Afghanistan

C

Music

Music is represented chiefly by traditional folk songs, ballads, and dances. Among the stringed instruments, the six-stringed rohab is thought to be the ancestor to the Western violin and cello. Other instruments include the santur (a kind of zither), a hand-pumped harmonium, the chang (a plucked mouth harp), and a variety of drums beaten with the palm and fingers. The attan dance derived from Pashtun areas is the national dance. It is performed in a large circle with the dancers clapping their hands and quickening the movements of their feet to the beat of the music. On vacation holidays or weekends Afghans often gather to play music and sing at a picnic on a river bank or in a woodland. The Taliban government forbade singing, clapping, playing musical instruments and recorded music, and all forms of dance. Many of these activities continued illicitly during Taliban rule, and once the regime fell in late 2001 many Afghans publicly rejoiced by singing and dancing.

D

Libraries and Museums

The few major libraries are located in Kābul. However, most of the materials in the Kābul University Library (founded in 1931) were dispersed during the war with the Soviets and the subsequent civil war; the National Archives was also looted and its collections removed. Taliban militants burned many thousands of library and museum books in their zealous mission to enforce their strict interpretation of Islam. The Kābul National Museum (1922), the largest in the country, was once known for its collection of early Buddhist relics. Some of the more valuable of these were reported to have been removed to the USSR during the years of the Soviet occupation; their present location is unknown. Ancient gold coins and jewelry were reported to have been taken as well. In 1993 the National Museum was blown open by rockets and subsequently looted by soldiers. The majority of the enormously rich collection was taken out through Pakistan and sold to wealthy collectors in other countries. The trade in Afghan antiquities was reported to be one of the largest producers of illicit revenues after illegal drugs. More than 2,700 works of art in the museum’s remaining collection, including many ancient cultural treasures, were destroyed in 2000 by Taliban religious police. In the regime’s interpretation of Islam, the works were considered to be idolatrous renderings of living things. After the fall of the Taliban widespread looting of Afghanistan’s archaeological sites was reported.

V

Economy

A decade of Soviet occupation, war, and economic manipulation followed by years of civil war left the economy of Afghanistan in shambles. Even in the 1970s, prior to the wars, Afghanistan had one of the lowest standards of living in the world. As the Soviet-Afghan War and its effects spread throughout the country in the early 1980s, two separate economies emerged: the urban financial and industrial facilities, tied especially to the Soviet Union, and the largely independent rural subsistence economy. The production, trafficking, and movement of drugs and weapons became a major hidden part of the economy.

Over the centuries, Afghans have developed a number of different strategies to earn a living from their difficult environment. Most Afghans are settled farmers, herders, or both, depending upon ecological, economic, and political factors. They are usually self-sufficient in foodstuffs and other necessities. Industry and mining developed considerably in the 20th century, but local handicrafts remained important.

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In 1956 the government launched the first of several five-year plans. Irrigation efforts and development of a better road and telecommunications network had top priority, with later efforts toward production of textiles, cement, electricity, fertilizer, and grain storage facilities. Progress was made to develop better trade with the outside world, especially with Europe, the United States, and Japan. Major nations aided Afghanistan in building roads, dams, hydroelectric facilities, airports, factories, and irrigation networks. After the Soviet invasion in 1979, development aid from the West ceased, and until 1991 Afghanistan was economically dependent on the USSR. Following the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Afghanistan began the reconstruction of its war-ravaged economy with assistance from international financial institutions and individual countries.

A

Labor

In 2003 the total labor force was estimated to be 11.7 million. Some 70 percent of the working population is engaged in agriculture or the raising of livestock. Many other kinds of employment were eliminated because of war. Widespread unemployment and a lack of skilled workers and administrators are among the most pressing labor problems.

B

Agriculture

Only a very small share of Afghanistan’s land, mostly in scattered valleys, is suitable for farming, and a majority of this farmland requires irrigation. Water is drawn from springs and rivers and is distributed through surface ditches and through underground channels, or tunnels, which are excavated and maintained by a series of vertical shafts. Such a tunnel is known as a karez or qanat.

Wheat is the most important crop, followed by barley, corn, and rice. Cotton is another important and widely cultivated crop. Fruit and nuts are among Afghanistan’s most important exports. Afghanistan is noted for its unusually sweet grapes and melons, grown mostly in the southwest, north of the Hindu Kush, and in the fertile regions around Herāt. Raisins are also an important export. Other important fruits are apricots, cherries, figs, mulberries, and pomegranates.

Livestock is nearly as important as crops to Afghanistan’s economy. Karakul sheep are raised in large numbers in the north. The tight curly fleece of Karakul lambs is used to make Persian lamb coats. Other breeds of sheep, such as the fat-tailed sheep, and goats are also raised.

Afghanistan has long been a major supplier in the international drug trade. In the late 1990s Afghanistan replaced Myanmar (Burma) as the world’s biggest producer of opium, producing about 4,600 metric tons in 1999. Significant quantities of hashish were also produced in Afghanistan. In July 2000 the Taliban regime banned the cultivation of opium poppies, declaring that drug use was contrary to Islam. However, the ban ultimately raised opium prices on the international drug market, and the Taliban were widely suspected of profiting from the drug trade. With the collapse of law and order in 2001, many fields were sown with opium poppies, and Afghanistan again became the world’s largest supplier. Although the interim government of Afghanistan decreed the cultivation and processing of opium poppies illegal in early 2002, many impoverished local farmers remained financially dependent on the crop.

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