Middle East

The country where the British are blamed for everything

Conspiracy theories flourish all over the world but in some countries they appear to be more popular than in others. And in Afghanistan, says the BBC's Auliya Atrafi, they often feature sinister foreign powers - first and foremost, the British...

I grew up with conspiracy theories. Some of them very bizarre.

Bruce Lee was poisoned by his wife, I was told, and when he sensed what she'd done, he tore her apart with his bare hands.

I was also told that he could fly.

And that Hitler was still alive - having escaped the Allies in a Jeep that transformed into a plane then a boat then a submarine, from which he was still sending the occasional message, declaring: "I will be back!"

One theory, however, was particularly persistent - that the hand of the British was behind every evil in Afghanistan.

As a child I wondered why this was, but after I moved to the UK in my 20s, I learned there were some good reasons for the suspicion.