Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium

by Tim Bonyhady

  CHAPTER 14

  Scoop

  On the language of ‘rebels’, see Crews, p. 261. For the publication of McCurry’s work from late December 1979, see McCurry, Untold, pp. 11–12, 14–15. For François Lochon, see his Reportages, Nathan, Paris, 1988, pp. 8–17; Michel Guerrin, Profession Photoreporter, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris, 1988, p. 65; and, especially, Match, 18 January 1980, cover, pp. 30–9. For Patrice Franceschi and Pascal Manoukian, see Franceschi’s Guerre en Afghanistan 27 april 1978–31 mai 1984, Table Ronde, Paris, 1984. On Van Es and Williams, see ‘Photographer Who Took Famous Vietnam War Image Dies’, Guardian, 15 May 2009. Conor O’Clery wrote in the Irish Times, 26 January 1980, p. 13. For Hafizullah Amin and the Pul-e Charkhi Prison in the Kabul New Times (KNT), see its extensive coverage from 1 to 14 January 1980.

  CHAPTER 15

  Shooting in Afghanistan

  Aleksandr Prokhanov wrote about the camera in A Tree in the Centre of Kabul, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1982. For the posters and night letters, see Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilization, Harper Perennial, London, 2006, pp. 69–70, 108. For the February uprising, see Andreas Kohlschütter, ‘Der blutige Freitag in Kabul’, Zeit, 7 March 1980. For the continued protests, see NYT, 11 May 1980. For the Tass photograph of four teachers, see Match, 11 April 1980, pp. 62–5. For Romano Cagnoni, see Sunday Times Magazine, 18 May 1980, pp. 26–33; Match, 20 June 1980, pp. 38–45. For the dearth of evidence of killings of Soviets in Kabul, see Sunday Times, 27 July 1980, p. 15. Jack Garofalo’s photographs appeared in Match, 8 August 1980. Jill Tweedie wrote in the Guardian, 31 July 1980, p. 8. For alleged Soviet atrocities, see Le Figaro Magazine, 23 May 1980, pp. 51–57. For the Islamic Party photographs, see NYT, 11 January 1980, p. A8; Newsweek, 10 March 1980, p. 12; Literaturnaya Gazeta, 16 January 1980; The Truth about Afghanistan, Novosti, Moscow, 1980, p. 54. For Salvatore Vitale’s photographs, see Match, 7 March 1980, pp. 60–3; For Steve McCurry and Peter Jouvenal, see Time, 28 April 1980, p. 31; Match, 2 May 1980, pp. 28–31; Afghanistan: The Dark Ages, BBC, 2001. For Carter and ‘freedom fighters’, see Anthony Teitler, US Policy Towards Afghanistan: ‘A Force for Good’, Taylor & Francis, London, 2020, pp. 59–60. For Alain Mingam, see Observer, 13 July 1980, p. 5; Match, 25 July 1980, pp. 28–33; India Today, 1 August 1980, pp. 64–5; Mark Blaisse, ‘Reporters’ Perspectives’ in David L. Paletz & Alex P. Schmid (eds), Terrorism and the Media, Sage, Newbury Park, 1992, p. 140. For Pascal Manoukian and Patrice Franceschi, see Match, 20 June 1980; Guerrin, p. 64.

  CHAPTER 16

  The Modern City

  For the invitation to suggest a new flag and its unveiling, see KNT, 22 January 1980, p. 1; 22 April 1980, p. 1. For graffitiing of posters, see Gauhari, pp. 187–8. For instruction in poster-making, see KNT, 4 January 1981, p. 4. For the use of art more generally by the communists, see the series of articles by Mateuz M. Klagisz, ‘Visual Propaganda in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan’, in the Polish Journal of Arts and Culture, 2016–17. Rosanne Klass wrote ‘Missing in Action: Treasures of Afghanistan’, Asia, March–April 1981, pp. 27–35, 52. The issue of Frigidaire is no. 37, December 1983. For the stadium’s use as a processing centre, see NYT, 20 January 1982. For a photograph of a poster of Madonna, see the plates in Nick Danziger, Danziger’s Adventures: From Miami to Kabul, Harper Collins, London, 1992. For key rebuttals by Deborah and Max Klimburg, Carla Grissmann and Nancy Hatch Dupree, see Asia, May–June 1981, pp. 4–5; July–August 1981, pp. 3–5. For Ronald Reagan and ‘freedom fighters’, see Ivanchikova, p. 100; Teitler, pp. 65–8. Reagan’s speech was on 1 March 1985 at the annual dinner of the Conservative Political Action Committee. For the bombing of Afghan Film, see Washington Post, 1 February 1984. Shahrokh Hatami’s photographs appeared in Stern, 8 August 1985, pp. 24–29. For the Reconciliation sculpture, see Afghanistan Today, no. 1, January–February 1988, p. 27. For ‘the bandits dress as women’, see Mikhail Koloskov, Fighters for the Faith? No, Hired Killers, Novosti, Moscow, 1986, p. 86. For Najibullah as ‘Minister for Killing’, see Christina Lamb, Waiting for Allah: Pakistan’s Struggle for Democracy, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1991, p. 246. For the chadari’s nicknames, see Latifa, My Forbidden Face, Virago, London, 2002, p. 40. Masuma Esmati Wardak was quoted in NYT, 12 December 1988; AP, 9 October 1989.

  CHAPTER 17

  A Fact of Life

  For the Copelands, see Age, 10 April 1984, p. 26. For children’s art, see Afghanistan Today, no. 2, March–April 1988. For the grave with an embroidered flag, see Shekhar Gupta, ‘Dead Men Tell Tales’, India Today, 30 April 1988, p. 77. For the National Gallery, see KNT, 19 February 1983, p. 1; 26 February 1983, p. 3; 4 June 1984, p. 4. For the ideal Soviet home, see Susan E. Reid, ‘Khrushchev Modern: Agency and Modernization in the Soviet Home’, Cahiers du Monde, vol. 47, no. 1/2, pp. 227–68. For Peter Renz’s carpet, see Schwarzwälder Bote, 12 April 1985, Houston Chronicle, 16 April 1985; Calgary Herald, 17 April 1985, p. A7. Free Afghanistan, summer 1985, no. 2, p. 17, reproduced a war rug. Fritz Billeter wrote in Tages Anzeiger Magazin, 27 September 1986, pp. 32–8. For the ‘Reagan Market’, see Milwaukee Journal, 5 June 1987, p. 10A. Knauer talked about the response to war rugs in 1987 and their rejection as home decoration in her speech at the opening of her 1994 exhibition Afghanistan: Krieg und Alltag in Freiburg im Breisgau. Richard S. Ehrlich reported about war rugs in ‘Flying with Soviet-backed Marxists: Above the War in Afghanistan’, December 1987. Fred Balling wrote in Oriental Rug Review, December 1987–January 1988, p. 27; Tatiana Divens in Oriental Rug Review, June–July 1988, pp. 28–9; January 1989, pp. 13–15. The Toronto Star reported Mushtaq Barakzai’s rug on 20 January 1987. Shekhar Gupta wrote about war rugs in India Today, 30 April 1989, p. 100. For Brancati’s collection, see Dall’ Afghanistan all’Italia: I Tappeti della Guerra Russo-Afghana, Turin, 2018. Ewa Kuryluk wrote ‘The Afghan War Rugs’, Arts Magazine, February 1989, pp. 73–4.

  CHAPTER 18

  Kalashnikov Culture

  For Safer Ali and Hadschi Karim, see Karin Knauer, Afghanistan: Krieg und Alltag, Museum für Völkerkunde, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1994, pp. 74–79, 91–100. For Mohm’s collection, see Jürgen Wasim Frembgen & Hans Werner Mohm, Lebensbaum und Kalaschnikov: Krieg und Frieden im Spiegel afghanischer Bildteppiche, Gollenstein, Blieskastel, 2000. For the conditions of weavers, see Saiyeda Zia Al-Jalaly, ‘Carpet Weaving Afghan Refugee Women: A Study of their Living and Working Conditions in the Camps in Afghanistan’, Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford, n.d. For Afghan rug dealers in Peshawar, see Harriet Sandys, ‘Chicken Street comes to Peshawar’, Free Afghanistan, no. 5, 1986, pp. 19–20. For the pink silk Kalashnikov cover and more usual green embroidery, see Sheila Paine, The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush to Razgard, Michael Joseph, London, 1994, p. 271; Sheila Paine, Embroidery from Afghanistan, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2006, introduction. George Arney wrote about the mats in his Afghanistan, Mandarin, London, 1990, p. 168. For Mohammad Dadfar on war carpets, see Deanna Hodgin, ‘Where Carpets Tell a Sad Tale’, 1989. For McCurry’s photographs, see his Untold, pp. 22–3. On the Kalashnikov symbolising ‘anarchy in arms’, see Mahnaz Ispahani, ‘The Perils of Pakistan’, The New Republic, 16 March 1987, pp. 19–21. Prokhanov wrote in ‘Notes on Armour’, published in Literaturnaya Gazeta on 28 August 1985, published in English by the Washington Post, 29 September 1985. Kalashnikov mats are pictured in Jake Border, ‘Bizarre Bazaar’, Soldier of Fortune, January 1990, pp. 63–5, 100–1.

  CHAPTER 19

  The Misery of the Afghans

  For Ghausuddin, see Mohammad Nabi Kohzad, ‘The Opening of the Salon d’Automne in Kabul’, Afghanistan, October–December 1946, pp. 28–35; Goyal, Afghanistan, p. 258; KT, 28 August 1966, p. 3; 7 May 1967, p. 3; 13 April 1969, p. 3; 1 October 1969, p. 2; KNT, 29 September 1980, p. 4; 30 April 1981, p. 1; 16 June 1981, p. 1; 26 January 1983, p. 4; 31 October 1983, p. 3; 12 March 1984, p. 4; 7 June 1984, p. 2; 16 August 1984, p. 2; KT, 12 May 2013, p. 4. The interview with Ghausuddin initially appeared in Barnett Rubin
, To Die in Afghanistan, Helsinki Watch, New York, 1985, pp. 99–105; then as ‘An Artist in Afghanistan’, New York Review of Books, 12 June 1986. For painted rickshaws, see Christina Lamb, The Sewing Circles of Herat, Harper Collins, London, 2002, p. 2. For the cartoons of the Internal Islamic Front of Afghanistan, see Anthony Hyman, Propaganda Posters of the Afghan Resistance, Central Asian Survey Incidental Paper No. 3, 1985; Martha Vogel, Roter Teufel, mächtiger Mujahid: Widerstandsbilder im sowjetisch-afghanischen Krieg 1979–1989, Böhlau, Vienna, 2008. For photographic portraits of mujahideen and their publication in mujahideen magazines, see David B. Edward, ‘Print Islam: Media and Religious Revolution in Afghanistan’, Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 68, July 1995, p. 179, and his Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2017, pp. 57–68. For photographs of the dead, see Patrick Forestier, ‘Pour les Russes, plutôt le suicide que le capture’, Match, 17 July 1981, pp. 66–7; Sunday Times, 26 July 1981, p. 19; 20 December 1981, p. 6. For Margaret Thatcher’s enthusiasm for photography, see Daily Telegraph, 30 December 2011. On the Afghan Media Resource Center, see Frank Jossi, ‘Front-Line Journalist’ in Richard T. Arndt & David Lee Rubin (eds), The Fullbright Difference, Transaction, New Brunswick, 1993, pp. 441–4. Habib Kawyani wrote about his work in Free Afghanistan, nos 4, 6. For Nick Downie on why not to film in Afghanistan, see Observer, 21 January 1982, p. 13; Sunday Times, 15 April 1984, p. 54. Chris Gregory’s photographs were in the Sunday Times, 27 May 1984, p. 5; Time, 11 June 1984, pp. 12–13; Match, 29 June 1984, pp. 58–63. See, more generally, Julian Gregory, ‘Brits in Afghanistan: Chris Gregory’, Free Afghanistan, no. 3, 1986, pp. 17–19. For Peter Jouvenal and his filming, see Julian Gregory, ‘Brits in Afghanistan: Peter Jouvenal’, Afghanistan: A Spirit of Resistance, no. 1, pp. 14–15. For punishment as spectacle in Islam, see Juan R. I. Cole, ‘The Taliban, Women and the Hegelian Private Sphere’ in Robert D. Crews & Amin Tarzi (eds), The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, Harvard UP, Harvard, 2005, p. 129. For Rory Peck, see David Loyn, Frontline: Reporting from the World’s Deadliest Places, Summersdale, Chichester, 2011, p. 61. On the shift to khaki, see Spectator, 13 August 1988, p. 10. Guy Munthe wrote about mujahideen offers to decapitate soldiers in Sunday Times, 21 July 1985. Jeff Harmon wrote about Jihad in the Sunday Times, 11 August 1985. On The Battle for Afghanistan, see NYT, 4 October 1989. The photographs by the Afghan Media Research Center were published as What You Hear and What We Experience, Cultural Department National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, 1987, and on the cover of Liberation Front, vol. 2, no. 14, December 1987. Sikorski’s account and photograph appeared in the Observer, 11 August 1987; 1 November 1987; 14 February 1988; and his Dust of the Saints: A Journey to Herat in Time of War, Chatto, London, 1989, pp. 137–43.

  CHAPTER 20

  The Most Beautiful Girl

  For Afghan refugees in Pakistan, see Nancy Hatch Dupree, ‘The Afghan Refugee Family Abroad: A Focus on Pakistan’, Afghanistan Studies Journal, no. 1, 1988, pp. 29–44. For Sadiq Twafiq, see Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1988. McCurry’s photograph was on the cover of Newsweek, 10 January 1983. For more on Nasir Bagh, see Deborah Denker, ‘Along Afghanistan’s War-torn Frontier’, National Geographic, June 1985, pp. 772–97. For the resemblance between McCurry’s photograph and fashion photography, see Holly Edwards, ‘Cover to Cover: The Life Cycle of an Image in Contemporary Visual Culture’, in Matt Reinhardt et al. (eds), Beautiful Suffering, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007, pp. 82–3. For the response of readers, see National Geographic, October 1985, letters. For a key account from McCurry, see his Untold, pp. 70–9. The photograph was also on the cover of American Photographer, December 1987. Rosemary Ranck fixed on McCurry’s ‘intrusive telephoto lens’ in NYT, 19 March 1995. For McCurry’s accounts of how he took the photo, see Sunday Times, 20 June 1999; The Oprah Winfrey Show, 5 November 2001; ABC News, 5 November 2001; Nationl Public Radio (NPR), 5 November 2001; Observer, 3 February 2002; USA Today, 13 March 2002. Cathy Newman wrote about Sharbat Gula’s anger in National Geographic, April 2002. For the arrest in 2016 and its aftermath, see Indo-Asian News Service, 27 October 2016; Guardian, 4 November 2016; Khamma Press, 8 November 2016; New York Times, 10 November 2016; Express Tribune, 10 November 2016, 19 January 2017; Daily Times, 27 September 2017.

  CHAPTER 21

  USSR Cannot Have Afghanistan

  For Vladislav Tamarov, see his Afghanistan: Soviet Vietnam, Mercury

  House, San Francisco, 1992, esp. p. 138. For Alexsandr Sekretarev, see ‘Soviet News Photographer Killed in Afghanistan’, UPI, 5 May 1988. For Soviet characterisations of the exit from Afghanistan, see NYT, 27 January 1989; 3 February 1989. For the poster labelled ‘mujahideen’, see Washington Post, 2 February 1989. For a reassessment of Hekmatyar, see Wall Street Journal, 11 February 1988. For the posters depicting Massoud’s dead commanders, see NYT, 30 August 1989; for the video, see Afghan News, January 1991, p. 6. For the CIA’s doctoring of Rambo videos, see Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin, London, 2004, p. 195. Diana West wrote about war rugs in Washington Times, 22 August 1989. They were in Stern, 20 April 1989, and the German edition of Penthouse, June 1989. Nokta Cheen wrote about Afghans having little appetite for violence on screen in KT, 20 April 1972, p. 3. For Dostum’s men as carpet baggers, see M. Hasan Kakar, A Political and Diplomatic History of Afghanistan 1863–1901, Leiden, Brill, 2006, p. 272. For Rambo III’s popularity in Kabul, see Globe and Mail, 30 August 1988, p. A8. For the recycling of war materials, see Shekhar Gupta, ‘The Debris of War’, India Today, 31 January 1992, p. 89. Joyce Ware wrote ‘The Afghan War Rugs’, Fiberarts, summer 1990, pp. 39–42. The Ambalos advertised in Hali, no. 54, December 1990, p. 67. For discussion of the Liberty’s advertisement in Good Housekeeping, May 1990, pp. 60–1, see Penina Barnett, ‘Rugs R Us (And Them): The Oriental Carpet as Sign and Text’, Third Text, vol. 9, no. 30, 1995, pp. 13–28. Christopher Kremmer discussed his aversion to war rugs in opening the 2003 exhibition, Rugs of War, at the Canberra School of Art.

  CHAPTER 22

  Green

  A copy of the interim government’s poster is in the University of Chicago Library as part of its collection of Middle Eastern Posters. For the poster in the Mujahideen Monthly, see Crews, pp. 266–7. For ‘gunmen’, see Edwards, Caravan of Martyrs, p. 79. For ‘better off with Najibullah’, see AP, 28 April 1994. For Ismael Khan and Rashid Dostum, see Antonio Giustozzi, The Eye of the Storm: Cities in the Vortex of Afghanistan’s Civil Wars, Crisis States Working Papers Series no. 2, November 2009, pp. 11–12. For Noor Sher, see Qais Akbar Omar, A Fort of Nine Towers, Picador, London, 2013, esp. pp. 33, 57–60, 64–5. For the best accounts of the National Museum in the mid-1990s, see the articles by Carla Grissmann and Nancy Hatch Dupree in the SPACH Newsletter. For ‘forgotten war’, see NYT, 17 November 1980; Washington Post, 16 May 1993. For Rabbani on the mujahideen’s first anniversary, see AFP, 28 April 1993. For Amnesty International’s account of Nahid’s death, see its ‘Women in Afghanistan: A Human Rights Catastrophe’, 17 May 1995. Gary Geddes wrote about Asefi in Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas, Sterling, New York, 2007, pp. 92–6. Rabbani’s speech on Mother’s Day, 1993 was reported by the Asia-Pacific Service of the BBC, 17 June 1993. For Rambo III, see Reuters, 13 June 1993. For cinemas and film censorship, see Straits Times, 1 May 1992; BBC, 26 August 1995. For Barmak’s censorship of films, see BBC, 26 August 1995. For Uruj, see Reuters, 1 January 1996; Jason Elliot, Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan, Picador, London, 2000, p. 453, note 47. For Khalid Hadi and his photographs, see Ed Grazda, ‘Searching for Mullah Omar’, Vanity Fair, February 2003; Portraits from Afghanistan: Khalid Hadi, Southeast Museum of Photography, 2011. For men’s clothes and the joke about the goat, see Reuters, 15 June 1992. For enforcement of the dress code for women, see Nelofer Pazira, Red Flowers: In Search of my Afghanistan, Free Press, NY, 2005, p
p. 273–4. Nachtwey’s photographs appeared in Time, 24 June 1996, p. 40.

  CHAPTER 23

  White

  Peter Popham wrote in the Independent on Sunday, 17 January 1999, p. 14. For commemoration of dead Taliban, see Robert D. Crews & Amin Tarzi, ‘Introduction’ to The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, p. 46. Christopher Kremmer wrote about the graffiti and the carpets with similar imagery in The Carpet Wars, Flamingo, Sydney, 2002, p. 23. For the group of female media workers led by Shafiqa Habibi, see AFP, 22 July 1996; Christian Science Monitor, 8 August 1996. For the protest led by Amena Safi Afzali, see AFP, 4 September 1996. For ‘figure-hugging’ hijab, see AFP, 29 May 2001. For the Siddiqi sisters under the Taliban, see Guardian, 27 December 1996; Ms, 1 May 1997. For responses of women in Kabul to the mujahideen and the Taliban, see Harriet Logan, Unveiled: Voices of Women in Afghanistan, Regan Books, New York, 2002, pp. 13, 21. For RAWA in the USA, see NYT, 14 May 2000, p. 23; Nation, 29 May 2000, p. 10; 5 March 2001, p. 10. Latifa recounted the white shoes incident in My Forbidden Face, p. 49. The most nuanced account of the position of women is Nancy Hatch Dupree, ‘Afghan Women under the Taliban’, in William Maley (ed.), Fundamentalism Reborn?: Afghanistan and the Taliban, Hurst, London, 1998, pp. 145–66. Tom Cole wrote about his visit to Mazar in ‘The Texture of Time’, Hali, no. 93, 1997. For Hindus having to wear yellow (or red), see John Alfred Gray, At the Court of the Amir of Afghanistan, Bentley, London, 1895, p. 13; Hafizullah Emadi, Dynamics of Political Development in Afghanistan, Palgrave, New York, 2010, p. 13. For the Taliban’s partial support for girls’ education, see Michael Rubin, ‘Afghanistan: As Bad as its Reputation?’ Middle East Quarterly, September 2000, pp. 56–65. For Shelter Now International, see ‘Aid workers admit talking religion with Afghans’, PM ABC, 30 November 2001.