By ANN MARLOWE
Afghanistan is not quite ready for tourists. But when it is they will stand here, at the edge of Kabul’s Old City, preparing to explore the area of a couple of square miles known as Asheqan wa Arefan. Though from a distance Asheqan wa Arefan looks downtrodden, on closer inspection it contains many lovely 18th- and 19th- century wooden houses, sensitively renovated over the last seven years by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Home to about 22,000 mainly poor Afghans, the neighborhood in central Kabul, like much of the city, has ancient roots. It bears the name of two brothers whose grave dates from the ninth century. On the steep hillside above is an old Islamic period mausoleum and, higher still, the remnants of a Buddhist stupa.
Ismailimail 
Thank you Ann for yet another report with great insight and much appreciative depth.
Readers may be interested to know that according to Wikipedia:
“After 9/11, [Ann] Marlowe rather abruptly began to write about Afghanistan and terrorism, making frequent trips to Afghanistan and learning Dari. The LA Weekly featured Marlowe as a blogger writing in Afghanistan in a feature entitled Ann Marlowe in Afghanistan. She also dated an Afghan-American man, an experience described in her second memoir, The Book Of Trouble: A Romance.
Marlowe’s writings on Afghanistan have often challenged mainstream opinion, including arguing that “Afghanistan Doesn’t Need a ‘Surge’.” She has drawn attention to Afghanistan’s robust private sector and rapid economic growth in op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, commented on Kabul’s vibrant expat social scene, and criticized Afghan President Hamid Karzai frequently for Taliban sympathies, incompetence and toleration of corruption in the many pieces in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and a 2008 op ed in the Washington Post. Marlowe has also consistently argued that the US military is pursuing sensible policies in the country. Marlowe has been a frequent guest of conservative radio host John Batchelor speaking on Afghanistan.
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