An uncertain future for Kabul's booksellers
The problem with one particular publication, a bookseller in the Afghan capital Kabul explained, is not so much that it is by Michelle Obama, but that she is not wearing a hijab on the photo gracing the cover. The former US first lady’s memoir Becoming goes back on the stack, ready for a curious reader. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement seized the city in August and have declared Afghanistan an Islamic Emirate. They have not yet ordered bookshops to shut, nor imposed censorship, but a climate of tension prevails and an economic crisis has hit earnings. Near the university, Kabul’...