Night Letters

The term "night letter" is commonly heard around these parts, but to be honest, I went for a long time without understanding exactly what it was... until the day we got one.
Given that darkness is often associated with sinister acts, the term "night letter" itself makes it sound like a scary thing--something out of "V for Vendetta" or something left behind by Kaiser Söze from "The Usual Suspects". When I found out that we got one, I was expecting the worst and unfortunately my fears were not unwarranted.
"Night letters" in the Afghan context are usually hand-written, but in our case it had been typed on a computer, printed out on A4 paper, and taped onto our office's gate for all to see, just as if it had been one of our job announcements. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't like when Zorro comes by and leaves a big "Z" on the door, or when the Joker leaves a card behind, and it hadn't even been stamped by the Taliban; the letter was anonymous and had to be investigated. The letter had accused two of our staff members (a young guy and his future mother-in-law) of having had an affair and, as all "night letters" do, contained a threat: they are both to be fired or the office will be burnt to the ground. It was time to call Lieutenant Columbo and gather a list of suspects.
In our case the question was "is it an inside job"? Unfortunately there was no easy way of finding out... There was a rumor that the young guy had stabbed someone in a fight a few years back, while it was also claimed that he had broken off an engagement to a girl earlier that year... all this meaning that he had a range of potential enemies, leaving us with the choice of either sitting back and waiting to see if the threat would be acted upon, or firing the poor guy. Although we suspected that it had been an inside job by a disgruntled staff--or in other words an extreme case of شیطانی--after giving him a few weeks of forced leave as we investigated the issue, we decided not to take any risks and let him go.
Hiring and firing people is not just about following procedure. One day last winter I received a call from one of our field offices saying that the disgruntled son of an employee that we had recently fired decided to come to one of our offices drunk and threaten our staff... But then the elders of the community came by and explained that he was a troubled young man and that we should rest assured that nothing would happen to us. We didn't press charges and after a day in custody--where he probably got a fair share of beatings--he was released.
Another time, not too long ago, we interviewed a seemingly talented, smart, honest young man. Unfortunately, a background check showed that his brother had killed someone and was now under protection from the strongest commander in Badakhshan... if we were to hire him and ever had to fire him it might be problematic, not to mention the fact that once employed, the commander might start forcing us to hire more of his people. We gotta watch out... wouldn't want another "night letter"!

The truth about eclipses...

We were uncharacteristically up late that night when, at around 11 p.m., going out into the yard we noticed that the moon was blackening...
To a layperson, unlike many other astronomical events visible to the naked eye, a lunar eclipse--much like a falling star--does not appear to have a recognizable frequency. That's probably why, just like for those who believe that wishing for something upon a falling star will make their dream come true, in a world without access to satellites or space imagery, it wouldn't be absurd to assume that the timing of a lunar eclipse is meant to signify something. In Afghanistan the superstition, or belief, is that a lunar eclipse occurs when mankind has acted badly. The full "blackening of the moon" is thus God's way of showing disapproval and, in a sense, calling for repentance...
So it was, that in that quiet night, upon realizing that the moon had gone black, our colleague Sawdat Shah proceeded to go out of the yard onto a knoll and recite the call to prayer for the whole town to hear. A few minutes later came a response, like a delayed echo, from the other side of the town... probably a mullah who had just been awoken. There was something truly mystical in that night of prayers in that quiet mountain valley town, but we will have to wait for humankind's next evil streak to experience that magic again.