The Secret Life of Afghan Wine
Drinking can cost you your life. Yet many are risking it all to preserve the ancient tradition that has survived religion, war, and bans.
In between conquering northern India and seizing Kabul in 1504, Mughal emperor Babur had another pastime: getting wasted. He loved wine so much that he even memorialized his drunken exploits in The Bābur-nāma: “We…left the boat roaring drunk, and got on our horses…I didn’t remember a thing, except that when I got to my tent, I vomited a lot.”
It might be surprising to know that Afghanistan was once a pinnacle of global wine culture, from ancient Zoroastrian rituals to a future Mughal emperor’s debauchery.
And despite centuries of different rulers and influences, it doesn’t mean Afghans stopped drinking. “I know some people are making 300 to 400 liters [of alcohol] in their home and then they are selling it to their neighbors,” Haroon Rahimi, a winemaker who grew up in Afghanistan, told The Juggernaut. Rahimi, who recently spoke to his cousin back in Afghanistan about wine and the ongoing war that has killed over 400 civilians, added that this trade survives in silence — because if the Taliban finds out, it can be a death sentence.
So what keeps alcohol alive in a country that forbids it today?