city scenes.. and other Afghanistan General Tips

Favorite Thing: Men in uniform and Women clad in burkhas is still a common sight.
The uniforms come from the various militia and the warlords that still are all-powerful in much of Afghanistan. Its not easy to change that i guess, since Afghan society is very `tribal' in essence. The number of uniformed local militia to be seen on the streets is much lower than what i saw in 2002 though.
The women- one way to look at it is to say that they are still dressed in `burkhas' and thats not `liberation', but then again, i think somewhere its a cultural thing as well. As long as you see the women out in the streets and doing their thing, its a positive sign. Given time, things should change hopefully.
One lady we chanced upon on our first trip, when things were still pretty unsettled, stood in the middle of a busy road with her daughter-in-law, surrounded by curious men- onlookers, and gave us a long and highly interesting interview. That was quite an experience.
There are stories abound about women who had risked their lives while fighting for their rights during the taleban times. Today there are signs of change and there are a lot many women stepping out, gaining employment and many women feature in the Afghan parliament as well.


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Favorite Thing: Cellular service had begun in Kabul when we were there. AWCC is the local service provider there. However, it did not extend anywhere beyond the city itself (though i believe things have changed now), and so its advisable to have a sat-phone handy if you are tavelling and need to be in touch.
The system used there is GSM, though the kind of sim cards that i know were no use there. They seem to use something thats closer in size to a credit card...

Also, cybercafes were begining to show up in Kabul.

Fondest Memory: http://www.afghanwireless.com/

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Favorite Thing: I did this at least once a day- often in the middle of a busy marketplace- set up my tripod on top of the vehicle and shoot from there...
Looked a bit awkward to those who noticed obviously, but that was the best way to shoot in relatively crowded places...


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