{"id":2254,"date":"2023-08-29T15:39:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T12:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publictribune.tv\/?p=2254"},"modified":"2025-12-03T02:50:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T22:20:58","slug":"%d8%a7%db%8c%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%af%da%af%db%8c%d9%87%d8%a7%db%8c-%d8%b4%d9%87%d8%b1%db%8c-%d9%86%db%8c%d9%85%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/2254\/","title":{"rendered":"Frail Urban Acts of Defiance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent days, a video has circulated on social media showing an incident on a Kabul street: ordinary, unarmed people confronting and resisting the bullying of several Taliban soldiers. Among the many reactions to the video, the strongest has been praise\u2014praise for the spirit of resistance that still lives among ordinary Afghans. Some viewers saw this defiance as an act of bravery. Others described it as a natural, inevitable response to the behavior of such an authoritarian, totalitarian regime. According to them, \u201cpeople\u2019s patience has limits,\u201d and sooner or later, buried anger and frustration erupt into the open.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps many of these reactions are shaped by distance\u2014distance from Afghanistan\u2019s daily realities and from the lived texture of its history. What justifies the assumption that this incident is the only<\/em> act of resistance in the past two years? By what measure can one claim that society, as a whole, has remained silent and passive? And if no \u201clibrary-based,\u201d academic study exists on the matter, then what do Kabul\u2019s streets themselves tell us? Come walk with me as we \u201cread\u201d these streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the arrival of September, Kabul\u2019s air begins to resemble a garden\u2019s breeze\u2014steady winds, heat that is still warm but no longer scorching, air not yet suffocated by the smoke and dust of winter. People come out in the late afternoon, hoping the wind will carry away some of the heavy burden of being alive. Two years have passed since they fell from the ship meant to carry them to safety and prosperity\u2014two years since its sails were torn, leaving them stranded in a turbulent, hostile sea. \u201cTwo years and some days and some hours\u2026\u201d Time has thickened and multiplied for them; years have become long years<\/em>, and now even longer<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And silence rules\u2014absolute silence in crowds where no one speaks unless compelled to. Every face is turned inward, every brow furrowed, and greetings receive no reply. People stand lost in thought. Under the blazing sun, children emit a faint scent of sickness as they roam the alleys with large, dirty sacks in search of empty bottles. Even in them, no trace of lightness or childhood remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the dark sky of this wounded city\u2019s collective history, a few small stars still flicker. Tiny, yes. Too small to illuminate such vast darkness. But they exist\u2014and they shine for themselves. A young woman walking with books in her hands toward some unknown place of study\u2014wherever it may be\u2014is a small act of defiance. A cart-pusher who must sell his goods on the roadside\u2014who returns every time the regime\u2019s enforcers whip him away\u2014stands because he has no choice but to stand. A small, mobile children\u2019s library, stripped of its former bright colors, still roams Kabul\u2019s streets\u2014its very movement an act of defiance against those who boast of never having read a single book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there is the young man walking with headphones, singing aloud to the music\u2014knowing full well that this simple act contradicts the shadow that now governs the city and its patrolling soldiers. Yet he walks. He sings. And in his radiant expression, one can tell that he understands not only the beauty of the music but also the beauty of the act itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do such small things stand out now? Why do they shine so sharply? Because the darker the backdrop, the more visible every spot of light becomes. There is no doubt that these acts of resistance are tiny and, in the grand scale of the country\u2019s crisis, ineffective. But we must remember that this city is half-alive. A city where people clung to airplane wings in desperation\u2014young men, sensible and grown, clung to them and fell and died. As tragic as that. And that was not the beginning, nor the end. Life in this city has endured torture for many years\u2014far too many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These small stars, these faint sparks of life, are fragments of a quiet message whispered through a strained, suffocated voice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am still alive\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent days, a video has circulated on social media showing an incident on a Kabul street: ordinary, unarmed people confronting and resisting the bullying of several Taliban soldiers. Among the many reactions to the video, the strongest has been praise\u2014praise for the spirit of resistance that still lives among ordinary Afghans. Some viewers saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302,51],"tags":[326,303,279],"class_list":["post-2254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-stories","category-spotlight","tag-326","tag-303","tag-279"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37927,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254\/revisions\/37927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}