Freya Stark’s Afghanistan

By Katherine Gypson

“This is a great moment, when you see, however distant, the goal of your wandering. The thing which has been living in your imagination suddenly becomes part of the tangible world. It matters not how many ranges, rivers or parching dusty ways may lie between you; it is yours now for ever.” – Freya Stark

The sad eyes of Ahmad Shah Massoud pull me out of the armored car and into the traffic circle, into the mess of a Kabul street at night – cars without headlights, cars seemingly without drivers, cars making their own lanes as they swing around and off into the broken m...