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Old game, new rules: Afghans catch soccer match - without Taliban restrictions
12/26/01
By TOD ROBBERSON / The Dallas Morning News
KABUL, Afghanistan – Only a few months ago, if Gaz Dumic had danced a little jig on the sidelines of Kabul's Ghazi soccer stadium, fans might well have sat silently while Taliban soldiers beat him senseless for violating strict rules against public dancing.
But as Kabul's two top soccer teams battled it out on Christmas Day for the city championship, Mr. Dumic suffered a sudden attack of "happy feet" and, well, he just couldn't hold himself back.
The toothless, elderly man danced heel to toe up and down the sidelines, at one point mimicking an American-style break dance. He even did an Afghan version of the twist. And the crowd, unaccustomed to such public displays of spontaneous joy, erupted in something that hasn't been heard much around here in years: mass laughter.
Afghanistan's equivalent of a Christmas Day bowl game marked a number of firsts for a nation slowly emerging from five years of harsh Taliban rule. Ghazi stadium provided the convergence point where Afghans, gathering for the first championship match since the fall of Kabul six weeks ago, could say and do whatever they wanted without fear of punishment from their former hard-line Muslim rulers.
Players from Kabul's Sabaoun and Maywan clubs broke with previous dress codes and stripped down to their soccer shorts and short-sleeve shirts, allowing fans a rare glimpse of exposed knees, thighs, and elbows. Under Taliban rule, players had to cover their bodies with sweat pants and long-sleeve shirts.
"People are happy. They feel so much more freedom now," said Muhammad Ali, 35, a Sabaoun fan.
A stadium announcer pulled out dusty cassette tapes of the nation's most popular singers and played them one by one over the loudspeaker while soccer play continued. It was the sound of one of those songs that caused Mr. Dumic to dance onto the field.
Music among changes
"This is the first time in five or six years that we have heard music inside this stadium," said Muhammad Farid Maulai, chairman of the Afghan Football Federation.
Many other changes are slowly emerging. The soccer field no longer is used for pre-game executions and limb amputations, which the Taliban regularly carried out in front of soccer fans to show that criminal acts such as adultery and theft would elicit harsh punishment.
"The Taliban enforced prayer times, so that all the players and fans had to stop in the middle of the game to pray. Now, it's up to the individual," he said.
The fans' reaction to the second-period prayer call was a sign of popular rejection of the Taliban rules. Only about a dozen men out of the 3,000 in the crowd went down to the stadium track to spread out their prayer rugs and pray toward Mecca.
Prayer and games
Not only did the game continue, but one of the men who opted to pray, Mahmudullah, was nearly beaned on the head when a ball landed out of bounds, bouncing on his prayer mat. The crowd laughed and burst into applause. After finishing his prayers, Mahmudullah waved and flashed a big smile to the fans.
About 11 minutes into the first period, one of Sabaoun's star players, Ibadullah Barak, scored the first goal of the match. Seemingly unable to control himself, he ran toward the cheering crowd, yanking his shirttail up to reveal the rare sight of a bare tummy and chest. Again, the crowd went wild. A few months ago, Afghans say, such a display of immodesty would have prompted Taliban troops to storm the field and lead the player off for punishment.
"Taliban men came and sat on the sidelines during tournaments, with their weapons of course," Mr. Maulai said. "They patrolled the stadium, looking for any man who didn't have a long beard. If they didn't like one of the officials' calls in the game, they pulled out their guns and threatened him."
Soccer is, perhaps, the only pastime in Afghanistan that has continued uninterrupted through Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban rule and the U.S. bombing campaign, Mr. Maulai said.
The Taliban tried to shut down soccer competition altogether in Kabul, similar to what they did in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, he said. The soccer clubs, to survive, began inviting key Taliban members to play on their teams, hoping to use their participation as a form of insurance against closure.
Still, Mr. Maulai said, the Taliban's Ministry of Vice and Virtue continued to closely monitor soccer games and training sessions. Mr. Maulai seemed unfazed by the presence Tuesday of several armed members of the Northern Alliance, the militia that led the ground assault that defeated the Taliban with the aid of U.S. bombers.
'Fairness arbitrator'
One Northern Alliance commander stood on the sidelines with coaches and officials, declaring himself the "fairness arbitrator" for the game. But it quickly became apparent that he was a devout fan of Maywan, and at various points during the game when officials made calls against Maywan, he intervened loudly to suggest that their calls should be changed. Some were, some weren't.
The commander declined to give his name or be interviewed.
Mr. Maulai said he has had to tolerate the presence of fairness arbitrators for decades. Even during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, Russian and pro-Soviet Afghan troops patrolled the field to make a public display of their authority.
In spite of the crowd's buoyant mood, the match bore many of the old psychological trademarks of domination by the Taliban and previous military rulers. Not a single woman, for example, attended the match. And, despite the match being a championship final, many stadium seats were vacant.
At the end of the game, Northern Alliance militiamen used AK-47 assault rifles like police batons and beat Maywan fans who rushed the field after their team won the championship in an overtime shootout, after a 1-1 tie in regular play.
Mr. Ali, who successfully dodged the swinging Northern Alliance gun butts to remain on the field, said the reintroduction of music, dancing, and other forms of entertainment into Afghan life could actually reduce attendance at soccer matches.
"There were more fans here when the Taliban was in control," Mr. Ali said. Public executions were a big draw for fans before, he explained, and in spite of its Islamic strictures, the Taliban provided fans with a far greater level of security than the Northern Alliance appears able to do.