25 votes

Bookseller of Kabul's wife applies for asylum by admin in Culture visit site

The wife of an Afghan bookseller depicted in an international bestseller is applying for asylum in Europe because she claims the book has endangered her life. Suraya Rais is the wife of Shah Mohammed Rais, the title character in The Bookseller of Kabul by the Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad. Since its publication in 2002, the book - an account of an Afghan extended family after the fall of the Taliban - has become a hit around the world; in the UK, it was the bestselling non-...

37 votes

Afghanistan respects cultural pluralism: embassy by admin in Culture visit site

he Afghan Embassy spokesman here on Saturday said cultural pluralism is respected in his country. “Although just two languages of Dari and Pashto have been officially accepted in Afghanistan’s Constitution, any dialect is also recognized officially in its region and allowed to be taught in schools,” Faramarz Tamanna, who talked to the MNA, added.

35 votes

Afghan children robbed of education by admin in Culture visit site

THE resumption of regular schooling - especially for girls - has been one of the more uplifting aspects of Afghanistan's reconstruction, but Taliban brutality and crony greed are forcing thousands to stay at home in fear for their lives or to face years in front of the blackboard in dilapidated tents. More than 200 schools have been attacked since early last year and according to Human Rights Watch the attacks have left entire districts without schools, teachers and educational ...

37 votes

Shakespeare in Kabul: After years of a Taliban war on the arts, Afghan theater draws a tentative audience by admin in Culture visit site

"These beautiful buildings may be destroyed by rain or sun, but I have built a palace of poetry which will never be damaged." Ferdowsi, "Shahnameh" The towering mud and straw flanks of Herat's old citadel in western Afghanistan have seen the rise and fall of a thousand years' worth of Central Asian empires. They have protected noble kings, been damaged by bloodthirsty armies and served as a refuge for weary travelers on the Silk Road. But even a building as old as this ...