. It was with the help of the Ascend group that she made it to the top of Noshaq. In an interview with The Guardian, she is translated saying, “I did this for every single girl. The girls of Afghanistan are strong and will continue to be strong.”
Although travel to Afghanistan is not advised, there are places that are reasonably safe for the adventurous traveler, primarily in the north. The stunning Wakhan Corridor in the northeast in the Hindu Kush range includes its Afghanistan’s highest mountain Noshaq at 24,580 ft/7,492 m. Note that Noshaq is about 4,200 ft higher than Mt. Denali, the highest peak in North America.
West of Kabul, the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan (Bamyan) is an enchanting site that once included the Buddhas of Bamiyan that were determinedly destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Over the centuries since construction began in 544 AD, there were other failed attempts, but the Buddhas would not go quietly. It took 25 days of 2 or 3 explosions per day to destroy them.
Built in 1481, the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, also called the Blue Mosque, in Mazar-e-Sharif, engulfs visitors with stunning Persian tile work. The Great Mosque of Herat, completed in 1446, and the Minaret of Jam from the 12th century are beautiful architectural works.
Follow the link the read Pashtuwali, the Way of the Pashtuns, to learn about the value system and ideal of honorable behavior among the Pashtuns.
To hear the National Anthem of Afghanistan go here.
Additional Resources:
Soraya Parlika, political and women’s activist died in December 2019 at 75.
BBC Radio Program: “Afghan Women: Speaking Out, Losing Lives.”
To learn about Chai Tea in Afghanistan, go here and here.
To learn more about the beautiful lapis lazuli, go here.
Szczepanski, Kallie. “Afghanistan: Facts and History.” ThoughtCo, Jan. 28, 2020.
Szczepanski, Kallie. “The First Anglo-Afghan War.” ThoughtCo, Jan. 28, 2020.
Adili, Ali Yawar and Ruttig, Thomas. “Afghanistan’s 2019 Election: Dithering over peace amid a lackluster campaign.” Afghanistan Analysts Network, September 19, 2019.
