Photo Essay: Tea with the Mujahideen
By Susan Hall
Written on 19 June 2008
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Istalif, is a village famous for its pottery. Sitting high above the Shomali Plain it offers a panoramic view of the Hindu Kush Mountains. The dirt road back to the main highway is winding and rutted.
On our return to Kabul our driver, Farid, pulled off at an overlook so that we could take pictures. As I walked towards a stone wall encircling an abandoned guesthouse, fiddling with the settings on my camera, I looked up and saw a mujahideen soldier carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47).
Najib, our guide, translated for us. The mujahideen rolled out a large burgundy colored carpet and we were invited to have tea. Former Northern Alliance soldiers they were cautiously optimistic about the Hamid Karzai government. After thirty years of war (Soviet invasion 1979-1989, the Civil War 1989-1995 and the Taliban 1996-2001) the men were tired of fighting.
The visit ended with a tour of a bombed out greenhouse where the mujahideen had built a shrine to assassinated Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. They proudly posed with the life size portrait of “The Lion of Panshir” which was surrounded by clay pots of red geraniums.
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This article has been submitted to the recurring theme “Roadside Attractions.”
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