Naming Kabul's streets

It was very apt and timely that the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and the Kabul municipality should decide jointly to name streets in the capital after the numerous heroes and national figures who were either prominent in defending the country against foreign aggressors or who served the nation admirably at critical junctures in the course of our turbulent history. Kabul’s unnamed streets have been a source of trouble not only for postmen but also the public as a whole. Sayed Makhdum Raheen [information, culture and tourism minister], together with [Kabul mayor] Ghulam Sakhi Nurzad, has ceremonially fixed nameplates on the walls of a few streets. According to Raheen, 300 out of 1,000 streets in Kabul have been assigned names in this first phase, and the rest will follow suit later. The desire to name the capital’s streets has been a cherished idea for various governments over the decades, but either the ground was not ready for this, or those at the helm of the culture ministry and the municipality have not deemed this public service valuable. Those who are familiar with the nation’s history and who follow political events on a global scale realise that apart from national heroes, there are outstanding foreign statesmen like Mahatma Gandhi, matchless religious leaders like the Imam Khomeini, and great philosophers and mystics like Mohammad Iqbal whose names would adorn any street anywhere in the world.