KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The young poet sat in the barber’s chair, facing a giant mirror on the wall that he could not see.

The poet was Zaheer Ahmad Zindani, and this was the eve of his wedding. The war in Afghanistan had taken many things from him: his eyes, his father, his sister, his first love. But he had a chance at a new beginning, preparing to marry a woman his mother had worked tirelessly to find.

“Make it so no matter which of the four directions I comb, it looks good,” Mr. Zindani told the barber.

The narrow alleys and matchbox houses in his neighborhood of Kandahar City, in southern Afghanistan, were dark. Electricity had been patchy since the Taliban blew up a cable that fed power to the city. Despite that, he was busy entertaining relatives.