According to sources, it has been revealed that a family-friendly cinema has opened in Kabul.
A place like cinema, is a rare venue in Afghanistan’s war-torn capital where women usually confined to the home, can spend time in public with their husbands and children.
As Zahra Sozan, a 25-year-old mother-of-one told that it is not “traditional” for women or children to go to the movies.
When the Galaxy was built last year it became the first cinema in Kabul to ban single men for certain hours when families are inside, protecting women and children from harassment and unsuitable behaviour.
“It’s my first ever experience visiting a cinema in Kabul, and the experience has been great,” Sozan told the reporters, after watching the 2016 Hollywood supernatural thriller Lights Out.
“When the families are inside the hall nobody else is allowed to get inside, the families feel secure,” said Abubakar Gharzai, one of the Galaxy’s owners.
Sixteen years ago the cinema halls destroyed by civil war and the Taliban regime forbidding nights at the movies.
The queue at the Galaxy is an echo of a time before the Taliban’s dark era, when Afghan men, women and children openly attended films, theatre and concerts.
Young couples wait for tickets, enjoying the quality time with each other, while some of them are still cautious.
The ticket price is around – 300 Afghanis ($6), six times the cost of other cinemas in Kabul, which is also beyond the reach of many in the capital, where unemployment is rampant.
“There aren’t many places for women in Afghanistan to hang out, they have a tough life, and this is a secure place,” Sozan’s husband Hamed said.
