the_taliban_shuffle_-_kim_barker

the deal, reporting that the video showed Sabit dancing giddily, slurring
his words, apparently drunk. I didn’t think that the dancing man was
Sabit—but as usual in Afghanistan, the truth didn’t matter. His fall was
complete. Afghanistan’s Don Quixote, who rode to power tilting at
brothels and booze, was finished.
Things deteriorated further. I was going slightly stir-crazy after
imposing my own security lockdown due to all the attacks and
kidnappings. So right before leaving Afghanistan, I decided to see old
friends, making use of my new driver. On a Friday afternoon, I dropped
by a going-away party for a stranger at a security-guy hangout with its
own bar. Within half an hour, I wanted out. After extensive instructions,
my driver picked up three of us to go to L’Atmosphère. He couldn’t
find it. Our conflicting directions probably didn’t help.
“Doesn’t he know where anything is?” a friend asked.
“Apparently not,” I answered.
“How did you find this guy?”
“Farouq.”
“This isn’t safe,” she said. “The situation’s too bad to be just driving
around with no idea where we are. I want to talk to Farouq.”
I called Farouq. This was probably not a good idea. This was Friday,
Farouq’s day o. In an attempt to show how productive I was, how
useful I was, I had been pushing Farouq harder than in years, harder
than he was used to working. I listened to my friend tell Farouq how
the young man didn’t know enough to be a driver. She was right—but
this conversation would have fallout. She was challenging Farouq’s
Pashtun-ness and questioning him in a way that was not good. Farouq
wanted to talk to the driver, then me. He was icy.
“He is just a boy. He is just learning. And you’re making him work
too late at night.”
“If I’m paying $50 a day for a driver, he has to work,” I said. “And it’s
only eight o’clock.”
The next week, Farouq told me the driver could not work in the
evenings.
“Because of the situation,” Farouq said. “He’s just a boy.”
The attacks in Afghanistan were almost always between seven and
ten in the morning, and we had adjusted our schedule accordingly. Only
one major attack had been at night.