In 2019, a twenty-minute journey from the Tajik border took me to the gateway of the Wakhan Corridor; the finger that stretches from Afghanistan’s palm, reaching towards China and straddled by Tajikistan and Pakistan. In 2024, the route spanned days, beginning on motorbike from Pakistan and then with a driver to the Badakhshan highlands.

The road is hard and will take time to soften. Despite being a major arterial connection to Kabul, the sharp stoney gash of a surface churns up a suffocating dustcloud. When the traffic sped up on more completed sections, two coaches collided during a mistimed overtake, and later a motorcyclist crashed through my window, spraying me with glass shards. There was an elemental and atmospheric violence to the journey.

The Wakhan is different. It largely avoided the worst of the wars over the centuries, out-of-sight, out-of-mind. The agro-pastoralist Wakhi people have maintained their Ismaili culture, despite being religious and ethnic minorities.

The potential of running a highway through the corridor into has drawn the military into the corridor where they have taken up garrisons across the area.