KABUL: In a society torn apart by protracted war with many people struggling simply to survive, an Afghan woman has begun a totally new campaign in Afghanistan: To revive a reading culture in the younger generation.
Affected in childhood from having very limited access to books and magazines during the civil war of the 1990s, Freshta Karim recently established a mobile library in Kabul.
“Many people in Kabul — and I was among them — lived without having enough food for many years. Those were times of extreme deprivation,” the 25 year-old Freshta told Arab News during an interview.
“At home we had 'Kamkeyan Anees,' a children's magazine which my dad bought for my older sister. I loved reading it and I read it over and over because that was all we had."
Then Freshta’s thirst for reading prompted her elder sister to tell stories and folk tales. Like tens of thousands of others, she fled to Pakistan as a refugee and returned to Afghanistan in 2001 after the fall of the Taliban.
Wearing reading glasses and a headscarf, she went to school then and, at the same time did something very unusual for Afghan girls of her age. At the age of 12, she got a job in Kabul with a TV channel.
Her thirst for education led her to India on a scholarship. This was followed years later by her gaining a Master's degree in Public Policy from Oxford University.
Along with a team of helpers, she started a mobile bus library called "charmaghz" (walnut) three weeks ago in Kabul. The reason Freshta named the project "charmaghz" is because the physical appearance of a walnut resembles a human brain and is a tribute to human logic.
“It is beyond our beliefs and expectations how people love our program. We are humbled by their response. They appreciate and support it,” she said proudly.
Since its launch, around 1,000 people — including children, parents and community members — have visited the bus which travels from one part of the city to another. Kabul has an estimated six million people but very few libraries.
Freshta's library has a capacity of 500 general knowledge books; it is financed by donations from young Afghan professionals who hope to expand it first in Kabul and then outside the city.
In addition to providing opportunties for reading, Freshta and her team want to add new programs that will include documentary screening and other activities for children. After six months of finding adequate financial support, the project will expand to other cities too.
“Like every other project, we have our challenges including financial ones. Our team members spend a huge amount of time raising funds but I think the beauty of work is to face challenges,” she said.
Since its launch, Freshta and her team have observed that Afghan children, at least in Kabul, love reading and are hard working, she said.
“They need opportunities. We create an opportunity from every crisis. We are changing our narratives in this country. As a nation, we have lost our self-confidence (because of the war.) We are now doing grass roots work that will have a great impact when we evaluate it ten years on from now.”
25-year-old Afghan woman sets up a mobile library
25-year-old Afghan woman sets up a mobile library
Afghan barbers under pressure as morality police take on short beards
KABUL: Barbers in Afghanistan risk detention for trimming men’s beards too short, they told AFP, as the Taliban authorities enforce their strict interpretation of Islamic law with increasing zeal.
Last month, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said it was now “obligatory” to grow beards longer than a fist, doubling down on an earlier order.
Minister Khalid Hanafi said it was the government’s “responsibility to guide the nation to have an appearance according to sharia,” or Islamic law.
Officials tasked with promoting virtue “are obliged to implement the Islamic system,” he said.
With ministry officials patrolling city streets to ensure the rule is followed, the men interviewed by AFP all spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
In the southeastern province of Ghazni, a 30-year-old barber said he was detained for three nights after officials found out that one of his employees had given a client a Western-style haircut.
“First, I was held in a cold hall. Later, after I insisted on being released, they transferred me to a cold (shipping) container,” he said.
He was eventually released without charge and continues to work, but usually hides with his clients when the patrols pass by.
“The thing is that no one can argue or question” the ministry officials, the barber said.
“Everyone fears them.”
He added that in some cases where both a barber and clients were detained, “the clients have been let out, but they kept the barber” in custody.
Last year, three barbers in Kunar province were jailed for three to five months for breaching the ministry’s rules, according to a UN report.
‘Personal space’
Alongside the uptick in enforcement, the religious affairs ministry has also issued stricter orders.
In an eight-page guide to imams issued in November, prayer leaders were told to describe shaving beards as a “major sin” in their sermons.
The religious affairs ministry’s arguments against trimming state that by shaving their beards, men were “trying to look like women.”
The orders have also reached universities — where only men study because women have been banned.
A 22-year-old Kabul University student said lecturers “have warned us... that if we don’t have a proper Islamic appearance, which includes beards and head covering, they will deduct our marks.”
In the capital Kabul, a 25-year-old barber lamented that “there are a lot of restrictions” which go against his young clients’ preference for closer shaves.
“Barbers are private businesses, beards and heads are something personal, they should be able to cut the way they want,” he said.
Hanafi, the virtue propagation minister, has dismissed such arguments, saying last month that telling men “to grow a beard according to sharia” cannot be considered “invading the personal space.”
Business slump
In Afghanistan, the majority are practicing Muslims, but before the Taliban authorities returned to power in 2021, residents of major cities could choose their own appearance.
In areas where Taliban fighters were battling US-backed forces, men would grow beards either out of fear or by choice.
As fewer and fewer men opt for a close shave, the 25-year-old Kabul barber said he was already losing business.
Many civil servants, for example, “used to sort their hair a couple of times a week, but now, most of them have grown beards, they don’t show up even in a month,” he said.
A 50-year-old barber in Kabul said morality patrols “visit and check every day.”
In one incident this month, the barber said that an officer came into the shop and asked: “Why did you cut the hair like this?“
“After trying to explain that he is a child, he told us: ‘No, do Islamic hair, not English hair’.”
