I agree, it's hardly representative of the whole country, which is why I referred to the photo essay as a viewpoint rather than claiming that (the whole of) Afghanistan was a modern progressive country in the 1960s.
I have no knowledge of what life in Afghanistan was like in the 1960s, I just remembered reading this essay and looking at the photos some time ago.
If I recall history lessons from school correctly, customs and habits formed by a country's elite (most often in the country's capital) tend to spread and be mimicked around said country. I wonder what life in rural Afghanistan would have been like today had not the USSR and the USA got involved.
EDIT: Sigh, this should have been an edit in my previous comment of course.
I have no knowledge of what life in Afghanistan was like in the 1960s, I just remembered reading this essay and looking at the photos some time ago.
If I recall history lessons from school correctly, customs and habits formed by a country's elite (most often in the country's capital) tend to spread and be mimicked around said country. I wonder what life in rural Afghanistan would have been like today had not the USSR and the USA got involved.
EDIT: Sigh, this should have been an edit in my previous comment of course.