How the Taliban takeover has affected Afghanistan's public libraries and reading culture?

How the Taliban takeover has affected Afghanistan‘s public libraries and reading culture?

AGRITA CHHIBBER

The condition of Khushal Baba Ketabtun, a library we founded together in 2012, was described by my old friend and mentor Zabihullah Ehsas as “the lights are off, shelves are in disarray, and dust has covered every single book.”

We made an effort to address the lack of Pashto books in Mazar-i-Sharif, the regional economic and cultural center of northern Afghanistan.

The Goethe-Institut-funded library quickly developed into a gathering place for the city’s intellectuals, nurturing and hosting a variety of literary programs, including literary critiques, poetry recitals and competitions, book reviews, guest speakers, and anniversaries of renowned authors. The library also held a collection of nearly 4,000 volumes in Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s two official languages.

Ehsas informs me over WhatsApp that “it has been seven months since anyone has peeked into the library.” A lump in his throat is audible to me. “It hurts to see how far away people are from books,”

True.

Afghanistan’s reading culture and book industry were especially heavily damaged by the Taliban takeover in August. With their rich and interesting surroundings, libraries like Khushal Baba Ketabtun became silent.

Publishers and publishing houses are experiencing a severe economic crisis, with some already having closed. As a result, the number of book outlets is fast declining.

How the Taliban takeover has affected Afghanistan's public libraries and reading culture?

Ruined and abandoned libraries

Over the course of 40 years, repressive regimes and general upheaval destroyed Afghanistan’s public libraries and reading culture.

After the mujahedeen overthrew Mohammad Najibullah, the final communist ruler, the Communists repressed religious literature, and Communist books were also destroyed.

The Taliban made further attempts to eradicate the nation’s cultural aspects in the middle of the 1990s. The most audacious example of this spree was the demolition of Buddha statues in Bamyan.

A corrupt and insurgent-ridden government showed little to no interest in restoring the nation’s libraries when the US-backed republic was founded there in 2001. They were widely ignored and continued to be inoperative.

I spent ten years observing the library on our campus while I was a professor of Pashto linguistics and literature at Balkh University in Mazar-i-Sharif before I left the country in August.

There was no extensive database at the library. A book had to be found on the shelves by anyone seeking for it. There were a few patrons in the library, all professors and students, who chose the books they needed for their studies. There was no reading there!

These libraries made place for privately run public libraries because they were unable to fulfil the demands of a post-war population that was hungry for books, especially as the number of educated young people grew quickly.

Private projects

Numerous actions were made all around the nation to increase accessibility to books and foster a culture of reading and literacy. One individual started a modest library in a village in Kandahar, the Taliban’s home province, which eventually led to a nationwide drive for book contributions. This eventually developed into a movement known as PenPath Volunteers that promoted education in the places with the greatest need.

To give women a place to read, a woman in nearby Helmand founded a small library on her own, using her own funds. Another brilliant initiative came from Charmaghz, a non-profit organization headquartered in Kabul, where young Afghans transformed vehicles they rented from the state department into mobile libraries. The program provided the most underprivileged children in Kabul with an exciting journey and a reading experience.

A teenage Afghan turned his bicycle into a library in eastern Afghanistan and sold books to Afghan tribes. Javed Amirkhil, a well-known Afghan vocalist, joined him. In Kabul, reading groups arose, including the Book Cottage for Children and Kola Poshta, where issues like hedonism, pleasure, and sex were discussed.

Numerous reading groups made an effort to reconnect Afghans with a tradition they had lost due to the ongoing war: reading.

Publishers encourage reading

Many of the exiled publishing and printing businesses, particularly those in Peshawar, returned in 2001 after the international community intervened in Afghanistan and overthrew the first Taliban rule.

The printing sector was self-sufficient by 2013.

Millions of textbooks were required quickly as the republic built and renovated schools and institutions, allowing dozens of people to participate in the book business. Two of my friends and coworkers took part in the competition.

It is hard to determine how many books have been published in Afghanistan during the past few decades because there is no functioning national ISBN agency, which is the global registration authority for books. Publishers informed me that Afghanistan joined the organisation some time in 2008, but most books were still being released without ISBNs.

Agrita Chhibber is from Jammu

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