Tears of joy greet Afghan New Year

Tens of thousands of Afghans gathered yesterday at the shrine of Hazarat Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet Mohamed, in Kabul, to celebrate the New Year.

The festival was banned as unIslamic by the Taliban regime. Najiba, an English teacher, said: "They couldn't bear to see people enjoying themselves."

There was a great cheer from the crowd as a dozen men dressed in green hauled up the flag of Ali – a huge green standard embroidered with Koranic verses. It went up easily – a good luck sign.

Many Afghans cannot quite believe the changes that have overtaken their country. Mateen, a PE teacher, said: "I cried this morning, I was so happy that we were celebrating freely. Last year, we were crying from despair at the annihilation of Afghanistan."

There were refugees who had come home in the crowd at the shrine, girls who will legally go to school for the first time in five years on Saturday and a few women who said that after New Year's Day, they would no longer wear the burqa, Lida said: "I'm going back to work. It's a new year, a new era, it's secure now. I'm going to lose my burqa."