The zoo was smack in the middle of the front line. The main administration building is a twisted ruin, steel reinforcing bars curled beneath slabs of concrete. Kabul is quiet these days. The rival militias whose hatred for one another destroyed much of Kabul are united now against the Taliban religious army that has taken control of most of the country, but the civil war rages mostly in the north. Hewing to an austere version of Islam, Taliban leaders have banned almost everything else.
Cinemas are closed.
Television is not allowed, nor is listening to music, or flying kites or dancing or talking with a woman other than a relative. Some in the Taliban also frown on soccer. On average, the zoo gets about 100 visitors a day. They wander along the cracked cement walkway that meanders through the sad collection of cages, most of them empty. Last of three bears With a stick he prods the clubfoot bear out of his den and into the cage.