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 CURRENT
ISSUE DEC 31, 2001 |
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THE YEAR'S IMAGES
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Nemesis Walks In
When the Alliance entered Kabul, most of the Taliban militia
had vanished. Those who remained were cut down with a ruthlessness
that Afghanistan has become used to. After five years, a people
experienced almost forgotten pleasures, like watching television
(below).
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Guns and Poses
If the Taliban tortured their women,
the Alliance armed them. Proud Afghan women sported assault rifles
(above). Prouder still were those who by early December could walk
through the ruins of Kabul, making at once a fashion and political
statement. The Western world woke up to brave organisations like the
Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, whose unsung heroines
had tried to fight the Taliban in almost Gandhian fashion. Without
guns, without spears, by running secret schools to educate girls.
The Taliban would rather condemn them to a benighted hell, banning
women from learning how to read or write, think or opine, live or
laugh. They were only free to cry (below). |
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If Tomorrow Comes
The world cried for them. Laura Bush
and Cherie Blair raised money for them. The future rests on them.
The most innocent victims of Afghanistan's terrible years are its
children-killed, maimed, weaponised, brutalised. Some day they will
forget. And in the fire of that amnesia will be shaped their country's
future. As the fires of the war die down, Afghanistan has to be
rebuilt. It will need schools and hospitals, cinemas and parks,
farms and factories. These will be 2001's unlikely benediction to
the next generation of Afghans, a generation that will hopefully
know peace, only peace (above and below).
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