That leaves PUBG and TikTok – the social media video app is also in the crosshairs of Taleban censors – as “the entertainment we have at home and that keeps us busy”, he said. “Now, we can’t study and there are no jobs.” “During the previous government, we were mostly busy with our jobs and studies,” said Mujeeb. The US seized billions of dollars in Afghan assets, while international aid that propped up the domestic economy has dried up. The bonds I’ve created are very strong,” he said.įormer student Abdul Mujeeb, 20, also found refuge in the video game from the spiralling economic crisis that accompanied the Taleban’s return. “It allows us to learn about the culture of other countries and their language. “The fun we used to have, the laughing with friends… it’s over,” he said.īut PUBG, published by Chinese digital giant Tencent and downloaded on mobiles more than a billion times globally, has allowed him to stay in touch with friends and make new connections with foreign players online. Raufi was once a keen football player, but most of the friends he played with fled the country during the chaotic mass evacuation in the final days of the international withdrawal. Many Kabul residents are wary of the Taleban fighters who patrol the streets and man checkpoints, and prefer to stay at home rather than risk an outing for entertainment. But music has been banned alongside female-fronted or foreign television series. In the capital, a few arcades and bowling alleys remain open and some sports are still being played. Since storming back to power in August, the Taleban have not curtailed entertainment as harshly as they did during their previous stint in power between 19, when TV, cinema, photography and kite flying were banned. An Afghan boy plays PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on a mobile phone at his home in Kabul. Meanwhile, the Taleban – who spent the past 20 years waging their own vicious and bloody insurgency – are currently working to cut off access to PUBG, having deemed it a corrupting influence. It’s the only way to pass the time,” said the 23-year-old.Īfghanistan has been wracked by four decades of very real conflict, now largely subsided since the withdrawal of United States (US)-led troops and the return of the Taleban last year.īut in a striking irony, youngsters said the wildly popular virtual violence simulator offers respite from the turmoil of the transition and the strictures of the hardline extremist regime, as well as a rare channel of communication with the outside world. “We don’t know what will happen from one moment to the next. “In this country, we are living but we are not alive,” said gamer Abdul Musawir Raufi, after peeling his gaze away from the phone screen, where his avatar duels with other players in an online arena. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, such sounds would normally prompt panic.īut they are coming from the tinny speaker of a mobile phone clutched by a young man, hunched over and absorbed in the bloody shoot ‘em up video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG.
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