Afghan War Rug

[neal bloom]

While surfing the net with coworkers trying to get an understanding of Afghanistan we were looking at afghan rugs and came across this site. We looked at one of the war rugs and one of the pictures of a rug had what looks like a plane headed for a building. Does anyone know the history behind afghan war rugs? A lot of the rugs have pictures of tanks and AKs. Sorry if this is off topic, we just found it interesting.

http://aladdinrugs.netfirms.com/cgi-bin/rug_view.cgi

http://ourworld.cs.com/aladdinrugs5/rug637c.jpg

 

[MAD DOG]

I have one in my living room, hanging on the wall. It is a souvenir.
They make them because they can sell them to European and Arab tourists in Pakistan and the Emirates. Illiterate women with bad spatial correlation capabilities weave them from the wool of sheep more intelligent than their husbands.
The country's only export besides illicit opium and terrorists.
Rug merchants buy them cheap, and sell them dear. They are supposed to be very "fashionable" in some quarters where bad ethnic art is trendy.
Despite the sentimental value of it being a gift from a dear firend, it is as ugly as sin. Looks like a badly made crafts project from a mental ward, which I suppose, it is in a way.

 

[Mort]

I've always admired the rugs. Believe it or not, we are fighting a nation with a rich warrior tradition, one reflected in the storytelling capacity of their weaving. Note the Arabic script; this weaver, at least, appears to be literate.

Many Afghans are not even aware of the events that occurred on 9/11. Due to effective media control, they believe us to be the aggressors. So, I'm betting there aren't any WTC rugs just yet.

 

[mrsMTN]

They seem to be gone now.

 

[ATTICUS]

Neal: Perhaps you've stumbled upon the way Osama has been communicating with his troops.

 

[Jim March]

25 years of war has deeply twisted their culture. Lebanon has nothing on this dump.

I heard something recently from a guy who left Pakistan years ago. He claims that the decades of war, with men stuck in remote mountain camps with no entertainment, poor supplies, no women and major boredom led to another type of "cultural crisis", esp. in an Islamic country:

The highest rate of homosexuality of any Muslim nation, bar none.

This was basically known and winked at back in the Soviet War days, and one of the things that drove the Taliban absolutely bonkers.

Gayness by itself ain't something I'd normally pay much attention to - it ain't my thing, but I personally know of several gay RKBA activists and have no problem with 'em. But in this case, it would lead to extreme secrecy and a sense of "self-hate" that could explain a whole lot about Afghani politics, hatred of women, etc...?

Haven't been able to independently confirm this on the web though. The guy who was telling me this said that it was common knowledge in Pakistan and the subject of much crude humor we need not discuss here.

 

[Mort]

Michener's novel "Caravans" indicates that such preferences predate the Russian conflict. It's an interesting book.

 

[Skorzeny]

"25 years of war"? Are you joking? The Afghans have been at war with each other and with outsiders for hundreds of years.

Harsh, unforgiving climate and living conditions (desert, mountainous and so forth) combined with unremitting tribal warfare have made Afghans extremely xenophobic.

They may not be a lot of things, but they are TOUGH people.

Comparing Afghans to the Lebanneses is like comparing two entirely different civilizations, the common religion not-withstanding. Aside from the recent civil war, the Lebannese have been trading, travelling and ocean-going folks who were some of the wealthiest and cosmopolitcan folks in the Middle East. Lebannon used to be called the Switzerland of the Middle East.

Skorzeny