Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
A U.S. Army soldier of 3/1 AD Task Force Bulldog prepares to hit a golf ball from the rooftop of a building at Combat Outpost Boston in Kherwar district in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan on May 18.
See more photos from Afghanistan in our slideshow: A nation at crossroads
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
A cinema goer uses his mobile phone to take a photograph of a film poster at Cinema Pamir in Kabul on May 4. Once a treasured luxury for the elite, Afghan cinemas are dilapidated and reflect an industry on the brink of collapse from conflict and financial neglect. Kabul's cinemas show Pakistani films in Pashto, American action films and Bollywood to rowdy, largely unemployed crowds in pursuit of any distraction from their drab surroundings.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Cinema goers watch a Pashto film at Pamir Cinema in Kabul on May 4.
Danish Siddiqui, a Reuters photographer, looks to local movie theaters to learn more about a city's personality and culture. Last year, he documented a popular "travelling cinema" making a stop in Ond, India. On the Reuters Photographers Blog, he writes about his recent time inside Kabul's theaters:
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
A projectionist rewinds a roll of film inside the projection room at Cinema Pamir in Kabul on May 3.
I believe that sometimes you learn about a city and its society from its local cinemas and the genre of films they choose to screen.
There are only half a dozen cinemas in the whole of Kabul. Most of the theaters like Cinema Park and Ariana Cinema were destroyed during the civil war and were later shut down by the Taliban who had banned, among other things, going to the movies. Now every theater has three films shown every day with the first one starting at 10a.m.
For me, it was a treat to be inside the cinemas and watch the inhabitants of the otherwise disturbed city sneak away a few moments of fun. At such times, they seem to forget the outside world and the tensions therein. For them, it’s a different Afghanistan inside the theater.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Employees of Ariana Cinema stand on film cans as they work inside a storage room in Kabul on May 3.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
The audience at a Bollywood film screening at Ariana Cinema in Kabul on May 3.
Reuters reports -- Clouds of hashish and cigarette smoke float across a screen showing a dancing Pakistani woman, who evokes yowls of excitement from the hundreds of Afghan men passing their time in one of the capital's rundown cinemas.
Once a treasured luxury for the elite, Afghan film connoisseurs are deeply distressed by the dilapidated state of their cinemas, which reflect an industry on the brink of collapse from conflict and financial neglect.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
A cinema goer watches a Pashto film at Cinema Pamir in Kabul on May 3.
"Before our audiences were educated. Now they are illiterates who understand nothing of cinema and come only to smoke (marijuana)," said Sayed Khalid Sadat, manager of Pameer cinema, which sits on a corner in the bustling centre of Kabul.
Kabul's cinemas show Pakistani films in Pashto, American action films and Bollywood to rowdy, largely unemployed crowds in pursuit of any distraction from their drab surroundings.
It's a far cry from the heyday of Afghan-produced film 40 years ago, when cinemagoers were required to wear suits or evening wear.
See more photos of Afghanistan in our slideshow: A Nation at crossroads.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Ahmad Wali, a 15-year-old projectionist, works inside the projection room at Pamir Cinema in Kabul on May 2.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Cinema goers rush into the theater before a show at Pamir Cinema in Kabul on May 4.
Guido Bergmann / German Press Office via AFP - Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin on May 16, 2012. Merkel and Karzai are due to sign a bilateral cooperation agreement, as well as hold talks paving the way for a May 20-21 NATO summit in Chicago.
Yesterday, Angela Merkel met with the new president of France, Francois Hollande shortly after his swearing in. Today, Karzai is in Berlin to sign a strategic partnership with Germany and prepare for the NATO summit in Chicago. The U.S. hopes to announce funding for the Afghan security forces at the summit. Germany has the third largest contigent of troops serving in Afghanistan behind the U.S. and Britain.
Bay Ismoyo / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan cardiologist Rahima Stanikzair, 43, travels to her private clinic after finishing work at the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) in Kabul on May 13, 2012.
Agence France Presse reports — Afghan cardiologist Rahima Stanikzair works 14 hours a day serving dozens of patients with heart problems at a private clinic as well as at the French Medical Institute for Children in Kabul.
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, she continued working as a doctor as male medical personnel were banned from examining women.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
Bay Ismoyo / AFP - Getty Images
Rahima Stanikzair monitors an infant's heart at the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC) in Kabul on May 13, 2012.
Bay Ismoyo / AFP - Getty Images
Rahima Stanikzair leaves her office during her lunch break on May 13, 2012.
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan police personnel gesture as they evacuate onlookers from the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul on Wednesday, May 2.
Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Afghan security forces members inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Kabul on Wednesday.
NBC News and msnbc.com news services reports: A suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a blast wall in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, an interior ministry spokesman said. Sediq Sediqqi said that there was only one attacker, dismissing reports that more than one insurgent was involved in the assault against a housing compound for westerners.
Police chief Ayub Salangi told Reuters the car bomb exploded on Jalalabad road, the main road out of the capital heading east, where several U.S. military bases and compounds housing Westerners are located. A guard and five civilians were killed. Salangi told NBC News that one of the civilians is a school child.
At least six people were killed in an early morning suicide attack in the Afghan capital, hours after a surprise visit to the country by President Obama. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Rahmat Gul / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
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Mandel Nganmandel / AFP - Getty Images
President Barack Obama greets troops during a visit to Afghanistan's Bagram Air Field on May 1. Obama signed a US-Afghanistan strategic partnership agreement during his unannounced visit to the country.
President Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai signed an agreement that provides a framework for a lasting U.S. commitment to Afghanistan at the presidential palace in Kabul shortly after the U.S. president arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday on an unannounced visit.
The president then traveled from Kabul back to the Bagram Air Field to spend time with the troops.
Related Links:
During an unannounced trip to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and Afghanistan are now committed to replacing war with peace. The new agreement will establish a framework for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan from 2014 to 2024, and pledge economic and security resources from the U.S. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
Cliff Owen / AP
The president's fourth year at the White House in pictures — follow along as it happens.
Rahmat Gul / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
A young boy flexes his muscles during a regional bodybuilding competition in Kabul on April 30, 2012. Bodybuilding is one of the country's most popular sports, even permited during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan bodybuilders compete in the bantamweight classduring a regional bodybuilding competition in Kabul on April 30, 2012.
More about bodybuilding in Afghanistan from NBC's Sebastian Rich.
Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan shopkeeper Ismail Temorzada, 45, center, displays a carpet to customers in his shop on Chicken Street in Kabul, March 3.
For decades Ismail Temorzada's handmade Afghan carpets decorated people's homes around the world, but export problems and competition from Iran's machine-made products have left his business threadbare. "My carpet sales are down, no one is buying hand-made carpets anymore," says Temorzada, who has run a shop for more than 20 years in Kabul's once crowded and colorful Chicken Street bazaar. "Iranian machine made carpets are imported to Afghanistan at a cheaper price," he told AFP, dismissing them as lacking originality, durability and charm. But they are cheap and people buy them, which has contributed to a 70 percent drop in his sales over the past year, he says. Carpets are Afghanistan's best known export, woven mostly by women in the north of the country. Displaying his best carpets, from Andkhoy in northern Faryab province, Temorzada said they cost 60,000 Afghanis -- about $1,300 -- but nobody is buying them.
Related content:
While touring a Kabul marketplace, Rachel Maddow purchases a souvenir carpet decorated with tanks and guns, an Afghan tradition since the end of the Soviet occupation.
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
A man sprays water onto the beak of his rooster during a break in between rounds at a weekly cockfight gathering in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 20, 2012.
Agence France Presse reports — Cockfighting, known as Murgh Jangi in the Dari language, is a popular winter game among Afghans. Like a number of other sports and pastimes, it was banned by the Taliban.
The heels and bills of the birds are sharpened before fights, which run for 4 to 6 rounds with each round lasting between 10 and 20 minutes. Some 100,000 to 200,000 Afghanis ($2,000 to $4,000) can change hands among spectators placing bets during these fights.
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
A man holds his rooster.
Related content:
Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan policemen are mirrored in glass from a broken window as they stand guard outside the building where Taliban fighters launched an attack in Kabul on April 16.
Ahmad Jamshid / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday that a coordinated Taliban attack showed a "failure" by Afghan intelligence and especially by NATO, as heavy street fighting between insurgents and security forces came to an end after 18 hours.
Battles that broke out at midday on Sunday gripped the city's central districts through the night, with large explosions and gunfire lighting up alleys and streets.
Though the death toll was relatively low considering the scale of the assault, it highlighted the ability of militants to strike high-profile targets in the heart of the city even after more than 10 years of war.
--Reuters
Related links:
A string of brazen attacks in Afghanistan left 36 insurgents, eight policemen and three civilians dead. NBC's Sohel Uddin reports.
Musadeq Sadeq / AP
Afghan special forces are seen on top of a building which had been occupied by militants, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 16, 2012.
Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan policemen and officials stand next to the wreckage of a car used in a suicide attack in front of a building from which insurgents launched an attack, in Kabul on April 16, 2012.
The Associated Press reports — A brazen 18-hour Taliban attack on the Afghan capital ended early Monday when insurgents who had holed up overnight in two buildings were overcome by heavy gunfire from Afghan-led forces and pre-dawn air assaults from U.S.-led coalition helicopters. Read more.
GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing.
Parwiz / Reuters
An Afghan National Army soldier keeps watch near the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as a NATO helicopter flies over the site of an attack in Jalalabad province April 15. Gunmen launched multiple attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west, witnesses and officials said. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the assault, one of the boldest on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the group from power in 2001.
The U.S. Embassy was under lockdown but all staff there are safe, according to spokesman Gavin Sundwall. "The U.S. Embassy is currently in lockdown, following our standard operating procedures after hearing explosions and gunfire in the area," he said.
-- Reported by Sohel Uddin, NBC News in Kabul, and Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com
Ahmad Jamshid / AP
A NATO soldier runs to the scene of a attack by Taliban militants in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15.
Noorullah Shirzada / AFP - Getty Images
An Afghan policeman runs at the scene of a suicide bomb attack outside the airport in Jalalabad on April 15. Suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan in coordinated attacks, with explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic enclave in the capital as militants took over buildings and tried to enter parliament. Outside the capital, attackers also targeted government buildings in Logar province, the airport in Jalalabad, and a police facility in the town of Gardez in Paktya province.
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