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Afghan Scene May-June 2009

ISSUE 58-59 - MAY-JUNE 2009

Time to talk?
Scene meets the Taliban
Afghan story, Sundance glory
Be Scene returns
Eric Newby, 50 years on
perspective
www.afghanscene.com • insight • people • reviews
Afghan •
Scene pics • life
May-June 2009
 SCENE
AFGHAN Introduction
Contents
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

ISSUE 58 - MAY 2009

Publisher: Afghan Scene Ltd, Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul, Afghanistan

Manager & Editor: Afghan Scene Ltd, Kabul, Afghanistan
Design: Kaboora Production
Advertising: sales@afghanscene.com
Printer: Emirates Printing Press, Dubai
Contact: info@afghanscene.com / www.afghanscene.com
Afghan Scene welcomes the contribution of articles and / or pictures from its readers.
Editorial rights reserved.
Cover photo: A Taliban fighter in Ghazni province, by Veronique de Viguerie.

7 Introduction
10 Time to Talk
France 24’s Afghanistan Correspondent Claire Billet relives
the moment she risked her life and her reputation to join
Taliban insurgents on a night raid in Wardak.
19 The Big Lens Theory
Scene brings you its favourite Kabul blogger - the Afghan
Hound - on the perils of the paparazzi in a green zone.
Abused by school girls in the street and almost arrested by
an American. It’s all in a days work for this picture monkey.

10 25 Top telly show hits the big time

Award-winning director Havanna Marking talks to
Afghan Scene about getting gongs at Sundance for her
documentary on Afghan Star.”
32 Be Scene
Everyone’s favourite Scene feature is back with a slice of the
month’s best party photos.
38 Short walk
Matthew Leeming pays tribute to the greatest travel book
in the English language, which just happens to be set in
Nuristan and the Panjshir valley.
46 Faecal Matters, and other health myths...
Public health boffin Dr S Ahib explodes a few myths about
25 Kabul’s alleged health hazards.

50 You eatin’ with me?

It’s not on Flower Street, and it’s not really a café anymore –
Afghan Scene discovers how a man from the mob brought
an old favourite into the Kabul restaurant premiere league.
69 Afghan Essentials
A handy reference of the best restaurans and hotels in
Kabul

38

Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 5

Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Scene
it all before?
H
ow times change. Just last autumn
fear gripped the city, western security
companies advised credulous clients
that Kabul was “becoming like
Baghdad” and certain members of the expat
community made discreet enquiries about
procuring sawn off shotguns to “clear corridors”
in the event of their homes being overrun by
insurgents - or jilted boyfriends. We’ve printed
the reminiscences of a visitor who had the
misfortune of pitching up in the capital for the
first time during the worst of it.
But today, the mood feels a lot more
optimistic. Restaurants are thriving,
the drizzle of April has given way to
summer and Kabul
is luxuriating in
an extraordinary
amount of daily city
power.
It’s the wife - I can’t even fight a bloody war in peace!
www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com
Introduction
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Perhaps it’s something to do with the start
of the new era in US politics, and President
Obama’s dumping, in this Afghanistan speech
earlier this year, of so many of the rotten
policies he inherited.
Perhaps it won’t last. But in the spirit of the
new confidence Afghan Scene has set a cover
price of 50 Afs for copies of the magazine
sold by our loyal vendors - street kids for
whom the money goes a long way. And we
have re-introduced our famous social pages
chronicling the best of Kabul’s party scene. Now
that Mr Obama has come down so decisively on
talking to the insurgents (this month we have
an interview with someone who
has done just that) we’re hoping
to include a few
photos of fiestas in
Quetta in the months
to come. �
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 7
Scene team Kabul at work
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Snappers Afghan Scene Magazine is proud to showcase work

from the very best of Afghanistan’s photographers. A voice of
sanity
David Gill is writer, photographer and videographer focusing social
documentary and overseas development. His current book project Kabul, a
City at Work is a selection over 100 original portraits.
web.mac.com/shot2bits/work.

in a world
gone
mad
Jason P Howe is a British freelance photojournalist who has spent the last
eight years specialising in conflict coverage. He is best known for his extensive
work on Colombia but he also spent several years in Iraq, documented the The man in charge of
2006 war in Lebanon and has been based in Afghanistan since mid 2007.
deterring suicide bombers
www.conflictpics.com
has become a surprising Words and pictures
pop culture icon by David Gill

K
Ash Sweeting is a freelance photojournalist, videographer,
climber and adventurer. After over five years working all over Afghanistan he aka Nijat, 72, is the face of a long
is still working on an exit strategy, but is yet to find anywhere as good. running television public awareness
www.ashsweeting.com campaign aimed at preventing the
recruitment of suicide bombers,
an unfortunate employment growth area
Véronique de Viguerie is a fearless French photographer, with string of in Afghanistan at the moment. Kaka Nijat -
awards for her images of Afghanistan an d Pakistan. More recently, she has roughly translated as ‘Uncle Rescue’ - plays a
also spent time in Lebanon, Somalia, India,Bangladesh, ghostly figure that appears in a puff of smoke
Israel, Kashmir, Cameroon and Iran. and tries to trouble the conscience of would-be
www.lightstalkers.org/veronique-de-viguerie suicide bombers. A Christmas Carol for troubled
Muslims if you will. The hotline to the police
Fardin Waezi is one of Afghanistan’s leading photojournalists. that he shares with everyone is 119 (nine eleven
He suffered countless beatings from the Taliban for taking pictures as a backwards… oh the irony).
young man. His images have since been published and exhibited worldwide. He is now a celebrity in his own right, a
He also helps train young photographers at AINA. Jimmy Savile of the noughties. But while Jimmy
www.thruafghaneyes.blogspot.com
had “clunk click every trip” Kaka’s killer lines
include: “Don’t touch!” and “Stupid! By killing
civilians, you will never go to Paradise!” He has
had to grow used to cheeky kids shouting his
catchphrases at him as he walks through the
streets of Kabul.
So far he has appeared in thirty commercials
in the current campaign, which is being paid for
by ISAF. Whether it’s working or not is anyone’s
guess: western military and civilian officials
have put the number of suicide attacks up by 25
per cent on last year. But without the voice of
reason on national television, God knows how
much worse the situation might be. Actually
Kaka Nijat is probably the man to ask. �

Kabul, A City at Work is a selection of over 100 original portraits from the capital.
Almost all the photographs featured in Afghan Scene are available for sale, direct from the
It’s authors describe it as a window into Kabul’s soul. For more information visit
photographers. All of the photographers are available for commissions, here and elsewhere. If you
www.web.mac.com/shot2bits/work
would like to contribute to Afghan Scene, or if you can’t get hold a contributor,
please contact editor@afghanscene.com.
8 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 9
Insight scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
At war with the
Taliban
France 24 correspondent Claire Billet
relives the moment she risked her life, and
her reputation, to join the Taliban on a night
raid in Wardak
I
was peeling carrots when they called – a
message from the Taliban to visit them at
once.
It had been eight long months since my
fixer and I had asked to meet them, but I knew
exactly what the call meant. The fighting was
intensifying and they’d agreed to let me see it.
No details. They said to meet them on
Highway One, the road to Kandahar, as soon as
I could.
The carrots were for a salad. I had friends
coming over for dinner and I was cooking. It
10 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
was too dark and too dangerous to leave Kabul
at night, so we made plans to leave at dawn.
There was no small talk at dinner that night.
The fear is always worst before you go. You
imagine a thousand ways to die or how you
could be kidnapped. I thought about everything
I could lose. The pain I could cause, to my
friends, my family and my boyfriend.
I had met the Taliban before, but this was
different. I had seen them eat and pray in towns
they call their own. I had seen the boys’ schools
they keep open. I had seen the roadside bombs
www.afghanscene.com
that fill whole streets with blood. I had ridden
motorcycles with them across no man’s land.
But I had never seen them fight.
I’ve seen French soldiers fight. I’ve been with
American troops when the bullets are whizzing
past my head, but it’s like David and Goliath. If
you’re a journalist filming Goliath you feel safe.
But with David?
I packed as light as possible: a pocket sized
video camera, a few bandages and a tourniquet
in a bag underneath my burqa. I had two mobile
phones, one in my handbag and one in my bra
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Insight scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
WARRIORS: Taliban fighters loyal to Mullah Momin
discuss tactics in Ghazni | Veronique de Viguerie
- in case things went wrong. But the fear is not
so bad once you’re on the road.
I was wearing a woman’s shalwar kameez
and flip flops on my feet (high heels would have
been more authentic but I didn’t have any in the
house). In a second bag, in the boot, were a pair
of running shoes and a set of men’s clothes.
Two hours out of Kabul we met our escort.
One of them I’d met before. He looked the same,
just older.
They took us to a big square compound in
the countryside and they showed me how they
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 11
Insight scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
UN-SCENE: Taliban gunmen mask their faces | Claire Billet
train – by shooting a rocket propelled grenade
at a mountain.
Abu Tayeb, their commander, was clearly
pleased to see me. He burst into the house
with a big smile, but then he seemed to check
himself, and spoke to my fixer, as if speaking to
me directly was impolite. It was the first day of
Ramazan, but they gave me tea and sweets all
day.
The next morning things had changed. They
said they were going to attack foreign troops,
and I was convinced I would die. I didn’t want
to come back without a story, but I didn’t want
to die either.
12 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Then they said they didn’t want to take
me. They said it was too dangerous. They were
worried I’d get killed. They said the Afghan
soldiers would rape me if I was captured, and if
I got wounded they were worried none of them
would be allowed to touch me.
I thought about watching from a distance,
but they said I’d look like a commander and
if Nato planes were nearby they would bomb
me. We thought about positioning ourselves in
front of them, but they said I might be killed by
“friendly fire”.
I had to show them I was ready. I went to my
room in the women’s quarters and changed into
www.afghanscene.com
FIREPOWER: Taliban commander Abu Tayeb fires a
rocket on the range | Claire Billet
TERRIFIED: Claire disguised as a man on the night
of the attack | Claire Billet
the man’s shalwar I had with me, and I wrapped
a chequered cotton scarf over my head.
They gave me a turban and agreed I could
come – as long as my fixer stayed with me, so
that he could carry me if I got hurt.
We drove through the night to a rendezvous
with another group of fighters. One of the
reasons I was dressed as a man is because Abu
Tayeb didn’t want the other commanders to
know there was a woman on the attack.
www.afghanscene.com
Insight scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
HOME TURF: Armed Taliban gunmen drive around
rural Wardak | Claire Billet
BRIEFING: Taliban commanders make plans to
attack | Claire Billet
The moon was bright and the land
completely flat. We marched for twenty minutes
and then the men set off in different directions,
surrounding an army outpost cloaked in
darkness.
There was nowhere to hide. And then the
shooting started. Men to my right opened fire.
The ANA fired back, their muzzle flashes enough
for Abu Tayeb to aim a shoulder launched
missile in their direction.
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 13
Insight scene
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TROPHY: Insurgents brandish an American hat from one of their recent victims | Veronique de Viguerie
I was terrified. I felt like an animal acting
only to survive, I squashed my body against the
ground in a ditch only twenty centimetres deep
and I filmed what I could through a night vision
lens. And then I ran.
I ran as fast as I could. The Afghan troops
were firing close over our heads. I could hear
Kalashnikovs and heavy machine guns. My lungs
were burning and I remember cursing myself for
smoking so much.
Then I fell. I tripped in the darkness and
smashed into the ground, tearing open the skin
on my knees. The camera was still rolling and it
14 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
was only when I watched the film afterwards
that I saw an RPG scream overhead.
My fixer grabbed my arm and we ran
together all the way back to the meeting
point. And then I had a cigarette. It was the
only time I let them see me smoke.
I don’t know how the Taliban cope
with that sort of fear – with being so
defenceless, with no body armour and
nowhere to hide. When Abu Tayeb came
back he made a joke about me running. “We
are human beings too,” he said. “We didn’t
run so why did you?” �
www.afghanscene.com
Insight scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
UNIT: Mullah Najib, one of the eight Taliban commanders in Ghazni | Veronique de Viguerie
Not everyone thinks journalists should
talk to the Taliban. Claire’s story
provoked mixed responses from viewers
on France 24’s website:
“I hope Madame, you will pass on the
information you have on those [Taliban] to the
authorities.”
“My husband is serving in Afghanistan. Don’t be
proud of what you do - those men may be those
who kill French soldiers.”
“Bravo: you have chosen your side and your
status as a journalist doesn’t change anything.
It’s like a mission with the 2nd SS Panzer Das
Reich, exclusive with those elite troops”... BATTERED: The army outpost attacked by the Taliban
| Claire Billet
www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 15
Insight scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
David Loyn, BBC Developing World
Correspondent:
After I spent a few days with the Taliban
near Musa Qala in October 2006, feelings ran
high in Britain’s House of Commons – including
suggestions that I be tried for treason. But
comments on blogs ran about 60/40 in my
favour, including on sites used by the military to
express their views. The public wanted to know
what the Taliban were like, and recognised what
some politicians did not – that interviewing
people does not imply support for their views.
Afghanistan is a complex place. Trying to
understand what motivates men to fight for the can play too often.
Taliban now is a crucial part of reporting the
whole picture.
David Loyn’s History of foreign engagement
in Afghanistan - Butcher and Bolt - is available
for sale at Gandamack Lodge’
Sean Langan, award winning
documentary maker and former
Taliban hostage:
Claire’s account of accompanying the Taliban
into battle immediately made me feel like I
16 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
was back in Afghanistan. I could feel the fear
and adrenalin Claire must have felt before the
attack, and the almost feral-like terror she
describes once the firing began. One thing is for
sure: Claire certainly has balls. And I admire her
for that.
But I would have declined the Taliban’s
offer to accompany them on an attack. When
I was made such offers I weighed up my own
personal safety and the legality of not reporting
an attack I had advanced knowledge of. I
concluded it would be unethical. But that was
my own personal choice, and it’s a fine line in
such situations.
I don’t condemn Claire for her choice. In
fact I salute her courage and tenacity - future
historians will probably applaud her for
recording such events. Journalism needs to
record all sides of the story. Footage of the Viet
Cong in battle are now important historical
documents. No one cares who filmed it.
There aren’t many people doing what Claire
does; it’s a tough, lonely life, and one that
may end in disaster. I was kidnapped and held
hostage by the Taliban for three months. I now
realise I was playing a game of Russian Roulette
and as everyone knows: that ain’t a game you
www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Paedophiles
photographers
and the
big lens theory Afghan Scene brings you its favourite blogger
D
ocumentary photographer,
photojournalist, snapper, paparazzi,
picture monkey, painter with light.
You get called a lot things in this
game - none of them particularly flattering.
The pay’s s**t, the hours are stupid, and I have
a slipped disc due to regularly humping around
20 kilos of accoutrements. I’ve been assaulted,
spat at, stoned and on one occasion whipped
by a schoolgirl (I know some people would pay
for that, but this was in Afghanistan so sexual
intent can be pretty much discounted). I was
once accused of being collectively responsible
www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com
Blog scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
for the Death of Princes Diana (which I am quite
proud of, only don’t tell Mohamed Al-Fayed).
Practicing my chosen profession/vocation
(delete according to wage slip) in Afghanistan is
even stranger. Like most things in Afghanistan,
it’s never straightforward. Photography was
banned under the Taliban yet it’s almost
impossible to walk past an Afghan male without
being forced to ‘axe’ him. On the other hand,
try and photograph a woman and you could
lose your head. I’ve been to three weddings
so far and I’ve not so much as smelt a female.
Girl’s schools, outside of Kabul, are placed on
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 19
Blog scene Blog scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

MR WHIPPY: The caretaker clears the streets with a cane

mountaintops so high that only God and fighter

pilots can get a visual. So far so Muslim culture
...I can deal with that.
Only this country has what you might call a
lot of women based stories. I was commissioned
by a women’s mag do shoot Unwanted
Advances - Facing a resurgent Taliban, Afghan
women have had to cover up and take cover.
Malalai Kakar, a female police chief led the
piece. Shooting her was compounded by the
fact that she got shot by the Taliban. So far so
Afghan culture ...I can deal with that.
Well not really, but as you can imagine
photographing women is not what you might
call straightforward in this town. The “whipping
incident” came when I tried to photograph a
girl’s school. Despite having permission to shoot
outside the school gates it wasn’t long before
the Afghan branch of St Trinians, the infamous SCHOOL’S OUT: Secondary students at the end of a long day

20 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 21
Blog scene
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CLASS CAP-TAINS: Students vie to attract their teacher’s attention
school for ‘young ladies’ set upon me. I made
a swift exit, aided by the school caretaker who
helped drive the girls away with a big stick.
This I can deal with. Working round a
society’s cultural customs is part of any
documentary photographer’s modus operandi.
What I have a real problem with here is the
cult of paranoia amongst the country’s resident
‘internationlistas’. Mainly the Americans, whose
fear, suspicion and mistrust (obviously linked to
their war on abstract nouns) of photographers
has so far placed me at loggerheads with
lets say more than enough Yanks to be a
22 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
coincidence. Most of them are so bunkered
down that the ones who venture out and
bravely attend parties seem to believe that a
rowdy Brit brandishing a big Nikon is obviously
on a mission to disseminate pictures to the
bad guys. I call it the big lens theory and if we
murdered Diana we’re a capable of anything.
One major incident (a ‘major incident’ out
here can be as insignificant as a car backfiring
resulting in 1,000 NGOs forced into a lockdown)
occurred whilst attending a Friday morning
knockabout Frisbee match. For security reasons
I wont give you the GPS co-ordinates of this
www.afghanscene.com
DREAMCOAT: Girls streaming out of the school gates
weekly rendezvous but it’s held in a semi-public
space – a sort of green zone lite. Obviously I
was tooled up with a bigger than ‘normal’ lens/
body kit. So within minutes I was being quizzed
by various panting members of the Frisbee
posse.
‘Why are you taking pictures? What for?
Who for?’ I was accused of putting their lives
in jeopardy. God forbid the Taliban got to see
their pictures in print. Trying to explain that
getting interesting pictures into publication
was hard enough, never mind long-lens shots
www.afghanscene.com
Blog scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
of anonymous sweaty jocks tossing a piece of
plastic around an empty football field.
Leaving the secret location, which happens
to border a military base, I was stopped by a US
Soldier in full Terminator battle dress. “Excuse
me sir I need to check your camera equipment.’
Cut to me showing some grunt the most boring
set of pictures I’ve shot since I’ve been here.
Occasionally the grunt would grunt, “delete that
one”. “You have the power to order me sir. I will
delete.” “I also have the ability to retrieve the
pictures with simple software when I get home”.
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 23

Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
“The
buzz
building”
Havana Marking, the director of a documentary
about Afghan Star, explains what it’s like to have
an international smash hit on her hands
F
ilm makers know they are on to a winner
when the audience jumps to their feet
at the end to clap and cheer the credits.
But when the screening is at one of
the world’s top film festivals and the standing
www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com
Feature scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
just
kept
GONGS: Doco producer Havanna collects the top prize at Sundance
ovation lasts for fifteen minutes, you can be
sure the movie has become a phenomenon.
The woman behind Afghan Star, the break
out hit about Afghanistan’s answer to Pop Idol,
still can’t quite believe it.
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 25
Feature scene
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“It was just bonkers! I was saying, ‘Come on
everyone, sit down; this is just ridiculous,’” says
Havana Marking who was named best director
in the world cinema category at the Sundance
Film Festival in Utah.
That’s quite something for someone from a
TV background who had never made a feature
film before.
It also won the world documentary audience
award, making it the only doc to scoop two
prizes.
And now the film is gearing up for a summer
cinema release in the US and television runs in
Britain, Canada, Australia, France and Belgium.
Spike Lee has seen the film, Prince Charles
has asked for a copy and Oprah Winfrey’s people
are in talks about dedicating one of the US chat
queen’s shows to the Afghan Star phenomenon.
“I’m just sitting here watching all of this in
amazement – it’s just bananas,” says Havana
26 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
who, for all her success, is “still living in a
cold flat in London” trying to keep the “ego
monster” at bay.
The story of Afghan Star the movie is
almost as extraordinary as Afghan Star the
television show. Havana had known for a long
time that she wanted to make a film about
something in Afghanistan and had long been
suspicious of the “embed culture in journalism”.
“I always knew that the full story wasn’t
being told,” she says. “I was really fed up of
this view where everything is about war and
every Afghan woman is a victim and every
Afghan man is a rapist.”
But she did not know what her film should
be about and she only hit on the hugely
popular Tolo TV programme when she was
introduced to Rachel Reid, a former journalist
who now heads up Human Rights Watch in
Kabul.
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Feature scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
SUITS WHO?: Sundance team won no points for style
Havana spent four months at the end of
2007 in Kabul, following every twist and turn
of a TV show that would attract international
“Remember you are
headlines - and the fury of religious
conservatives - when female contestant Setara
not voting for a film,
Hussainzada dared to dance on stage.
In short, it had everything needed for great
you are voting for a
television and great cinema.
“It is just the idea of it that is so brilliant,”
nation!”
says Havana. “When I tell people that there is a
Pop Idol in Afghanistan they still look amazed “It’s like going to battle – it’s totally different
and I know that that was my first reaction too”. from other film festivals. It’s where all the
She says she knew she had an extremely industry is and it’s a make or break moment for
special film on her hands even before she got any film. We couldn’t afford a publicist and all
into an editing suite. of us were new comers to this features world.”
But the road to award triumph was not pre- The team covered Salt Lake city with flyers
ordained and required the “flipping hard work” and threw an Afghan party, with traditional
of promoting the movie at Sundance. food catered by a local refugee family.
www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 27
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Afghan Scene May-June 2009
SAY FLEES: Afghan Star presenter Dauod Sidiqi, third from left, with Havanna Marking, left, and team, at the
Sundance festival. Sidiqi later fled Afghanistan for a new life in the West
BOOM OR BUSSED: Sundance victors in front of
their chariot
“We had the best party in town. Every
other film party was incredibly corporate but
we had this old school British house party
with an Afghan disco that went on until four
in the morning.”
Guests all received a pair of traditional,
knitted Afghan slippers and Dauod Sidiqi,
the Afghan’s stars erstwhile presenter did the
28 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
GET THE TEARS IN: Daoud wipes his eyes with
Havanna on the podium
honours as party DJ. He had travelled with the
team to promote the film, telling audiences
who came to screenings, “Remember you are
not voting for a film, you are voting for a
nation!”
“All of theses things added to us becoming
the buzz film,” Havana says. “There’s this
really weird Sundance concept of the ‘buzz
www.afghanscene.com
film’. It’s slightly weird because everyone
thinks they have the buzz film but we really
were. The buzz just kept on building.”
But the film has also benefited from lucky
timing, principally the sharp increase in
US public awareness about the situation in
Afghanistan after so many years in which it
was, in Havana’s words, simply seen as “part
of the revenge for 9/11”.
“Seven years later people have stopped
talking about Osama and extra money is being
spent on Afghanistan even though the US is
going bankrupt. People have realised that they
just don’t understand what’s been going on
there and they are hungry to find out.
“The great thing about Afghan Star is
that it explains layer upon layer of different
elements about Afghan society. The film has
got everything – tribal differences, gender
issues, power struggles between the religious
council, war lords and the general public”.
Havana is coy about how she is going to
follow up her success, but hints at a possible
film catching up with some of the characters
from Afghan Star – and no doubt a standing
ovation or two. �
Oh no, the place has been ransacked!
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Afghan Scene May-June 2009
International press acclaim for Afghan Star
The Times: This fabulous film tells you more
about everyday life in Afghanistan than any
number of news reports.
Guardian: The fascination of Havana Marking’s
fabulous documentary lies in its glimpses of an
everyday life in Afghanistan that we rarely see.
Sunday Times: Havana Marking’s documentary
about last year’s series of the show provides an
absorbing picture of life in Kabul and beyond.
The Observer: In a better world, this
documentary about the phenomenon would get
a primetime Saturday night slot on ITV1.
Evening Standard: An entertaining and
revelatory documentary, showing us that a once
liberal society is still infected by 30 years of war
and Taliban rule.
Financial Times: Havana Marking’s uproarious,
awareness-raising documentary tells us more
about the title country than a month of
newscasts.
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 29
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009
 Party scene Party scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Be scene
Share your event or party pics with Aghan Scene. email info@afghanscene.com

OLD FLAME: Constance glows at Jemima’s leaving party GOOD TAI’MS: Altai lads Alex and Gabi at Herve’s au revoir UNI-FEMME FATALE: Women’s worker Rachel and school pal Jacob at BYE-OCHEMISTRY: Tom’s in his element at Jemima’s leaving do
an impromptu Kabul reunion

VIVE LE FLUFF: Herve strikes a gallic pose HEMMING’S AWAY: Reuters chief Jon ON MESSAGE: Communications supremo HEAD OVER KEALS: Chris Kealey keeps an eye on Emma at the Reuters ROUND THE HORNE: Nick Horne and Amandine share a joke at a
at his Altai farewell Hemming days before he left Kabul for home Aleem on his way back to Kabul party Kabul party
in England.

32 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 33
 Party scene Party scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

DON’T LEAF: Nassim will’s Herve to put down roots at CURRANT BUNS: Sun men Simon and Tom celebrate their
his Altai farewell Helmandishire return

GOODFELLAS: Restaurant boss Timur with Sam, Tom and Jon at Lady J’s farewell bash

MON BLEU: Rudolph says adieu at Herve’s HEATHER REGIONS: Dirk D and colleague Heather share a moment in L’Atmo GOTCHA!: Lianne Gutcher gets to know Matt Tilliard at L’Atmo
Altai farewell

34 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 35
 Party scene
Afghan Scene April
May-June
2009 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

WHERE’S WALLER?: Simely Sarah Waller grins with Nassan at HOWITZER FOR YOU?: Jason Howe and Fis fool around at Alistair’s
Oxfam’s feed the expats bash leaving bash

HUGH’S THE DADDY: Ridell works on his KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL: Detective Gary and sidekick Hannah cook up a storm
Boris Johnson impersonation

36 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Book scene Book scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Other men’s W
hat is the greatest travel book act of kindness to
in English? Many people lazily an unknown writer
-and to appear high-brow – cite entirely typical of a

pansies
Matthew Leeming pays tribute to the greatest travel book in the
English language, which just happens to be set in Nuristan and
the Panjshir valley think of a book with a better plot: a dress
The Road to Oxiana, overlooking man often thought of
the fact that it is mainly the very funny and as a monster.
opinionated diary entries that Byron couldn’t The epilogue
be bothered to turn into a proper book on his shows Carless
return to England, plus some beautiful essays to be an equally
on the origins of Islamic architecture. A literary accomplished
agent said to me recently that it wouldn’t find a writer and the close
publisher today. Byron is good at sentences but friendship between
most readers want plot. him and Newby
Far better is Eric Newby’s classic, A Short shows itself in the
Walk in the Hindu Kush. It would be hard to epilogue’s seamless
transition from
salesman from Mayfair (Newby) and a serious Wilfred Thesiger’s
diplomat (Hugh Carless) decide to attempt immortal put-down to the half-
a monstrous unclimbed peak on the border dead protagonists - “God, you must be a couple
of Nuristan, despite having never been on a of pansies” - that famously closes the book
mountain before. To tell more would be to spoil into Hugh’s evocation of their welcome back
the book for those lucky enough for it still to be in the Panjshir. He shares Newby’s eye for
a first-read. detail, beauty and the quiddity of Afghanistan
A Short Walk has been continuously in print in describing the daily routine of a traveller:
since its publication heralded by a laudatory the 4am start through the most spectacular
(but rather sad) preface by Evelyn Waugh – an scenery in the world as the sun rises and slowly

BATTLEGROUND: Soviet relics in the Panjshir STORY TIME: Panjshiri guides climbing Mir Samir
Valley | Jason P Howe browse Newby’s book, 2005 | Ash Sweeting

38 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 39
Book scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
RUGGED?: Armed guides pack blankets, rugs and cushions during a 2005 attempt on Mir Samir. Newby and
Carless were branded pansies for sleeping on mattresses | Ash Sweeting
illuminates and warms the valleys; the gradual
unwrapping from one’s body the layers of
fifteen-foot patou that keep out the chill; and
that longed-for moment when the horse dung
that has been produced en route is used to boil
water for chai – a routine which still starts and
defines the traveller’s day.
And what of the area of Afghanistan,
principally the Panjshir and Nuristan, where the
action of the book takes place today? Metalled
roads are gradually pushing up the Panjshir,
Afghanistan’s most beautiful river valley, the
first thirty miles of which are now only a few
hours from the capital and one can easily drive
there to escape the bombs and dirt of Kabul. The
road reaches the house of Newby and Carless’s
horseman, the seventy-something Bahadur
40 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Khan, where I always stopped to pay my
respects. Bahadur Khan – the prosperous owner
of beautiful horses and husband of several
wives – had apparently never seen the book
until, in November 2006, journalist, Jerome
Starkey took him a copy, just a few weeks after
Newby died. The explorer Benedict Allen (whose
film, retracing the journey was recently shown
on BBC4) rediscovered him in 2007. I took a
copy of the book, inscribed by Hugh, to him
in February 2008. A few months later I was
shocked to learn that Khan, who seemed so
healthy surrounded by his enormous family, had
suddenly died.
The road runs out not long after, near the
emerald mines at Khenj, where locals use
recycled munitions to quarry the stones. From
www.afghanscene.com
KHAN’T READ: Newby’s guide Bahadur Khan spots himself in pictures, 2006 | Jerome Starkey
then on, the valley has hardly changed from
Newby and Carless’s day. The valley rises and
becomes bleaker and then divides. You take the
right river to the Parian valley and after about
fifteen miles, at the village of Deh Parian, take
a path that leads to the mountain and the
beautiful meadows surrounding it. Dominating
the landscape is the forbidding mountain of
Mir Samir. This is as far as I have ever got. It
is a special place, one of the few left in the
world, as Thesiger once said to me in his old
age, where you can travel as he did, as if the
twentieth-century had never happened. From
the eastern foothills of this mountain the
Chamar Pass leads into Nuristan. The prospect
of travel in this mountain fastness, sealed from
the world by 15,000 foot passes and inhabited
www.afghanscene.com
Book scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
by an exceptionally violent race, many red-
haired and blue eyed - the descendants of an
early Indo-European migration- wine drinkers
with whom Alexander drunkenly celebrated
the Bacchic mysteries in 327 BC and who were
forcibly converted to Islam by Abdur Rahman in
1895, scared even Newby and Carless’s stout-
hearted Panjshiris and remains one of the most
romantic and inaccessible passes in the world.
No-one really knows what is happening on the
other side. It may contain one of bin Laden’s
country retreats and there are reports of gem
and silver mines (Marco Polo recorded that the
Panjshir was rich in silver but the locations are
now lost).
Why is A Short Walk such a great travel
book? First, because Newby had an eye for
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 41
Book scene Book scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

LEGACY: The Panjshir river snakes towards Masoud’s tomb | Jason P Howe

detail and descriptive ability that captures the
beauty, as well as the bleakness, of Afghanistan.
Here he is describing the end of a day in the
bazaar: “The oil lanterns that were tied to
the mulberry trees and which illuminated the
street began to flicker and go out one by one.”
Or again, on Mir Samir: “the cloud swirled like
smoke about the lower slopes. From out of
the glen came a chill wind and the rumble of
falling rocks. It was like a battlefield stripped
of corpses by Valkyries.” Second, and more
unusual, is his withering honesty about himself
and his companions. He records exactly what he
felt at the time. One horseman looks “cunning,
intelligent and the antithesis of the faithful
retainer”.
No-one escapes, least of all Hugh Carless,
who is actually the hero of the book, yet Newby
is quite honest that without him he would
have given up long before the attempt on the
mountain. But near the top he records “a feeling
of great affection for Hugh, this tiresome
character who had led me to such a spot”.
The book is dedicated to him with the words,
“without whose determination this journey
could never have been made”. Third, it is laugh-
out-loud funny.
This anniversary edition includes pictures
that have not been published in more recent
versions. The final one is of Newby and Carless,
in goggles and windproof suits, entitled Portrait
of Two Failures. But was their attempt which
ended 500 metres from the summit of an
unclimbed peak such a failure? To find out, I
asked Ash Sweeting, Kabul’s most accomplished
rock climber, who accompanied by an Everest
veteran and armed with a copy of this book,
made another attempt on Mir Samir two years
ago but was also cheated of final victory by
weather. “You’ve got to remember that there’s
been an order-of-magnitude improvement in
climbing equipment since 1957” he said. “We
got up an ice face that took them hours in
five minutes simply because of our equipment.
It was a very difficult climb when they did
it. It wasn’t a failure – for two beginners to
come so close to the summit of Mir Samir was
something like a triumph.”
Finally, I suspect that in another fifty years,
this book will still be as funny and inspiring as it
is today and new generations will have become
obsessed with this wild, beautiful, hospitable,
eerie and uncomfortable country and Eric
Newby, Hugh Carless, Abdul Ghiyas and Bahadur
Khan will still be living characters; there will be
another celebratory edition and its status as the
greatest travel book in English as incontestable
as it is today. �

Matthew Leeming is an author, reporter and entrepreneur from the

watercress capital of England. He first visited Afghanistan in 2001 on holiday
and unwittingly met the men who killed Ahmed Shah Masoud a few days
before 9/11. He now lives in Kabul.

42 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 43
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Health scene
Afghan Scene
Afghan Scene May-June
May-June 2009
2009
The air
that we
breathe
Public health boffin Dr S Ahib explodes a few
myths about Kabul’s alleged health hazards
Myth 1: Faecal matter makes up about
80 per cent of the air in Kabul.
Yes, Kabul air quality is bad, but the
particulate matter in the air is unlikely to be
dominated by faecal matter. That said, we
probably do breath in an appreciable amount
of turd with every breath. However, there is no
such thing as an airborne diarrhoeal disease.
The sobering reality is that when you get
diarrhoea it is mostly because someone’s
contaminated faeces has made it into your
digestive system... (not your lungs). You could
certainly get the trots by putting your fingers
46 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
in your mouth after touching the door knob in
the restaurant toilet but you will never get it
from breathing the air. So, to clear this up once
and for all - and let there be no mistake about
it – you cannot get diarrhoea from breathing
Kabul air. Desiccated turd in the lungs, yes, but
diarrhoea, no.
Diarrhoea is a serious problem in
Afghanistan and is likely responsible for about
40 per cent of the deaths of children aged 1-5
(that, by the way, is an awful lot of deaths...). It
is mostly transmitted through poor sanitation,
where effluent leaks into the water supply
or simply lies in the streets. It can also be
www.afghanscene.com
transmitted from fomites (taps, door handles,
etc) onto hands. The best way to prevent
diarrhoea is to always drink clean water, wash
your hands regularly with soap and water, and
make sure you wash fresh fruit and vegetables –
oh, and don’t play in the sewer. Most diarrhoea
is self-limiting and does not require antibiotics.
If you have very acute diarrhoea, or it is
accompanied by plenty of vomit or fever, or it
lasts for more than 48 hours, or it significantly
worsens over a 24 hour period you should seek
medical advice. Always keep well hydrated to
replace the fluids and salts that you lose. If you
can’t keep fluids down, get to a doctor who
can give you a drip. Diarrhoea rarely kills, but
dehydration does.
Myth 2: Mobile phones can transmit
killer viruses.
In 2007, a rumour spread like wild-fire that
if you answered your phone, a mysterious virus
would strike you down. The result was that for
an entire day it was impossible to get a call
through to anyone (yes, and I also mean people
in the Ministry of Health) because everyone was
afraid to pick up their phones. The idea is so
absurd, that I can hardly bring myself to dispel
it. Take it from me. It’s impossible.
The jury is still out on the health effects of
mobile phones but despite a number of large
studies in western countries there has been
no association found with ill health. Muppets
crashing their cars and the irritation caused to
bystanders and officemates by down-loadable
Christmas carols or Bollywood spectaculars
are probably the major public health problems
associated with their use.
www.afghanscene.com
Health scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Myth 3: Carbonated drinks contain E.
coli.
Apparently the Ministry of Health once
conducted a survey of carbonated drinks in
Kabul and found that “90 per cent contained E.
coli”. Wow. This is a good one.
There are thousands of strains of E. coli,
and many of them live inside you right now.
Only a few are pathogenic (i.e. actually give
you the shits), and these, it is true to say, cause
serious health problems. They are mostly food
born (think feco-oral). E. coli cannot live in
carbonated drinks which contain too much
sugar. They cannot live on the dry tops or caps,
either. That’s why they are safe. They make you
fat and spotty, for sure, but they are definitely
not a culture medium for bacteria. Do wipe the
can before you drink, though.
Myth 5: Opium is bad.
Opium addiction, like all addictions, causes
serious problems in those afflicted and to
society at large. The spectre of the drug can also
cause severe paranoia, loss of objectivity and
ultimately, deafness... amongst politicians and
the public.
You see, medically, opium is one of the most
effective and simple to produce of all painkillers.
The direct result of continued prohibition is
that literally millions of people in developing
countries die every year in needless, relentless
and unimaginable pain. A global opiate drug
shortage and consequent high prices keep them
out of reach of most.
There is simply no substitute for this class
of drug when it comes to relieving the pain
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 47
Health scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

of many terminal diseases. For sure, there
are social problems of addiction (which are
not exclusive to opiate addiction) but these
problems are eclipsed by the scale of the
suffering which resultsfrom prohibition.
This is the strongest argument most of us
should need for regulated production and trade
of opium.
Crime gone, insurgency quelled and pain
relieved.�

Myths from the field

A small sample of some challenges to improving public health awareness in Afghanistan:
• If your baby is late arriving lie under a camel.
• If your child stutters put a live fish in their mouth.
• Fish and milk causes skin de-pigmentation.
• Water melon and tea, taken together, will make you ill. So will drinking water after eating
mulberries, worse if dried. Lapis is Afghanistan’s leading
• Bitter oranges prevent malaria. full service strategic communications company:
• If one of your family members has mental health problems, take them to Jalalabad and chain national reach • audience insight • international quality
them to a tree for 40 days...

research | public opinion | project management | production | media placement

training and development | media monitoring | evaluation | market segmentation
Dari | Pashto | English | print | broadcasting | TV and radio | pr | event management
all under one roof

Email: info@lapis.com.af or call 0796337929

Lapis is a Moby Group Company – “engaging, educating and entertaining Afghanistan since 2002”

Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Food scene Flower Street Café
Street 2, Qala-e Fatullah.
Food scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Tel: 0700 293 124,
0799 356 319

You eatin’
with me?
It’s not on Flower Street, and it’s not really a
café anymore – Afghan Scene discovers how
a man from the mob brought an old favourite
into the Kabul restaurant premiere league

FAT: Sandwich and chips, a Flower Street classic | Jason P Howe

drawn to such superstars as Antonio Carluccio,
the jovial cook who brought affordable but top-
notch Italian food to British high streets.
But Scene cannot help thinking that the
owner of the Flower Street Café is more
One wonders whether Don Nusratty,
who works as a mobile phone executive
in his spare time, will soon be ordering
the whacking of customers who don’t
sufficiently enthuse about his chicken

T
imur Nusratty welcomes customers into
his restaurant with the sort of warmth
you might expect of family-run joint in
Sicily’s hill country. The lucky few can
expect a man-on-man bear hug.
“Have you tried the puttanesca? It’s
excellent,” the owner of the Flower Street Café
bashfully suggests to Scene over lunch, referring
to just one of the new dishes on his revamped
menu.
The Qala-e-Fatulah eaterie has always been
a popular haunt but Mr Nusratty has made it
his mission to make it the “default lunch spot”
in Kabul.
Scene can report that he is well on his way
to fulfilling that goal by sharing the dishes
only previously enjoyed by house guests at his
exclusive Kabul dinner parties.
Trying to think of international parallels of
restauranters with such passion for food one is
Corleone than Carluccio – a mafia don
overseeing a merry mob of waiters and chefs.
Just as this thought occurs, a Frank Sinatra
number drifts across the garden from an iPod
play list specially formulated by Mr Nusratty for
his customers and the capo looks Scene squarely
in the eyes and says “we have really nailed the
coffee” – by which he means “improved”.
He goes onto say that prior to his takeover
of the restaurant The Flower Street Café was
washing its face, but not “really killing it”.
schnitzels, fried Baglani cheese salads and
quesadillas.
But then effusive praise is what nearly
everything on the revamped menu deserves.
Afghan Scene has always been a big fan
of the café’s food and service, and once
got into the dangerous habit of ordering
a grilled Polo Loco sandwich and fries for
home delivery on a daily basis. But it was a
custom that had to stop as Scene’s waistline
began to resemble that of Don Nusratty’s.

50 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 51
Food scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
THIN: The new spinach salad has gone down a storm | Jason P Howe
The happy news for weight watching fans
of Flower Street is that there are a number of
new guilt-free options, including an excellent
spinach, cheese and walnut salad.
Unfortunately the always tempting
banana cake and brownies have survived the
overhaul.
Anyone choosing some of the new Tex-
Mex options can expect the restaurant’s
roving proprietor to drop by their table, clap
them on the back and give them pointers
on the perfect way to place their salsa
and shredded chicken on their home made
Tostados de Tinga.
Don Nusratty promises other improvements
are coming soon: Thai curries and some
Afghan classics including mantu, kebabs and
52 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Qabuli pilau.
But even though its food menu has moved
well beyond the repertoire of a mere café, it
remains one of the best places in Kabul to idle
away an afternoon with a laptop and pretend to
be working.
The coffee has indeed been “nailed”, after
Don Nusratty invested in some serious Italian
coffee making kit and put time into teaching his
enormously courteous and efficient staff how to
use it. Smoothies, frapuccinos and the like are
all available. The garden is as large and pleasant
as ever and the wireless internet plentiful and
free.
Under the boss’s direction there has been
a major overhaul on the restaurant’s interior.
The hideous fold up picnic chairs have been
www.afghanscene.com
RESRVOIR MUG: Timur makes sure the customers like their coffee | Jason P Howe
switched with sturdier replacements and a
lounge area created with cushioned benches
almost as voluptuously proportioned as the boss
himself.
A sledge hammer has been taken to a wall,
to reveal an alcove that had remained hidden
for decades – a slightly odd decision given its
obvious potential as a place to discipline errant
mobsters.
“We found a hidden chamber back there
with a secret crawl space and a light,” the don
says.
“We don’t know what it was for. Maybe it
was from the Soviet era or the Taliban times
– a place where people hid while watching TV.
There’s a lot of history in this building.”
There is also more than a little California
in the place too, as one would expect of its
www.afghanscene.com
Food scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
“It’s a labour of
love, it’s a family
thing”
Berkeley educated proprietor: smoking has been
banned in the two best rooms in the restaurant.
“We had to do it, because, you know the
French are just incorrigible,” he says.
The net result of this improvement drive is
that the Flower Street Café is teetering on the
brink of being seriously up market.
Indeed, it is now the only place in Kabul,
that Scene is aware of, where something called
a Roshan VIP card is accepted as part payment.
But Mr Nusratty comes from a proud family
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 53
Food scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
THE DON: Timur Nusratty, restauranteur and goodfella | Jason P Howe
of Afghan restaurateurs and was well placed to
pull off this renaissance.
His parents were the proud owners of the
Khyber Pass, the first ever Afghan restaurant in
Oakland, California, which, back in the day was
a magnet for celebrity A-listers. Muhammad
Ali used to drop round for traditional Afghan
food while Oliver Reed used to enjoy getting
plastered there during the filming of the 1976
haunted house thriller, Burnt Offerings.
Indeed, the original café was set up by his
sister and brother-in-law as a true coffee and
sandwich place in Qala-e-Fatulah, which raises
the matter of why it was ever called the Flower
Street Café.
“Good question!” the don enthuses, before
admitting that he never thought to ask his
sister.
54 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
“It was never in Flower Street. I don’t know
why it was called that. I guess it’s a catchy
name and Flower Street is one of Kabul’s most
famous streets.”
But when his brother-in-law went off to
Canada to become Afghanistan’s ambassador
in Ottawa the couple took Ali Sultani, their
cook, with them. Flower Street Café was then
reconfigured as an income generator for the
family Ali left behind. His son, Reza, now
manages the restaurant and several other family
members are involved.
Don Nusratty was left to keep an eye on
things and turn the family firm into a Kabul
gastro-powerhouse.
“It’s a labour of love, it’s a family thing,” he
says in a voice, which if it was only just a little
raspier, would be worthy of Brando himself. �
www.afghanscene.com
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
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Essential scene Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

You
never
AfghanITT Limited is a SMB Cisco Select Certified Partner in Afghanistan so you can
be sure of getting genuine Cisco equipment with standard warranty and a host of
other benefits.
forget
your
first time
Benefits to working with SMB Cisco Select Certified Partner like AfghanITT:
• Value: Our certification will ensure your needs are fulfilled through an emphasis on
delivering value-added services for the SMB market.
• Proven technical expertise: AfghanITT is a Cisco Certified Partner with sales Last October former Hollywood actor Max Benitz pitched up in
and technical expertise in switching, routing, security and wireless solutions for Kabul just when the security situation was at it’s worst. Here he
SMB customers, allowing them to deliver the new solutions you demand. recalls that time and reflects on life after Afghanistan
• Focus on customer satisfaction: With access to the same online customer
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I
Learn how Cisco is helping transform businesses. Contact AfghanITT today. t is quarter past seven on my third night in
Call +93 799 622 868 or email info@afghanitt.com to find out more. Kabul and I’m struggling with a bow-tie.
Matt, a friend, an aid worker, will be
along shortly. He is also wearing black tie.
On the way to tonight’s party he relates how he
PARTNER
narrowly avoided being kidnapped a few months
Select
Certified ago on a trip out of Kabul.
“They had the road block set up but I got
pretty ill and went back to Kabul. You’re invited
to join my amoebic dysentery appreciation
society on Facebook,” he concludes as we pull
up to the Gandamack Lodge.
Final checks to cufflinks as we clear the
three-tier security process. Tonight’s guests

56 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 57
Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
CHOPPER: Hearthrob Max poses in front of a HIND helicopter | David Gill
include top diplomats, journalists, and aid
workers, brought together for the second annual
Harry Flashman-Battle of Trafalgar Ball.
Jason Bresler is on my table. He will be
dead in 36 hours. Gunned down with a British
colleague, David Giles, 42, outside DHL’s
Kabul office in what appears to have been an
altercation with a guard. The spot where they
fell is about 100 yards from where we have just
toasted The Queen.
Jetlag and port combine to make the
situation surreal. On the dance-floor, I pass
a senior American diplomat, still wearing
the crown-like felt Afghan hat he sports at
formal gatherings. The opening riff of Mambo
Number 5 strikes up and his hand shoots out,
58 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
accidentally slapping me. “You love it, you little
bitch,” he offers, by way of apology. He’s right.
The next day I meet a group of American
NGO women in L’Atmosphere. All express their
horror at the murder of Gayle Williams, 34, the
British charity worker murdered last Monday.
Our conversations about Obama - “the Afghans
love him” - the bitter winter that’s coming and
the security situation are brought to an apposite
end by a text message. The bill is paid, cars are
summoned and the ladies cover their heads.
“What’s the rush?” I ask as they leave.
“The text was a threat alert. Planned attack,
here, now, source credible,” one says.
A friend enters. As a new boy, I’m packing
bags and fill him in.
www.afghanscene.com
ON PARADE: Army chief Wardak gets in the way of Benitz photo op
“Oh, don’t worry about those. They’re rarely
right. Anyway, good place to be as a journalist if
it did happen. Just hide in the swimming pool,”
he says, ordering a Coke.
The next morning a text arrives from the
same friend.
“There’s been another killing of a foreigner.
Call me when you get this.”
He tells me to get a taxi to a nearby house
where two other British workers are settling
in for a day of ‘lockdown’. Conflicting details
filter through Kabul’s bush telegraph. Our
conversation twists through theories and then
onto Afghanistan in general. My host produces
a print out from a local news agency - DONKEY
KILLS KANDAHAR POLICEMAN - runs the
www.afghanscene.com
Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
headline. A bomb on a donkey - Taliban cavalry,
we joke.
Neither of the two Brits I’m with for the
day will consider leaving the country. While
there are indicators that the situation is getting
worse, the expatriate community here is more
sanguine. Though concerned, and devastated at
the loss of members of their wider community,
there is resolve here. It will calm down, they
assure me. In the mean time, there is work to
be done.
I get home and check emails. The Embassy
has alerted us all to a ‘credible’ tip-off about a
planned kidnapping of a British National. The
electricity will go out soon. It seems incredible
that seven years after the Taliban fell, power
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 59
Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
POSTSCRIPT
More than six months have passed since I
wrote the above article, four of them back in
the UK. It was a strange week to arrive in Kabul
and being home alone on arrival made it all
the more threatening. Things calmed down and
that curious Kabul pace (day, day, day, Thursday
night, day, day, day, Thursday night) swept me
up for the rest of the time out there.
I was wrong to think a week of violence
would significantly alter the pace of ex-pat
life. This is testament to the optimism of a
community who carry on in Kabul unnoticed
until something goes horribly wrong. Certain
lynchpins within that community, take a bow
Dominic, deserve a decoration.
Returning to London was enjoyable. My job
in Kabul, though fascinating, was desk bound
and having not been a war correspondent I had
UP CLOSE: Max prepares for take off no intention of becoming a ‘was correspondent’
(“when I was in Kabul…”) so kept quite quiet.
remains a fleeting guest in most Kabuli homes. At half past five there is an earthquake. Friends weren’t that interested. They’d want two
What lights-out does to a newcomer with a This is not real. This is a dream. anecdotes and then turn the conversation back
vague kidnap threat for bedtime reading is It is not. I am faced by a dilemma. I’m to the economy.
predictable enough. stark naked, the sun is up. In a country where In a way, this is quite refreshing. Running
Kabul is unnaturally quiet at night, almost showing shins is a taboo, can one, during off to a war zone shouldn’t dazzle the sensible
menacingly so. After an hour or so, I’m relaxed an act of God, run into a garden wearing people of London. It shouldn’t be a short cut
enough to attempt sleep. Then there are shots. nothing? to being seen as an inherently interesting or
Two snaps followed by four more. Less than half The earthquake ends before I decide. glamorous person. However, whenever a friend
a mile away but not immediately dangerous. Giving up on the idea of sleep, I boil a kettle looses their job or expresses boredom with the
Then the silence. in order to shave and wait for aftershocks. � nine-to-five, I tell them that there are plenty of
vital jobs to be done in Kabul. They look at me
Former child film star Max Benitz took the Afghan media by storm last like my nose just fell off.
winter during a three month stay in Kabul. This article first appeared in Tatler What’s not refreshing is the level of
magazine. intellectual engagement here, over Afghanistan.
60 Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com
Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
While the rest of the public have more pressing
matters to attend to, the meddling classes can
be seen at lectures and documentary festivals,
fundraisers and anti-war protests earnestly
engaging in a debate they won’t move on.
Those who are the most vocal are often the
most ignorant. Lindsey German, a prominent
figure in the Stop the War movement, told
me recently that if troops left Afghanistan
immediately there would be no bloodbath. I
asked her about the potential fate of Afghans
who had engaged with the post-Taliban regime.
“It will be like the end of Apartheid – some
will lose out. I understand why some view those
who work for NGOs as collaborators. The NGOs
act as an arm of the occupation. When the
Germans left Italy in 1945, the collaborators
lost out,” she replied, absurdly.
This absolutist ‘can’t-make-an-omelette’
thinking is one reason why a movement that
attracted millions in 2003 could barely muster
a few thousand onto the streets of London
during the recent G20 Summit in London.
Interestingly, in Strasbourg, many more anti-
war protestors turned out to set fire to buildings
and make noise at a recent NATO conference
than turned up in London, despite France and
Germany’s mercifully modest body count since
2001. Perhaps the Franco-German border is a
more evocative place to try and stop a war than
Trafalgar Square is. Perhaps the British are still
used to sending their young to ill-defined wars
in dusty places. Perhaps my friends’ indifference
is more affected than they let on.
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 61
 Coming Soon to Afghan Scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

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Afghan Scene May-June 2009 Afghan Scene May-June 2009

Afghan Scene May-June 2009 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Scene
there,
done
that
Jemima Montagu first came to
Afghanistan more than three years
ago to help revive Kabul’s old city and
is leaving with fond memories
ASM: When did you first come to
Afghanistan?
I arrived for the first time in February 2006
to check the place out. I had heard that there
was a possibility of being involved in a cultural
programme that Rory Stewart was doing. When
he told me he wanted to set up a cultural
organisation in the old city I said, “what do you
know about culture?” He invited me to check
66 Afghan Scene May-June 2009
it out. When I saw Murad Khane for the first
time it was absolutely pouring with rain and the
whole place looked like Paschendale. It was hard
to share his vision that it could be turned into
something.
I had a very sensible job in London where I
was working for the Arts Council, giving money
to fund cultural projects and public art. So I
took the very sensible hedge position of taking
a sabbatical and coming back in the summer
www.afghanscene.com
Farewell scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
for two months. But after those two months, it. And there’s the anxiety about the foreign
the deal was done. There was no way I was presence – there is still a huge gap between
able to go back to my life in London. So I went Afghans and the internationals that live here.
home to leave my job, pack up my things and
leave my sensible life behind and came back ASM: What next?
to Afghanistan to join the Turquoise Mountain
Foundation. We are exhibiting the contemporary art
show at the Venice Biennale in the summer and
ASM: What was it about Afghanistan that then after that I hope to go to Yale to study for
brought you back? a year.
The beauty of the place. The sense that there ASM: When are you coming back?
was really something to do, rather than just
twiddling my thumbs in navel gazing in London. As soon as I can! But I don’t know at the
moment. When someone offers me a job. It’s
ASM: Best of times? not a place you can really ever leave behind. I’ve
been to other places in the world, but nowhere
Shaking mulberries out of the trees, picnics like this. It’s a complete life changer. �
in the Panjshir, the golden leaves of Istalif in the
Autumn. The contemporary art workshops I set Living Traditions: Contemporary Art from
up to help young Afghan artists. And then there Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran runs from June 7
was my dream programme of organising an to November 22 at the Venice Bienaale.
exhibition of contemporary Afghan, Iranian and
Pakistani art in the Queen’s Palace in Babur’s
Gardens which finally happened last summer.
And I made fantastic friends here. I had
never met any of them just a few years ago
and now they will be friends for life, both
Afghans and people from all sorts of different
nationalities.
ASM: Worst of times?
The moments of doubt about the whole
project in Afghanistan and whether we are
here on the back of a futile military campaign Kabul Fasion Week
receives criticism that models don’t
and whether NGOs like us sometimes feed off reflect the shape of real women
a political situation rather than contribute to
www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene May-June 2009 67
 Hit
vv
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
the
Afghan Essentials
target with
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message!
Hotels and Guesthouses
Safi Landmark Hotel &
your Suites
Charahi Ansari
www.safilandmarkhotel-
suites.com
Tel: 0202 203 131
Kabul Serena Hotel
Have you considered advertising in Froshgah Street
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Afghanistan's leading magazine Tel: 0799 654 000
aimed at the expat community and
The Inter Continental Hotel
key business decision makers? Baghe Bala Road
www.intercontinentalkabul.
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With over 8,000 copies distributed Tel: 0202 201 321
free of charge, Afghan Scene keeps those Gandamack Lodge
Sherpur Square
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Tel: 0700 276 937
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Mustafa Hotel
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Tel: 070 276 021
Heetal Plaza Hotel
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Tel: 0799 167 824, 0799
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UNICA Guest House
Kolola Pushta, opposite
Roya Mattress
Tel: 0797 676 357
The International Club
Haji Yaqoob Square, Street
3, Shar-e Naw.
Tel: 0774 763 858
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www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com
Golden Star Hotel
Charrhay Haji Yaqoob,
Shar-e Naw.
www.kabulgoldenstarhotel.
com
Tel: 0799 333 088, 0799
557 281
Roshan Hotel
Charaye Turabaz Khan,
Shar-e Naw.
Tel: 0799 335 424
Restaurants
Easyfood
Delivers from any restaurant
to your home
www.easyfood.af
Tel: 0796 555 000, 0796
555 001
L’Atmosphere
Street 4, Taimani
Tel: 0798 224 982, 0798
413 872
The Lounge
Lane 2, left, off Street 15,
Wazir Akbar Khan.
Tel: 0796 174 718, 0700
037 634
Rumi
Qala-e Fatullah Main Rd,
between Streets 5 & 6
Tel: 0799 557 021
La Cantina
Third left off Butcher St,
Shar-e Naw
Tel: 0798 271 915
Flower Street Café
Street 2, Qala-e Fatullah.
Tel: 0700 293 124, 0799
356 319
Essential scene
Afghan Scene May-June 2009
Taverne du Liban
Street 15, Lane 3,
Wazir Akbar Khan
Tel: 0799 828 376
The Grill
Street 15, Wazir Akbar Khan.
Tel: 0799 818 283, 0799
792 879
Everest Pizza
Street 10, Wazir Akbar Khan
www.everestpizza.com
Tel: 0700 263 636, 0779
317 979
Boccaccio
Street 10, Wazir Akbar Khan
Tel: 0799-200600
Bella Italia
Street 14, Wazir Akbar Khan
Tel: 0799 600 666
Namaste
Street 15, Wazir Akbar Khan,
between lanes 2 and 3 on
the right.
Tel: 0772 011 120
Delhi Darbar
Shar-e Naw, close to UK
Sports
Tel: 0799 324 899
Sufi
Muslim Street, Shar-e Naw
www.sufi.com.af
Tel: 0774 212 256, 0700
210 651
Golden Key Seafood Res-
taurant
Lane 4, Street 13,
Wazir Akbar Khan.
Tel: 0799 002 800, 0799
343 319
Afghan
Afghan
Scene
Cabul Coffeehouse & Café
Street 6, on the left, Qale-e
Fatullah
Tel: 0752 005 275
Mai Thai
House 38, Lane 2, Street 15,
Wazir Akbar Khan
Tel:0796 423 040
Khosha Restaurant
Above the Golden Star
Hotel.
Tel: 0799 888 999
Anar Restaurant
Lane 3, Street 14,
Wazir Akbar Khan
Tel: 0799 567 291
Red Hot Sizzlin’ Steakhouse
District 16, Macroyan 1,
Nader
Hill Area
Tel: 0799 733 468
Springfield Restaurant
Lane 3, Street 15,
Wazir Akbar Khan
Tel: 0799 001 520
Want to get on the Afghan
Essentials list of places to
eat and sleep?
Contact
sales@afghanscene.com
Scene
May-June
May-June 2009
2009 69
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