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Islamic gentrification: Taliban weeding out the unwanted city dwellers and Hazara ethnic symbols from the urban life
Pul-e Sukhta in West Kabul was where thousands of homeless and addicted lived under a bridge. The homeless addict ghetto flourished after the US overthrew the Taliban in 2001, mainly by the addict who returned from Iran after years of refugee lives. On the structures above the bridge, the pictures of Hazara leaders and commanders who fought against the Soviet invasion of the 1980s, who were also involved in the 1990s civil wars, and then fought the Taliban were dangling, creating a sight where power and poverty met. Post-2014, with the emergence of the Islamic State (IS-K), the area also came under several deadly attacks killing hundreds of innocent Hazara vendors and pedestrians.
After taking power on August 15th, 2021, the Taliban chased out the addicted and homeless. They recently cleaned the bridge and removed the billboards and photos of the Hazara leaders. Yesterday, in a baffling show of weirdness, they conducted a book reading fest in the middle of the busy and crowded square while banning women and girls from schools and higher education.
