Afghanistan's Broken Postal System

Photographs by Lawrence Cohen

A solemn clerk sorts mail into boxes in Herat's General Post Office, part of that city's Ministry of Communications complex. For Afghans unaware of or frustrated by poor postal service, Cohen writes, "The improvement in telephone service in Afghanistan was certainly a bright spot. Cell phones are increasingly endemic."

Even with virtually no customers, and minimal mail flow, there's always post office paperwork that must be processed — in Afghanistan as elsewhere.