can fuel a cycle of conflict in war-torn societies, since it is often
easier to train unskilled youths to fight than to farm. In addition to
external refugees, countless Afghans were internally displaced dur-
ing the war (Maley, 1998b). Anecdotal evidence spoke of Kabul’s
population swelling during the 1980s as people sought to enter a
heavily-protected city to escape the effects of aerial bombardment
of the countryside.
The effects of the conflict on Afghan women for the most part
were especially devastating. Some women visitors to Kabul were
impressed by what they were shown – one even reported enthusi-
astically that there ‘were female employees (and several female
volunteer soldiers) at Pol-e Charkhi prison’ (Moghadam, 1994:
866). Given the abuse of women which regularly took place in the
regime’s prisons, this was akin to praising Heinrich Himmler as an
equal opportunity employer because there were women guards at
Belsen. But most observers saw through the facade. Noting the
combat techniques deployed by the Kabul regime and its backers,
Nancy Hatch Dupree observed that ‘Women shared more than
equally in these events; often only women with their children
occupied the mud-brick housing flattened by air and ground fire’
(Dupree, 1992: 31). A small number of determined women were
actively involved in the resistance and were persecuted as a result
(Ellis, 2000: 7–9). Furthermore, women in refugee camps in
Pakistan, located in one of the most conservative parts of a con-
servative state, were forced to endure an existence that was stulti-
fying in the extreme (Boesen, 1988; Mayotte, 1992: 147–89;
Shalinsky, 1994: 129). Finally, women suffered from the disruption
to their social existence which occurred with the loss of male rela-
tives. In a society in which the family is a key unit and men are
typically the breadwinners, the consequences of male war deaths
will be very widely felt.
The economy
Afghanistan suffered extensive physical damage during the 1980s
which severely affected the operations of the Afghan economy.
Consequences of the Soviet–Afghan War 155