Vegetables are good for you

Pamela Constable's Some Afghan Women Find Economic Freedom, Dietary Benefits in Vegetable Crops:

In Hazarajat, in Afghanistan's central highlands, a
casualty of the region's remoteness and chronic deprivation is nutrition. The picturesque river valleys meandering through Hazarajat are blanketed with wheat and potato fields, but farmers grow virtually no other crops. The daily diet of most families consists of bread, potatoes and tea, and U.N. studies have found that nearly one-third of Hazarajat's children suffer from stunted growth...

By growing cabbage, radishes, squash and other vegetables,

the women in Fuladi went from being the neediest members of their community to being among the top income earners. They developed farming skills unknown to local men, learned how to prepare and cook vegetables for their children, and discovered their own stamina improving in the process. The changes were radical and, perhaps unavoidably, suspect...

"They saw us bending over and taking stones from the fields. They saw us growing things that were not in our tradition. They said it was shameful for us to register with a [foreign charity]."

[A lackey of the evil imperialist West] plans to break another cultural taboo by opening a women's vegetable stall in the Bamian market. The Fuladi women appeared uneasy but excited about the plan, and they laughed nervously when asked to pose for photographs with their produce.

"You can send my picture to the world, but please don't show it in my neighborhood. That would be too shameful," Gul [27, a mother of six] requested, proudly opening her apron full of newly picked cucumbers.

Oh, the shame!