"To travel in [Nuristan] today, seeing the long, crafty, iconic faces of the Nuristanis, who, some say, are descended from Alexander the Great's Macedonians, is to enter a kind of limbo: a neutral paradise that is surrounded by warring factions, but a paradise that resents the foreigner and makes him pay through the nose for any favour it grudgingly grants him."
- Sandy Gall, Afghanistan Agony of a Nation

Top of many travellers' wish-lists for Afghanistan, Nuristan is currently out of bounds for foreign visitors. The scene of heavy fighting in the Soviet War, its proximity to the Pakistan border has left it vulnerable to cross-border infiltration by anti-government agents. Militias loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are reportedly strong in the area. On top of this, local militias and feuds between rival villages have left the province highly volatile.

As a result, Nuristan has been largely left out of Afghanistan's reconstruction programme, mainly due to security issues. The two towns of Nuristan, Barg-e Matal and Kamdish, are the only parts of the province accessible by four-wheel drive vehicle. Medical facilities are almost completely absent, and the nearest health clinic is two days walk across the Pakistan border in Chitral. International aid organisations no longer operate in the province - AfghanAid, the last NGO to leave burned out of their offices in late 2004. Nuristanis remain the most isolated and deprived population in Afghanistan.

The June 2005 Afghanistan NGO Security Office (ANSO) briefing on Nuristan is worth quoting in length:

The province seemed calm with one report of [Anti-Government Element] movement in Kamdish district reported during the reporting period. Still there is little accurate information about ongoing insurgent activities in Nuristan available as there are almost no international NGOs present there. The lack of reporting might create a false sense of security and a belief that everything is quiet, whilst reality may be that incidents are indeed ongoing but simply do not get reported. [Coalition and Afghan National Army] continue to conduct operations in this area. All movements should be conducted only during the day and only on a case-to-case basis. NGOs are advised to adopt a low profile and to keep in constant radio contact ... ANSO strongly recommends extreme caution and suggests that NGOs, in particular those new to the region who do not have reliable local contacts, do not stay in the area for extended periods.

This assesment was gloomily backed up in July 2005 by the kidnap of two Afghan electoral workers near Kamdish.

Prior to the Soviet invasion, Nuristan was known as a trekking destination, made famous by Eric Newby in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. The province was the last part of Afghanistan was the last to be converted to Islam - by the sword in the late 19th century. Prior to this, the region was pagan, and the Kalash people - the Nuristani's relatives across the Pakistan border - still carry on their traditional religion in a few valleys close to Chitral. Nuristanis have distinctly European features, leading them to claim descent from the troops of Alexander the Great, when he passed through in the 4th century BC. Wood-carving has always been a major part of Nuristani culture, and several large pre-Islamic sculptures and gravestones can be seen in the Kabul Museum. As a companion read to Newby, see Jonny Bealby's For a Pagan Song, an account of a trip through Nuristan in mid-1996.