This year, the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, effectively disregarding all the efforts by the Americans to establish order there. For decades, this country has been engulfed in war, serving as a battleground for various forces.
In the fall of 2001, journalist Alla Shevelkina traveled there as part of a team from a French television channel. During her stay, she decided to keep a diary, documenting the events of each day. Of course, over the past 20 years, the country has experienced much, but the diary shows that even then, it was a shocking medieval world for people from so-called civilized nations.
I came across this book on the recommendation of Viktor Shenderovich, just a few days after the Taliban entered Kabul. Again.
From the description, it promised to be an honest and profound immersion into that very medieval reality during the days when the Taliban last ruled Kabul. I was very curious to get a glimpse of life in the country, not through official news reports, which often craft stories for dramatic or sentimental effect (sadly, this is true).
“Afghan Diary” is a very short book, just about 80 pages. This is because the author spent far less time there than one might expect—less than a month in total. Though I can understand that, under such conditions, even a month could feel like a year.
The film crew entered Afghanistan through the border with Tajikistan. And while even Tajikistan, described briefly, doesn’t seem like a prosperous country, crossing the border felt like stepping into another world, according to the description. Yet in this world, people have learned to live—they haven’t known much else. For us, Afghanistan is a country of endless war. For the Afghans themselves, it’s clear they perceive it differently:
It increasingly seems to me that the war here exists only in the imagination of Europeans and Americans—thanks to television! In reality, no one wants to or is able to fight. Everyone is just waiting for something, wandering around idly with their rifles, like people in Moscow with their mobile phones, and journalists are seen as both a source of enrichment and a cure for boredom.
And although I found it interesting to read the diary of a European—especially a woman—about this lawless country (as we perceive it), I expected more after hearing several glowing reviews from well-known figures.
Firstly, in less than a month, you can hardly see or understand much. Especially when you’re rarely allowed anywhere without a stack of permits. You notice the starkest contrasts, the things that clash most with your worldview, but this is merely surface-level; you’ll never see what lies beneath.
Secondly, this likely stems from the first point. What we get is just a glimpse of a wild country, and nothing more. The diary neither begins nor ends with anything substantial. Yes, it’s not an in-depth study where one would expect conclusions, but still… They arrived, wandered around, shot a couple of reports, and then left.
It’s also entirely unclear why the author went there in the first place. What was her personal goal?
And what they did there is equally vague. They drive around aimlessly, throwing enormous sums of money at even the barest necessities. Of course, this isn’t without reason—it’s customary in a poor country to take advantage of journalists—but their purpose for being there remains utterly opaque. Was it to film a few staged interviews where local fighters boast on camera about how valiantly they fight and how they just need more money and weapons? Judging by the diary, they shot only three or four reports…
So yes, it’s worth reading—it’s an honest perspective on a life that seems barbaric to us. But overall, it’s a collection of scattered, chaotic notes, nothing more.
My rating: 2.5/5
