A charitable foundation led by a former British diplomat is hoping to improve Afghanistan’s prospects through arts and crafts. Kate Brothers reports from Kabul.

Dust swirls down the lane, making a gaggle of goats sneeze extravagantly. Old men sit in the sun by the bazaar waiting for the next call to prayer and hordes of labourers manoeuvre wheelbarrows of tools back and forth. A frisson of expectation hangs in the air. This is Murad Khane, the last remaining section of 19th-century Kabul, and it is now a modern experiment in recreating traditional Afghanistan.

Back in the late 1970s, Afghanistan’s communist government decided to demolish the area, in line with a Soviet-inspired master plan for the city. All investment ended, the population of several thousand moved out and the place fell into ruin.

Murad Khane became a ghost town of beautiful, 200-year-old buildings in traditional Afghan style, with mud and timber frames left to collapse onto rooms of ornate plasterwork.

Nearly three decades of fighting has followed, with the Red Army, the Mujahideen, the Taliban and Nato forces all involved. Uninspired concrete offices and boxy houses replaced traditional buildings of mud walls and inner courtyards. Out of the rubble grew monstrous ‘narchitecture’ mansions – buildings funded by drug money, in this case opium.

By and by, people forgot the old city. Then, after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, various NGOs began investigating how to revive it.

TMF workers build a pottery school at Murad Khane	blue bowls from Istalif have potential on the world market
a salute for the camera from local schoolchildren	brick kiln workers
a typical Kabul street scene with housing on the hill above

One in particular, the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF), launched a campaign to save Murad Khane and, in 2006, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai recognised the area as one of prime historical significance and gave the project his backing. Old Kabul was set for a comeback.

Today, several hundred people live in Murad Khane, working to restore its historic fabric. In 2007, the World Monuments Fund added the area to its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites of Cultural Heritage. Children attend lessons, there is a subsidised clinic, virtually 100 per cent employment and women benefit from an embroidery school launched in partnership with UK clothing retailer Monsoon.

TMF is funding and overseeing restoration and development. When the buildings are finished the NGO plans to hand them back to their owners, who must agree not to change them.

Anna Woodiwiss, TMF’s director of development and communications, says: ‘We have around 250 architects, engineers, craftsmen, education advisors and others – from Afghanistan and elsewhere – and our aim is to provide jobs, training and a renewed sense of national pride to Afghan people through the regeneration of their artisanal heritage.’

The director of Kabul Museum, Omara Khan Masoudi, thinks artisan-led regeneration is vital, both for historical and political reasons. ‘Afghanistan has an ancient civilisation. It was located between China, India and European powers such as Greece and Rome and the Silk Route passed through here. Our art and architecture were extremely famous and the country had a clear role in linking these different civilisations – this can be seen in the way Afghan artifacts were traded.’

Establishing that reputation once again is a tall order for a battered country that is home to nearly 32 million people and some of whose provinces are still witnessing fighting between the Taliban and Nato troops. Assistance is coming from the Aga Khan Foundation and Unesco (which is working to rebuild Bamiyan’s famous Buddha statues – probably the most high-profile artistic casualties destroyed by the Taliban). Few organisations, however, are as ambitious and innovative in their push for regeneration as is TMF.

The level of ambition is not surprising – TMF’s founder is 35-year-old Rory Stewart, an Eton- and Oxford-educated Scot and one-time diplomat and tutor to Princes William and Harry who can list on his CV a solo walk across Afghanistan in January 2002 – during winter, through territory that still had a Taliban presence – and a stint as deputy-governor of the Iraqi provinces of Amarah and Nasiriyah. Stewart has enlisted the patronage of the Prince of Wales and President Karzai and has secured funding from, among others, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UK, the US, Canada and the UN. His aim is to make TMF’s projects self-sustaining within five years. uch of the most important work is taking place at TMF’s Kabul headquarters, a 19th-century royal fort, which houses the Centre of Traditional Afghan Arts and Architecture. Here, some of the country’s greatest ustads – master craftsmen – train men and women in woodwork, calligraphy and ceramics, with the aim of enabling them to make a living as artisans.

In an unstable, often dangerous, country, where basic infrastructure is lacking, critics might wonder whether arts and crafts really are an appropriate venue for funding.

Ours was always a poor country,’ says TMF community relations director Rameen Javid. ‘But just as music is food for the soul, so is art and architecture, and we need it for our national pride.’

Craft student Hoora Hamidi agrees: ‘Through these projects, I’ve come to realise that to create a balanced society, all fields of life should be in operation. We need a good mixture of art, science, technology and so on.’

‘This regeneration is important,’ adds Richard Dwerryhouse, TMF director of finance, who is writing a book telling the stories of some of Murad Khane’s craftspeople. ‘The more they [the Afghan authorities] look after the heritage industry the more money they’ll make from tourism and business investment.’

The work will help develop an appreciation of, and market for, Afghan crafts, both within Afghanistan and internationally, according to TMF’s business development manager, Andrzej Pawelec. ‘Education is also key,’ he adds. ‘We believe that unless Afghans value and respect their own cultural heritage, regeneration becomes just a hollow sham for tourists. Having said that, we do hope there will be some sort of tourist industry here soon.’ any Afghans agree with Pawalec. They would be delighted to see their country on the tourist and trading map again. The problem is that the risk of kidnapping scares visitors away, while banditry and warfare have cut export routes. The majority of artisans have little relevant contemporary business knowledge and lack ways in which to sell their products. One option is to smuggle them through Pakistan – but this is prohibitively expensive and the products are often re-labelled as Pakistani.

Our solution is to use what people know and understand and take it one step further,’ says Pawelec. ‘We’re introducing Afghans to new markets, updating skills and building their appreciation of what the global economy requires of them.’

TMF is experiencing some success. Last year its craftspeople sold over $50,000 worth of products to individuals and businesses in Afghanistan and beyond. They also participated in one of the largest international interior design exhibitions, Index in Dubai, where collectors were impressed by the quality of craftsmanship from a country they generally only associated with conflict.

In 2007, TMF’s calligraphy work was featured in Ink from Ashes, an exhibition at the Beit Al Qu’ran museum in Bahrain. Woodwork students produced goods for Kabul University (with the World Bank), the US Embassy, and local businesses – making patayi (cedar panels used to line courtyards), jali (latticework), chests and boxes. The school also makes ceramics, teaching craftsmen from Istalif, a village near Kabul with a strong pottery tradition. The plan is to revive the popularity of Afghanistan’s turquoise-blue ceramics and – by eliminating lead-based glazes, improving clay quality, refining designs and firing techniques – creating products that are more durable and commercially viable.

On the other side of TMF’s fort, extensive building work is underway. Masons are learning how to construct traditional Afghan houses of earth and straw, which the organisation hopes will replace the ubiquitous concrete.

‘One of the biggest single producers of greenhouse gases is cement-making,’ says Grahame Hunter, head of TMF’s earth building projects. ‘But mud buildings are environmentally friendly. They have a long history in Afghanistan, they’re well-insulated, waterproof, cost almost nothing, and are quick to build.’

Convincing Afghans of such merits, however, has not been easy. ‘There’s terrific resistance to mud buildings,’ says Hunter. ‘Earth is associated with poverty, ruralism and a lack of sophistication. So we’ve finished ours with lime plaster, which looks like cement. People think they’re getting a modern, concrete building, whereas it’s actually as traditional as can be.’

Ultimately, the aim is to give masons transferable skills to make sustainable buildings, while avoiding falling into the trap of previous aid efforts. Says Hunter: ‘It’s patronising to go to a community and build them something they can’t afford themselves, using materials they don’t make, with workers from outside their community, and then to leave. This way, you create employment and a technology people can use.’

Back in Murad Khane, community leader Kaka Khalil commends the regeneration. ‘Afghans welcome guests, but not large-scale intervention by nations. And in a place where around 70 per cent of people are still influenced by fundamentalists with selfish interests, this is one way for Afghanistan to solve its problems other than through religion.’

WHERE TO STAY
The Kabul Serena Hotel, the country’s only five-star hotel, was completed in 2006 at a cost of $35m. Rooms cost from $280 per night. Tel: (+93) 79 9654 000 www.serenahotels.com

Turquoise Mountain Foundation
For more information on the foundation visit: www.turquoisemountain.org To buy craft items, visit: www.turquoisemountainarts.af

The Places In Between, Rory Stewart’s account of his Afghan travels, is published by Picador.

Getting around
Tours in Kabul and beyond are available from Great Game Adventure Travel. Guide Ghulam Sakhi Danishjo is very knowledgeable and speaks English. email: kabul@greatgame.travel or sakhi@greatgame.travel www.greatgametravel.com

Local guides, fixers, tours and 24-hour taxi services are available from the Jamshady brothers at Afghan Logistics & Tours Tel: (+93) 070 277 408 email: info@afghanlogisticstours.com www.afghanlogisticstours.com

More information
What to wear: women should wear a loose headscarf and both sexes should wear baggy clothing that covers the arms and legs (including the ankles).
Currency: there are currently about 50 Afghanis to the US dollar – take dollars and exchange them in Kabul. Credit cards are not accepted
in Afghanistan.
Visas: from your nearest Afghan Embassy, several weeks in advance, for about $100.

HOW TO GET THERE
Fly to Kabul with Kam Air from various Middle Eastern and Central Asian cities, or Delhi. Round-trip flights cost around $400. www.flykamair.com In Dubai, you can stay at the Ritz Carlton from around $450 per night. www.ritzcarlton.com

Photos by Darren Craig www.darrencraig.com