Afghanistan Closes Videogame Stores

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the UK Guardian's report that authorities in Afghanistan have closed hundreds of shops where children played video games. Authorities claimed they were "reacting to complaints from parents that their children spent time and money in the shops instead of going to their schools", and also cited alleged gambling and alcohol drinking in the stores as "corrupting the morals" of young people. The story links this move to increasingly conservative elements in Afghanistan's post-Taliban government, mentioning that cable television was also recently banned by an Afghan supreme court judge.

Comments

A bit vague

[Otter]

Well, what with the increasing presence of Linux in Afghanistan, soon there won't be any more need for videogame stores as that niche is fille by Tuxracer, xbill and obsessive repetition of 'emerge sync && emerge -up world'.

Seriously, though, while the writeup talks about "Afghanistan", this story is limited to Jalabad. The Taliban mentality is still strong in certain parts of Afghanistan but it's a huge exaggeration to suggest it's dominating the country.

Come to think of it, isn't the most remarkable news that Jalabad, in the most fundamentalist part of the country, already has over 300 video game shops to close down?