I read this online today on Taekwon Net....like we needed another reason to hate the Taliban!

 

Sticking to TKD under fire by

 

-Kabul=Special reporter Lee Sang Uhn(2001/12/06)

 

"Charyoht, Taegeuk Poomsae Shi-Jak!"

 

Afghan capital Kabul. Houses were broken down by US missiles and puddles were on the roads. I could hear some Korean words yelled in clear voice in residential streets. On the ground floor of a shabby second-story building, 8 of Afghan boys were busy training Taekwondo at their instructor Arian Haibar's command.

 

Haibar opened his Taekwondo school in 1996, and stood Taliban's suppression to protect the only Afghan Taekwondo school. Taliban closed down the school so many times, saying "Go to a mosque and pray!"

 

Taliban hated Taekwondo all the more because bare skin was seen when they wore uniforms. So everytime the police officer changed, he got arrested and detained for 4 to 10 days, 4 times.

 

It was when he took refuge to Islamabad during the civil war in 1992 that Haibar started Taekwondo. He was 11, and got fascinated by kicking he peeped through the window of a local Taekwondo school. He asked and asked the Korean instructor, "I have no money but please accept me."

 

The Korean instructor, whose name was Lee Sa Won as he remembers, accepted Haibar and taught Taekwondo, giving him places to sleep and feeding him for 4 years.

 

The civil war ended and his family came back to Kabul in 1996. But Taliban executed his father in public because he was the chief of the general staff during the communism regime, and his mother had to hide her rank, vice president of Kabul University. Haibar opened the Taekwondo school in Kabul to make a living.

 

"I have a dream: I hope to bring my students to international games. During the Taliban, I appled for an exit permit once. They thought I was running away and never let me go."

 

He confessed, "I wrote a letter to the WTF headquarter to send an instruction certificate, but they required 200 dollars. So I gave up."

 

[JoongAng Ilbo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

thats interesting KickChick

 

thanks for sharing

 

 

 

 

very good plus for the martial arts spirit....

 

 

Very interesting. Kind of history repeats itself. How many stories are there of how martial arts were practiced in secret because they were illegal in Okinawa. The continent and the time may be different - as well as the style but the martial arts continue to survive. I think its a great example.

 

 

They probabily wanted to put an end to it because like so many other Martial Arts schools it taught false concepts (Buddism) contrary to their own muslim beliefs.