Did a phone interview with Radio Free Afghanistan director Akbar Ayazi in Kabul to learn more about the elections on the ground. The big takeaway:

Reprisal fears are real. “One reporter told me that he asked someone why are you not voting, and [was told], ‘We love our fingers, we don’t wan to go and vote,” Ayazi said. That’s a reference to the Taliban’s pledge to cut the fingers off of those who voted.

Read the whole thing. Also make sure to check out his comments about women’s disenfranchisement, and especially read Ann Friedman and Matthew Yglesias about that.