Miniskirts in Kabul - Huffingtonpost

Not only did the 1969 "summer of love" transform the culture of an entire generation in America, its global reach infected societies in faraway places such as Kabul, Afghanistan.

"When I was a professor at a very young age at the University of Kabul in 1969 - 1970 I witnessed miniskirts," Hasan Nouri, a civil engineer and award-winning humanitarian told me as he recounted days past in his native Afghanistan. "Before the Soviet invasion, Kabul had hospitals, museums, music, religious tolerance and freedom of expression."

Mr. Nouri said it was all made possible because the Afghan nation actually enjoyed a period of relative peace and stability under King Mohammed Zahir Shah for decades from the 1930s until his overthrow and exile in 1973. Nouri has always believed Afghanistan could see stability once again and even formulated a peace plan in the mid-1990s to establish a new regime under Zahir Shah.

Unfortunately, Nouri's peace plan largely fell on deaf ears in the U.S., and America ended up paying a heavy price.

History books will assert the plan failed because Zahir Shah could not reach a consensus with powerful Islamist factions; however, Nouri blames the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations for their lack of support and their choosing to prop up moderates already in Afghanistan.

Based on the administration's current course, however - we may never see miniskirts in Kabul ever again. ........ Michael Hughes: Miniskirts in Kabul

Afghanistan's untold story: Stability, tourists, miniskirts - CNN