Carrying a lot of clout in the Hindu Kush

An archery tournament in a remote, Taliban-controlled province of north-eastern Afghanistan unleashes fierce, but friendly, rivalry

- JONATHAN RIDER

GENERALLY, I’m not a bad shot but when the target is a small stick just 100 metres away amid a group of armed men, the nerves kick in. There is no backing down; scores of people are watching me, waiting to see what the khorajee (foreigner) can do. The atmosphere is jocular. Others wait their turn at my elbow, crowding close to see where I’m aiming. It had taken days to get here and months agonising over the logistics. My pocket was full of letters from local commanders granting me permission to travel. I simply had to take the shot. Too late to back out now. I draw the bow, let the arrow fly and hope for the best. If there is one place in the world you categorically do not want to shoot someone accidentally, it’s in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Deep in the Hindu Kush Mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan is the province of Nuristan. Immortalised by Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King, it used to be known as Kafiristan, the Land of the Unbelievers. It was the last part of Afghanistan to be converted to Islam (reluctantly) in 1896, after which point it became known, euphemistically, as Nuristan, the Land of Light.