For centuries, the western Afghan city of Herat has been known as a center for art, literature, and learning. Today, however, the city is more closely associated with the iron-fisted rule of its governor, the self-styled "Emir of Herat," Ismail Khan. RFE/RL correspondent Grant Podelco just returned from a visit to Herat. He discovered a city more outwardly civil than the capital, Kabul, but one that on closer inspection is governed by a palpable climate of fear, an atmosphere only exacerbated by the publication this month of a damning report on the province's human rights record.
