KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In parts of Afghanistan where there are no street names or house numbers, utility companies and their customers have adopted a creative approach for connecting. They use mosques as drop points for bills and cash, a “pay and pray” system.
Now the national postal service wants to phase this out by putting mailboxes on every street across the country, part of a plan to modernize a service long challenged by bureaucracy and war.
The lofty aspirations include introducing access to shopping via e-commerce sites and issuing debit cards for online purchases. It will be a leap in a country where most of the population is unbanked, air cargo is in its infancy and international courier companies don’t deliver even to the capital, Kabul.
The changes mean Afghans will pay higher service fees, a challenge as more than half the population already relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
The Afghan Post, like much of the country, still does everything on paper. “Nobody uses email,” said its business development director, Zabihullah Omar. “Afghanistan is a member of the Universal Postal Union, but when we compare ourselves to other countries it is at a low level and in the early stages.” . . Post offices in Afghanistan are vital for women wanting to access services or products they would otherwise be denied, since they are often barred from entering ministries or other official premises.
But the spectre of the Taliban’s edicts targeting women and girls also looms at the Afghan Post.
At the entrance to the main Kabul branch, a sign tells women to correctly wear hijab, or the Islamic headscarf. One picture shows a woman with a red cross over her visible face. The other has a green check mark over the face because only her eyes are seen.
I don’t want feel good stories about a country run by literal terrorists.
Give people hope, information, mobility, and access to the global economy and you have yourself less terrorists
Yeah, I don’t buy it. The world does not need the people running the show there in any legitimate discourse. They want to run that place, let them as long as nothing leaks out.
I feel sorry for the women there but they where betrayed by their countrymen.
Keep slaves oppressed because slave masters don’t deserve credit for loosening the chains?
They are NOT loosening the chains. Whatever gives you that idea? Wishful thinking, propaganda,
tankiebrain? This is just a more optimized wat to exercise control.But we agree the Taliban are slave masters and they should not be normalized.
So no… None of these nonsense progress stories from a country that exists in the dark ages but with modern weapons.
No need for personal insults or attacks
You are right, sorry. I’m just miffed of all the people seemingly forgetting who were talking about.
I do. Regardless of the government, I want better for humanity worldwide, full stop.
The people there wanted this.
a country ran by
*run
‘is ran’ makes people think you share teeth.
“Ran” in this context is part of a dialect of English in certain parts of the US. It is spoken that way, on purpose, by native speakers, and is thus perfectly correct.
Saying that it “makes people think you share teeth” shows that you are in fact aware of this cultural distinction and your problem with the usage is not about grammar but about classism, which is also clearly on show with your bigoted description of poor southern US people.
You don’t know how to use your “native” language, but the other guy is the bad guy. The sad part is that this is probably your only language.
you suck. Bet you wouldnt say the same about the united states.
Why wouldn’t I? If the Americans end up voting trump into office again, they will get what they deserve. More dead babies, more dead mother’s, more school shootings, more income disparity if the left fails to keep Trump out of office… they fucked themselves.
My worry would be that a country that chooses cruise missiles over school lunches and warplanes over public healthcare will actively try and export their brand of christofacism to the rest of the Christian world.
It’s like with a drunk driver. I don’t care if they fold themselves around a tree in their car. It’s the others that get hurt who are the problem.
Flawed as the US is, they also do a lot of good in the world. Having the likes of China and Russia at the reigns would be worse for literally everyone.
America you mean?
With the far-right winning elections all over the world, the Taliban are going to feel right at home when they finally get to the 20th century.
Pretty sure it’s the other way around in many nations. The right’s goal is to meet the Taliban in BCE.
heh, some far right is more progressive than others…some want to go back to 1939, some want to go back to 1775…and some want to to back to 0AD (the new testament is for chumps, I guess, GOP Jesus all the way)
When the Taliban raised it’s ugly head the Brave Sir Afghan Army bravely fled. Brave brave Sir Afghan Army.
Almost made it through an artice about a postal service without propaganda about a country the west destroyed and now sanctions to hell to make life miserable for its citizens is, actually a victim of their government structure and those poor women just need to remove their headscarf which is the real oppression. Not the starvation imposed upon those women by us but the headscarf.
And nothing about the sanctions of course.
Yeah it sucks how the AP is exposing you to the reality of how women are oppressed in Afghanistan, even at the post office. The story about the post office (which actually does link to to an article about the sanctions BTW) should be focused on how evil the US is, of course! It should never ever mention that women are required to be completely covered to be able to use the postal service. We don’t want people to know about that!
Where did the Afghan infrastructure go? Did America forget to build any while they were busy raping Afghani children?
Oh no the Taliban builds a post office the horror. Quick America please save some those women by blowing them all up with an Apache helicopters.
Wow projecting really hard here, aren’t you? The institutionalized child rape perpetrated by the Taliban has been very well documented. Read “The Kite Runner” or watch the movie adaptation.
You want really hard for everyone that’s against America to be the good guys, but that’s just not how things work in the real world. The Taliban are horrible monsters. The world isn’t good guys and bad guys, just a lot of shades of grey. And the Taliban is darkest shade of grey out there.
you also forgot to mention this part https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet–Afghan_War
Can’t cope with the reality that the Taliban are far less oppressive than the burger regime? Must deflect to Russia quick.
Nobody mentioned russia, it was this former empire called the the USSR ;)
Nobody mentioned the USSR either. Does AP write their news in Cyrilic?
