Life in Kabul transforms after Taliban takeover

Fevzi Kızılkoyun - KABUL

Daily life seems to have changed in Kabul after the Taliban took control of the administration in Afghanistan at a faster rate than any Western officials expected.

While it is seen that the dressing style of young people in Kabul has changed and everyone is now wearing local clothes, crowds continue to form at all hours of the day in the streets and markets of the Afghan capital.

However, silence begins to dominate the streets as dusk falls. Restaurants and kiosks selling local food have set their closing hours to 9 p.m., which was actually 11 p.m. before the Taliban.

Although not in large numbers, it is still possible to see women on the streets and in the bazaars of Kabul. But with the Taliban takeover, most women started wearing burqas when going out.

Few women walk around with their hair covered only with scarves.

Cafes and live music venues where young boys and girls could hang out together were closed as soon as the Taliban set foot in the city. Many places, particularly Italian restaurants, have closed their shutters and their employees have left the country.

Being the most popular venues in the city, Turkish restaurants continue to serve people, but Turkish employees were evacuated to Turkey with the arrival of the Taliban.

Even though strict rules in social life are not yet conspicuous, after the closure of cafes and bars and the conservatizing of broadcasting policies of television channels, the only entertainment option for the youth in the war-torn country is cricket, the legacy of the former British rule.

Atol Alim, 21, who plays cricket on the pitch in the Nadir Pashtun region, says cricket is the only pastime for the youth in the city.

“Nobody says anything about us playing cricket right now, I don’t know what will happen next,” Alim says.

Concern is also prevalent in the words of 22-year-old Nabi Zainullah: “Young people don’t have much to do here, everyone wants to leave the country. We were a little more comfortable at first, now we don’t know what will happen.”

There is almost chaos in official institutions as the Taliban has not yet determined the administration and the former executive officers have left the country.

In the country, where official transactions are not possible, there are long queues in front of the banks of those who want to withdraw money.

The hospitals continue to serve, but the number of workers is insufficient since many doctors and health professionals have left the country.

The drug shortage in the country is alarming, and health professionals are waiting for a solution to this problem.