Afghanistan Memories: He’ll Always Have Kabul

I’d like to know who the sources were for your statements about Afghanistan before the Communist takeover (“A House, a Nation Rebuilt,” May 20). There seems to be a concerted effort by the Bush White House and its shills in the media to paint Afghanistan as some kind of “Paris of Central Asia,” as your article calls Kabul, before the commies ruined it. I spent several years in Central Asia in the ‘60s, and Kabul was not anything like Paris.

Women were not treated the way we in the West think human beings should be treated. They were not “dressed smartly in heels and pillbox hats,” unless you’re talking about the richest 1%. I’ll never forget seeing two women get out of a car in the middle of Kabul only to be immediately attacked and spat upon by two mullahs who looked as if they’d stepped right out of the 14th century. And the women were covered head to toe. These guys didn’t want them out of the house. It wasn’t until the Communist takeover that this changed and women experienced some degree of personal freedom--which was, of course, immediately taken away when the Communists were driven from power.

Howard Klein

Los Angeles