Afghan Recreation

Afghan Style Game

Betting

Violence

Not a bad thing

List of many games Afghans play

Kite Fighting

Tushla Baze

Barfi

Egg Fighting

Pahlwani

Buzkashi

Cricket

Khabaddi (kind of)

Soccer (football)

Basketball

Volleyball

Bodybuilding

Taekwando

Animal fighting

Gudi-paran-jangi

Kites ranged from .5 to 1.5 meters across

Made from a cotton line with crushed glass glued to it. Nylon string with stronger glue is the preferred method now.

Kites can fly up to 3500 meters depending on the size of the kit

Gudi-paran-jangi

There is a flyer and an assistant. The assistant always stands to the left of flyer. The tension of the string is controlled by the kite flyer’s assistant. While the kite flyer is aiming to fly the kite, his assistant constantly stays on his left with the spool in hand. It was banned by the Taliban for being “non-islamic”.

Kite Running

Children run over rooftops and compound walls in hazardous attempts to recover a falling kite. A loser, at times, will hide and tie a string to a stone, toss the stone over the victor's string, and pull the kite down.

Tools

Children’s games

• Similar to what you would see in a park.

• Lots of tag like games

• Very similar to what you would see American children playing

Tushla Bazi

Game similar to marbles. Circle drawn in the dirt and use marbles to knock the other players marbles out of the circle.

Winner gets pocket change

Loser is sad.

Betting oriented games

A lot of Afghans have very simple games that involve wagers.

Many of the bets are food.

Barfi

First snow fall of the year one Afghan sends a letter to a friend with a riddle on the inside, if the riddle reaches the recipient successfully, they must give the sender a meal. Typically they try not to answer the door on the first snowfall of the year. After the sender’s servant gives up and goes home, the recipient tries to intercept the message before the servant reaches the sender. If the recipient successfully does this, the sender owes the interceptor a meal, and they give the servant a “symbolic beating(?)”

Afghan Memory Game

Similar to the American wish bone game, participating Afghans break a wishbone in half. It doesn’t matter who got the bigger half, but this action starts the game. A wager is made ahead of time (usually a meal) and at anytime in the future when one participant hands the other an object they must say “I remember”. The game continues until one participant forgets.

Egg fighting

Boys gamble pocket change on egg fights

They try to smash their eggs against each other end to end.

Cock Fights

No fighting to the death

No spurs.

No artificial appendages

Birds must be similar size

Each bird gets 4 time outs

Cock Fights

To start, the Cock owner agitates the bird then releases them against the opponent. The fight ends when one bird is clearly winning. Afterward two new participants come forward to fight.

Winner gets money wagered on match

Other Animal Fights

On special occasions different animals are made to fight.

Camels

Rams

Dogs

Captured hyena

Pahlwani

Rules- Grab arms or clothing and throw opponents to the ground and pin them.

Much clothing is ripped and has to be replaced to continue.

Crowd loves offering clothes. Their village honor relies on it.

When there is a victor, the coach lifts him up by the waist and parades him around. The victor then claps his hands above his head.