I.n Kabul there is a house in which a good ten thousand books are piled up that no one will read. Nevertheless, the novels and guides tell a story. Namely, that of the end of a hope that was expressed in companies like Kabul Reads, the first online bookstore in Afghanistan. Founded in 2019 by Sher Shah Rahim and Nargis Ehsan, closed with the arrival of the Taliban. The books have been stored there ever since, guarded by Rahim’s brother Ahmad.
The Taliban used to burn books. But the “new” Taliban know: Photos of burning books would be bad marketing for them. The Afghan book market should rather slowly perish. Without a notable printing and paper industry in the country, the more than sixty registered bookstores are dependent on book imports. The borders are closed to them. But even if the shelves are still full, many will soon give up. Books are currently not a priority for Afghans. It’s about survival. Those who have savings hold it together. Who knows what’s to come?
Nargis Ehsan, the co-founder of Kabul Reads, managed to escape to Canada. Sher Shah Rahim was flown aboard an Air Force cargo plane to Doha and from there to the United States in August.
Video call to Maryland, where the 30 year old computer scientist and entrepreneur now lives. The 12-month-old son and the three-year-old daughter are still sleeping, Rahim can talk on the phone in peace and quiet in the living room. It’s light and spacious, the family has just moved in. Until then, she was living with 14,000 other refugees in a military camp in Wisconsin; for weeks with the clothes of their escape on their bodies. The hastily packed rucksack was lost on the way. At the camp, Rahim met Dave, an Afghanistan veteran who wanted to help. Dave talked about the Afghan hospitality, brought clothes, food packages, toys for the children and found Rahim a job with an IT specialist in Maryland.
An audio book app in Pashto and Dari
The first salary has been transferred, Rahim could finally relax. But his head is still in Kabul; for relatives who did not reach a plane; with the books in his house, with Kabul Reads, which had never been lucrative, but was his whole pride, as it promoted reading culture and opened up new worlds of thought to people. He gave up. But only to start something new. While still in the refugee camp and without any help from investors, he launched “Bulbul”, the first and so far only audio book app in Pashto and Dari. It is much more than a mere listening pleasure. It is also to be understood as an act of resistance – against cultural stupidity under the banner of radical Islam of the Taliban, against isolation from the world; against the exclusion of girls and women from education and of course against the creeping death of literature.
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