Headlines

I bought an English-language “Kabul Weekly,” attracted by its headline: “Behind the Chinese Lantern, Guesthouses or Brothels?” Brothels posing as Chinese restaurants are sprouting like mushrooms, and the crackdown has been interesting to watch, teamed up as it is with an attack on the sale of alcohol. I’m not sure if alcohol sales are illegal or only illegal to Afghans, but one can buy it everywhere.

The other big story was: “Catcalls and Text Messages Irk Kabul’s Women,” and it described how teenage males harass ladies on the street. Kabuli youths have now gone high-tech, randomly text-messaging cell-phone owners with lurid poems or even suggestive pictures, hoping to land a female recipient. Last week a young western man I know got one of these flowery poems. A secret admirer? The Danish girls he’d been out with the night before? No such luck. He hid his disappointment well, while I laughed until my sides ached.

The best part of the article, however, was its account of a young Afghan woman telling off one of these boys. Her response to his improper suggestion? “Drop dead, damn you’re father, you son of a dog!”

Then she slapped him.

Not the shrinking violet one would expect beneath a headscarf.
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