Avanticacikoti is an international correspondent for the economist. The ministry of virtue and vice has been reconstituted, and its morality police are out in full force. Press freedom is so heavily restricted that sometimes cricket scores become front page news. There's also fears the country is harvering terrorists once more. But there are some parts of the population that are doing better than they were a year ago.
Rights for women and girls have regressed by decades; the economy is cratering. Yet, for many rural Afghans, things are actually better than they were before America scarpered. Silicon Valley types once righteously spurned the military-industrial establishment—now they’re queuing up to fund defence startups. And the surprising truth about the most famous scene in “Bambi”, which is turning 80.
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