ABSTRACT
In Afghanistan, few would argue that since 2001, and notably in the three years of the surge, significant progress has been made in the areas of education, health, media, and the diminishment of local Al Qaeda networks. But those gains are reversible, at best tenuous, and could turn on a dime if the Taliban ever returned to power. “You can’t overturn a patriarchal society in ten years,” said Palwasha Hassan, activist and cofounder of Afghan Women’s Education Center. “Positive changes take a long time—but negative changes happen quickly.” (Providence moves slowly, but the devil hurries.) I kept those thoughts in mind as Joellen and I set out on Sunday morning, September 9, the martyr Massoud’s day. We were embarking on a Joycean extended-day-tour-within-a-tour, an improvised excursion through Kabul’s incrustations of time and place.
