The reason is simple, said Abdul Qader, a former Toronto resident and owner of
one Internet cafe.
In the birthplace of the Taliban, which barred people from so much as listening
to the radio or taking photographs, most of the cafes' male Muslim patrons are
visiting websites best viewed in private.
"The young generation use it for the sex," Qader conceded with a chuckle. "I
think the word 'sex' is used here more than anywhere else in the world."
Despite the city's reputation for piety, he maintains, the interest in
pornography should come as no surprise. This is, after all, a land where
extra-marital relations are virtually a capital offence, and only the most
daring woman exposes her chin for all to see.
"We are a sexually deprived nation," said Qader, who spent a few years as a
refugee in Canada in the mid-1990s. "At 25 years, a husband cannot even see his
wife. ... This is a basic human, psychological need. Especially the young ones,
they are curious about how it is."
Even so, Qader admitted, his own business has made the "ethical" decision to
have no privacy doors on its computer kiosks.
Internet cafes started emerging here a year or two ago, and are still a
phenomenon primarily of the young and educated.
But their mere presence - and their proprietors' democratic approach to their
use - is a graphic sign of change in Kandahar, where the Taliban first
introduced its almost surreal brand of Islam.
The fundamentalist government banned movies, videos, dancing and even music,
which one mullah said "creates a strain in the mind and hampers the study of
Islam."
As the Internet revolution belatedly comes to conservative southern
Afghanistan, users are emailing family in other countries, digging up
information for school studies, and communicating with Western organizations
they work for.
Mohammed Ihsan, 17, is a booster of the Net, which he was using this week to
study up for a chance to compete in an international biology olympiad. Clad in
the same combination of long, flowing shirt and baggy pants sported by
virtually every Kandahar male, Ihsan said he also enjoys fashion and news
sites.
But he acknowledged some parts of the information highway should be off limits
here.
"There are a lot of harmful things that are not allowed for Muslims," he said,
referring to the Web's pornographic sites. "If they are true Muslims, they are
not watching this."
Cafe owners tend to skirt the porn issue, but are surprisingly firm about not
censoring their customers.
Muslims do not all observe their faith in the same way, and Web users do not
all have the same standards, said Sharia Popal of Zamrot Internet Cafe, which
gives clients free rein on the Net.
"Some people are religious and go to mosque every day; some people are
religious and just pray," he said. "Some people are using the Internet for
porn; some people are using it for good things. It belongs to the people."
Mohammed Fahim of the Al Hadi Net Cafe said he met some resistance when he
started the business about five months ago, with one landlord refusing to rent
him space. He eventually found a more willing property owner and, at rates of
less than $1 an hour, the service is increasingly popular. He said people come
for "hours and hours" of surfing, often expanding their limited knowledge of
the outside world.
But if learning is not what customers have in mind, Al Hadi will not stand in
the way.
"I'm not so strict. It is the people's wishes. If they want to go to a sex
website, they can watch it," Fahim said.
Even as more educational sites enlighten Afghans about the world, however, the
accessibility of Internet porn may be creating some new myths about the average
Westerner.
To many Afghan Web surfers, they are "very sexy people, very pretty people,
very well-built people," laughed Qader, adding Afghans seem to think that
Westerners "just get the girl and they can do it anywhere, any place."
© The Gazette 2007
