The scene was like that of a graduation ceremony. They wanted their picture taken individually, then in groups of three or more. In front of the governor’s office and rose bushes, with their assault rifles across their chest or militantly pointed upwards. Erik took every kind of photo of them. It all culminated in a group picture of 15 Taliban fighters in front of the building.
“Like a wedding photographer,” Erik said. Rather, the official photo chronicler of the Jalalabad chapter of the Taliban.
One would have been hard-pressed to find friendlier guys than those Talib fighters at that moment. All tried to talk to me, recalling from memory every single English word and phrase just so they could ask a question and smile.
Therefore, this blog entry officially covers the softer side of the Taliban.
We hope we do not have to be introduced to their tougher side.
We also got to talk to the vice governor and secured our permit. I managed to interview him, with more on that to come in Postimees, while he requested asking me a few questions in turn after a short time of me interrogating him (because of his other engagements looming). This is what he wanted to know:
my religion;
upon learning that I consider myself a Christian, he asked which denomination;
how religious I am;
whether religion has the protection of the law in my country;
what I thought of Afghanistan before and how I feel about it now;
what is being said about the Taliban in my country;
what will I tell my people of Afghanistan today when I return home;
why the world is keeping Afghanistan’s assets frozen and my take on the situation;
what he could do for me;
and whether he would be shown everything he wanted to see upon coming to Estonia.
We shook hands after our meeting and I couldn’t help myself telling the vice governor, “Welcome to Estonia!” I hope the foreign ministry won’t mind.