Letter From Helmand.6: "A Land Without Laws"

(This is the sixth letter from a young Hazara man inside Afghanistan about life under Taliban rule. A friend helped me edit the English version as presented here.)

 

Dear David,

 

The Taliban are holding kangaroo court trials and imposing harsh sentences on people across the country. They also appear to have a poor grasp of Islamic law. Here is a broad overview of some of the atrocities we are experiencing.

 

Drumhead court-martials

 

A drumhead court-martial is one held in the field in urgent cases of offenses committed in action. The term implies spontaneity, a lack of organization, and also a form  of summary justice.

 

According to the independent journal Hasht-e-Sobh, an Afghan artist and comedian named Young Khasha from the Dand district of Kandahar was arrested on Thursday night of 22 July. He was executed the next day.

 

According to a local source, a non-Talib kidnapper was arrested a few days ago in Nawa district of Helmand and sentenced to death after a trial. A  future date was set for his execution, but then he was summarily executed anyway.

 

Blind faith

A video on social media shows a journalist  interviewing a Talib Commander, asking him, “now that you have declared general amnesty, have you asked people for forgiveness in return? From people who have lost their youths and kids in suicide attacks that you (Taliban) carried out?”

 

The Talib answered:, “They don't have any right for forgiveness from us because they are sinful for living beside infidels, and not fighting against infidels and foreigners.”

 

Other videos show Taliban leaders  asked about their religious beliefs responding that they are fighting for Islam and sacrificing their lives for it without fully understanding the tenets of the faith.

 

 

Uncontrolled forces

 

When the government was captured by the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid declared that the women should stay home because their soldiers are not trained on how to treat them properly. This indicates that the leaders don't have control over their soldiers.

 

There are reports of many murders by the Taliban across the country. The Taliban deny these reports.

 

Revenge killings

 

The BBC reported that about 400 people have been  kidnapped from their homes, and that more than 100 people were killed by the Taliban when they captured Spin Boldak, a district in Kandahar. Most of the victims were Achekzai, a Pashtun tribe. Their leader, General Raziq, fought against the Taliban for many years, until he was killed in Kandahar three years ago.

 

Etilaatroz, a local journal, reported that about 43 people including women and children have been killed by the Taliban in Malistan. This was because local government officials resisted the Taliban takeover.

 

Inconsistent enforcement of Sharia law

 

Sharia law is based on the Quran, including stories of the Prophet Muhammad’s life and the rulings of religious scholars. This forms the moral and legal framework forIslamic law. The Quran prescribes a path to a moral life, but not a specific set of laws.

 

There are actually five different schools of Islamic law, and they differ in how literally the religious texts should be interpreted. There also are nuances of Islamic law according to local culture and customs, which means Sharia may look quite different in different places.

 

For example, some interpretations of Sharia affords women extensive rights, while others leave women with few rights. Critics say that the Taliban’s restrictions on women go way beyond the bounds of any interpretation of Sharia.

This is what life is like in a land without laws.

Before Stopping

"You can't go on forever. At some point you have to stop." -- (Letters to Juliet, film 2010)

__________

In baseball, great hitters maintain a .300 average over the course of a season, which means they fail roughly seven times out of every ten at bats. (If you hate baseball, hang in there. This isn't about baseball.)

To be a successful  investigative reporter is to endure through similar odds. (This isn't about journalism either.) It takes something more than pattern-recognition skills, a thick skin, a willingness to take risks, stubbornness, persistence, an eye for detail and a well-functioning, rational mind.

It also takes doses of luck, intuition, instinct and -- perhaps surprisingly -- the ability to hope.

It also helps if you have the support of a friend.

This is not the kind of stuff discussed in textbooks or journalism education circles, where methodology is the usual focus -- how to interview people, how to read documents, gather data, fact-check quotes, discern truth from lies, etc.

Good sound rational stuff.

But take it from a veteran of many battles, once you commit to an investigation, plenty of obstacles are going to get in your way and you're going to need more than rationality to sustain yourself through to the endgame.

***

Writing about Afghanistan for me is not the same as my investigative work but it has required me to summon all the resources I relied on during a reasonably successful career in an impossible field. 

As I've been writing, it has stirred up long-buried memories of my time in that faraway country in the present tragic context, requiring a balance of rationality and intuition that at times tests my own sense of sanity.

I admit to having asked a friend or two, "Do you think I am crazy?" The best answer I've gotten was "Not from this distance, but..."

The effort to amplify the voice of one young man for our series of five "Letters From Helmand" has tested the limits of my ability to remain disciplined and objective over what my proper role is in this matter. I can't save him, for example, any more than I can save Afghanistan. I'm just one lone person fighting a battle against overwhelming odds. 

Human rights activists know what I am talking about. The rational part of my mind knows that too.

But something happened to me when I was recovering after nearly dying two years ago. My brain changed. After a lifetime functioning at a high level of rationality, a new way of thinking took over.

Call it instinct, intuition, maybe it doesn't even have a good name, but my friends noticed the change right away.

***

For some reason, probably algorithmic, Netflix knows just which movie to serve me on most occasions  and lately they all seem to involve journalism, letters and love. Last night it was "Letters to Juliet," the 2010 film inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book of the same name by Lise Friedman and Ceil Friedman. 

Both the book and the film are based on the phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare's most famous romantic heroine in Verona. The main character in the film is a fact-checker for The New Yorker, which back when fact-checking was valued was the standard-setter for the profession.

I'll not recount the plot, which is a delight, except that the main point for me was that love assumed to be unrequited sometimes turns out in fact to be requited.

That indeed is the kind of hope I am talking about -- the kind that journalists, activists and other truth-seekers need to accomplish our work and achieve our dreams. And everybody needs requited love.

See, aren't you glad you hung in there? This isn't about baseball, journalism, Afghanistan or almost dying. This is about hope. This about love.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world’s second-biggest Catholic country (WP)

* Mexico’s Supreme Court Votes to Decriminalize Abortion -- The ruling, which sets a precedent for the legalization of abortion nationwide, follows years of efforts by a growing women’s movement in Mexico. (NYT)

* Garland’s vow to protect women’s right to abortions has more bark than bite, analysts say (WP)

* Was Afghanistan the First “Feminist War”? U.S. officials used the plight of the women in the country to justify the 2001 invasion and subsequent occupation. “Feminism has been delegitimized in Afghanistan because it is associated with an occupying force,” says author Rafia Zakaria. “Now Afghan women are left to pick up the pieces and deal with the Taliban.”(Democracy Now)

* Twenty Years, from Ground Zero to Afghanistan (New Yorker)

* The Taliban’s violent response to the latest demonstration, which included hundreds of women in Kabul, was another sign that they will not tolerate peaceful dissent in Afghanistan. (NYT)

* Video Captures Moment Taliban Fire On Protest in Kabul -- Taliban fighters beat peaceful protesters and fired into the air to disperse the crowd after hundreds of women took to the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, to demand that their rights be respected. (Reuters)

* Afghanistan’s last Jew leaves after Taliban takeover (AP)

* What Comes After the War on Terrorism? War on China? (Thomas L. Friedman/NYT)

* Report: Solar could power 40% of US electricity by 2035 (AP)

* Calling ‘Code Red’ on Climate, Biden Pushes for Infrastructure Plan -- “The nation and the world are in peril,” the president said during a stop in a hard-hit borough of New York City. “And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact.” (NYT)

* VIDEO: Wildfire Forces Hundreds to Escape Greek Island by Sea (Reuters and AP)

* Booming Utah’s Weak Link: Surging Air Pollution -- A red-hot economy, wildfire smoke from California and the shriveling of the Great Salt Lake are making Utah’s alarming pollution even worse. (NYT)

* The Dixie fire that has burned more than 917,000 acres is well on its way to becoming the largest in California history. (CNN)

* As experts debate boosters to protect against coronavirus, vaccinated people are calling their own shots (WP)

* WHO reaffirms call to boost COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to poorer nations (Reuters)

* Pediatric cases surge in the United States as kids head back to school (WP)

* President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are headed to California to support Newsom’s effort to squash the recall. (SFist)

* Women make up nearly a third of the California State Legislature, which is a record. (AP)

* Hong Kong Police Arrest Defiant Leaders Of The Tiananmen Square Vigils (NPR)

* Umpire Who Lost Count Of Strikes Hoping Batter Rips Off Some Foul Balls (The Onion)

***

"What If"

Colbie Caillat

Songwriters: Colbie Caillat / Jason Reeves / Rick Nowels

I see us standing over there
You look around without a care
I'll pretend you notice me
I look in your eyes and what'd ya see
Is made up in my mind
Am I just wasting time
I think this could be love
I'm serious

What if we were made for each other
Born to become best friends and lovers
I want to stay right here
In this moment with you
Over and over and over again

What if this could be a real love...

Oh oh oh oh oh

You make my heart stop
Meet me at the sandbox

Who's That Calling?

 

The other night at dinner, my phone pinged twice in a row -- they were new messages on WhatsApp. Normally, you're happy to get such messages, because the way it's supposed to work relies on two people exchanging their phone numbers and the app also boasts of its end-to-end encryption.

But to my surprise these particular messages were from Mark Zuckerberg! I didn't recall exchanging numbers with him, although his avatar did bear a striking resemblance to his real-life photos. His messages were "Hello," and "How are you doing today?"

After dinner I checked out the Sacramento-based line Mark was calling from and it is one known for fraudulent calls, for scams. I know that Facebook bought WhatsApp back in 2014 for a cool $19 billion or so and that recently it's been criticized for not actually protecting user privacy.

So maybe that what's Mark was calling about. I'll never know because I didn't get around to calling him back.

Speaking of Facebook, I hear from friends from time to time who say they have gotten locked out of the social network for a month due to an algorithmic lack of appreciation for irony.

Maybe our buddy Mark could work on that one.

***

Netflix has yielded a new feature film gem (with subtitles) from Filipino director Veronica Velasco. The story follows a reporter as he visits overseas Filipino workers in the remote Danish territory of the Faroe Islands for a documentary on their life there. He meets a woman who has a daughter with a local fisherman and the subtleties of their attraction drive the rest of the drama.

For me, it was an example of how journalists play roles in so many feature films, even romances. "The Last Letter From Your Lover" is another current release based on a woman falling for a visiting journalist.

So in the movies, unlike in real life, reporters not only get the stories they go after, but apparently also the girl. (sigh)

***

I want to acknowledge the mention in the Los Angeles Review of Books for its recent reprint of my essay, "The Ghosts of Balkh," in the Journal of the Plague Year. Thanks again to Susan Zakin, editor of the Journal.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* From Cradle to Grave, Democrats Move to Expand Social Safety Net -- The $3.5 trillion social policy bill that lawmakers begin drafting this week would touch virtually every American, at every point in life, from conception to old age. (NYT)

* Red and blue states are increasingly divided on voting regulations -- The drift is exacerbating a growing opposition as Republicans in states across the country — most recently Texas — impose new voting restrictions while Democrats in others expand access. (WP)

* Americans warier of U.S. government surveillance (AP)

* Inside the Wuhan lab: French engineering, deadly viruses and a big mystery -- After decades researching agricultural pests, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was seeking to make its mark with a new high-security lab. Then the pandemic erupted. (WP)

* At least 167 people in LA County have been infected with the mu variant. (Los Angeles Times)

* New Studies Find Evidence Of 'Superhuman' Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals (NPR)

* Taliban Claim Control Over Panjshir Valley, but Resistance Vows to Fight On -- Militants posted images apparently taken in Bazarak, the capital of Panjshir Province in Afghanistan, where opposition forces have fought against their rule. (NYT)

* David Weir communes with the ghosts of Balkh, a legendary city in Afghanistan. (Los Angeles Review of Books/Journal of the Plague Year)

* Taliban consolidates control of Afghanistan, but women’s rights protesters aren’t done yet (WP)

* Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department will work to protect the safety of people seeking abortions in Texas as the agency continues to explore how it can challenge the state’s new anti-abortion law. The department will also provide federal law enforcement support when an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is “under attack." [HuffPost]

* The Minnesota State Patrol purged emails and text messages immediately after protests over the death of George Floyd last year, according to testimony in a lawsuit that alleges the agency targeted journalists during the unrest. “The purge was neither accidental, automated, nor routine,” ACLU attorneys wrote. State Patrol spokesperson Bruce Gordon told the Star Tribune that officers follow all requirements for retaining data and that he couldn’t comment further. [AP]

* As Western states contend with increasingly catastrophic wildfires, some are looking to the Southeast, where prescribed fire is widespread thanks to policies put in place decades ago. Western states, by contrast, have struggled to expand the use of controlled burns. (NPR)

* Lake Tahoe evacuation orders lifted, but fire threat remains (AP)

* As thousands of South Lake Tahoe residents who fled California’s Caldor Fire were cleared to return to their homes this weekend, officials warned there may be an unexpected threat waiting for them: bears. With humans away for more than a week, the local bears became bolder, making more appearances in centrally located, urban neighborhoods than they usually do. [HuffPost]

* Climate Change Is The Greatest Threat To Public Health, Top Medical Journals Warn (NPR)

* The Ways 9/11 Changed Pop Culture in America (WSJ)

* World’s Cartographers Continue Living Secret Life Of Luxury On Idyllic, Never Disclosed 8th Continent (The Onion)

***

"Tell Me Your Story"

Sung by Skamp

Tell me your story, I’ll tell you mine,
Sit down beside me, Let’s pass the time,
Talkin’of the nothing and everything we have,
We got lots in common, everybody has,
Tales from our past, all that drives us mad,
Dreams for the future, hopes we once had,
Sorrow, joy and regrets, What you plan on doing next?
What you haven’t done quite yet,
N’ memories we’ll never forget
We ain’t always as we seem
You don’t know the places I’ve been
You ain’t seen the things I’ve seen
They’d keep you from your sleep
Tell me your story n’ I’ll tell you mine,
Pass me the bottle, I’ll pour the wine,
Talkin’ of the old times,
Dreamin’ of a new life,
We all know what that’s like
‘Coz we all feel the same inside

As Our Veils Slip

I awoke from a dream in the middle of the night about the taking off of veils. But before I get to that, I'm focused on the various effects -- some obvious, some more subtle -- that the pandemic has had on us and is still having on us.

An example is the Black Lives Matter movement that had emerged starting in 2013 but erupted for real in the late spring/early summer of 2020 when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by holding a knee on his neck whiles Floyd gasped "I can't breathe."

This happened at the very moment that Covid-19 was raging out of control, sickening and killing millions by suffocation, as they too were drawing their final breath. Yet millions of healthy people took to the streets wearing masks to peacefully protest Floyd's murder and police brutality. 

It was one of the largest mass protests in American history.

As 2020 went on, many of us were forced to stay indoors not only out of fear of Covid but by one of the worst wildfire seasons in recorded history, which filled the air with toxic smoke. Going outside meant that we would not be able to breathe, so once again we turned to masks for what little protection they could provide.

Historically, pandemics have disrupted societies and caused empires to teeter or fall, and this one was no exception. The U.S. found itself under the influence of a man would be its dictator, a raging fool who thundered that the virus was fake, that masks were a joke, that the virus was an Asian plot, that only he could save the world.

He was the most dangerous cult leader America has ever known.

But it was an election year and not everyone joined his cult. In fact, many more Americans voted to dethrone him than to keep him in power, so he summoned his legions of reactionary followers to come to the nation's capitol, where they assaulted the Capitol building at the very moment that the election results were to be certified. 

Many of the thousands who waged what they intended to be a violent insurrection were masked, not against disease but against identification by law enforcement because what they were doing was blatantly illegal and traitorous.

After many hours, injuries and some deaths, the mob was repelled but only after legislators of both parties, some masked, some unmasked, cowered in fear for their lives.

All of these shocks and more reverberated through our society as the duly elected new government shakily took power and issued emergency-use authorizations for the vaccines that finally promised relief. After 18 months, the desperation of an isolation from friends and family that resulted in symptoms of a mass post traumatic stress syndrome unprecedented in our lifetimes began to ease.

Tentatively, we started to lower our masks in public.

But even as we were taking the earliest steps of returning to a pre-pandemic normality, our country's military conceded defeat and withdrew from a faraway land where masks have long been a symbol of suppressing women and holding them in virtual state of servitude. The U.S. had other reasons to wage its 20-year-war but liberating Afghanistan's women was one of the main justifications given for the war to the public.

In the process, that empty promise caused millions of Afghan girls and women seeking to become educated, fully equal members of their society to drop their veils and try to be free.

But those dreams were crushed when the same type of reactionary forces who rushed the U.S. Capitol building took over power in Kabul, pushing women now fearful for their very lives back into their homes, unable to go outside without the veil once again.

Late last night, someone sent me a photograph of a university classroom inside Afghanistan today, where  the students now have to sit separated by gender in a chamber with a large curtain between them. Mixing is strictly prohibited. In addition, the women are all wearing headscarves and their bodies are completely covered in the traditional dress that until a few weeks ago most of them eschewed in favor of Western-style clothes.  (Reuters published this photo -- link below).

I'm not suggesting that  Western clothes are superior to traditional Moslem clothing. I'm saying it should be up to those young women to choose, not the Taliban.

All of these developments have occurred as the pandemic continues. It is under control in some places but not in others. Wearing a mask is voluntary in some circumstances, mandatory in others. I suspect this will go on for quite some time, perhaps forever.

Because all of us have been changed by Covid, for better or for worse. Some veiling is here to stay.

***

I'm just a writer. My tools are the words I choose in my essays, my stories and my letters. Words can wear masks as well; these may be considered veiled references. A common usage is in veiled threats, but veiled promises are an option as well. Like clothes, which cover the body but also uncover the body, well-chosen words can float in and out of their veils, like dancing in a foggy night.

So here was my dream.

It was a foggy night. A masked woman, strange yet familiar, asked me to dance with her. I couldn't be sure of her exact identity because of her veil, nor could she be certain of mine for the same reason. Neither of us lowered our masks as the dance began, but we moved in concert, first one way, then another. We held each other at a distance but ever so slowly we moved closer together.

The dance went on and on. I could feel her breathing and she could feel mine. We locked eyes and arms but we couldn't see each other's lips so we did not know what expressions lay beneath our veils. 

As we held each other more closely, our trust grew, and then, ever so slowly, our masks began to slip.

***

That's it. I don't know how the dream ends because I woke up. But the next time I go to sleep, maybe it will return. I hope so.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Covid Deaths Surge Across a Weary America as a Once-Hopeful Summer Ends -- Cases are starting to fall in some hard-hit Southern states, but nearly half of Americans are not fully vaccinated, allowing the Delta variant to persist. (NYT)

* Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees (NYT)

* David Weir communes with the ghosts of Balkh, a legendary city in Afghanistan. (Los Angeles Review of Books/Journal of the Plague Year)

* ‘My homeland, my only love’: fleeing Afghans embrace 1998 song -- Lyrics to "My Homeland" strike powerful chord with new generation of refugees from war-torn country. (The Guardian)

*U.S. Citizens and Afghans Wait for Evacuation Flights From Country’s North (NYT)

* A journalist and a former soldier discuss what their experience in Afghanistan taught them about the war. (The Intercept)

* Taliban claims victory over last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan -- The group said it seized control of Panjshir province, a restive mountain region, cementing its total control over Afghanistan a week after U.S. forces departed the country. (WP)

* A curtain divides male, female students as Afghan universities reopen (Reuters)

* Hundreds of health centres at risk of closure in Afghanistan - WHO (Reuters)

* Texans seeking abortions have options — but they are very limited (WP)

* The Texas Preview of a World Without Roe v. Wade (New Yorker)

* ‘Everyone Is on the List’: Fear Grips Nicaragua as It Veers to Dictatorship (NYT)

* The covid endgame: Is the pandemic over already? Or are there years to go? (WP)

* In Florida, a summer of death and resistance as the coronavirus rampaged (WP)

* Republican focus on state, judicial power gives GOP wins on voting, abortion, guns -- Democrats may control the elected levers of power in Washington, but the party now finds itself playing defense amid divisions about what to do next and growing fears that Republicans will be able to preserve their structural electoral and judicial advantages for years to come. (WP)

* It’s a real possibility that our next 9/11 could arrive from within (WP)

* Religious exemptions to vaccine mandates could test 'sincerely held beliefs' -- No major religion opposes vaccinations. (NBC)

* Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer (WP)

* The race to rescue Florida’s diseased corals (WP)

* The SF Giants out dueled the LA Dodgers, 2 wins to 1 in an epic weekend series to retain first place in the NL West, as well as the best overall W-L record in MLB baseball (87-50), one game ahead of the Dodgers with 25 games left in the regular season. (DW)

* Report: Average American Worker Replaced Within 10 Minutes Of Taking Vacation (The Onion)

***

"In Dreams" (excerpt)

Roy Orbison

Boudleaux Bryant

I close my eyes then I drift away
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer like dreamers do
Then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you

In dreams I walk with you
In dreams I talk to you
In dreams you're mine all of the time
We're together in dreams, in dreams

But just before the dawn
I awake and find you gone
I can't help it
I can't help it
If I cry
I remember that you said goodbye

It's too bad that all these things
Can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams