| Even the Guardian has to admit that the situation in Kabul is vastly improved. |
The war is a long way from Kabul's butchers' bazaar. Just off the Jaid-e-Maiwand, the avenue named after the defeat of a British force 127 years ago, skinned sheep carcasses and bloody sides of beef hang above the heads of the crowds around the narrow stalls. Meat, once a luxury for many in the bustling capital, has become a staple.
While southern Afghanistan is occasionally racked by a violent but ineffectual insurgency, Kabul is thriving. The bazaar is humming with activity. The crowd is mostly male. Any women weaving between the barrow boys, the old men selling boiled eggs and the little girls with trays of sticky home-made cakes, are veiled. Most wear the full burqa, although some have hauled the stitched face grille back on their foreheads to turn it into a cape. A few wear just a headscarf. None will talk to a Westerner. What the Taliban had enforced was merely a stricter version of an entrenched social code, and the ragtag Islamic militia were easier for Western governments to remove from Kabul than the burqas.
Yet the relative economic stability and security in the capital - though by no means equally shared - means support for the Nato peacekeepers is relatively robust. A pause in the suicide bombing and rocket attacks of the past 18 months has helped, too. 'The bombings last year... shook everyone, but things are better now,' said Muqib Jamshady, a Kabul businessman who has seen his hopes of converting his homeland into a prime tourist destination disappointed in the short term, but remains sanguine about the future. 'Business is good,' said Matiullah, a money changer standing with thick wads of notes - dollars, Pakistani rupees, afghanis - in his hand. 'The currency has been stable for a long time.' |