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Someone had a thread about pimping and today I saw this article so I thought I would share.
The curse of number 39 and the
steps Afghans take to avoid it
Car owners with 39 licence plates lament the stigma of a
number associated with pimps and prostitution
A car number plate is altered to disguise the dreaded 39 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Photograph: Nooruddin Bakhsh
Ordinarily the sight of a man having the numbers on his licence plate
altered at a paint shop would would raise questions about whether a crime
was being covered up. Was the man guilty of some hit and run attack?
Perhaps he had stolen the valuable four wheel drive Toyota Prado – a
government vehicle as denoted by its black plates.
In fact the man, who did not give his name, had simply got fed up with all
the taunts from fellow road users amused by the fact that his licence plate
began with the number 39. For reasons that remain hazy, the number has
somehow become lodged in the Afghan popular imagination as a sign of
pimping and prostitution.
This week the man finally had enough. Whilst waiting for his children to
come out of their primary school he parked his car in broad daylight at a
nearby paint shop and paid the resident calligrapher a couple of dollars to
artfully turn the number nine into eight, in both the Persian and Arabic
versions.
All around Kabul unfortunate owners of 39 number plates tell the same
story of the abuse they face on the roads of one of the world's most
socially conservative countries.
"I did not think it would matter when I got my car," said Zalmay Ahmadi, a
22-year-old business student. "But when I drive around all the other cars
flash their lights, beep their horns and people point at me. All my
classmates now call me Colonel 39."
Public aversion to the number is such that the city's traffic police
department, normally a scene of frantic car owners wrestling with the
multiple layers of bureaucracy responsible for issuing number plates, is
virtually deserted.
The problem, workers at the department say, is that they are currently
only issuing number 39 plates – and there are still another 260 plates
bearing the dreaded 39 to allocate.
Those who cannot wait can pay a premium to get another number.
"The traffic commission workers are demanding bribes of $230 (£142) to
issue a different number," said Zamin Ali, a 51-year-old who works as a
driver. "It makes no sense because the number does not mean anything in
sharia law, or in the hadith or mathematics. But if you try and sell a car
with a 39 number plate you will have to discount it by $2,000."
It is not just car number plates. According to Mohammad Zahir, the head
of Kabul's criminal investigations department, the unfortunate owners of
flat 39 in one of the old Soviet-era housing blocks have been unable find
anyone to take it off them.
"If anyone buys or rents that flat all the boys in the neighbourhood will
taunt them," he said.
Although many people say they have no idea why the number is so reviled,
it is possibly based on the apocryphal tale of a pimp who worked in the
western city of Herat who had both a 39 number plate and lived in an
apartment numbered 39.
The shunning of 39 comes weeks after horrified drivers frantically removed
once coveted rainbow decorations on imported cars after discovering that
they were gay pride symbols.
The curse of number 39 and the steps Afghans take to avoid it | World news | The Guardian
Absolutely hilarous, lol @ 'Colonel 39'
Although it seems to be a serious problem, help raise awareness on facebook:
Let's Fight Against Wrong mentality About Number 39 In Afghanistan | Facebook
The curse of number 39 and the
steps Afghans take to avoid it
Car owners with 39 licence plates lament the stigma of a
number associated with pimps and prostitution
A car number plate is altered to disguise the dreaded 39 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Photograph: Nooruddin Bakhsh
Ordinarily the sight of a man having the numbers on his licence plate
altered at a paint shop would would raise questions about whether a crime
was being covered up. Was the man guilty of some hit and run attack?
Perhaps he had stolen the valuable four wheel drive Toyota Prado – a
government vehicle as denoted by its black plates.
In fact the man, who did not give his name, had simply got fed up with all
the taunts from fellow road users amused by the fact that his licence plate
began with the number 39. For reasons that remain hazy, the number has
somehow become lodged in the Afghan popular imagination as a sign of
pimping and prostitution.
This week the man finally had enough. Whilst waiting for his children to
come out of their primary school he parked his car in broad daylight at a
nearby paint shop and paid the resident calligrapher a couple of dollars to
artfully turn the number nine into eight, in both the Persian and Arabic
versions.
All around Kabul unfortunate owners of 39 number plates tell the same
story of the abuse they face on the roads of one of the world's most
socially conservative countries.
"I did not think it would matter when I got my car," said Zalmay Ahmadi, a
22-year-old business student. "But when I drive around all the other cars
flash their lights, beep their horns and people point at me. All my
classmates now call me Colonel 39."
Public aversion to the number is such that the city's traffic police
department, normally a scene of frantic car owners wrestling with the
multiple layers of bureaucracy responsible for issuing number plates, is
virtually deserted.
The problem, workers at the department say, is that they are currently
only issuing number 39 plates – and there are still another 260 plates
bearing the dreaded 39 to allocate.
Those who cannot wait can pay a premium to get another number.
"The traffic commission workers are demanding bribes of $230 (£142) to
issue a different number," said Zamin Ali, a 51-year-old who works as a
driver. "It makes no sense because the number does not mean anything in
sharia law, or in the hadith or mathematics. But if you try and sell a car
with a 39 number plate you will have to discount it by $2,000."
It is not just car number plates. According to Mohammad Zahir, the head
of Kabul's criminal investigations department, the unfortunate owners of
flat 39 in one of the old Soviet-era housing blocks have been unable find
anyone to take it off them.
"If anyone buys or rents that flat all the boys in the neighbourhood will
taunt them," he said.
Although many people say they have no idea why the number is so reviled,
it is possibly based on the apocryphal tale of a pimp who worked in the
western city of Herat who had both a 39 number plate and lived in an
apartment numbered 39.
The shunning of 39 comes weeks after horrified drivers frantically removed
once coveted rainbow decorations on imported cars after discovering that
they were gay pride symbols.
The curse of number 39 and the steps Afghans take to avoid it | World news | The Guardian
Absolutely hilarous, lol @ 'Colonel 39'
Although it seems to be a serious problem, help raise awareness on facebook:
Let's Fight Against Wrong mentality About Number 39 In Afghanistan | Facebook
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