u/Pigeonaffect

Which city in Afghanistan do you guys think is the most Liberal/Progressive or "Westernized", when it comes to social issues, such as women's rights, LGTBQ+ rights, Secularism/Atheism, etc.

I assume this city would also be more well educated with higher levels of English knowledge?.

I think the obvious answer is Kabul as it is the capital and largest city, but I think Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif might be close contenders.

In the 90s Mazar-i-Sharif was the capital of the area controlled by Dostum, who I believe was the only secular faction of the 90s civil war, and was more progressive towards women's rights. Maybe Mazar also has more Soviet Central Asian influence which might make it more progressive as well.

Herat is more influenced from Iranian/Persian, and I once saw a reddit post which claimed that Herat is the most industrialized city in Afghanistan, due to its ability to import machinery from Iran at a cheaper price?

I know Afghanistan is very conservative place overall, and thus its cities will also be more conservative by world standards. But what do you guys think the most progressive city relative to the rest of Afghanistan?

I sometimes look up the Soviet-Afghan war Wikipedia page, and I am always a bit shocked by the casualties, especially considering the relatively small size of the Afghan population pre soviet invasion.

Out of a population of 13 million in 1979:

1-3 million were killed.

3 million wounded.

5 million externally displaced.

2 million internally displaced.

The Afghan population shrunk to 9.95 million by 1983, despite Afghanistan high birth rate.

Literally the majority of Afghans were killed or forced to flee. Meanwhile the Soviets only lost 14k of their own soldiers.

I am shocked how rarely the casualty numbers of the Soviet Afghan war are brought up. I know the soviets did not plan to exterminate the Afghan population and just wanted to maintain a client state, but these are genocide level numbers tbh. It is surprising how the soviets and DRA were able to maintain any level of support during the 80s.

So how do most afghans today see the soviet afghan war? Do you guys see it as a genocide against afghan people?

I have seen a few times on the internet where Afghans claimed that the Taliban is less corrupt than the previous government.

Everyone knows that the previous Afghan government was extremely corrupt, where entire budgets were being embezzled, and to access basic government services required bribes.

The Taliban is terrible for being anti woman, but is it a bit better when it comes to corruption.

Is a smaller percentage of the budget being stolen?

Do people still need to pay bribes to low level government workers for basic government services/permits?

Are these claims true, or is it just pro Taliban propaganda?

According to the Wikipedia page for the list of asian countries by average wage, Afghanistan has a net average monthly salary of 205 USD, compared to 169 USD in Tajikistan, and 157 USD in Pakistan.

However this does not make any sense, as both Pakistan and Tajikistan are more developed in terms of HDI and GDP per capita. Plus many Afghans move to Tajikistan and Pakistan, rather than the other way around.

Does anyone here know roughly what is the average salary in Afghanistan?

Thanks.

During the Soviet Afghan war about 5 million were externally displaced and 2 million were internally displaced. I couldn't find accurate statistics for the displaced people during the Afghan civil war in the 90s, but I assume it was a lot, espically in cities like Kabul that were shelled.

Most of these displaced people were farmers, and likely owned some land before being displaced. However, Afghanistan also (I assume), had poor record keeping and high illiteracy, which means that land ownership may not have been properly recorded, thus making it harder for people to claim their land once they had been displaced. There also could have been squatters who took their land while they have been displaced, and now claim it belongs to them.

After Afghans started returning to their homes from refugee camps or foreign countries, were there many fights/disputes over land ownership?

Did many people lose their lands to squatters?

A think a major issue for LVT in poor countries would be corruption when assessing land values of different properties.

For example, what if a property owner bribes a government official to lower the value of his land, thus needing to pay less LVT?

How could this be dealt with?