When describing the inexplicable attraction of this country, travelers often talk about the Afghanistan bug that bites first-time visitors and makes them fall madly in love with it. For most people around the world, however, the very mention of Afghanistan evokes an image of a remote, wretched place embroiled in continuous war and conflict.
Behind the headlines live a people who are among the most hospitable and honorable in the world. Generally speaking Afghan society is organized along ethnic and tribal lines. However, ethnic identity becomes irrelevant in the face of a common threat. There are also many shared values and unwritten codes of conduct that govern personal relations, which are not taken lightly. Outsiders have always been confounded by the two extreme experiences of the ferocity of the Afghan people and by their boundless generosity and hospitality.
In Culture Smart! Afghanistan we have set out to explain the country s history, its people their habits, customs, traditions, idiosyncrasies, suspicions about foreigners, and patterns of behavior and its current place in the world. The book will give you an idea of how to interact with the Afghans, how to interpret their behavior, and how to behave appropriately in their company, whether in personal or business exchanges. It will prepare you for a journey through a society that is difficult to navigate and often hard to understand. Stay the course, and the rewards will be great.
MOSKA NAJIB was born in Afghanistan and educated in India and Switzerland, where she graduated in International Communications with distinction. A journalist by profession, she joined the BBC Bureau in Delhi as a researcher and went on to become a producer and reporter. In the past five years her work with the BBC has taken her all over India to produce, and sometimes report on, news and social features for BBC television channels and World Service radio. She is a keen traveler and photographer and her photo-features have appeared on the BBC News Web site. Although Moska has lived most of her life outside Afghanistan, she is deeply rooted in Afghan history, culture, and traditions. <br /><br />
NAZES AFROZ is from India. He was a newspaper journalist based in Calcutta for seventeen years before moving to London to work for the BBC World Service, most recently as a senior executive. He has traveled extensively in India, reporting on politics, social conflicts, the environment, and human rights, and has undertaken assignments to South and Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Nazes has been visiting Afghanistan regularly for the last ten years for the BBC and has come to know the country and its people, history, and culture. An experienced photographer, documenting communities and people during his travels, his work has appeared in various publications and on BBC Web sites.
