Afghanistan In the 1960's/70's

[8bitagent]

“Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual”
King Amanullah Khan, King of Afghanistan from 1919-1929

Afghanistan, 1960's and early 1970's












Fuck you Russia, America, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.

[pox americanus]

Paghman Gardens near Kabul in the 1960s.


Same view of Paghman Gardens in 2007

http://alittlereality.blogspot.com/2012/05/afghanistan-then-and-now.html

[8bitagent]

Wow, 1962



Nice find. Women studying right next to men.


In the ENTIRE nauseating decade coverage of the Afghan war, NOT A SINGLE COMMENTATOR or talking head EVER mentioned how progressive Kabul and other parts of
Afghanistan used to be. Now it's one of the most backwoods primitive places in the entire Muslim world. Total f-ing BS how it all went down.

But nope. Evil fucking Russia will never pay for their genocide in Afghanistan or Chechnya. America will never pay for their crimes. It's like the Native Americans all over again.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Have you read that story about Beirut by JG Ballard (I thinK?)

[barracuda]

Realistically, wasn't this period extremely brief? I don't think it lasted more than ten years, and only in very limited areas, primarily Kabul. This short period of seeming progressiveness was dependent upon the ten-year de facto rule of Mohammed Zahir Shah and his implementation of a new modern constitution, and upon the largess of huge loans taken out from the Soviet Union.

It's sort of like the consequences and understandings inherent in your dystopia thread: progressive affluent culture is a bit of an anomalous state of things. If such a state lives or dies on the rule of a single man, it's not gonna last.

Yes, bombing, yes, hate the military, yes, fuck the empires, yes, yes, yes.

[cptmarginal]

The "Kabul: City Number One" series by Adam Curtis gives a very interesting overview of this topic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/afghanistan/

I am researching the extraordinary history of the West's relationship to Afghanistan over the past 200 years. It is a very complex, and sometimes weird, story. These are notes on some of the characters and episodes involved.

Plus, the embedded BBC archive videos are no longer restricted to the UK only.

[8bitagent]

Realistically, wasn't this period extremely brief? I don't think it lasted more than ten years, and only in very limited areas, primarily Kabul. This short period of seeming progressiveness was dependent upon the ten-year de facto rule of Mohammed Zahir Shah and his implementation of a new modern constitution, and upon the largess of huge loans taken out from the Soviet Union.

It's sort of like the consequences and understandings inherent in your dystopia thread: progressive affluent culture is a bit of an anomalous state of things. If such a state lives or dies on the rule of a single man, it's not gonna last.

Yes, bombing, yes, hate the military, yes, fuck the empires, yes, yes, yes.

Apologies! I meant to speak directly about Kabul, as I realize most of Afghanistan has remain mostly unchanged for centuries. But we hear of Afghanistan every freaking day. MSNBC is obsessed with their idiot talking heads regurgitating the same bs with CFR wonks. NATO took over Chicago for a weekend to discuss Afghanistan.
My friend half jokingly says there must be some Indiana Jones spiritual/arcane artifact or Forteana reason theyre so obsessed with Afghanistan.

Anyone seen The Objective from 2008? It's about a group of modern day CIA/black ops/Seals types in Afghanistan who discover a lot of high weirdness


I remember an article from 2000 that talked about a rash of UFO sightings in and around Afghanistan, tho perhaps that was just spycraft

[8bitagent]

The "Kabul: City Number One" series by Adam Curtis gives a very interesting overview of this topic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/afghanistan/

I am researching the extraordinary history of the West's relationship to Afghanistan over the past 200 years. It is a very complex, and sometimes weird, story. These are notes on some of the characters and episodes involved.

Plus, the embedded BBC archive videos are no longer restricted to the UK only.

Thanks! I had really been wanting to pour into this series. So wish it was a documentary though.

[alwyn]

RE high weirdness and all that, the mountain range back of Kabul, Nuristan, according to the locals, has long been the home of much of the Sufis, prior to the war. Their retained wisdom regarding the development of man goes back thousands of years, and they mention the 'Pleides' as being our original home, so, yes, i can believe high weirdness.

Afghanistan's liberated women was not a short cultural event. They have always had much freedom and autonomy, until the advent of the Russian War and the Taliban.

If you read any of the works of Idries Shah or his brother, they tell first person tales of life in Afghanistan. They were born in the 20's, their mother was English living near Kabul, oddly enough, near those Paghman gardens, which were legendary.

It is a shame to see such a proud and intelligent people reduced to rubble for the corporate wars.

[8bitagent]

RE high weirdness and all that, the mountain range back of Kabul, Nuristan, according to the locals, has long been the home of much of the Sufis, prior to the war. Their retained wisdom regarding the development of man goes back thousands of years, and they mention the 'Pleides' as being our original home, so, yes, i can believe high weirdness.

Afghanistan's liberated women was not a short cultural event. They have always had much freedom and autonomy, until the advent of the Russian War and the Taliban.

If you read any of the works of Idries Shah or his brother, they tell first person tales of life in Afghanistan. They were born in the 20's, their mother was English living near Kabul, oddly enough, near those Paghman gardens, which were legendary.

It is a shame to see such a proud and intelligent people reduced to rubble for the corporate wars.

Heartbreaking indeed. They're such a beautiful and interesting culture, and I wish so bad Afghanistan was still that blend of modern progressivism and traditional/rural as it was pre 1979.
Now, hardly anyone living in Afghanistan remembers a time before extreme brutality, war, oppression, cultural voids, etc.

I'm not toooo much into alternative history or speculative what if studies...but what do you or anyone reading this think would have happened had the US and other countries not created the 1979 war and Mujahadeen? Would the Soviets really have slowly erased their culture?

Even in 1998 Zbigniew boastfully was saying he feels it was the right thing to do. Not caring about the destruction of Afghanistan nor the creation of modern virulent jihadist militants.

[8bitagent]

So here's Afghan girlscouts under "commie" influence from the 1950's. Doesn't seem so bad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Afgha ... _1950s.jpg

The more I delve into the 50's-70's relationship between the Afghans and the Soviet Union, the more I
realize it was not too bad.

Here's a record store in Kabul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1950s ... _store.jpg

Had the US government not involved themselves, you'd probably be seeing a thriving indie record
store culture as well as all sorts of amazing things around the country.

[Joe Hillshoist]

RE high weirdness and all that, the mountain range back of Kabul, Nuristan, according to the locals, has long been the home of much of the Sufis, prior to the war. Their retained wisdom regarding the development of man goes back thousands of years, and they mention the 'Pleides' as being our original home, so, yes, i can believe high weirdness.

Afghanistan's liberated women was not a short cultural event. They have always had much freedom and autonomy, until the advent of the Russian War and the Taliban.

If you read any of the works of Idries Shah or his brother, they tell first person tales of life in Afghanistan. They were born in the 20's, their mother was English living near Kabul, oddly enough, near those Paghman gardens, which were legendary.

It is a shame to see such a proud and intelligent people reduced to rubble for the corporate wars.

The Sufi's Shah is sposed to be in the lineage of ... those are the same mob Gurdjieff claimed to study with aren't they?

[Joe Hillshoist]

Also the modern cannabis industry wouldn't exist without access to Afghanistan in the 60s and 70s

[lucky]

Also the modern cannabis industry wouldn't exist without access to Afghanistan in the 60s and 70s

The Lebanese and Morrocans might have something to say about that as well as Pakistan and India.- or do you mean a trade route?

[Joe Hillshoist]

I mean the genetics in plants that came from Afghanistan and formed the basis for most of the strains developed in Holland and other parts of the world since the 70s.

"Cannabis Indica" is mostly made up of genetic material from Afghanistan.

Tho i should have said the modern industry would be unrecognisable/wouldn't exist in its current form without all those people going to Afghanistan in the 60s/70s and bringing back seeds. No 6 week turn around "Sea of Green" grow rooms for example.