15 votes

Religious police trigger heated debate in Afghanistan by admin in Culture visit site

Afghans are deeply divided over plans to revive a religious police body, with some saying it harks back to violent Taliban rule while others feel it is just what Afghanistan's recalcitrant society needs. Under the Taliban, the religious police patrolled the streets, punishing women if they went out without wearing an all-enveloping burka and men who trimmed their beards or were caught listening to music.

24 votes

Afghan authorities crack down on alcohol sales by admin in Culture visit site

Afghanistan authorities have destroyed 630 bottles of wine and 3,300 cans of beer in Kabul as a public demonstration of the government's crackdown on alcohol in the Islamic state. The alcohol was stacked up in a park in the capital, then smashed, set alight and rolled over by a bulldozer in front of a crowd of police and journalists. The contraband had been snatched in a raid on four guest houses, where 11 non-Afghans were detained and are set to be returned to their country of ...

14 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-...

23 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.