Globalization comes to Afghanistan

Coming Anarchy notes that connecting Afghanistan to the global marketplace means they get to see lots of things, including what’s under those burqas. In the spirit of Swedish Meatballs, this article (which is not Coming Anarchy’s post) has an artistic photo that isn’t work safe (for those who went to Swedish Meatballs from work without prior knowledge, I forgot to warn M1 of SM about the article…):

From entering puberty to old age, almost all women still wear burqas, which cover them from head to toe. Most men have never seen a naked woman outside the circle of their families.

It is therefore no surprise that the first encounters with satellite channels that offer 100% hardcore porn are the equivalent to the close encounters of the third kind. Men from Kandahar, cut off from the outside world for decades, accustomed to conflicts and uncompromising Taliban laws, have never seen anything like this, even though it is in fact exceptionally soft porn by western standards, usually aired between hotline ads.

A strange discomfort can be felt, but no shortage of curious glances. A group of Taliban wearing overgrown beards are sitting in a bar with their eyes riveted to the screen. A western woman enters the room and one of them frantically changes the channel.

Abdul Wasi, the owner of one of the many new satellite equipment stores, says that business is doing exceptionally well. “I sell digital receivers and satellite dishes for about 350 dollars and I import the equipment from Pakistan. I started the business a month ago and by now I have sold almost four hundred receivers. My store is always crowded, everyone wants to watch satellite television,” says Wasi.

Posted in ICT

One thought on “Globalization comes to Afghanistan

  1. There is undoubtedly a great deal of culture shock for the Pushtuns as they slowly realize that not everyone is like them. A very good argument can be made that opening lines of public communication with the West played a significant part in the collapse of Eastern European Communism.It is interesting, though, that these closed society types argue the unclothed female body is an offense against – something or other – while sitting at a bar, which is a direct violation of Ku’ran if this is like most bars, selling alcohol.

Comments are closed.