Uncertain future for the booksellers of Kabul

A bookseller working at Saadat Books, a store specialised in English-language texts, in Kabul. The religiously conservative Taliban have not yet ordered bookshops shut nor imposed censorship, but a climate of tension prevails and an economic crisis has hit takings. Photo: AFP

The problem with this publication, a bookseller in the Afghan capital Kabul explains, is not so much that it's by Michelle Obama, but that she's not wearing a hijab in the cover photo.

The former US first lady's memoir Becoming goes back on the stack, ready for a curious reader.