Kabul Vendors Buzzing Over Alcohol-Free Beer

Hot dogs. Bodybuilding. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Titanic hairdo. They’re all Western fads that have gripped the Afghan capital at some point in the past few years. But these days it’s nonalcoholic beer, a popular thirst-quencher among young men eager to keep up with Western tastes in a country where alcohol is forbidden (but readily available, for a price). The alcohol-free beer is affordable and widely sold in Kabul’s convenience shops and bazaars, thanks to supplies apparently smuggled off foreign military bases.