Afghanistan's Search for Peace 'Charicar'

Seamus Murphy

Newsweek/NY Times Magazine

The Afghan people live their lives as they always have done through their history , at once both the victims and ultimate survivors of their own fate. Agha Reza playing Kafter Bazi' (Playing Pigeons as it is translated from Dari) sends off his flock of pigeons from his roof in Charicar, on the Shamali Plain. He is considered the most skillful birdman in the area. 'Kafter Bazi' is a competitive sport where neighbours will pit their flocks against each other by allowing both groups to fly together over the neighbourhood and when each owner calls them back, the aim is to confuse a bird, or birds, from the other flock into returning with the wrong team. Nov 2001'

Seamus Murphy, "Afghanistan's Search for Peace 'Charicar'," in POYi Archive, Item #35607, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/35607 (accessed April 30, 2024).