Sunday, September 18, 2011

Clash of cultures

Kabul is an odd city.  It has a population that is pushing forward with progress while parts are still intermixed with anachronism, meaning much of it still seems out of place and time.  However, they seem to exist side by side relatively peacefully.  The past week has given me a the opportunity to do hours of people watching.  During the five years of Taliban control, much of the Afghan society was morally legislated and enforced by the religious policemen.  So much that was considered unIslamic is now back and flourishing in Kabul.  It's interesting to watch the people walk up and down the street.  I get very little interaction with them so I am limited to mostly observation.

Watching to see how someone dresses is a great window into their society.  A large number of people dress in western styled clothing now.  Some dress in business attire, either formal or casual.  I can only speculate that they're somehow connected with the GIRoA (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan).  A lot of the younger generation has the means to dress a little more trendy.  Acid washed and colorfully stitched designer jeans similar to what is popular in the Western world are often worn with tailored and colorful fashionable shirts.  The ensemble is complete with either tennis shoes or designer dress shoes and a styled hair cut which was banned during Taliban control.  Many men still wear the Perahan Tunban, which is like a long tunic and baggy pants, and what we often refer to as "man jammies".  Women wear many different styles of clothing and modest dresses but complete their covering with some sort of modesty garment, depending on how conservative the family prefers she dress.  The options are a full burqa, body covering but face showing abaya, or the now largely popular hejab head covering scarf.
http://www.afghanistan-culture.com/afghanistan-clothing.html

Vehicles and modes of transportation are the other main category of my observations.  Unlike much of the rest of the country, there are a lot of vehicles in Kabul.  Rush hour starts early, at around 6am, and you see all types of locomotion until early evening.  Much of the city carpools, whether through shared rides in private vehicles, shared taxis, or use of "public transportation" which is little more than minivans or small private buses.

Scooters and mopeds are popular.  Not only do they serve as cheap transportation, they also serve as mass transportation of sorts. It's very common to see three grown men riding on a scooter.  In some cases, entire families can go out for a ride.  I saw a man with his wife riding in back in full burqa, with three children between them out for a ride somewhere.

Vehicles of every kind roll through the streets.  The majority of the International community here uses some sort of SUV, but some of the locals have them too.  The police typically ride around in crew cab trucks and are also fitted with bucket seats in the bed for easier machine gun access.  Minivans typically serve as privately owned mass transportation, and taxi cabs are either small late model sedans or station wagons.  There are any number and kind of other sedans and sports cars, albeit, not very expensive ones.

It surprised me the amount of horse and donkey drawn wagons that bring products to market at all hours of the day and night.  Even human pushed vegetable and other ware carts are pushed through the streets.  A lot of residents use bicycles, and they look as if they're made in the 1960s.

I was able to witness a new trend of sorts.  On wedding nights, typically Thursday and Friday (which are their weekend days) after the wedding, the bride and groom lead a caravan of vehicles around the city on a joy ride.  The wedding car is decorated with flowers and lights, similar to Christmas lights, and lead a convoy of about a dozen vehicles through the streets at all hours of the nights while singing, clapping, and listening to music.  It's nice to see some customs evolving and flourishing, even in a country that's still gripped by war in its more remote areas.

In some areas of the city, it looks as if you're back in the 19th Century, while looking at others, you could be in present day with teenagers walking with their friends in the latest fashions and busy with their faces buried in personal electronics devices texting busily with other friends.  With the overthrow of the Taliban, the residents of Kabul are no longer required to conform to one group's concept of what is proper.  Welcome to freedom my friends.  Can you please tell the politicians back in the U.S. that completely different cultures can co-exist in harmony as well?

More to follow.

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