Two Faces Of Death
Human life has ceased to have any value in Afghanistan. Nearly two million people have died in the two decades of war. The father of a two-year-old girl who died of malnutrition in a refugee camp in Pakistan was inconsolable (above left). Taliban troops, who brutalised former president Najibullah and his brother and displayed their bodies for three days in a Kabul square (above right), found bloody retribution an occasion to celebrate.

Kabuliwala At Play Tagore immortalised the Kabuliwala as large-hearted, fun-loving but tempestuous. Money changers (above left) dotted the streets of Kabul before 1979. The jangle of coins mixed easily with the strains of Hindi film music (above right) and the whoops of horsemen playing Buzkashi, a traditional game (below). The Taliban outlawed all three in the name of Islam.

The End Of Joy
Not very long ago, Kabul was a normal place. There was dancing at weddings (below), and middle-class women (above left) regarded themselves as relatively emancipated. Taliban rule left women without a face-prisoners of the burqa. Huddled outside Kabul's UN office (above right), they were barred by law from studying, working and even getting medical treatment.