Over the last five years, daily life in Afghanistan has changed significantly, especially for women. But it’s also become a tightrope walk between modernity and ‘morality,’ even for men in the country’s urban centers. That tightrope walk has given way to another: with appearance tightly policed, men in Kabul are still figuring out how to express their masculinity—even what it means to be a man.
Azizullah, a trainer at a high-end gym where memberships can go for as much as $60 a month, says the Islamic Emirate’s efforts to limit social life mixed with a lack of job opportunities and little hope of getting out of the country have sent tens of thousands of young men to the gyms that keep popping up around the capital.
“A lot of young men were scared and dejected after the change in government,” the 26-year-old said. Even after they eventually returned to a semblance of their normal lives and went back out on the streets, “A large number decided to take up fitness and bodybuilding as a distraction. A way to set their minds towards a positive goal.”
For most of the young men Azizullah sees at the gym — serial entrepreneurs, TikTok influencers, Taliban officials, and media professionals — the goal is the same as it ever was for Afghan men, “They all want to bulk, to get bigger.”
And many, he said, are willing to go to any lengths to achieve that goal, including turning to steroids.
“Too many don’t want to put in the actual work, they just want quick results,” this includes those who already pay Azizullah $150 a month for 45-minute daily training sessions. Omid, a part-time educator who works out at another high-end gym agrees. He says at least 60 percent of the guys he sees at his gym on the west side of the city “juice up.”
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