Reclaiming Pashtun Identity
Said Omar Akbar
March 4, 2009
The strategic location of the Pashtun tribal belt have put it at the cross
roads of imperialist nations' ambitions, and military advances for centuries.
The efforts of the Russians and the British in the Great Game, and the United
States and Soviet Union during the cold war, coupled with a tribal structure and
feudal system and inherent warrior nature of the Pashtuns, thwarted and hindered
the enlightenment that led the intellectuals and philosophers of Europe through
centuries long struggle to shatter the grip of feudalism in favor of
constitutional rights, civil liberties, separation of church from state, thereby
producing the grounds for a functioning civil society. The tribal life and their
unforgiving and sometimes vindictive, multi-generational inter tribal feuds were
based on the Pashtun's uncompromising and hard-line code of honor called Zan,
Zar and Badal (woman, gold and revenge).
Such geographic and cultural conditions of the Pashtuns have produced the
grounds for regional actors and players to manipulate these traits for their
self serving, strategic goals such as the institutionalization of radical
religious madrassas, thus providing a breeding ground for terrorists, who mainly
work for the notorious and clandestine services of Pakistan's version of the
CIA, the ISI. Take the Taliban being a case in point. Based on Ahmed Rashid's
Book, Descent into Chaos. In Islamabad with a population of only one
million, there are 127 madrassas and 42 new ones being created, one new one
every week in the capital, itself. Since September 11, 2001, Pashtuns feel they
have become the most vilified ethnic group in the world. They are angry,
frustrated and now want to reclaim their identity from being lumped with the
Taliban, and as perpetrators of terrorism and suicide bombings. Most Afghan
prisoners held by the Americans in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or at Bagram Air Base
near Kabul are Pashtun.
As a young boy, I had violent tendencies, the hot blood of the Pathan
[Pashtun] was in my veins. However, in the words of the famous non violent
Pathan activist and leader Khan Ghafar Khan, also known as the Frontier Ghandi:
" Is not the Pathan amenable to love and reason. He will go with you to hell if
you can win his heart, but you cannot force him even to go to heaven. Such is
the power of love over the Pathan".
In Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas also known as FATA,
literacy rate is a shocking 2% compared to the national average of 34%. I
believe the much needed and long overdue renaissance in the Pashtun tribal belt,
currently the subject of a multi-billion dollar USAID package, can be realized
through individuals and NGOs equipped with the necessary means to accomplish
that end. The current world attention to the region has provided a golden
opportunity for Afghans to greatly enhance their struggle to wrench the people
from the ubiquitous ignorance prevailing in the region by awakening the
peasantry, reforming the madrassas and overly conservative priests and not let
it fall prey to the agendas of stateless terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda,
not only saving the region from the radical brand of Islam producing suicide
bombers and fundamentalist Jihadi leaders, but also prevent any future 9/11
attacks which emanated from the same region for the same reasons due to lack of
socio economic development , notwithstanding congressman Charlie Wilson's
insistence and warnings, but the US abandoning the region after the fall of the
soviet union and end of the cold war.
I first realized my tendency to lean more toward a non-violent temperament,
when during the war with the Soviets I took part in a campaign with Commander
Haqqani (back then On CIA's payroll to fight the Soviets and now on the United
State's most wanted list as the most prominent and fiercest Taliban commander
fighting against the coalition forces in Afghanistan). This was in Paktika in
the 80's when he handed me a pistol to take one of the captured communist
soldiers behind the rock and shoot him, entitling me to have performed true
Jihad and increasing my probability of entering paradise, but after seeing the
look in the soldier's eyes, as a fellow human, I refused.
In the footsteps of our great non violent Pashtun leader, Khan Ghafar Khan,
also known as the Frontier Ghandi, I would like to encourage the Afghans in
reclaiming the inherently peaceful reputation of the Pashtuns through a variety
of civil, social, educational, and political projects and then repeat the famous
words of the great leader: "I have one great desire. I want to rescue these
gentle, brave, patriotic people from the tyranny of the foreigners who have
disgraced and dishonored them. I want to create for them a world of freedom,
where they can live in peace, where they can laugh and be happy. I want to kiss
the ground where their ruined houses once stood, before they were destroyed by
savage strangers. I want to take a broom and sweep the alleys and the lanes and
I want to clean their houses with my own hands. I want to wash away the stains
of blood from their garments. I want to show the world how beautiful they are,
these people from the hills, and then I want to proclaim : show me, if you can,
any gentler, more courteous, more cultured people than these."
Said Omar Akbar is the co-director of "The Shal Group" an NGO active in
Kunar province and Yale World fellows program candidate.
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