- Title: For Afghan youth, peace talks put stylish hair, music and sports in the balance
- Date: 28th January 2019
- Summary: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (FILE - MAY 16, 2018) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET MARKET IN FRONT OF BLUE MOSQUE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH MARKET
- Embargoed: 11th February 2019 11:02
- Keywords: Afghanistan youth peace talks society music future sports Taliban hair fashion
- Location: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
- City: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
- Country: Afghanistan
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security
- Reuters ID: LVA0089Z70WNB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: When the hardline Taliban were in power, Afghan men sported bushy beards and women and girls were denied education and didn't dare venture out of their homes, unless they had a male family member with them and their faces or heads were covered.
But now, nearly two decades since the fall of the regime in 2001, life in Kabul and some of Afghanistan's larger cities is starting to catch up with the rest of the world. Health, education and infrastructure have improved, and along with-it social freedoms have expanded.
Millions of teenagers have lived through this transition which has been volatile and under heavy guard by international troops whose presence peaked at 100,000 around 2010. Now some are enjoying careers and hobbies that may have seen them executed publicly had they tried to pursue them in the 1990s at the height of the Taliban control.
But with a draft peace agreement on the horizon which would see the withdrawal of foreign troops within 18 months, teenagers are pondering their future.
Hairdresser Hussain, 19, was born in Iran, where his father had fled the civil war in 1992 to take refuge. But he and his family returned to their homeland in 2003 and have been in Kabul ever since.
Like young people globally born between the late 1990s and early 2000s, Afghanistan's young generation tend to rely more on the internet and technology to gain exposure to trends and culture from around the world. Clean-shaven Hussain became interested in hairdressing through the media. This was, and still is, a novelty in a country where barbers had been out of business for years due to the Taliban edict forcing men to grow traditional beards.
There are still no hairdressing schools in Afghanistan, so Hussain was trained by one of his friends for one year in western Herat province and now works in one of the few salons in the country. For Hussain, peace means short hair, blond highlights - coiffures sported by film stars.
"When there is peace people can go about their business, girls can go to school and boys can shape their hair any way they like," he says.
The draft also includes assurances from the hardline Islamic group that it will not allow Afghanistan to be used by al-Qaeda and Islamic State to attack the U.S. and its allies - a core U.S. demand. Similar assurances involving other groups are given to Pakistan in the draft pact. The Taliban also want to be part of an interim government after any ceasefire, Taliban sources have said.
Piano virtuoso Maram Atayee, 16, is cautiously optimistic that she will be able to continue her music, which along with television and other popular culture seen as un-Islamic, according to the radical interpretation of Islamic Law by the Taliban. Even now some conservative Afghans look down on music, especially those using instruments.
"It would be great if the government and the Taliban reach a peace deal. If that happens, then there should still be access to music for everyone and the rights for girls should be upheld," says Atayee, who was born in Egypt and started piano lessons there at the age of five.
She and her family returned to Afghanistan in 2016 and Atayee joined the Afghanistan National Institute of Music which was established in 2010 and now has around 250 students, mostly girls.
In Taliban times, sports were also banned, and the national stadium was infamous as a stage for brutality where public punishments were meted out on offenders of the regime's values. But now, men and increasingly women, are undergoing training and winning medals in international competitions for sports such as Muay Thai boxing.
Kawsar Sherzad, 17, has been brought up in Kabul who started Muay Thai training three years ago, and won two bronze medals last year in competitions held in South Korea and Thailand.
She hopes that the Taliban will realise the potentials of Afghan athletes, as she and other female athletes have worked so hard to get where they are now.
"Afghan females have had a lot of achievements in sports, so I am optimistic that the Taliban will accept these achievements," she says.
Afghanistan has a strikingly young and fast-growing population, with 60 percent of the country under the age of 25 and half under the age of 15, according to the United Nation's population agency. Many young Afghans have had to deal with near-daily violence and a struggling economy but have no first-hand experience of life under the Taliban. But they've learned to loathe them, and the memories society has of their era.
Fashion-conscious Sultan Qasim Sayeedi, 18, is a model and was born after the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-led coalition forces. It was one of his big dreams to become a model and he wants to promote the traditional clothes of Afghanistan.
He managed to get onto model training programs in Pakistan and India and he and his fellow models -- there are 40 models in their group which includes 10 females -- strut their stuff regularly on the catwalk, showing colorful creations of local designers, clothes that the Taliban would have disapproved.
"I hate the Taliban because of their violence, conflict, atrocities (they have committed) and their vision of war," says Sayeedi.
News of progress on a deal comes as the Taliban continues to stage near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces and the next round of talks is set for February 25. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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