When most of us think about Afghanistan we think of an oppressed war-ravaged country. But it wasn’t always like that.
Afghanistan kind of looked like your typical modernized country in 1967.
But then the Soviets invaded and the Taliban came to rule through fear and violence and that all changed. University professor Dr. Bill Podlich captured what Afghanistan was like when in the 60s during freer and more peaceful times.
He traveled to Afghanistan in 1967 with his wife Margaret, and their teenage daughters Jan and Peg.
Podlich relocated to become the Expert of Principles of Education at the Higher Teachers College of Kabul.
During his stay, he used Kodachrome to capture the relationships with the locals.
His pictures show people dressed in Westernized clothing, looking happy and enjoying freedom and life.
A life that looks a lot different than it does today.
You’ll see women wearing short skirts on a hot day and women being educated alongside men.
“When I look at my dad’s photos, I remember Afghanistan as a country with thousands of years of history and culture,” Peg Podlich told The Denver Post.
“It has been a gut-wrenching experience to watch and hear about the profound suffering, which has occurred in Afghanistan during the battles of war for nearly 40 years. Fierce and proud yet fun loving people have been beaten down by terrible forces.”
Peg Podlich grew up in Tempe, Arizona and decided to accompany her dad on the trip during her senior year.
“I grew up in Tempe, AZ, and when my dad offered my younger sister, Jan, and me the chance to go with him and our mother to Afghanistan, I was excited about the opportunity,” Peg Podlich said. ”
I would spend my senior year in high school in some exotic country, not in ordinary Tempe… Of course, there were loads of cultural differences between Arizona and Afghanistan, but I had very interesting and entertaining experiences.”
She says life was a lot easier going back then.
“People always seemed friendly and helpful,” she said. “I never got into any real difficulties or scrapes, even though I was a fairly clueless teenager! Times were more gentle back then.”
Men and women were both afforded education in those days.
“Afghan girls, as well as boys, were educated up to the high school level, and although girls (and boys) wore uniforms, the girls were not allowed to wear a chadri on their way to secondary school. Able young women attended college, as did the men,” Peg Podlich said.
“We arrived in Kabul one sunshiny morning in June… My dad met us and was able to whisk us through the customs. We proceeded into Kabul in a UN ÒkombiÓ (kind of an old-school SUV). I was tired, but I can remember being amazed at the sight of colorful (dark blue, green and maroon) ÒghostsÓ that were wafting along the side of the road,” Peg Podlich recalled.
“My dad explained there were women underneath those chadris, and that some women had to wear them out in public. We never called the garments Òburkas.Ó Depending on the country, women practicing purdah (Islamic custom requiring women to cover up) wear different styles of coverings, which have different names,” she says.
Podlich’s photo collection is now being managed by his son-in-law Clayton Esterson.
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