Afghan Stars

Writing this from Mazar-e-Sharif- 'Tomb of the Saint', the largest city in the North. I understand now why Zahra says that Kabul is the most cosmopolitan city in Afg, probably 80% of women wear burqa's on the street here, there is a big Blue Mosque in the centre which is supposedly the shrine of Ali, son-in-law of mohammed. Its a lovely place, quite different from the blue mosque in Tabriz, but also we observed run like a business rather than a place of worship!!

Afghanistan is a complicated place riddled with contradictions-

there is some unexpected pop culture here, which possibly indicate a changing society, for example a programme alikened to 'Have I got news for you?' called 'Zange Khatar'- a political piss take of the Arabian political situation- apparently the most popular programme on Afghan tv- asks questions like 'Why don't other Islamic nations offer help?', in a jokey sarcy manner. Zahra says it has not been banned because it is the only country in this part of the world that supports freedom of speech (admittedly only in some things).

I am loving the break from homogenisation that exists in the west, westernisation hasn't reached here, people don't ask us about David Beckham et al, and no Tescos!! Altho there is an enthusiasm for Bollywood here, no US/ UK materialistic culture.

However another popular Afghan tv show- Afghan Star- a stan version of Britain's got talent- with a featuring an awesome female role model Mozda Jama-Lzada- she is a Canadian Afghan, and like Zahra came back here as an adult, she wears a headscarf on tv but in a very casual way!!

We are being shown an interesting and historical side of Afghanistan, as tourists and guests of a really interesting couple. We visited an orphanage, run by Khalid's sister, Ziba (beautiful), lovely kids, who are in very vulnerable positions with no family, but lucky enough to be resident of this progressive orphanage, there are 11 and they all support education of both girls and boys.

Zahra and Khalid have some interesting projects, one they support is a police training academy, in collaboration with the German police, they have training academies for police teaching them about human rights, communication etc....Where women are employed and given equal pay, and rights, part of an attempt to address the negative attitude towards women in Afg. Certainly everywhere we go we are looked after by the police, and Z+K say this is reflects the changing attitudes towards women.

A true gem we visited in Balkh province- an ancient city called Bactria, ruined walls encircling a expanse of dusty land sprinkled with ancient relics that maybe more than 6000 years old- it has never been excavated, and if the relics on the surface are anyhting to go by, there will be many more treasures to uncover! It will hopefully one day be dug out properly and by folk who are honest and will hand over any of the country's treasures to someone who will enable it to be appreciated by generations of Afghans to come.....

We went to a Boz Kashi match today, female goat pulling, friday is a holiday, and people flocked into Mazar with their horses to participate in what seemed to be a crazy mash up. The aim of the game was for the riders to drag a headless calf from one end of the pitch to another.... It was certainly impressive, with massive healthy horses, and colourful riders.

Postcards will come, but they might take 8 months to arrive!!!!