The power of resilience of the Afghan nation is nothing less than miracle. The Afghan nation has suffered in ways that no other nation has suffered in contemporary history. It underwent a quarter of a century of an imposed war-war with all its darkness, cruelty, inhumanity and tragedy. It lived through it and now pretends to live past it. It was alive under the cruelest rules of a communist regime, under the yoke of the darkest reactionary forces, and during a long period of internal strife. Its spirit remained high and its hopes alive. Its determination to survive and to be free continued unbeaten. This nation beat the strongest adversaries and survived the darkest of oppression.

And while hunger, disease and war were claiming its members' lives in thousands, and while war, greed, foreign sinister interests and black reaction were trying to destroy its culture and its history, it resisted. Its cultural heritage not only did not die, it developed. Like the glow of a strong spark it shined through the ashes of war. While the black reactionaries were destroying remnants of the country's great past and blowing up the centuries old statues of Buddha in the heart of its nation, its sons and daughters were busy composing poems and writing prose like they were never composed or written before. While many would think that the Afghans had succumbed to war and its harsh consequences, men and women of letters were busy saving the nations historical tradition and literature.

And in doing all of the above, they also embarked on new endeavor, like revival of the political satire. Contemporary satire in Afghan letters probably began with some of the works of the late Mahmoud Tarzi, father-in-law and foreign minister of King Amanullah Khan. It did not find an opportunity to mature during the monarchy as many a time it would clash with interests of the court and its courtiers and would thus be forbidden. Still, there is a long list of new writers who, during the past quarter of a century and even before that managed to work on this aspect of the Afghan literature.

Satirical presentations have been part and parcel of the Afghan life as local entertainers would recite their works either from memory or read from texts much past midnights in village guest houses. In cities and especially in the city of Kabul which served as the center of life for the whole country, many works of satire found their way even in government control media. The Kabul Journal of the 1930s for example published works of satire under the name of Rajab Khan and Ajab Khan.

But with the new post-Taleban era, in line with the spirit of democratic process, new satire has found its way even on cyberspace. A good example of such work is presented by an Afghan site, www.zabandraz.persianblog.com. This site has developed political satire in Dari language to the heights it had never reached before. "Zabandaraz " the alias of the publisher of the site, posts poetry and prose and prints photographs of politicians and political events and gives them new meaning with an end result of making the surfer draw profound social and political conclusions. The site is in Dari.

The subjects it deals with are contemporary and interesting. One of the great themes it took up recently was interpretation of Afghan Proverbs in the context of the contemporary Afghan politics. One Afghan prover says : The one night old child traversed the path of a hundred years. Zabandaraz says the proverb refers to Mr. Hamid Karzai. Another Afghan proverb for example says: What has been brought by the wind will be blown out by the wind. Zabandaraz says this is "foreign aid." On the royal politics, Zabandaraz has posted a picture of the King's grandson, Mustafa, who apparently has been appointed ambassador. Next to the picture, Zabandaraz writes a lesson in Dari for government officials probably referring to the fact that Mustafa needs to learn the language first. The lesson reads:

Baba (the title given to the former King by the Loya Jirga, also meaning father and grandfather in Afghan languages) gave me water,
Baba went into Dilkusha (name of one of the former Royal Palaces)
Baba doesn't like Kahlilzad,
He deceived Baba
Baba has an adopted son, He is clever,
He is a Bush friend,
I have become ambassador
I will be a minister
Baba will be happy.

Besides these personal satirical expositions, Zabandaraz deals with general issues facing the new Afghanistan in a variety of articles and expositions he claims have been gathered or authored by him and members of his coalition.

The site is a testimony to the fact that the Afghan nation is alive and awake and mature and concerned. It is also a testimony to the fact that perhaps satire could be better vehicle for propagation of ideas , messages and suggestions. 02/08/03