Afghanistan 1994-2010
I returned to Afghanistan in May/June 2010 and revisited some locations I had photographed on my first trip to Afghanistan in 1994. It was surprising how little had actually changed after all the years of violence and tumult in Kabul, and after all the billions of dollars that Afghanistan and the Afghans are supposed to be grateful for receiving. Not much evidence of it here.
I was able to reframe the original places using reference points like poles and structures that were still standing from 1994. I was also helped by advice from locals who became excited when they saw the prints that I had brought of my original photographs--they had not seen too many photographs of their neighborhood from those years. And then they would become quiet, shaking their heads at the madness of their history. Many had been refugees who had fled the fighting to Pakistan or Iran, some had spent time in the UK and the U.S. Police were suspicious and, at times, dismissive of me but once they realized what was happening, helped me in their own way.
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In Kabul, the big difference between then and now is the traffic and the crowds. The city has a population of 4.5 million, having dropped from 2 million during Soviet times to 500,000 in 1994. The numbers have swelled again and multiplied with foreign engagement and investment, and with all those exiles returning with the promise of so much. Some lives have improved considerably and, as the pictures demonstrate, trade and commerce is flourishing. But naturally there is resentment too of the opportunities that have been wasted, the money that has been stolen and the continuing and worsening insecurity.
The other big difference in the city is the absence of fear that permeated everything and everybody in 1994, and the joylessness of life under Taliban rule from 1996. In 1994, the city was a labyrinth of frontlines, with opposing factions of mujahideen who were bombing, shooting and shelling each other and everything that happened to get in the way. Then there was a reprieve of sorts when the Taliban took over: the shelling, fighting and looting largely stopped but most of the Afghans that I had met would never trade music and other fun for that kind of security.
Today, the latent fear is of suicide bombers. The noise and crowds add to the tension while one stews inert for hours in traffic, the mind playing games when your suspicions are raised by the guy sweating heavily in the car next to you who looks like he is wearing the deadly belt. No, he’s probably just overweight.
And then today’s other fear--perhaps the biggest--is what will happen when the Americans leave?
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