Hope Fills an Arena of Sorrow
Afghans Hold Political Rally at Site Once Used for Executions A soldier stands guard at a political rally at the Kandahar stadium, the
first public event there since the Taliban's fall.

Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
January 25, 2002;

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 24 -- Once it was a killing field where adulterers were shot and thieves had their hands chopped off. But today, the
Kandahar Sport Stadium was the scene of a far happier public spectacle: a political rally, full of flag-waving schoolboys, called by provincial
authorities to bolster support for this country's fledgling democratic process.

From the bunting-draped reviewing stand, a dozen speakers, including the provincial governor and several prominent Afghan exiles visiting from Europe,
called for peace, brotherhood and allegiance to the interim national government that took office in December.

Many members of the audience were moved by the rally, the first public event here since the Taliban collapsed in November. Several said they had been
horrified to witness public executions and whippings in the stadium."I saw some ladies shot and beaten with sticks here because of love affairs.
I felt such great sorrow that such cruelty had come to our country," said Sultan Mohammed, 45. "Now we want the peace to come here, and we want freedom of every kind, because without freedom, there is no life."

The dominant agenda of the event was to stress the need for a loya jirga. Scheduled to be held by June under the guidance of Afghanistan's exiled king,
Mohammed Zahir Shah, 87, the council would select a new government to replace the appointed interim leadership and rule for two to three years.

Speaker after speaker invoked the king's name, and each time the students, teachers and other Kandahar residents who filled the stadium burst into
applause. Many Afghans fondly remember Zahir Shah's rule, which ended when he was deposed in 1973, as the last time the country knew peace.

There were also numerous references to the dark era of Taliban rule, and especially to the harsh punishments that the Islamic militia meted out to
offenders in the Kandahar stadium.

The gathering was notable for the presence of women, who were banned from public activities during the Taliban era. About 50 female teachers, covered in head-to-toe veils called burqas, sat in a separate area in the bleachers, and a school principal, Jamila Jan, delivered a brief speech from the podium, her face also covered by a burqa.