KABUL, Afghanistan — Tooba Hotak, 16, practices driving her father's car inside her gated community. She wasn’t born yet when Soviet forces pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, unleashing a civil war that eventually gave rise to the Taliban and drove her family into exile in China. They returned after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — A boy plays in Aria City, a gated community that caters to white-collar Afghans, offering prized amenities like central heating and air conditioning, 24-hour running water and private guards.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Bani Amin, 16, in Aria City, where he and other residents live in modern apartments, shop at Western-style stores and swap text messages on their cellphones.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Hazhir Hoshan, left, and his friend Abdullah Hakimi, both 17, eat chicken burgers at Aria CIty's restaurant. Afghanistan is "like a new child," Hazhir says. "It's good now. We go to school, play football.... We can have fun together."

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — The streets of downtown Kabul are being repaved, a much-needed improvement, with foreign donations.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Omid Mesrabi, 23, opened two clothing stores in December in the Gulbahar shopping center, one selling lingerie and the other selling more modest attire. "Things are getting better day by day," he says of Afghanistan. "We didn't have good roads, buildings or centers like these. But now we have them." Unlike some members of his generation, he has no plans to leave the country after foreign troops withdraw next year.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Zarlasht Baiza, 23, who works as a television producer and on-camera reporter, has received threatening phone calls telling her to quit. "Sometimes I wonder what will happen if the Taliban take over again,” she says.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Nabil Ahmad, 26, is optimistic about the future of Afghanistan. The father of two recently got a new job at a cellphone company in the capital.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — In the Gulbahar shopping center in downtown Kabul, a mechanical bull is one of the many new forms of entertainment for young people. The mall has been targeted by terrorists.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Members of the Women's Football Federation practice soccer at a new stadium. Under Taliban rule, women were executed in a nearby stadium.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Naweed Malyar buys minutes for his cellphone at a kiosk.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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KABUL, Afghanistan — City Star Hall is one of the newest wedding centers in the capital, where such celebrations are a big business. Despite the city’s modernization, some worry that a return to civil war is on the horizon.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

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