He was the most famous lion in the world," says the hand-painted metal sign hanging on an empty cage amid the ruins of Kabul's Zoo. His name was Marjan, and though the sign makes a bold claim on his behalf, it doesn't exaggerate.
When his plight was publicized after the Taliban government's ouster last fall, the old, blind, toothless lion became a global media star of sorts. Since his death on Jan. 26, we have been reminded where the word "lionized" came from. In the last two weeks, it seems, more tears have been shed for Marjan than for all the Afghan men, women and children who have suffered and died since their country spiraled into chaos 23 years ago. Some people have objected to this. Those objections, while understandable, are misplaced.
The irony is that for most of his life nobody except his keeper cared a jot about Marjan. Nobody even knows for sure how old he was when he died: Some say 25, some 50. It is known that he came to Kabul Zoo as a gift from Germany, anywhere between 25 and 40 years ago. Whatever the dates, he made it to Afghanistan in time to witness the almost unbelievable sequence of disasters visited upon that country in the past quarter-century: foreign invasion, war, vicious internal struggles, famine, the rise of the repressive Taliban regime and its symbiotic guest al-Qaeda and the post-Sept. 11 U.S. bombing campaign that has reduced most of Kabul to rubble. It was not a good time or place to be captive in a zoo. Animal welfare was no one's priority.