On the borders of Afghanistan, these mountain people who escape Islamist law

At an altitude of 3,000 meters, the Ishkashim bazaar stretches like a tired vein, winding between gray stone houses on a wind-worn hillside. The steep peaks of the Pamir massif form a rampart in the background, behind a curtain of yellowed mulberry trees. Feminine and colorful silhouettes walk between their slender trunks, near a cluster of chocolate-colored camels from the eastern Pamirs, which graze quietly.

Prized for their meat and milk, they have increased in number since the end of the war, according to the nomads who raise them. In question, the disappearance of the various racketeering points, militias, Taliban, soldiers of the former Afghan Republic, they detail. On another gray relief, a volleyball game is in full swing. The bucolic panorama evokes a postcard. A daily life that the Taliban yoke, in power for three years, has not yet retracted. Or not at first glance anyway.

Near a shop…