ARZU 2012 highlights

A weaver's hand, decorated in henna, runs through the loom.


The ARZU preschool class smiles for the camera in the Women's Community Center courtyard in Bamyan



The completed stage and bandstand in the newly constructed ARZU Community Field and Family Park in Bamyan. The Second Vice President of Afghanistan used this stage to speak to the Afghan people. (October 2012



ARZU weaver Firoza smiles while holding her son



Construction on the second ARZU Women's Community Center in Shashpul.



A young girl in ARZU's preschool asks her teacher a question during class




Two girls laugh together at the ARZU Garden Center playground.

Arzu, which means “hope” in Dari, is an innovative model of social entrepreneurship to help Afghan women weavers & their families break the cycle of poverty by providing them steady income & access to education. http://arzustudiohope.org/

Mission

ARZU STUDIO HOPE's mission is to create economic sustainability for global communities in need.

Company Overview

ARZU, which means “hope” in Dari, is an innovative model of social entrepreneurship that helps Afghan women weavers and their families break the cycle of poverty by providing them steady income and access to education and healthcare by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave. While structured as a 501(c)(3) in the United States and an international NGO in Afghanistan, ARZU operates as a “for-bene...fit” corporation, using private sector practices to create jobs in desperately poor rural villages where little opportunity exists.

Following its fifth anniversary in June 2009, ARZU evolved to grow as a more global brand called, ARZU STUDIO HOPE.

ARZU STUDIO HOPE continues to support a holistic approach to sustainable poverty alleviation achieved through artisan-based employment that empowers women. Women, earning fair labor wages, weave exquisite hand-knotted rugs at home. Innovative social benefit practices drive transformational change by providing grassroots access to vital education, healthcare, clean water and sustainable community development programs.

US couple missing in Afghanistan

Pregnant US woman Caitlan Coleman missing in Afghanistan with husband

 

The family of a pregnant American woman missing with her husband in Afghanistan have made a fresh appeal for her safe return.

Caitlan Coleman, 27, is due to give birth in January and needs urgent medical attention, her father told the Associated Press news agency.

James Coleman said she had been travelling with her Canadian husband across Central Asia.

There are fears they were abducted, but no ransom has been demanded.

No militant group has said it is holding the couple and AP says when it contacted the Taliban two months ago, a spokesman said no Taliban members were involved.

The couple last contacted their family on 8 October from what Mr Coleman described as an "unsafe" part of Afghanistan.

It is not clear how they entered Afghanistan and what exactly they were doing there - they had also travelled through Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Mr Coleman adds that his daughter needs medical care for a liver ailment.

"Our goal is to get them back safely and healthy," the father told AP. "I don't know what kind of care they're getting or not getting...we're just an average family and we don't have connections with anybody and we don't have a lot of money."

One Afghan official contacted by AP says the trail has gone cold, after initially suggesting that they may have been abducted in Wardak province in an area about 25 miles (40km) west of the capital Kabul.

But there has been no independent confirmation of this - at the time the couple went missing officials in Wardak told BBC Afghan that they had no information about them.

The US State Department and Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry say they are looking into the disappearance, AP says.

Correspondents say that the kidnapping of foreigners has become relatively common in parts of Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Earlier this month an American doctor who had been abducted by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan was rescued.

Dilip Joseph, of the Morning Star Development aid group, was freed by US and Afghan forces in a joint operation that killed seven of his captors.

Western Plot to Sterilize Muslims!

Oh darn, they're catching on to us... 

 

By Mushtaq Yusufzai and Waj S. Khan, NBC News

 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan may be one of the world's three remaining polio-stricken countries but Sartaj Khan has decided that the government-sponsored vaccination campaign is much more sinister than it appears.
“These vaccines are meant to destroy our nation,” said Khan, a 42-year-old lawyer in the city of Peshawar. “The [polio] drops make men less manly, and make women more excited and less bashful. Our enemies want to wipe us out.”
Khan is not alone in the belief, propagated by extremist groups, that is gaining currency in the Pashtun belt of northwestern Pakistan: The government’s anti-polio campaign is a ruse by the Americans to sterilize or spy on Muslims.

 

Many also believe that much like the Pakistani physician, Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who helped the CIA run a fake vaccination program to establish the presence of Osama bin Laden, the army of health workers employed to vaccinate the country’s children are also on the United States’ payroll.
The belief has turned deadly:  Nine anti-polio workers have been killed by gunmen on motorcycles this week. Some of those killed were teenage girls. Following the violence, the United Nations pulled back all staff involved in the vaccination campaign and officials suspended it in some parts of the country.

There are ranks of parents whose awareness is low and suspicions high when it comes to the deadly virus: A November World Health Organization study found that 41 percent of those polled had never heard of polio  – and 11 percent refused to vaccinate their children.
The reality is that polio can paralyze or kill within hours of infection. It is transmitted person-to-person, meaning that as long as one child is infected, the disease can be passed to others.

Nuclear-armed and militancy-struck Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries still struggling with polio. According to the World Health Organization, there were 213 new cases of polio worldwide in 2012, including 56 in Pakistan.

 

Polio also disproportionately affects members of the Pashtun population in Pakistan, who largely live in the country's northwest and border region. They account for roughly 15 percent of the population, but 75 percent of all polio cases.
Shamim Bibi, a 25-year-old mother of two who has been working in Peshawar’s suburbs as an anti-polio campaign worker for the last nine years, said she had never before faced hostility in her line of work.
“For years, we were welcomed into homes by families,” she said. “In 2012, attitudes changed. Now, they look at us with a sort of suspicion. Some people have even said it to my face: that I’m an American spy.”

 

Suspicion of the United States does indeed run deep.  Unknown gunmen may have assassinated 14-year-old anti-polio worker Farzana Rehman in her hometown of Peshawar but her grieving father is placing the blame for her death further afield.

“My daughter was too young to leave this world,” an obviously distraught Said Rehman told NBC News. “Polio didn’t take her. This American war did. So what’s the bigger danger, huh?”
The American war refers to the post-Sept. 11, 2001, violence that has swept Pakistan and Afghanistan, in particular U.S. drone strikes that enrage many.  In parts of Pakistan, the war is also called the Kharji, or “white person's” war.

As experts cite the latest violence as a new form of “low tech, high concept” attacks by Pakistan’s militants, Rehman can only wonder if those trying to stop the disease are missing the point.
“Disease didn’t take my child. A bullet did,” he said.

Nadia Sediqqi shot dead on her way to work

Senior female Afghan official shot dead

Waseem Nikzad / AFP - Getty Images

Men prepare to pray during the funeral Monday of Nadia Sediqqi in Mihtarlam, Afghanistan.

 

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Unknown gunmen shot dead a senior female government worker on Monday, officials in eastern Afghanistan said, five months after her predecessor was killed in a bomb attack.

Violence against women appears to be on the rise in Afghanistan, which activists and some lawmakers blame on what they say is waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's government, claims he denies.

 

Nadia Sediqqi, acting head of the women's affairs department in Laghman province, was killed as she headed to work in the capital Mehtar Lam, said the provincial governor's spokesman Sarhadi Zwak.

"They shot her as she was getting into a rickshaw," Zwak said of the attack about 93 miles east of Kabul, adding that she worked without bodyguards -- a common situation for female government workers.

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul condemned the attack.
“This attack, especially on Human Rights Day, shows that those who killed Ms. Siddiqi have no respect for human rights or the safety of the Afghan people,” it said in a statement.
Violence against women
Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, but fears are mounting that such freedoms could be traded away as Kabul seeks peace talks with the group.
In a recent interview with NBC News, Afghan President Hamid Karzai denied that violence against women had been on the rise. Instead, he said, incidents of violence were being reported more today than in years past.

“You hear more of violence because there is more awareness of it today because there's more reporting of it today because there is more enforcement of the law against violence today ... not that violence has increased,” he told NBC’s Atia Abawi.
Still, a 2011 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation judged that Afghanistan was the most dangerous country in the world for women, beating on Congo and Pakistan.

Watch Atia Abawi's full, exclusive interview with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in which he discusses the "growing perception" that insecurity in the region is caused by the United States and some of its allies who "promoted lawlessness" and "corruption" in Afghanistan.

Predecessor also slain
Sediqqi had replaced Hanifa Safi, who was killed in July by a car bomb that her family blamed on the Taliban.
Women who pursue careers in ultra-conservative Afghanistan often face opposition in a society where often they are ostracized, or worse, for mixing with men other than husbands or relatives.
Safi's son later told Reuters that authorities had ignored repeated requests for protection, echoing greater concerns that the safety of female government workers is not taken seriously by Kabul, despite commitments to better the rights of women 11 years into the NATO-led war.

Have India’s poor become human guinea pigs?

Narayan Survaiya's mother Tizuja Bai died several weeks after being given new drugs

 

Drug companies are facing mounting pressure to investigate reports that new medicines are being tested on some of the poorest people in India without their knowledge.

"We were surprised," Nitu Sodey recalls about taking her mother-in-law Chandrakala Bai to Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore in May 2009.
"We are low-caste people and normally when we go to the hospital we are given a five-rupee voucher, but the doctor said he would give us a foreign drug costing 125,000 rupees (£1,400)."
The pair had gone to the hospital, located in the biggest city in Madhya Pradesh, an impoverished province in central India, because Mrs Bai was experiencing chest pains.
Their status as Dalits - the bottom of the Hindu caste system, once known as untouchables - meant that they were both accustomed to going to the back of the queue when they arrived and waiting many hours before seeing a doctor.

But this time it was different and they were seen immediately.

"The doctor took the five-rupee voucher given to BLPs [Below the Poverty Line] like us and said the rest would be paid for by a special government fund for poor people," Mrs Sodey explains. "This was really expensive treatment for the likes of us."
What Mrs Sodey says she did not know was that her mother-in-law was being enrolled in a drugs trial for the drug Tonapofylline, which was being tested by Biogen Idec. Neither could read and Mrs Sodey says she does not remember signing a consent form.
Mrs Bai suffered heart abnormalities after being given the trial drug. She was taken off it and discharged after a few days. Less than a month later, she suffered a cardiac arrest and died at the age of 45.
The trial, which was registered in the UK by Biogen Idec, was later halted due, say the company, to the number of seizures recorded. The company also says Mrs Bai's death was not reported to them.
Her case is not an isolated incident.
In a different trial with a different company, Narayan Survaiya says neither he nor his late mother Tizuja Bai were asked if she wanted to participate, or even told that she was taking part in one, when she sought treatment for problems with her legs. And, like Mrs Sodey, he claims the family were told that a charity was footing the bill for the care.
A few weeks after taking the drug, Mr Survaiya says his mother's health deteriorated and she was left unable to walk.
"I told the doctor, but he said don't stop the doses. It is a temporary paralysis and the drug will make it better."

His mother died a few weeks later.

In all, 53 people were test subjects in that trial, which was sponsored by British and German drug companies, and eight died. There is no hard evidence that the drug was the cause of death, but nor were there any autopsies to enable a full investigation.
Over the past seven years, some 73 clinical trials on 3,300 patients - 1,833 of whom were children - have taken place at Indore's Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital. Dozens of patients have died during the trials, however no compensation has been paid to the families left behind.
Internal hospital documents seen by Newsnight reveal that since 2005, 80 cases of severe adverse events in trials have been recorded in Indore. One patient listed on the severe adverse events document is Naresh Jatav, who is now four.
His father, Ashish Jatav, says that his son was a healthy three-day-old baby when doctors said he needed a polio vaccine.

Naresh Jatav - in the white shirt - with his family

 

The family says that they had no idea that the drug Naresh was given was a trial one, and that the hospital forms which they signed had been written in English "so we couldn't understand anything".
According to an investigation by the hospital, the healthy baby boy had a seizure shortly after receiving the drug and suffered an attack of bronchitis.

He now has breathing and eating problems, although the family have been assured that this is nothing to do with the trial vaccine. They say they no longer know what to believe.

Time after time in Indore, I heard a depressingly familiar tale of poor, often uneducated people saying how flattered and privileged they were made to feel as they were suddenly offered the chance to receive medicines usually out of their reach. All of them claim that, contrary to Indian laws governing drugs trials, there was no informed consent.
I also repeatedly heard patients' relatives say that the treatment they received at Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital was overseen by Dr Anil Bharani.
Dr Bharani has since been charged by the state government for receiving illegal payments and foreign trips from drug companies, and for carrying out drugs trials without patients' consent.
He refused to speak to Newsnight, even when I approached him in person in his office at the hospital. He called security and I was marched out of the hospital by an armed guard. But two days later, Dr Bharani was himself transferred from the hospital after more than 30 years' service.
Dr Bharani is just one of a number of doctors at the hospital who have been already been fined for irregularities during drugs trials. None of the problems might have ever come to light if it had not been for another doctor, Dr Anand Rai, who had an office on the same floor of the hospital.

Dr Rai says he was fired for raising concerns

 

Dr Rai says he became concerned when he saw poor people being ushered in to the best consulting rooms. He says he was sacked from his job because of his questioning, but that he has been researching the hospital trials ever since.
"They choose only poor people," he says, even though drug trial protocols demand that they should be carried out on all sections of society. "They chose poor, illiterate people who do not understand the meaning of clinical drug trials."
Dr KD Bhargava, head of the ethics committee at Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital, admits that the hospital's oversight of the trials has been flawed. "Suddenly lots of money got involved and there was too much going on. And, yes, maybe we may have lost control," he says.
But the issue goes well beyond one hospital.
Since India relaxed its laws governing drugs trials in 2005, foreign drug companies have been keen to take advantage of the country's pool of educated, English-speaking doctors and the huge population from which to choose trial subjects.

 

In the past seven years, nearly 2,000 trials have taken place in the country and the number of deaths increased from 288 in 2008 to 637 in 2009 to 668 in 2010, before falling to 438 deaths in 2011, the latest figures available.

The provincial capital of Madhya Pradesh is Bhopal - a city whose name will for ever be linked with the world's worst industrial accident. An explosion at the Union Carbide plant caused a gas leak that killed an estimated 25,000 people, campaigners say.
The only good thing to come out of the disaster was the Bhopal Memorial Hospital, built as part of a compensation agreement with Union Carbide to help care for some half a million locals affected by the disaster.
Little did they know that when they came for treatment, some would be used for clinical drug trials.
Ramadhar Shrivastav was one such person. As he makes his way uncertainly to the door of his house to greet me, he says he was lucky, having got off comparatively lightly in the 1984 disaster - only his sight was affected.
Five years ago, he suffered a heart attack and went to the Bhopal Memorial Hospital. He does not read English, and it was a journalist who last year noted that his discharge paper showed that he was part of a trial by the British company Astra Zeneca on a drug being tested for patients with ACS (acute coronary syndrome).
Mr Shrivastav claims the drug has affected him badly and he now cannot work.

Ramadhar Shrivastav had previously been caught up in the Bhopal leak

 

When he learned we were from Britain, he asked us to pass on a message to Astra Zeneca.
"Please don't do these trials on poor people. Rich people can overcome these problems but if I can't work, the whole family suffers. Why did they choose us? They should have tested it on themselves."
Astra Zeneca admit there were problems with consent with a few patients on the trial identified through there routine monitoring during the trial and the issues were quickly rectified. They say that Mr Shrivastav was not one of those affected.
From a medical point of view, doctors agree that the long-term effects of exposure to the Bhopal gas, methyl isocyanate, are still not known so why use the victims for drug trials? I put this question a doctor involved in setting up the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and who once served on the ethics committee there, Professor NP Mishra.
He says trials are carried out for the long-term benefit of patients. "It's not being tried out to harm them."

 

But haven't these people suffered enough? Is it right to put them at further risk in a clinical drug trial? "The way you talk, medicines would never be developed."

I ask again, why choose gas victims? "That I cannot comment on," he says. "It was not my job to find out."
The problem, I found while working on this subject, is finding anyone who is prepared to be held responsible.
I found Tarjun Prajapati supervising a construction site in a new suburb of Bhopal. He is joint owner of a building company. His father was a gas victim who, four years ago, suffered a heart attack. He was given drug called Fondaparinux at the Memorial Hospital. When he ran out of the medication, his son found it easier to nip out to the shops rather than cross town to pick up more from the hospital for his father.
"I went to the market to buy them but couldn't," he remembers. "I was told they were only available from the hospital and only then did I realise he was on a trial drug. I feel very bad that my dad died because of those medicines."
This claim is impossible to verify because, once again, there was no autopsy.
On the trial documents, it says that the British company Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) are the sponsors of the drug, are responsible for the trial and are the investigators of the drug.
But GSK says they bought the rights to the drug while the trial was being carried out by the French company Sanofi, which is named as a collaborator on the document. When we contacted Sanofi, they told us the trial was in fact "conducted through an Indian research organisation called Quintiles".

Satnam Singh Bains, a British barrister in Indore, is looking into the complaints

 

There is no doubt that the drugs trial set-up can be complicated. A couple of drug companies might team up and then delegate the actual work of the trial to what in India are called Clinical Research Outsourcing Organisations. In the past, when there have charges of malpractice, drug companies have tended to blame these local companies.
Which leaves those who believe they have a just grievance against the drug companies somewhat bewildered.
Lawyers are now looking at whether there is a case to answer in the UK. Satnam Singh Bains, a British barrister in Indore, is looking into a couple of cases.
He shows me a recently published report by the Indian Parliamentary Committee on Health and Family Welfare that looks into what is happening around the country. The report is damning.
It confirms that the set-up for regulating trials in India is, in Mr Singh Bains' words, "not fit for purpose". There are too few inspectors at the regulatory agency, coping with too many demands, including having to supply data on 700 parliamentary questions and 150 court cases in one year.
"Still worse," the report says, "there is adequate documentary evidence to come to the conclusion that many opinions [during the drug trials] were actually written by the invisible hand of drug manufacturers and experts [the doctors] merely obliged by putting their signatures."
Mr Singh Bains says there are real concerns. "About, at the very least, collusion between experts and the drug manufacturers or, at worse, there is a suggestion that there is a fraud taking place - that these reports are being signed off without any independent, clinical scrutiny of their findings in the way that conclusions are expressed."
He adds that this could have global implications about "whether the findings of these clinical trials can be safely relied upon".

India textbook says meat-eaters lie and commit sex crimes

 

Meat-eaters "easily cheat, lie, forget promises and commit sex crimes", according to a controversial school textbook available in India.

New Healthway, a book on hygiene and health aimed at 11 and 12 year-olds, is printed by one of India's leading publishers.

Academics have urged the government to exercise greater control.

But the authorities say schools should monitor content as they are responsible for the choice of textbooks.

"This is poisonous for children," Janaki Rajan of the Faculty of Education at Jamia Millia University in Delhi told the BBC.

"The government has the power to take action, but they are washing their hands of it," she said.

It is not known which Indian schools have bought the book for their students, but correspondents say what is worrying is that such a book is available to students.

"The strongest argument that meat is not essential food is the fact that the Creator of this Universe did not include meat in the original diet for Adam and Eve. He gave them fruits, nuts and vegetables," reads a chapter entitled Do We Need Flesh Food?

The chapter details the "benefits" of a vegetarian diet and goes on to list "some of the characteristics" found among non-vegetarians.

"They easily cheat, tell lies, forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes," it says.

The chapter, full of factual inaccuracies, refers to Eskimos (Inuit) as "lazy, sluggish and short-lived", because they live on "a diet largely of meat".

It adds: "The Arabs who helped in constructing the Suez Canal lived on wheat and dates and were superior to the beef-fed Englishmen engaged in the same work."

The publishers, S Chand, did not respond to the BBC's requests for a comment.

Afghanistan hosts first professional boxing match

 

A sell-out crowd is expected to watch the "Fight 4 Peace"

Afghanistan is hosting its first professional men's boxing match amid tight security in the capital Kabul.

The 12-round bout is for the vacant World Boxing Organisation Intercontinental middleweight belt.
German-born Afghan boxer Hamid Rahimi is taking on Tanzanian Said Mbelwa for the title.
The match is being broadcast live, with millions of Afghans across the country expected to watch. The Taliban banned boxing towards the end of their rule.
Prominent Afghan figures including MPs and deputy ministers are at the venue to watch the fight.
Organisers have dubbed the bout a "Fight 4 Peace" and say it is being hosted to make a statement of freedom to take part in sport in a country blighted by war and militancy for decades.
Correspondents say the fight is likely to be a sell-out and has attracted interest from fans all over the country.

Mbelwa, 23, fights in the super-middleweight division and has a record of 31 fights with 19 wins, eight losses and four draws.
Rahimi is six years older than his opponent and has won 20 of his 21 fights. He has been followed by hundreds of fans to each interview and public appearance he has made in the week leading up to Tuesday's event.
Speaking earlier this week, he said that only sport could bring deeply divided societies together and he hoped the "Fight 4 Peace" would do just that in Afghanistan.
"The kids don't take guns, they come the sports way, and I believe in sports, I am a sportsman and I believe sport has the power and the magic to bring all people and all regions together. I hope it will bring peace to my hometown," he said.
"The whole country is so excited and looking forward to the 'Fight 4 Peace'. It's simply overwhelming."
Mbelwa said that he understood that the occasion was "a very special event for Afghanistan and sent a very important message for the whole world".
"But once this bell rings it will be a boxing fight like any other. And I can promise you that I will be victorious. I am very well prepared and I am sure that I will knock out Rahimi in the fourth round," he said.

Malala Yousufzai's recovery

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Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban, is able to stand with help and communicate, British doctors treating her severe wounds said on Friday, though she still shows signs of infection.

Yousufzai, who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating education for girls, on Monday was flown from Pakistan to receive treatment at a unit at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital that has expertise in dealing with complex trauma cases. The unit has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

The hospital also said that Yousufzai was 15 years old, not 14, as had been widely reported.

Dr. Dave Rosser, medical director at the hospital, said that the girl was "well enough that she's agreed that she's happy, in fact keen, for us to share more clinical detail." 

 

Rosser said the infection was probably related to the track of a bullet which grazed her head when she was attacked. Because of the infection, Rosser said, "she is not out of the woods yet."

Yousufzai began standing up to the Taliban when she was 11, when the Islamabad government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley, where she lives, to the militants.

The attack on Yousufzai and two other girls as they left school was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the her against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.
The hospital also released more details of the attack on Yousufzai.  She was shot at point blank range and the bullet hit her left brow, but instead of penetrating the skull it traveled underneath the skin along the length of the side of her head and into her neck, landing above her left shoulder-blade.

While Yousufzai was able to communicate by writing, should could not talk because of a breathing tube in her throat.  She was, however, aware of her surroundings, the hospital said in a statement.
Despite the dramatic development, Rosser emphasized that she was still recovering from a very grave injury.
"But we are hopeful we will make a good recovery," he added in a statement.

NBC News staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

I will remember Maida Khal

In December of 2010, we learned about Maida Khal.  In Mazar e Sharif women's prison because she asked to divorce her husband who was at least 50 years older than her and paralyzed.  (not to mention the beatings, etc...)

I wonder how she is doing?  How can we help her?  How can she leave prison? (she can't leave without a male 'guardian')

It would be nice if we can find a way to get her out of prison. 

Dear Afghans, please make me aware of some legal and political resources you have.

I don't want to forget about Maida Khal.

Malala Yousafzai in 2009, documentary.

*Warning: Graphic Images*  This is a video made in February of 2009 just before the Taliban banned girls from going to school in a region of Pakistan called the Swat Valley.

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Later in 2009 the Taliban were driven out of the Swat Valley by the Pakistani Military.  Malala, the girl in the video was able to go back to school sometime after 2009, and two days ago some Taliban men shot her in the head.  It is hard to imagine shooting a 14 year old girl in the head.  Such a cowardly and shameful act that shows how truly evil this group is. 

Malala Yousafzai shot by Taliban - two articles

 

 

 

Malala Yousafzai: Pakistan activist, 14, shot in Swat

Malala Yousafzai was hit in the head, but is reportedly out of danger

Gunmen have wounded a 14-year-old rights activist who has campaigned for girls' education in the Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan.

Malala Yousafzai was attacked on her way home from school in Mingora, the region's main town.
She came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban militants who had taken control of the valley.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesman told the BBC they carried out the attack.
Ehsanullah Ehsan told BBC Urdu that they attacked her because she was anti-Taliban and secular, adding that she would not be spared.

The chilling attack on the young peace campaigner has been leading TV news bulletins here. Malala Yousafzai is one of the best-known schoolgirls in the country. Young as she is, she has dared to do what many others do not - publicly criticise the Taliban.
Malala's confident, articulate campaign for girls' education has won her admirers - and recognition - at home and abroad. She has appeared on national and international television, and spoken of her dream of a future Pakistan where education would prevail.
Even by the standards of blood-soaked Pakistan, there has been shock at the shooting. It has been condemned by Pakistan's Prime Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, who sent a helicopter to transfer Malala to hospital in Peshawar.
The head of Pakistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, Zohra Yusuf, said "this tragic attack on this courageous child" sends a very disturbing message to all those working for women and girls.

Malala Yousafzai was travelling with at least one other girl when she was shot, but there are differing accounts of how events unfolded.

One report, citing local sources, says a bearded gunman stopped a car full of schoolgirls, and asked for Malala Yousafzai by name, before opening fire.
But a police official also told BBC Urdu that unidentified gunmen opened fire on the schoolgirls as they were about to board a van or bus.
She was hit in the head and, some reports say, in the neck area by a second bullet, but is now in hospital and is reportedly out of danger. Another girl who was with her at the time was also injured.
'Courage' Malala Yousafzai was just 11 when she was writing her diary, two years after the Taliban took over the Swat Valley, and ordered girls' schools to close.
In the diary, which she kept for the BBC's Urdu service under a pen name, she exposed the suffering caused by the militants as they ruled.
She used the pen-name Gul Makai when writing the diary. Her identity only emerged after the Taliban were driven out of Swat and she later won a national award for bravery and was also nominated for an international children's peace award.
Correspondents say she earned the admiration of many across Pakistan for her courage in speaking out about life under the brutal rule of Taliban militants.
One poignant entry reflects on the Taliban decree banning girls' education: "Since today was the last day of our school, we decided to play in the playground a bit longer. I am of the view that the school will one day reopen but while leaving I looked at the building as if I would not come here again."

Malala Yousafzai began her blog at the age of 11

She has since said that she wants to study law and enter politics when she grows up. "I dreamt of a country where education would prevail," she said.
Taliban driven out The BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says that Malala Yousafzai was a public figure who didn't shy away from risks and had strong support from her parents for her activism. Indeed, her father, who is a school teacher, expressed his pride in her campaigning.
In a statement about the attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said: "We have to fight the mindset that is involved in this. We have to condemn it... Malala is like my daughter, and yours too. If that mindset prevails, then whose daughter would be safe?"

The Taliban, under the notorious militant cleric Maulana Fazlullah, took hold of the Swat Valley in late 2007 and remained in de facto control until they were driven out by Pakistani military forces during an offensive in 2009.

While in power they closed girls' schools, promulgated Sharia law and introduced measures such as banning the playing of music in cars.
Since they were ejected, there have been isolated militant attacks in Swat but the region has largely remained stable and many of the thousands of people who fled during the Taliban years have returned.

Peace-prize winning Pakistani girl on Taliban hit list fights for life after shooting

AFP

Soldiers take Malala Yousafzai, 14, to an army hospital after a gunman attacked her and two other girls in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Tuesday.

By Amna Nawaz and Mushtaq Yusufzai, NBC News

Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani activist who won international acclaim for her work promoting peace, and two other young girls were shot and seriously injured Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.
Local police and hospital officials told NBC News that Malala was shot in the neck and head shortly after leaving her school in the Swat region. Doctors said they were working in an attempt to save the lives of all three girls.
Malala was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011 for a blog she wrote under a pseudonym for the BBC. She also won the National Peace Prize in Pakistan, was honored with a school named after her, and quickly became an outspoken critic of the Taliban in Pakistan and public advocate for peace.

In the blog, she chronicled life in the Swat Valley under the brutal and oppressive rule of the local faction of the Pakistani Taliban, who carried out public floggings, hung dead bodies in the streets, and banned education for girls.

Obama her 'ideal' leader
In early 2011, the militants had added Malala to their hit list.
"We wanted to kill her as she was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and more important she was calling President Obama as her ideal. She was young but was promoting a Western culture in the Pakhtun populated areas," Ihsanullah Ihsan, the spokesman of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP said Tuesday.

Veronique De Viguerie / Getty Images, file

Malala Yousafzai, pictured here at the age of 12 in March 2009, was undergoing surgery after she was shot twice Tuesday.

The Taliban had made a plan for killing her a year ago but were waiting for an opportunity, he told NBC News.
Yousafzai was initially treated at the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital, in Mingora, the main city of Swat, but was later airlifted to a hospital in the larger city of Peshawar.
A police official, quoting other students who witnessed the shooting, said some people came in a car and stopped in front of the school and then asked them to identify Malala.
"Since the students already knew about threats to Malala Yousufzai's life, therefore they said they didn't know her," the police officer said.
But he said when Malala came out of the school and sat in a school van she was shot.
The young girl's stark depictions of daily life in Swat -- as Pakistan’s army carried out a massive military operation against the Taliban in the area -- led her to become the first Pakistani girl nominated for the children's peace prize.
She began writing the diary for the BBC when she was just 11.
In one posting on her BBC blog, she wrote, "My younger brother does not like going to school. He cries while going to school and is jubilant coming back home ... He said that whenever he saw someone he got scared that he might be kidnapped. My brother often prays 'O God bring peace to Swat and if not then bring either the US or China here.'"

Green on Blue article

Afghanistan's 'green on blue' collapse of trust

By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Kabul

As the number of Nato troops killed by their Afghan counterparts continues to rise - attacks known as "green on blue" - many are left wondering if the breakdown of this relationship will result in an early exit for international forces in Afghanistan.

In a circle of trees at the heart of the international mission's headquarters in Kabul, there are 50 flags. One for each of the coalition countries that make up the force that is fighting the Taliban.

Under the branches, in the early morning shade, a few hundred soldiers stand still, listening, as the names of that week's dead are read aloud.

The first was that of a Jordanian soldier, then a British sergeant and two British captains. Next an American gunner's mate, and two more sergeants.

An Afghan officer stepped forward. He read just a number: 31. The service is short, it barely lasts five minutes. There is not enough time to read the names of all the Afghan dead.

Sgt Gareth Thursby (left) and Pte Thomas Wroe both died in 'green on blue' attacks last month

Some names give more pause for thought than others. Sgt Gareth Thursby and Pte Thomas Wroe were killed earlier in the month in Nahr-e Saraj in Helmand.

They were not killed by the Taliban, but by an Afghan policeman they were serving alongside.

As the number of these "green on blue" or insider attacks has risen, British soldiers have taken extra precautions. One is to be armed at all times, even when men are sleeping. These men are called "guardian angels".

In the Nahr-e Saraj killings the Afghan policeman looked like he was in pain. The British soldiers reacted with compassion. The guardian angel put down his weapon as he tried to help - and that is when the killer, the policeman, struck.

"Murder" is a word you rarely hear in war. Killing is part of the business, and is viewed by most as lawful according to international protocols.

But recently, the commander of international forces here, General John Allen, sat opposite his Afghan counterparts and said that while his troops were prepared to die for Afghanistan, they were not prepared to be murdered.

A quarter of all British soldiers who have been killed here this year were killed by Afghan police or army colleagues.

Some were Taliban infiltrators. Others, men with a grievance, who shot those they served with in the back, or in the face, or somewhere their body armour and helmets offered no protection.

Trust is collapsing between these two forces, who should be united in their fight against the Taliban.

The international mission suspended many routine joint patrols with Afghans as it sought to stop the attacks. A huge step, since Nato's strategy relies on training Afghans to fight the Taliban when most international forces leave at the end of 2014.

Senior generals and the Ministry of Defence claimed that this was no big deal, but few believe them.

One senior diplomat told me the switch would go down in the history books.

It could be a "game changer", he said. Afghan generals were furious - they felt abandoned and claimed a propaganda victory had been handed to the insurgents.

The Taliban may be cruel but they are also adaptable. "Crafty" is the word one marine used to describe them when speaking to me a week or so ago. He had just lost two colleagues to Taliban grenades.

When the insurgents realised they could not beat the coalition in a head-on battle, they introduced roadside bombs.

And now they realise that this war, already deeply unpopular at home, can only become more so if Afghan troops keep killing British, American and other servicemen.

"What do you say to the wife of a soldier killed by an Afghan soldier," a coalition general said to me last week. "There is nothing you can say."

The fear among those leading this war is that the relentless green on blue killings will accelerate the exit of troops.

The public is already sick of these killings and they could provide Western politicians with a good excuse to quit. After all, why hang around for another two years if the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, and your allies keep shooting you dead?

A substantial and early drawdown of British troops is already being privately considered.

President Karzai might not realise it, said another diplomat, but you cannot underestimate Western fatigue with this war and with corruption here.

There is a shift taking place in the coalition's vision of the future of Afghanistan.

Speak to senior generals and diplomats and they have a view of what the country looks like after they have gone. Kabul and other cities remain in government hands, the east will remain as lawless as ever, and the south, well… "there will have to be some accommodation in the south".

What does that mean?

It means that the Taliban, in some areas, will be back for good.

One of the most senior diplomats here sat in my garden recently and sighed.

This is a war of diminished expectations and one where the West will never utter the word "victory".

He said, "Do not ask me if it was worth it, because it was not."

So what, I asked, was the best possible outcome?

He replied, "All we want is a country that we can forget about."

Diplomat in Libya: 'Assuming we don't die tonight'

Diplomat Killed in Libya Told Fellow Gamers: Hope I ‘Don’t Die Tonight’

On Tuesday, Sean Smith, a Foreign Service Information Management Officer assigned to the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, typed a message to the director of his online gaming guild: ”Assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.” The consulate was under siege, and within hours, a mob would attack, killing Smith along with three others, including the U.S. ambassador.
In his professional and personal life, Smith was a husband and father of two, an Air Force veteran, and a 10-year veteran of the Foreign Service who had served in Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal and The Hague. But when gaming with EVE Online guild Goonswarm, he was a popular figure known as “Vile Rat,” and alternately as “Vilerat” while volunteering as a moderator at the internet community Something Awful. Smith’s death was confirmed on Wednesday morning by the State Department and reported widely in the news media. But the first people to report Smith’s death were his friends. Their reaction was shock and mourning.
“My people, I have greivous [sic] news. Vile Rat has been confirmed to be KIA in Benghazi; his family has been informed and the news is likely to break out on the wire services soon,” wrote Goonswarm director Alex Gianturco in a message mirrored to Something Awful at 11:21 EST. “Needless to say, we are in shock, have no words, and have nothing but sympathy for his family and children. I have known Vile Rat since 2006, he was one of the oldest of old-guard goons and one of the best and most effective diplomats this game has ever seen.”
According to his friends, Smith had emerged as a key leader for the community, and was known as a senior guild diplomat who helped engineer the destruction of Goonswarm’s chief rival, the Band of Brothers. He let his guildmates design his tattoo. On Wednesday, Gianturco posted an obituary for his friend of more than six years. “He was on jabber when it happened, that’s the most fucked up thing,” Gianturco wrote. “In Baghdad the same kind of thing happened – incoming sirens, he’d vanish, we’d freak out and he’d come back ok after a bit. This time he said ‘FUCK’ and ‘GUNFIRE’ and then disconnected and never returned.”

Next, media reports began circulating that the consulate in Benghazi, and the U.S. embassy in Egypt, had come under attack. Gianturco, known in the EVE Online community as The Mittani, “freaked out.” Gianturco wrote that he was “in shock” and felt dead inside.
“I’m not sure if this is how I’m supposed to react to my friend being killed by a mob in a post-revolutionary Libya, but it’s pretty awful and Sean was a great guy and he was a goddamned master at this game we all play, even though a lot of people may not realize how significant an influence he had,” wrote Gianturco. And that “if you play this stupid game, you may not realize it, but you play in a galaxy created in large part by Vile Rat’s talent as a diplomat.”
At Something Awful, Smith was a long-time member — more recently a moderator — who posted about football, politics and working with the Foreign Service. Forumers are now leaving messages in Smith’s memory, and others are doing similar at the EVE Online forums. Gamers are now also re-naming virtual space stations after Smith. EVE Online, which takes place in a simulated galaxy, center around the digital stations as bases for trade, socializing and fighting. Smith’s username “was a name you could mention in any conversation about the pointy end of EVE, without needing to explain who he was,” posted developer CCP Greyscale.
Forumer SpaceGirlArt wrote that Smith had “been part of my internet presence for a decade, right back to the old #ce [IRC] channel. I can honestly say that I never expected to feel this gutted over the death of someone that I never met in real life. This is unbelievable.”
One forumer expressed concern that Smith’s death would be politicized by the media during an election year. But, “Through the bullshit media circus, we will know ‘That was Vilerat, and he was actually way awesome.’”
Update 2:45 p.m., Sept. 12: Something Awful admin elpintogrande writes, “After some conversations with Sean’s wife, we will be launching a fundraiser as soon as possible through YouCaring. It might take a few days.” In the meantime, the admin has posted an e-mail address tied to Smith’s PayPal account for those who want to donate now.
3:30 p.m. Ned Coker, public relations agent for EVE Online developer CCP, emailed Eurogamer: “I can tell you that CCP and its employees are overwhelmingly saddened by the news of Sean Smith’s passing, as we are when we learn of any player who is tragically lost,” Coker wrote. He added that the Council of Stellar Management, EVE Online’s player-run government, is planning to post a tribute. Smith was once a member of the council.
4:49 p.m., Sept. 13: The Air Force confirmed to Danger Room more details about Sean Smith’s military service. According to the Air Force, Smith served in the Air Force as a Ground Radio Maintenance (2E) specialist. He enlisted in July 1995, entered active duty in 1997, and completed his service in 2002. He was promoted to Staff Sergeant in August 2000.

Death threats force Sahar Parniyan in hiding

'She was told by the police that the threats are her problem, not theirs.' 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sahar Parniyan, 22, is Afghanistan’s most famous actress. She stars in the country’s number one comedy, “The Ministry,” an offshoot of the popular American TV show, “The Office.”  And tune in today to special coverage on all NBC News platforms from NBC’s team of anchors and correspondents deployed in five countries across the region.

Her character on the show has also been outspoken about women’s rights. But now, after receiving death threats, she is now in hiding.

Girls orphanage in Kabul

Girls orphanage in Kabul

Pointless Protests

From a Western viewpoint, these protests over the film are misguided and pointless.  I just saw a protester holding a sign that said: 

"Obama!  Our patience has its limit!  Don't blame us if your citizens die!  Blame yourself!  You started it!"

What did Obama start?  If they are referencing the video - Obama had nothing to do with that video.  0%.  Zip. Nada.  You can not hold one individual accountable for the actions of another individual.  And why are you killing people anyway?  How is that solving anything?

"The US charge d'affaires Richard Hoagland was summoned to the Pakistani Foreign Office and an official protest was lodged with him. He is reported to have responded that the US government had nothing to do with the film."

This is true.  You can't complain to the US government about free speech.  Even if it hurts your sensibilities.  If a person in the US says something that legally doesn't harm anyone - for example - Mother Teresa was a child abuser and did witchcraft.  The US is not responsible for that statement.  The individual is.  Therefore, protesting against the US government is 100% pointless, misguided, ineffective, and quite frankly childish. 

Oh, and when a group of men attack Benghazi, rape and kill the US Diplomat Chris Stevens who loved & helped your country, that makes you evil gay sodomizers.  Why in the world would a man rape a man?  Isn't that forbidden in Muslim countries/Islam?  In my Western mind - that is much worse than insulting a prophet.  I guess that shows how much Libyans appreciate the assistance they got from the US last year? 

*disclaimer:  Mother Teres was not a child abuser and did not do witchcraft.  That was just an example.*

Suicide bomber kills foreigners

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber killed 14 people on Tuesday including 10 foreigners, most of whom worked as flight crew members under contract with the United States government, officials said. The attack brought to at least 28 the number of deaths attributed to unrest sweeping the Muslim world as a result of an amateurish video parodying the Prophet Muhammad.

A spokesman for an Afghan insurgent group, Hezb-i-Islami, claimed responsibility for the bombing and said it was carried out by an 18-year-old woman.

“We claim credit for the attack by a martyrdom-seeking mujahid, an 18-year-old girl named Fatima, from Kabul, and the attack has been conducted in response to the film insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam,” said Zubir Siddiqi, the spokesman, reached by telephone.

In the attack, the suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives head-on into a minibus carrying foreign workers on the Airport Road, killing all 12 people aboard and two people on the road, according to the police.

The United States Embassy here said in a statement that many of the foreign victims were personnel of a private company providing services to the United States Agency for International Development and other organizations in Afghanistan. American officials confirmed that at least eight had been employed by a South African aviation charter company, ACS/Balmoral, working under contract for USAID as pilots and crew flying planes in what is colloquially known as “Embassy Air” to provincial capitals in Afghanistan. A spokeswoman for ACS/Balmoral, Candice Teubes, said all eight were believed to be South African citizens.

The authorities in Afghanistan provided conflicting accounts. An aide to Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kabul, said at least six of the 10 dead foreigners were South Africans, five men and a woman; one was a Filipino, and the others’ nationalities were uncertain. Spokesmen for the French and Russian Embassies said they did not believe any of the victims were from their countries, contradicting earlier police accounts that the dead included French and Russian citizens.

So let me get this straight....  a suicide bomber blows up a van full of South African & French people in retaliation for a movie that was made by one person who happens to live in America?  America did not make the movie.  France did not make the movie.  South Africa did not make the movie.  ONE PERSON made the movie! (well, possibly a group of a few individuals).  Simply amazing....

Somalia before the war

Postcard of Mogadishu - maybe taken in the 60's?


Fiat of Mogadishu, delivery of 4 wagons to Public Works shop January 20, 1970



View of the City - (Maybe Mogadishu?)

This video shows photos and film clips of Somalia in the 60's and 70's.  Looks like they had very good infastructure, businesses, restaurants, industry, etc....  



Girl scouts - with Somlian AND European girls together.



Mogadishu City Hall - before and after


Mogadishu Stadium, built in 1978


Mogadishu Waterfront


Mogadishu 1977


Somali National University (Mogadishu). It was created in 1954. There were three campuses (1. Gaheyr - Mogadishu at KM6, 2. Digfeer - Medicine school near Digfeer Hospital in Mogadishu, and 3. Lafoole Teaching College - Lafoole). Initially the language of instruction was Italian, but later also included Somali and English. Siad Barre’s government (no bias here) really did play an important role in expanding the national university and higher education through the country in the 1970’s. Research centers were established throughout different cities with the goal of developing the national economy.
The fifteen departments of Somali National University were:
1. Department of Sharia Law
2. Department of Linguistics (Somali, Arabic, English, German and Italian)
3. Department of Livestock and Forest Management
4. Department of Education (Teaching College at Lafoole), 20 km west of Mogadishu
5. Department of Agriculture
6. Department of Geology and Mining
7. Department of Medicine (College of Medicine) near Digfeer Hospital
8. Department of Chemical/Industrial Engineering
9. Department of History
10. Department of Geography
11. Department of Science
12. Department of Mathematics
13. Department of Public Health
14. Department of Engineering
15. Department of Political Science


Schoolchildren


Mogadishu 1963


Old lighthouse for the Port of Mogadishu taken in 1988


Somali Nomads (in white) at a Market in 1969 in Xuddar(Hudar) Region, Somalia


Female employee - sometime in the 80's.


This is how Somali women use to dress back in the day. Effortless style. From their accessories to headscarf’s, shawls and not to mention gold. They had beautiful skin with no need for toxic makeup as well. You don’t see this anymore :(.
All people know of Somalis is current day Somalia, but there was a time when Somalis were really happy (well some) and life was good and people dressed well, had parties, went to the beach, worked hard. Somali women had a lot more freedom than any of the women in the Arab/Muslim world and beyond Africa as well. They could go to school, work, drive, wear whatever they wanted. They were not oppressed. They had culture. Somalia was very cosmopolitan once. Sad to see what it has become today.   (quote from a Somali)


Mogadishu


Air Somalia 


1970s Somali Women's Basketball Team

All photos and info are from http://vintagesomalia.tumblr.com/ 

World leaders react to the killing of Christ Stevens and other consulate staff

World leaders and other international figures have been reacting to the killing of the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

US President Barack Obama

"I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers."

President of Libya's national assembly Mohammed Magarief

"We apologise to the United States of America and to the American people and to the whole world for what happened, and at the same time we expect the rest of the world to help us face these cowardly criminal acts."

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton

"I am deeply shocked by the despicable attack. I condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms. I call on Libya to take all necessary measures without delay to protect the lives of all diplomats and foreign staff."

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

"I strongly condemn the attack on the US mission in Benghazi. Such violence can never be justified. I welcome the Libyan president's condemnation and condolences and his pledge of his government's full cooperation."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague

"The UK condemns the brutal and senseless attack. We send our condolences to the people and government of the United States and stand with them in this. These diplomats were serving not only their own country but the people of Libya and were working for the peace and stability of Libya in the future."

French President Francois Hollande

"France demands that the Libyan authorities shed all possible light on these odious and unacceptable crimes, identify the culprits and bring them to justice."

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti

"We will continue to support the government of the new democratic Libya, which we are sure will spare no effort in preventing Libya's new course from being hijacked. We condemn with maximum firmness this brutal act."

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert

"The federal government condemns in the strongest terms the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt. Such violence against diplomatic facilities can, and may, never be a means of political debate, of political action."

Russian foreign ministry

"We strongly condemn any attacks on foreign diplomatic posts and their staff as terrorist acts which can have no justification."

Afghan Dining Etiquette

There are many differences between Afghan and Western dining etiquette.  One should always remove shoes at the door when visiting a home. When dining at someone’s home, guests will be seated on the floor, usually on cushions.  Guests should wait for the host to show them where to sit. Food is served on plastic or vinyl tablecloths spread on the floor.  If possible, one should sit cross-legged.  Otherwise, sit as comfortably as possible.  Sitting with legs outstretched or with the feet facing people is considered rude.  When guests are present in Afghan homes, males eat separately and typically prior to females and children.

Food is generally served communally with everyone sharing from the same dish.  Since food is often eaten directly with the hands, cleanliness is extremely important.  A bowl or basin is often provided for hand washing, just prior to meals. The left hand should be used as little as possible and is NOT to be used in a communal bowl.  Food is taken with the right hand, but both hands can be used to eat once food is taken from the communal bowl.  Food should be taken only from the portion of the communal plate directly in front of you. Food is usually scooped up into a ball at the tip of the fingers, and then eaten. Guests unfamiliar with customs and etiquette should always watch, learn and follow the lead of the host or others familiar with the culture.

Afghan cuisine is influenced by South and Central Asian, Chinese and Iranian cooking.  The traditional meal is a rice and meat dish, known as pilau, in which the rice has been cooked with other ingredients, taking on the color and flavor of those ingredients. The rice is usually cooked with meat juices, but sometimes vegetables are substituted.  The most famous Afghan pilau is likely Qabuli pilau. There are many variations of this dish, but typically pieces of lamb are covered with a pilau that includes strips of carrots and currants. Another popular Afghan dish is aushak, scallion-filled dumplings with meat sauce and yogurt, sprinkled with mint.

Kabobs are the Afghan equivalent to fast food.  Kabobs are made of skewered meat (lamb, mutton, or beef) and vegetables.  You will most likely find a kabob shop in any Afghan city or town.  A kabob shop will feature several kinds of kabobs, along with bread and possibly vegetables or salad. Muslim dietary rules prevent most Afghans from eating pork.  A vegetable soup with bread in it known as shoorwa [SHORE-wah] is also quite common. Afghan bread comes in slabs, or in round flat loaves (not to be confused with Middle Eastern pita bread) that have been baked inside large clay ovens called tandoors.

Because of cattle and sheep herding, dairy products are traditionally an important part of the diet.  Yogurt and dairy products are common staples.  Snacks may include sugarcane, pudding, nuts, seeds, apples, grapes, apricots or oranges. Curd is also thoroughly drained and then dried in small hard balls for future use in cooking. Boiled curd is often eaten for breakfast. Fresh vegetables and fruit, when available, are also an important part of the diet. Tomatoes, spinach, potatoes, peas and carrots, cucumbers and eggplant are common vegetables.

In rural Afghanistan, regular midday meals are not eaten, but people carry around nuts and dried fruit for energy throughout the day. Urban diets are typically more varied than rural diets, but food and money shortages are severe at times in all areas.

Rohullah Nikpai - Bronze Medalist!

Olympic taekwondo bronze medallist Rohullah Nikpai is carried on the shoulders of another as he returns home to Kabul, Aug. 14, following the London Olympic Games. Nikpai won the country's only medal as part of the six-strong Afghanistan Olympic team.

Tahmina Kohistani, the only female Afghan athlete did not come close to winning any medals, but she did beat her personal best time by more than half of a second when she sprinted in the preliminary round of the Women's 100 Meter. 

Afghanistan's past is being 'rewritten'

Why Afghanistan's past is being 'rewritten'

By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Sarubi and Charikar

 

Afghanistan's government is rewriting history, literally.

The education ministry has endorsed a new history curriculum for school students that deletes nearly four decades of the country's war-torn past.

The government says textbooks based on the new curriculum will help bring unity in a country traditionally polarised along ethnic and political lines.

But critics accuse ministers of trying to appease the Taliban and other powerful groups by erasing history that portrays them in a bad light. They say the government is trying to win over the Taliban before Nato and US forces leave the country.

Afghanistan is entering a hugely uncertain time post-Nato, during which tricky arrangements with the Taliban and other players are expected.
'No mention of the misery'
The past 40 years in Afghanistan have been some of the most turbulent of any country in the world.

The suffering of people in the Shomali plains is not mentioned in textbooks

But the bloody coups of the 1970s, the 1979 Soviet invasion, the Moscow-backed communist regimes in Kabul and countless human rights excesses committed by secret police have all been erased from the history curriculum, critics say.

Nor is there much mention of the bloody civil war between mujahideen factions that tore Kabul apart in the 1990s, leaving an estimated 70,000 people dead.

That conflict gave rise to the Taliban - but there is not much mention of them either, or the US-led forces that drove them from power and have stayed for more than a decade.

An Afghan journalist, who did not wish to be identified for security reasons, told the BBC he was surprised the civil war and the Taliban regime had been wrapped up in just a few lines.

''There is no mention of the misery [the war] brought. No mention of Kabul being the killing zone. The books say Mullah Omar was removed in 2001, without saying who Mullah Omar was.

"There is no mention of the US and Nato presence. It is as if someone is trying to hide the sun with two fingers."

The education ministry denies suggestions that foreigners had any role in devising the new curriculum, and US military officials say they had no discussions on content in the books, some of which were paid for with US money.

But a spokesman for the US military in Kabul, David Lakin, added: ''Our cultural advisers reviewed the social studies textbooks for inappropriate material, such as inciting violence or religious discrimination."

The BBC visited two schools just outside Kabul where the new books have been introduced.

At one - Sarubi High School, 75km (40 miles) from Kabul - I sat in on a class and listened as a teacher asked one of his grade six students to read from his glossy new history textbook.

The chapter was on Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan, prime minister from 1953-63 and the country's president 10 years later.

The chapter talks about Daud Khan's rise but is silent on the full details of how he overthrew the monarchy of his first cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah.

The following chapters, too, make no mention of the numerous bloody coups that unsettled the country's political landscape, the Moscow-backed regimes including that of President Najibullah, the civil war that began after his resignation or the rise in 1996 of the Taliban and their subsequent fall.
'Children will never know'
"What happened in Sarubi during the Soviet invasion?" I asked 11-year-old Muslim, who was listening diligently to his classmate.

Students will find few references to the rise and fall of the Taliban

''The Russians wanted to remove Islam from Afghanistan. A lot of people got killed, villages were bombed. Millions were forced to take refuge in Pakistan,'' the boy says.

"How do you know? This information doesn't exist in your history book."

"My parents and teachers told me," he says innocently.

The teacher, who also requested anonymity, says the new textbooks will deprive knowledge of the past to an entire generation.

"Since internet penetration is low and contact with the outside world is limited, children in Afghanistan are more dependent on textbooks than anywhere else in the world," he said.

"But now that the government has decided to delete the past 40 turbulent years from history books, millions of children will never know why and how the Afghanistan we live in came to be."

Like Sarubi, the Shomali plains north of Kabul also suffered the excesses of the Soviet Red Army and then the Taliban.

The bustling town of Charikar, just off the main road, was until 12 years ago a picture of devastation. Accused of supporting the Northern Alliance, the town bore the brunt of Taliban violence.

"Thousands of trees were cut down, fields and vineyards burnt, houses destroyed and people killed," Abdul Qodoas, a history teacher at Mirwais High School, said.

But the Taliban's "scorched earth" policy finds no mention in the new history textbooks either.

'For students it is important to study every political regime whether its rule was good or bad," Mr Qudoas said.

"One of the primary objectives of studying history is not to repeat past mistakes. If students will not learn about past violence, how will they avoid it in future?"
'Deception'
Education Minister Farooq Wardak says the decision to delete part of history from the books is based on the larger interest of the country.

The fear is that children are being denied the truth about key historical events

"There are hundreds and thousands of issues over which there is disagreement in the nation," he told the BBC.

"My responsibility is to bring unity not disunity in the country. I am not going to encourage a divisive education agenda.

''Now, if I am writing something over which there is no national consensus - I am taking the disagreement, even the war to the class, and school of Afghanistan. I will never do that.''

But for many others, what has been done to the curriculum is simply "deception". How can you move forward if you brush your past under the carpet and don't confront it, such critics argue.

"Kabul was destroyed during the civil war, thousands of people were killed," said a female member of parliament, also on condition of anonymity.

"During the Taliban rule atrocities were committed on females. They were prohibited from working or going to school. Hundreds of women were stoned to death for alleged adultery. None of this finds a place in textbooks. Are we not hiding the truth from the children of this country?"