# Was Afghanistan a cultural center? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-afghanistan-a-cultural-center/255644 "2004-07-18T00:51:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-afghanistan-a-cultural-center/255644/1 "2004-07-18T00:51:58Z")
A friend of mine told me that some decades ago(maybe in the 60s or 70s), Afghanistan was a well known cultural center worldwide. You know, full of museums and stuff. I find that a little hard to believe, since this country has seen a few too many wars in its recent history. What is the straight dope on that? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-afghanistan-a-cultural-center/255644/2 "2004-07-18T01:42:29Z")
Didn’t Alexander the Great reach Afghanistan? If so, wouldn’t that make Afghanistan (and most of Central Asia) worthy of further study? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-afghanistan-a-cultural-center/255644/3 "2004-07-18T02:00:28Z")
Afghanistan was a better place before the Soviets invaded: > [@](#): > > It is hard to image that life in Afghanistan in the 1960’s, particularly inside Kabul, was not all that different from the Europe or North America of the same time. Students were busy attending classes at Kabul University, going to the movies and attending concerts. In the mid to late 1970’s one could see men and women inside Kabul doing their best to keep up with the latest fashions: bell bottoms, polyester shirts, and singing along with ABBA when they appeared on TV. > > My parents have some great pictures when we were in Afghanistan which make me laugh every time I see my father with those long, bushy sideburns and my mom with her 70’s hairdo. It was a time when girls went to school, women held positions in the government, careers were a matter of choice, and the now infamous “burka” was an optional social custom. [http://afghancommunicator.com/magazine/012/na012.php](http://afghancommunicator.com/magazine/012/na012.php) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-afghanistan-a-cultural-center/255644/4 "2004-07-18T02:04:40Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > A friend of mine told me that some decades ago(maybe in the 60s or 70s), Afghanistan was a well known cultural center worldwide. You know, full of museums and stuff. Your friend is wrong. At least in terms of museums, if not in terms of ‘stuff’. There are certainly a lot of things to find of historical/archaeological and even architectural interest, as Afghanistan was at a crossroads in Asia and at least a few significant states based themselves there or close nearby. Also, as with most places, there is plenty of interesting local cultural flavor. But Afghanistan has been among the most medieval countries around since shortly after its inception, once the wealthier and more sophisticated eastern conquests ( the Punjab, Kashmir ) were shorn away in the late18th/19th century. Weak central government ( quasi-feudal in nature ), very strong tribal elements, a woeful economy and geographic isolation meant that it was in no position to be a world leader in the arts or just about any other endeavor outside of perhaps bloodfeuds. What halting and feeble progress it was making towards modenization ended pretty abruptly with the outbreak of civil war and the Soviet intervention. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-afghanistan-a-cultural-center/255644/5 "2004-07-18T02:08:58Z")
\*It is hard to image that life in Afghanistan in the 1960’s, particularly inside Kabul, was not all that different from the Europe or North America of the same time. \* It is hard to imagine there was much truth to this **outside** of Kabul, either. I think the above is a bit of a rose-colored glasses syndrome. While things are much, much worse than they were, even then Afghanistan was a hundred miles behind neighboring Pakistan in almost every respect. - Tamerlane