Herat Horrors. Women killed for clothing choice

Your humble blogger, in Herat, Afghanistan, 1975

I thought about Herat because of recent horrid news that Afghani women in Herat are being shot, beaten, killed, imprisoned, because they're not following ever more draconian rules on what they can or can't wear. 

"Women in Afghanistan have officially lost all rights": link to the post by Jahanzib Wesa, summing the situation there for women. It's grim. 

Wesa asks: where's the outrage? Where's the U.N.? Where are the progressive women in the west? Why aren't they speaking out?

It got me remembering when we were there in Herat in 1975. It was pretty much the same then as it is now. 

But, you know, I didn't really think about it much at the time. Just seemed like, well, that's their culture. Because that's what they told us. I guess if we'd been asked, we might have voiced some doubts about the Burka. But we weren't asked so we didn't voice. 

It was over 50 years ago. Islam was not much of a thing. And the "culture" they told us about, they didn't tell us that it was Islam that made them suppress women like this. If anyone thinks that wearing those "Spook" costumes is no big deal, talk to women who've done it and have since liberated themselves. 

And then look below at how women are being treated by armed thugs, still, today, in 2026. Fifty years on. It seems, if anything, worse than when we were there half a century ago. It's their culture, innit.

The Ford Anglia we drove London to India, in 
the Khyber Pass, nearing Herat

Khyber Pass transport, 1975 (it's the same today...)

Full burka, Herat 1975, as today. Caption not mine...

Herat, courtyard of our lodgings. Ray, Sally, Robyn
and Herati locals. 

Herat, June 2026. 

Herat, June 2026

By the way, the photo of me at the top... that's before I got Amoebic Dysentery in Herat and had to rest-up for 6 weeks, eating only hard boiled eggs, and dosing on opium that my travel mates were kind enough to go out and score for me (though tbf, it was pretty easy). 

I found opium a Very Nice Drug.... (The dysentery not so much).

For me, amoebic dysentery kept recurring for years. One thing it did: kept me slim. When I arrived back in Australia, I shocked my family be being rake-like, a kind of hat-stand skinny. 

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ADDED. I asked AI if it's still a problem in Afghanistan:

Yes, amoebic dysentery (amoebiasis) is still endemic in Afghanistan. It continues to be a widespread public health issue due to challenges with water sanitation, limited healthcare infrastructure, and poor hygiene. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]