The Wider Image: Wings of joy: Kabul's bird market
For some Afghans weighed down by decades of war and struggle, a little comfort and distraction can be found in the company of birds. The war seems a long way off in the Ka Faroshi bird market in the heart of Kabul's old city, a narrow lane with a few alleys off it, packed with small, mud-walled shops festooned with bird cages. Customers, most of them men, but some blue burqa-clad women too, squeeze down the crowded street, stopping to inspect birds on display, haggle with shopkeepers and buy bird seed and other supplies. Fighting cocks and partridges squawk in bell-shaped wicker cages, while finches, larks and canaries of all varieties hop about in cages, and pigeons coo in small aviaries made of wire. "In Afghanistan, it's a passion to keep birds," said Rafiullhah Ahmadi, who sells fighting cocks at the market. "Some people love to keep fighting cocks, some love to have partridges and some love to have other kinds of birds. It's a custom in Afghanistan." Most of the birds come from Afghanistan, caught in the wild or raised. Some are imported from neighbouring countries, such as Iran and Pakistan, but traders said business was down, with few birds being imported these days. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail SEARCH "BIRD MARKET" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY. Matching text: AFGHANISTAN-BIRDMARKET/
