Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 9, 2024

By Frud Bezhan and  Shapoor Saber

One of the Taliban’s first acts after seizing power in 2021 was to rename the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Since then, the militant Islamist group has changed the names of scores of prominent streets, squares, universities, and even a city.

The Taliban has replaced some local Dari and Pashto names with Arabic ones that most Afghans do not speak. Landmarks honoring Afghan political figures, meanwhile, have been renamed to pay tribute to historical Islamic figures with no links to the country.

The Taliban’s name-changing campaign has triggered online criticism, with some Afghans accusing the hard-line Islamist group of trying to eliminate indigenous cultural identities.

During the last four decades of war, ruling political groups have often renamed landmarks and other prominent sites, including the communist regime in the 1980s, the mujahedin in the 1990s, and the Western-backed government that came to power after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the first Taliban regime in 2001.

Changing the names of public sites has long proved highly contentious, a byproduct of conflict among rival and even warring ethnic, religious, and political groups.

Hameed Hakimi, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank, said the Taliban was “renaming places and institutions to project their victory narrative to their loyalists, and to simultaneously remove remnants of their foes.”

“Renaming a geography and institutions may be perceived as an ultimate act of victory by the Taliban, he added.

Removing Tributes To Former Foes

When the Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021, it swiftly renamed streets, squares, and universities in the Afghan capital that honored its former enemies — the toppled Afghan government and the former mujahedin, the Islamist groups that battled the Taliban in the 1990s. Many mujahedin figures received prominent roles in the new political order that emerged after 2001.

One of the Taliban’s first targets was Kabul’s main airport road — the “Great Masud Road” — which honored Ahmad Shah Masud, a prominent mujahedin commander and Taliban foe who was killed in 2001.

Kabul’s airport — Hamid Karzai International Airport — which honored former President Hamid Karzai, was also quickly renamed as Kabul International Airport.

The militants also changed the name of a Kabul square — “Martyr Mazari Square” — honoring Abdul Ali Mazari, a mujahedin commander who was killed by the Taliban in 1995.

The Taliban also renamed a public university in Kabul honoring former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a mujahedin leader who was assassinated by the Taliban in 2011.

Kabul’s so-called Bush Bazaar, once a thriving market for U.S. military gear and foodstuffs, was renamed “Mujahedin Bazaar.” Taliban militants often refer to themselves as mujahedin, which means freedom fighters.

In the past two years, the Taliban has extended its name-changing campaign to cities across Afghanistan.

The extremist group changed the names of the airports in the central provinces of Bamiyan, Daikundi, and Ghor — which honored two former mujahedin leaders and an Afghan army general, respectively.

Meanwhile, two main roads in the western city of Herat that honored Masud and the son of Ismail Khan, a former mujahedin leader, respectively, were also renamed.

‘Highly Political’

In many cases, the Taliban has restored the original names of streets, squares, and other public sites. In other cases, the militants have renamed places to honor Islamic scholars and jurists from the Arab world as well as the Koran, Islam’s holy book. In some instances, streets and squares have been renamed after slain Taliban leaders and fighters.

In one of its most controversial moves, the Taliban renamed the city of Charikar, the provincial capital of the northern province of Parwan, to Imam Azam.

The new Arabic name refers to Imam Abu Hanifa, an eighth-century jurist who founded the Hanafi school of Islam, the Sunni denomination followed by the Taliban.

Changing the name of Charikar, an ancient city with Buddhist roots, triggered widespread outrage.

The Taliban also changed the names of units in the Afghan military, replacing Persian and Pashto names with Arabic ones.

Meanwhile, a square in the western city of Herat long known as Education Square was recently renamed “Iqra,” which means read in Arabic and is the name of a chapter in the Koran.

Locals have criticized the move.

Sayed Ashraf Sadat, an exiled activist from Herat, said the Taliban’s name changes were “worrying” and “highly political.”

Naqib Arwin, a former official in Herat, said the Taliban’s decisions “have been done by force and without the consent and consultation of the people.”

Haroun Rahimi, an Afghan academic who researches Islamic law, said the Taliban’s decision to replace Dari and Pashto words with Arabic ones was not surprising.

“They often name things after figures or events that have prominence in Islamic history,” he said. “It is interesting that they are not naming things after their figures and leaders as much as the [previous government] did. Instead, they reach back to Islamic history.”

Rahimi says that decision speaks to the Taliban’s complicated relationship with Afghan nationalism.

While the Taliban has its roots in a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, its ideology and practices are also grounded in Pashtun tribal codes. The group is predominately made up of Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in the country. Pashtuns have ruled Afghanistan for much of the country’s more-than-270-year existence.

Hakimi said the Taliban’s name-changing spree will “certainly result in the weakening of any collective sense of nationalism that Afghans have, especially over the past century.”

“The Taliban crackdown in this regard extends deeply into Pashtun areas of the country too, effectively challenging Pashtuns’ sense of nationalism,” he added.

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