Kabul vice has Afghans pining for virtue police

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564796759563698379

KABUL, Afghanistan - Vice is almost as common as dust here. Most shops sell Heineken to Afghans, even though alcohol is illegal in this Islamic country. In one theater, men use their mobile phone cameras to record sultry dance scenes from an Indian movie called ''Lust.'' Chinese prostitutes offer sex to foreign contractors - and to some Afghans.

But the party could be ending, if some officials have their way. The government is pushing to stop the sale of liquor and may resurrect the department to promote virtue and get rid of vice, the office so hated under the Taliban.

''This will stop these violations in our society,'' said Solaiman Hamed, the deputy minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs, who would oversee the new vice and virtue department. ''And the sooner the better.''

Since the fall of the Taliban almost five years ago, the country has struggled to balance its conservative traditions and Islam with the influx of foreign aid workers and Western culture. Tribal elders and the top-ranked religious figures in the country have pressured the government to crack down on perceived unIslamic behavior.

there are all to many so-called Americans who would like that here too...