Subject: Eqbal Ahmad on the Talben (2000) 
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 02:11:20 +1100


Last year I spent two weeks there [in Afghanistan]. One day I heard
drums and noises outside the house where I was staying. I rushed out to
see what was going on. In this ruined bazaar, destroyed by bombs and
fighting from the war, there was a young boy. He could not have been
more than twelve. His head was shaved. There is a rope around his neck.
He is being pulled by that rope in the bazaar. There is a man behind him
with a drum. The man slowly beats the drum, dum dum dum. The boy is
being dragged through the street. I asked, "What has he done?" They said
he was caught red-handed. I thought this is a twelve years old kid. What
could he have been doing? They said, "He was caught red-handed playing
ball." I said, "What kind of ball?" They said, "A tennis ball." "What is
wrong with that?" "It is forbidden."

I went off to interview one of the Taleban leaders. He said "We have
forbidden playing ball by boys." I asked why. He said, "Because when
boys are playing ball it constitutes undue temptation to men." The same
logic that makes them lock up women behind veils and behind walls makes
them prevent boys from playing games. It's that kind of madness. (Eqbal
Ahmad, _Confronting Empire_ 2000).



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