Meeting of Amn Tehrik

Meeting of Amn Tehrik

A joint meeting of Steering Committee and Coordinating Committee from Pakhtunkhwa Province and FATA was held in Peshawar. Issues concerning terrorism in Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Punjab were discussed in detail. Convener Amn Tehrik Idrees Kamal, Said Alam Mahsud, Hasham Babar ANP, Syed Mukhtar Bacha NP, Ghani Gul Mahsud PPP, Aimal Khattak, Sikandar Zaman, Shagufta Malik, Naheed Afridi, Shazia Hina, Syed Ayub Shah PPP, Muhammad Jan Gagyani, Shamim Shahid PPC, Zar Ali Khan Musazai TNC, Niaz Muhammad Zakhakhel, Abdur Rahim Afridi, Qaiser Khan Advocate, Ziauddin Yousafzai, Miraj Afridi, Nizam Dawar, Jan Nisar Khalil, Nisar Mohmand, Umair Ahad Mir Khel,Shaibzada Bacha, Fazle Muala, Dr.Alam Yousafzai, Ata Ullah Kurram Agency, Shakeel Wahid Ullah, Dr.Khan, Khan Habib Afridi, Amir Khan PDC, Ghani Ur Rehman, Dr. Zubair, Mardan Ali, Iqbal Punchtar, Shirin Javed, Tariq Khan,were among the participants. Short detail version of the meeting. Further Recruitment for Jihad (Terrorism) in FATA and Pakhtunkhwa Province is not possible. The people of the said areas have witnessed the menace of terrorism and they can no more be deceived. Wave of terrorism has got further momentum in FATA and Pakhtunkhwa province despite the above facts. The role of security agencies to curb militancy is not satisfactory any where sans Swat. In the ongoing operation against militants in FATA and Pakhtunkhwa Province the militants and terrorists are not being killed while only the peace loving people are targeted and are killed. Now Punjab is a new center of terrorists. The government of Muslim League in this province has been supporting terrorism more than MMA who ruled Pakhtunkhwa Province since 2002 until 2007. Muslim leaguee government in Punjab Province is not only taking action against terrorists but it has been playing a role to patronize it also. The meeting demands of the government to launch a decisive operation against terrorists in Mureedki and Southern Punjab. The meeting demands of the government to eliminate the centers of terrorism in all parts of the country. Meeting also strongly condemns the strategic Policy architectured by the Pakistani Military Generals and demands of all parties in government to supervise all military operations under the civil governments. Amn Tehrik(Peace Movement) is standing firmed over its previous statement to support the supremacy of the parliament and will oppose all the undemocratic tactics to destabilize the democratic governments. Meeting demands of the military to concentrate only on the elimination of terrorism and all other matters relating to development and reconstruction should be handed over to the civil governments. We demand for registration of the IDPs of FATA. More than 40 thousands of the people have been forced to migrate from FR Peshawar (FATA) who are still deprived of IDPs status and these people should be given status of IDPs as soon as possible. Peshawar-Parachinar road of Kurram Agency(FATA) is closed for last more than 3-years due to militancy. The people have to travel to come to Peshawar through Afghanistan. The meeting demands of the government to reopen the road so that the people could avoid of the troubles they face in their journey to reach their destination. Students of militancy hit areas including FATA should be remitted of their fee. Meeting also strongly denounces the decision taken by the military to collect the arms from the common people. In case the general public will be left at mercy of terrorists. We also appeal to the government to avoid registering fake and fabricated case against Afsar Khan an important member of Amn Tehrik in Buner district. We once again strongly condemn target killing in Swat, FATA and other parts of the Province of Pakhtunkhwa. Amn Tehrik also condemns killing of innocent Ahmadi worshippers in Lahore, Punjab by the religious terrorists. Tariq Afghan a student leader of Azad Pakhtun Students Federation who is also member Steering Committee Amn Tehrik and Asad Mayar, Provincial President Azad PSF Pakhtunkhwa who were arrested few days back under 3 MPO in a fake and fraudulent case should immediately be released forth with. Zar ali khan musazai member Central committee Amn Tehrik Peshawar

PASHTUN-BASHING IN KITE RUNNER

PASHTUN-BASHING IN KITE RUNNER
A PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATION? By: Dr. Rahmat Rabi Zirakyar I am of Salarzai-Pashtun/Afghan heritage with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, Germany; currently independent scholar,U.S.A. An eminent American historian Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes put it: “Truth is always the first war casualty. The emotional disturbances and distortion in historical writing are greatest in wartime.” Quoted in “Zundelsite-A few facts about the Institute of Historical Review”, electronic version [November 1, 2009]. In shadows of aggression, people have been deliberately manipulated by official propaganda and spinning media and experts into an attitude of hating a country, a race, a religion, an ethnic group, etc. INTRODUCTION The Kite Runner is a penetrating, absorbing, distressing, emotional, and ideological novel by Afghan-born Dr. Khaled Hosseini which covers the tumultuous period of Afghanistan’s history since early 1970s. I read its first Riverhead paperback edition (2004) in November of 2009. Its hardcover was published a year earlier in 2003. He is culturally a non-Pashtun but ethnically a half-Pashtun: Dr. Hosseini’s mother, grandmother and great-grandmother belong to the Mohammadzai nobility of Pashtun heritage. Also, his aunt is the mother of Prince Mostapha Zaher, the grandson of King Zaher Shah( 1914-2007). Dr. Hosseini cleverly organizes the story of his fiction, skillfully builds the suspense, and amazingly patronizes the Western audience by using “hot-button” cultural and political issues in a very traditional Afghan society torn by the ravages of war since 1978. In April of this year the Pashtun-led faction of the Soviet-connected People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan took power, killed President of the new republic Prince Mohammad Daud and his family, and ended the reign of Mohammadzai nobility. The overwhelming majority of the Afghan people rejected the communist rule and its brutalities. They stood up against the new, leftist regime for national and religious (Islamic) reasons. These events were followed by the CIA operations against the Moscow-connected regime, which rushed the Soviets to invade Afghanistan on December 25, 1979. Nearly six months before the Soviet invasion, U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) signed the first directive for “secret aid” to the Afghan resistance (Mujahedeen), which “was going to induce a Soviet military intervention,” National Security Advisor Dr. Zbignew Brzezinski wrote to President Carter on July 3, 1979-the same day Carter signed the directive.(See Brzezinski’s interview, “How Jimmy Carter and I started the Mujahedeen”, Le Nouvel Observateur, France, January 15-21,1998/electronic version[November 14, 2009]. Mujahedeen received international support through the context of the Cold War and regional Pakistan-India conflict. U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) called the Mujahedeen “The moral equivalent of our own founding fathers” who were renamed terrorists/extremist Islamists after 911. On October 7, 2001, President George W. Bush’s war on Afghanistan started officially, with which Pashtuns, Afghanistan and its government had nothing to do. According to two internationally renowned scholars Prof. Noam Chomsky and Prof. Gilbert Achcar, Taleban asked the U.S. to submit a “formal extradition request,” along with evidence regarding the alleged criminal. But Washington “just didn’t have any. In June 2002, about eight months after the bombing of Afghanistan, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller…the most he could say is, we believe that the plot may have been hatched in Afghanistan, but the planning and the implementation were carried out in the United Arab Emirates and in Germany.” (Chomsky and Achcar, Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, expanded ed., 2009, pp. 71-82) In the general euphoria of Afghanistan’s “liberation”of 2001, Mr. Siddiq Barmak’s award-winning film Osama, and Dr. Hosseini’s widely-acclaimed fiction The Kite Runner emerged in the middle of the same year 2003. What a coincidence! Dr. Hosseini’s novel is designed to soothe the Western audience’s conscience and to serve as a non-military “psychological operation” in the post-911 U.S. war urge packaged as liberty and democracy. It is a de facto defamation fiction, scapegoating Pashtuns ( who constitute the majority of Afghan population) while the author is exempting the upper stratum of other non-Pashtun minorities. He is touching on the legal conception of “defamation innuendo” (injury to reputation)? Dr. Hosseini does not seem to be thoroughly steeped in the history and culture of Afghanistan, particularly the period he is covering. Is his thinking co-opted? CAST OF MAJOR ROLES The defining moment (the rape of Hassan, ethnic Hazara and Shiite) which is integral to the story is introduced in the very first sentence of the book: “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in winter of 1975”(p. 1) The main character and narrator of the story Amir is the only[“legitimate”] child of a privileged ethnic Pashtun merchant Baba . Amir is the only insecure son of Baba and half brother of Hassan (both Baba’s progeny), as well as adoptive father of Sohrab (orphan son of Hassan). Baba wishes Amir would stand up for himself. Amir often feels jealous of the attention that Hassan receives from Baba. Amir is “the unwitting embodiment of Baba’s guilt” while Hassan is Baba’s “other half. The unentitled, under-privileged half….The half that…Baba had thought of as his true son.”(p. 359) Hassan’s mother is ethnic Hazara. He is best friend and servant of Amir. Hassan’s supposed father is Ali, an ethnic Hazara, who could not have kids because of Polio, which Amir learns later. Ali is like a brother to Baba for whom he works. “For you, a thousand times over.” (p. 2) This is said by Hassan to Amir as he runs Amir’s last kite. Rahim Khan is ethnic Pashtun. He is business associate and close friend of Baba. He has a close relationship with Amir, who wishes Rahim Khan was his father. “There is a way to be good again.” This is said by Rahim Khan to Amir to encourage him to help Hassan’s orphan son Sohrab escape Afghanistan under Taleban and this way redeem himself (pp. 1,192, 226). Assef is ethnic Pashtun. He has blue eyes and blond hair because his mother is German. He is an antagonist, the neighborhood bully, and firm believer in Adolf Hitler’s leadership. He raped Hassan. Assef, who later becomes leader of Taleban, took Sohrab (son of Hassan) from the orphanage in Kabul and forced him to prostitution. Eventually Amir adopted his half nephew Sohrab. They go home to America, but Sohrab remains silent until the two of them kite fight together and win. COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES The Kite Runner is organized around three “tortured souls” Baba (the father) and his two young boys with different ethnic heritages, who are best friends until one fateful act tears their relationship apart-and the quest one of them embark upon to right the wrong, to make up for his wrongdoing in the past, to search for “a way to be good again,” as Rahim Khan suggested to Amir. This quest for doing good to overcome the guilt and shame implies religious element (redemption) although Dr. Hosseini’s novel is addressing secular tangible life. The Kite Runner shows parallels to previous American novels, for example, Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn (1884); Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960); and Madison Jonen’s Nashville 1864: The Dying of Light (1997). Mark Twain’s novel, which opens with Huck as the lead character, is often recognized as his greatest masterpiece. The book tells about two runaways: a white boy and a black man on their journey. Huck is a poor boy (with a drunken bum for a father) who helps Jim, a runaway slave, to escape up the Mississippi to the free states. Through his novel Mark Twain addresses painful contradiction of racism and segregation in American society claiming freedom and equality. Nashville 1864 is a short American Civil War (1861-1865) novel in which Steven Moore, the lead character, is a 12-year-old boy who experienced the Civil War. The story of two friends (one white and one black) has its roots in Mark Twain’s Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. The author of the novel tells of the occupation of Nashville, Tennessee, by Union soldiers. The Confederate army was defeated. The two boys Steven and his family’s slave, Dink, were searching for Jason Moore (Steve’s father) believing that he was in the nearby military unit of the Confederate army. On their journey Dink showed more wisdom than Steven. The death of Steven Moore’s slave, Dink, hunt him for the rest of his life, much as Amir’s memory was haunted by his betrayal: to watch in hiding the rape of his loyal servant and firm friend Hassan by Assef, leader of bullies. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is based on the author’s observation of her surroundings, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was ten years old: A white woman accused a black man of raping her. He was sentenced to death. But according to some letters that appeared, the black man was falsely accused. So his sentence was commuted to life in prison. The author of the novel challenged the social status quo (racial and gender inequalities, unjust society, and lack of compassion). For religious and comparative literary perspectives, see Judi S. Hayes, In Search of Kite Runner (2007), 104 pages/electronic version. CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES The novel is timely because Afghanistan has become a pivotal point in global arena of imperial ambitions reinvigorated after the 911 catastrophe. It served as a non-military psychological operation. Dr. Hosseini’s novel is a prelude to the idea of “setam’e meli” (national oppression) advanced by Soviet communism and adopted by non-Pashtun Afghan leftists. Usually a novel is called historical when it replicates a period or event in history, often operates with historical figures as some of its characters, and the event described is at least 50 years old when the fiction is written down. For example, three best novels are worth mentioning here: (1) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997). The story of this novel starts before World War II in 1929, when a 9-year-old girl was sold to a renowned geisha house in Japan, where a girl’s virginity was auctioned to the highest bidder. Geisha means trophy wife or distinguished mistress. (2) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell(1936) is an American Civil War (1861-1865) story, in which the success and failure of an individual is tested to adjust to the new environment, or fail. (3)The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet(1989). Its story takes place in the middle of the twelfth-century England during a time when social, political and religious conflicts collide. This chaos affects the progress of the exquisite Gothic Cathedral on which the novel centers. The Kite Runner is written in a way that the reader can easily become caught up in the class struggle between under-privileged Hazaras (minority) and allegedly affluent Pashtuns(majority) and forgets that this is an ideological fiction. Hazaras have distinct Mongoloid features, which makes it easy to distinguish them from the neighboring ethnic groups. They live in Hazarajat (central Afghanistan), capital Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, and Ghazni. Their overwhelming majority adheres to Imami Shiism, although a few are Ismaeli Shiite, or Sunni. Hazaras move to Kabul to find work. The population of Kabul consisted of Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and other ethnic groups. Pashtuns did not give Hazaras the degrading name “tagha” (flat-nosed, narrow-eyed). Those who were ridiculing Pashtun as “Afghan-e ghool” (stupid Pashtuns) were not Hazaras. Pashtuns just ignored that expression. They believe that the term “Afghan-e ghool” (giant Pashtun) signifies “majority Pashtuns.” Some non-Pashtuns used the insulting charge “chiragh kosh”, a Farsi/Dari phrase for “light out!” defaming the (Ismaeli) Shiites for the alleged existence of sexual promiscuity in the very traditional society of Afghanistan! King Amanullah (an ethnic Pashtun) became a national hero because during the third Anglo-Afghan war he won recognition of Afghanistan’s independence from the British Empire in 1919. U.S. historian and a leading authority on Afghanistan Professor Ludwig Adamec wrote in 1974 that King Amanullah “had been successful because of the assistance he received from Afghan [Pashtun] tribes in the ‘Independent Tribal Belt’ of the [North-West] Frontier.” (Adamec, Afghanistan’s Foreign Affairs to the Mid-Twentieth Century: Relations with the USSR, Germany and Britain. The University of Arizona Press, 1974, p.92). The North-West Frontier Province, a misnomer, was created by the British Empire in 1901 to curb the revolts of the Pashtuns and to destroy their identity with Afghanistan. King Amanullah (1919-1929) banned the practice of slavery and focused on education and development of his country. When a bandit of non-Pashtun heritage Habibullah Bacha Saqaw, who was supported by the British, overthrew King Amanullah in mid-January of 1929 and began his chaotic rule over Afghanistan for 9 months. Hazara population largely supported Amanullah. The late Soviet-Communist historian and a major expert on Afghanistan Reisner published a pamphlet in 1929. Referring to Bacha Saqaw’s movement, Reisner selected the following title of his pamphlet : “Peasant Movement in Afghanistan.” Bacha Saqaw (Son of Water Carrier) was defeated by Pashtun Nader Shah (Hazaras might have been in favor of him, rather than Bacha Saqaw?). The reigns of power shifted two times in the twentieth century to the advantage of Tajik groups: The first time with Bacha Saqaw (also spelled as Saqao) for just nine months in 1929, and the second time approximately sixty-three years later with Tajik dominated Mujahedeen regime. Allied with pro-Soviet Parchamis and in good terms with the occupying military of the Soviet union, Jehadi forces of Masood-Rabani took power in Afghanistan (April 28,1992 to September 1996). Non-Pashtun groups with anti-Pashtun orientation were dominant in Parcham (Flag) and in Masood and Rabani organization(s). Their “holy” forces unleashed a reign of terror, rape, looting, and destruction. Approximately sixty-five thousand people lost their lives during that “unholy victory”of Mujadedeen. For Ahmad Shah Masood’s connections with the Soviets, see U.S. resourceful, but neglected, researcher and author on Afghanistan, Bruce G. Richardson: Ending the Reign of Soviet Terror (Maverick Publications, first edition 1996); Richardson, “A Perennial Charade,” Afghanistan Mirror, Serial Nr. 116 (November 2009), pp.5-7. This second power shift was called “The Second Reign of Water Carrier[Bacha Saqaw]”, a book of the same title by Samsor Afghan, first publication 1998 (1377 A.H.), second publication 2001(1379 A.H.). Published in Pashto(“Dwema Saqawi”). Publisher: Association for the Promotion of Afghan Culture, Germany. Once again, the anti-Pashtun warlords of the Northern Alliance were propelled to power by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the 911 catastrophe, with a Pashtun “minor tribal leader” Hamid Karzai as CIA described him. This U.S.-imposed “minorito-cracy” is referred to as the “imperialist or third saqawi”. Afflicted by the ongoing turmoil, warlords’ dominance in the state bureaucracy, drug economy, and Pashtun alienation, renowned researcher Ahmed Rashid published his book (Descent into Chaos.Viking Adult, 2008). By supporting the Northern Alliance’s warlords, looters and rapists to marginalize the majority Pashtuns of Afghanistan, the Bush administration in fact became partner in the civil war, which in turn could lead to the territorial disintegration of Afghanistan. The “terribly terrible” Taleban were a considerable source of stability in the region important to energy battlefield of Eurasia. Taleban’s harsh rule (September 1996-mid November 2001) deserve recognition for four functions: overthrowing Masood-Rabani chaotic rule, bringing law and order-however harsh it may be-to the most parts of society under their rule, preventing Afghanistan from territorial disintegration, and considerably reducing opium cultivation and corruption. After the 911 catastrophe President George Bush wanted Taleban to turn over the “prime suspect” Bin Laden to America. They responded that they would relinquish him to an Islamic country after the U.S. government would submit a formal request along with evidence regarding the alleged criminal. President Bush declared war, and U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. Even eight months after that doleful October day, the FBI director Mueller was unable to identify the person responsible for the 911 horrific attacks on America. According to Prof. Chomsky, “The most” the FBI director could deliver was to “believe” that the idea of the plot might have emerged in Afghanistan, but its planning and implementation were done in United Arab Emirates and Germany. Yet, Afghanistan was invaded by the U.S. forces, and to the contrary United Arab Emirates and Germany were exempted from the U.S. military attack!? See, Prof. Noam Chomsky and Prof. Gilbert Achcar, Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice (Paradigm Publishers, expanded edition 2009), pp. 71- 82. Instead of accepting “a carpet of gold” (black gold and blue gold/oil and gas business) before 911 attacks, Taleban received a “carpet of bombs” after the 911 catastrophe. Jean-Charles Brisard co-author of the book Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth (La Verite Interdite), interview with the author on November 15, 2001, see Julio Gody, “U.S. Policy Towards Taliban Influenced by Oil”, November 15, 2001, electronic version/Common Dream.org. The legal note on the copyright page of Dr. Hosseini’s novel reads: “This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.” The novel (The Kite Runner) is organized around the confrontation between two ethnic and religious groups: the Pashtuns who adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam and are making up the majority of the Afghan population, and the minority Hazaras, whose overwhelming majority adheres to the Shiite branch of Islam. Thus, Hazaras and Pashtuns are the real names of real ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Besides, the author Dr. Hosseini is culturally of non-Pashtun Afghan heritage. His Afghan background tells us that using real names of the real Afghan ethnic groups (Pashtuns and Hazaras) is neither the “product” of his “imagination” nor is their “resemblance…entirely coincidental.” This method is based on a hidden agenda for blaming the Pashtuns (the majority of Afghanistan’s population) of oppressing the minorities (non-Pashtun ethnic groups). This allegation, known in Afghanistan as “setam-e meli” (national oppression), originated in the former Soviet-Communist literature. This dichotomous conception was boosted during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989). The Soviet-Uzbek historian Nishanov became upset about the term “Afghan” in the Afghan constitution of 1964, which referred to all citizens as Afghans, and , consequently, all Afghans make up the Afghan nation. See, Nishanov, The Constructive Revolution of April [1978] referred to in Zirakyar, National Oppression, Nationality and Khorasan (original in Pashto), Publisher: Association for the Development of Pashtun Culture, Germany. Printed in Melat Press, Lahore, 2001. Unfortunately, Hazaras have long suffered from discrimination in Afghanistan. During the Soviet occupation the term “nationality” was propagated among the Afghan minorities(non-Pashtun tribes). Discrimination is unfair because it ignores the individual merit. In Afghanistan it resulted from different political, social and cultural interests of the elite crossing through all major non-Hazara ethnic and religious groups, not the masses of the people. Let me present a few cases: (1) When the Soviet-connected People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan was in power (1978-1992), the leader of the government Hafizullah Amin of Pashtun heritage(April 1978-December 1979) gave weapons to Pashtun Wardag tribe to fight against Hazaras. The Wardags did not use them against the neighboring Hazaras , but turned them against the Communist government. (2) Haji Mula Nasim Akhundzada is of Pashtun heritage. He was deputy commander to late Kandahari Mula Naqib, locally known as Mula-Gwal Akhund. Belonging to Alakozai-Pashtun tribe, Mula Nasim Akhundzada himself was an important Jehadi commander in Kandahar. He was allied with Northern Alliance and Islamic Society of Afghanistan run by commander Ahmad Shah Masood and his mentor Borhanuddin Rabani. [Nasim Akhundzada is currently advisor to a former Northern Alliance warlord in Kabul, personal information]. Abdul Nafe’ Hemat from Kandahar is of Alakozai-Pashtun heritage, as well as a poet and satirist. He learned about the inter-Mujahedeen fighting in Kabul (1992-1996) from other Alakozai-Pashtuns who participated in that distressing occurrence, the “unholy victory.” Abdul Nafe’ Hemat shared this information with a young Afghan journalist Abdul Rahim Shindandiwal. Regarding his information he interviewed Mula Nasim Akhundzada in November of 2009. His descriptions closely corroborated Shindandiwal’s information, which he shared with me as follows: Commander Ahmad Shah Masood complained to commander Mula Naqib that his Mujahedeen( fighters) refrained from attacking Pashtun positions in the Kabul area [Hekmatyar’s fighters]. Masood suggested to him that his deputy commanders should attack Hazaras instead. So under the command of two Kandaharis (Mohammad-Aka and Akhtarjan.), Mula Nasim Akhundzada’s Pashtun forces together with Ahmad Shah Mosood’s sub-commander Asad-e Choor’s brigade attacked the Dasht-e Barchi area up to Marastoon in the vicinity of Kabul and forced Hazara forces to flee [ most probably in 1992/1993= 1371/1372 A.J.] . But they left behind some three hundred women and approximately forty children and old men. Masood’s sub-commander Asad-e Choor (Asad the Looter, Plunderer) put the Hazara women in containers to rape them. They were crying for fear of being raped. When Mula Nasim Akhundzada noticed this misery, he immediately ordered his forces to thwart Assad-e Choor’s undertaking. He encircled the Kandahari Pashtun fighters to force them to hand over the Hazara women to him. The Pashtun commanders told Assad-e Choor that (1) “In our tradition [Pashtunwali=the Pashtun code of conduct]” Pashtuns do not fight against women and children, and (2) accordingly, they will hand over them to the leader of Hazaras, Abdul Ali Mazari. Asad-e Choor attacked Pashtun forces but could not succeed, and consequently Masood ordered his sub-commander Asad-e Choor to withdraw from that area. Kandahari Pashtun fighters relinquished Hazara women and children to Abdul Ali Mazari, who reciprocated this action with sending gifts and releasing many Pashtun war prisoners. (3) Safya was a non-Pashtun Shiite female teacher in Kandahar (Shiite are a very tiny minority in among Pashtuns in the city of Kandahar.) Kandahari Pashtuns called her “Amajan” (Dear Aunt), and Pashtun women in Kandahar elected her as the head of the provincial women affairs administration during the Karzai period. (4) Educated in Germany, Engineer Gholam Mohammad Farhad was of Yousufzai-Pashtun heritage. The people of the capital city Kabul gave him the honorary title “Papa” (Father). He was the most prominent leader of Afghan Social Democratic Party (1966=1344 A.H.). Engineer Farhad was the first elected mayor of Kabul. He won the mayoral elections with Hazara vote. Also, in the parliamentary elections he relied on the Hazara vote and won the seat in the House of Representatives. Hazara elders are still in touch with Papa Farhad’s family members, especially with his brother, politician and historian Qodratullah Hadad Farhad. (5) In cooperation with the Communist faction Parcham (Flag), Masood and Rabani took over the government (April 1992-September 1996). Their rule brought chaos, destruction and civil war to Afghanistan. For this reason, their rule was called “The Second Saqawi”(anarchy, banditry). In early October 1929, the progressive King Amanullah fell victim to the anarchy of a non-Pashtun bandit Habibullah Bacha Saqaw (Son of Water Carrier). Supported by the British, Saqaw forced King Amanullah’s abdication. In his struggle against Saqaw and the British, King Amanullah was supported by Hazaras. (6) The speech of Abdul Ali Mazari, the leader of Hazars’ Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, in July of 1993 (1372 A.H.) might be quite instructive for those who are beating on the drum of ethnic antagonism. Mazari believed that his people Hazaras have to fight together with other “Persian-speaking” people against the Pashtun domination. But “the issue of Chandawal and Afshar” [the killing of Hazaras in two sections of Kabul by non-Pashtun Masood-Rabani group, 1992] convinced Mazari that during the past 250 years not all Pashtuns, but “a power-hungry family”[yak khanadan-e jahtalab] had oppressed Hazaras. Since the day Masood-Rabani group came to power[April 2,1992] in Kabul, they “waged eight wars in the name of Islam against you[Hazaras],” Mazari emphasized in his speech. Masood and Rabani were referring to Hazaras as “the progeny of Genghis Khan.” ( Genghis Khan or Changes Khan was the Mongolian warrior-ruler [c.1155-1227], who seems to have had controlled a larger territory than any other ruler in the history.) For original Persian text of Mazarin’s speech, see Nada-e Wahdat, No. 13/July 1993, quoted in Rahmat Rabi Zirakyar, X-Ray of Afghan National Consciousness (original in Pashto), Publisher Pashto Yoon, New York, submitted to publisher on 19 February 2001(30 Salwagha 1379 A.H.), printed in Peshawar, Pashtunkhwa, 2003 (1382 A.H.)pp. 79-80, from the facsimile printed in Afghanistan Mirror (Ayena-e Afghanistan, Vol.32/June-July1993=Jauza-Sartan 1372 A.H., pp. 71-72). (7) Iran-educated Dr. Ali Razawi Ghaznawi is of Hazara heritage, as well as an Afghan scholar. He believed that Afghanistan was dominated by Pashtuns, “qaum-e ma’iyan wa khas”(the distinct and particular tribe). King Mohammad Zaher Shah, who ruled Afghanistan for the longest period (1933-1973), was an important member of that distinct and particular tribe, the Pashtuns. Apparently, the terrible events in Chandawal and Afshar sections of Kabul(see above #6), taught Dr. Ghaznawi to change his mind(most probably in 1992/1993): Under the prevailing circumstances of anarchy, destruction and killing, he “preferred” the leadership of “His Majesty”, the exile King Zaher Shah. For original Persian text, see Zirakyar, ibid., pp. 71-72, quoted from Afghanistan Mirror (Ayena-e Afghanistan, Vol. 29/December 1992-January 1993(1372 A.H.). The 79- year- old King Zaher Shah returned to Afghanistan on April 18, 2002 after 29 years of exile in Rome, Italy. He was the most prominent leader in the harts and souls of his nation, but to CIA he was a “figure head” just to convene the Loya Jirga. He was given the ceremonial title “Father of the Nation” by the Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) without being allowed to give in person his opening speech to that extraordinary institution of Afghan political culture and legal credibility. King Zaher Shah could not do but to accept the ceremonial title, and, by implication, he gave legitimacy to the decisions of Loya Jirga in June 2002 (ghbargolai 1381 A.H.). As a non-political symbol of “national unity” under the occupation, he died in Kabul on July 23, 2007. (8) Kateb Faiz Mohammad (1862-1931) was the son of Sayed Mohammad Moghol of Hazara heritage. This Afghan intellectual served under two kings of Pashtun heritage. Kateb Faiz Mohammad was a member of the royal secretariat and the biographer of the “Iron Emir” Abdul Rahman Khan (1880-1901). In 1888, this Emir conferred on an influential Hazara leader (Mohammad Azim Beg) the title “Sardar” (Lord, Prince). Sardar Mohammad Azim Beg was the son of Ali Zahid Khan, the leader of Sepai-Dezangi Hazaras. On the recommendation of Emir Abdul Rahman Khan, his son Prince Habibullah Khan married the daughter of Sardar Mohammad Azim Beg. According to a very cautious, well educated and resourceful high-ranking Afghan politician, a group of “professional” (maslaki) Hazaras in British India was sent by its government to Quetta, Baluchistan, to instigate unrest in Afghanistan. This way, the British forced the then Afghan Emir/King Abdul Rahman Khan to give in to their colonial demand for the so-called “Durand Line” of 1893, which divided the Pashtuns between Afghanistan and British India (current Pakistan). For more information, see British-educated Afghan historian Prof. Mohammad Hasan Kakar, The Consolidation of Central Authority in Afghanistan under Amir Abd al-Rahman[Abdul Rahman Khan], 1880-96, M.A., School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1968; Afghanistan in the Reign of Amir Abd al-Rahman, 1880-1901, Ph. D., London, 1974. Also, see Afghan historian and politician Mir Gholam Mohammad Ghobar, Afghanistan in the Course of Time (original published in Persian in Kabul, Afghanistan, 1967/1968), pp. 666-671. To forge a unified Afghanistan and a central administration, Amir/Emir Abdul Rahman Khan ruled his country with an “iron fist”: He relentlessly used his power against all rivals and rebelling individuals and tribes alike (Pashtun Shinwaris, Pashtun Ghilzais, non-Pashtun Nuristanis, and non-Pashtun Hazaras who suffered more). Kateb Faiz Mohammad of Hazara heritage was a personal friend and court clerk of Amir (Emir) Habibullah Khan (1901-1919). Encouraged by this king, he authored the three-volume Torch of the Histories (Seraj-al Tawarikh) and worked for the ministries of education and foreign affairs. In his Torch of the Histories, Kateb Faiz Mohammad wrote regarding the name Afghanistan: “This country…” became “more” known during “the period of His Majesty Ahmad Shah [of Pashtun heritage,1747-1773/1160-1186 A.H.]”(zyadtar mausoom ba Afghanistan shod). Quoted by Professor of History Azam Sistani (Barakzai) in his book: Is Afghanistan a Fake Name? A Collection of 20 Articles,Sweden,2006. Original in Persian, printed by Danesh Book Center, Peshawar, [Pashtunkhwa], 2007(1386 A.H.), 418 pages, here p. 410. The reformist, progressive and anti-British King Amanullah Khan (1919-1929) did not like his father Amir Habibullah Khan because he was pro-British. Since Kateb Faiz Mohammad was close to Amir Habibullah Khan, King Amanullah Khan may not have used his services. Kateb Faiz Mohammad was firmly tortured by the non-Pashtun bandit ruler Bacha Saqaw (January-October 1929). U.S. historian and prominent authority on Afghanistan Prof. Ludwig W. Adamec writes regarding the cause of death of Kateb Faiz Mohammad: He died in 1931 “purportedly from the complications of severe beating by Habibullah Kalakani [Bacha Saqaw from the Kalakan area] who had sent him to bring a document of submission from Hazarajat [central Afghanistan, where the majority of Hazaras lived].” Adamec, “Katib Author of Monumental History Books,” electronic version/Katib Cultural Association, Denmark, [November 25, 2009]. Also, see Jafar Razai, “The Father of Modern History of Afghanistan (Padar-e Tarikh-e Moa’ser-e Afghanistan”, electronic version/Kateb-e –hazara.blogfa.com, [November 25, 2009]. (9) Prof. Abdul Wahab Sorabi of Hazara heritage was member of the Advisory Constitutional Commission (1964). He was the first Hazara cabinet member with portfolio (1967-69) under King Zaher Shah (1933-1973). Thereupon Prof. Sorabi became the cabinet minister, 1969-1971, Secretary of Planning( de plan wazir). Engineer Mohammad Yaqub Lali was also a Hazara and cabinet minister, 1967-69, Secretary of Public Affairs (de ama shegano wazir). Abdullah Khan, who was like a prince (sardar-e Hazaras) in his community, was chosen by King Zaher Shah as a member of the Senate. He was in fact close to the King. Barat-Ali Khan was also Hazara and quite influential in the National Bank. Let’s take a look at U.S.: The first black U.S. cabinet minister was Robert C. Weaver, 1966-1968, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Linden Johnson. The first black female cabinet minister was Patricia Harris, 1977, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter. (10) In mid-1990s (most probably in December of 1995) the Afghan “royal Shiites” (tashayo-e darbari), namely the Tajik Shiites Mohseni, Akbari, and Sayed Fazel, had launched a campaign to incite Afghan refugees (mostly Shiite Hazaras) in Iranian cities (Qom and Mashhed) against the “Giant Pashtun” (Ghool Pashtun). A declaration by Mohseni in Qom and Mashhed reads: “The strategic alliance with Pashtunism and Communism was an irreparable mistake in the history which pushed Hazaras backward for one hundred years.” This is reported by an honest and concerned Afghan Shiite (most probably Hazara) who condemned the Iranian involvement in Afghan affairs. He also rejected Mohseni’s hate campaign against “Pashtun brothers.” For original Persian text, see Zirakyar, X-Ray of Afghan National Consciousness, op. cit., pp.74-78. STEREOTYPING PASHTUNS Two things may contribute to the creation of a poor historical novel: (First) the oversimplification of historical issues (ignoring essential details of historical subjects), and (second) a perceived or broad generalization about a particular social or racial group (a stereotyping of the “good” and “bad” guys). In contrast to this, a good historical novel usually depends on the author’s ability to thoroughly understand the history of the period he/she is covering. The following passages from the novel will illustrate that Pashtuns are singled out and negatively impacted, which do cause injury to their reputation (defamation innuendo). Amir is the lead character and narrator of the story. King Zaher Shah and Amir’s father, both Pashtuns “got behind the wheel of their father’s Ford roadster. High on Hashish and mast on French wine, they struck and killed a Hazara husband and wife on the road.” (p. 24) The character Assef is Pashtun and a bully, who raped the Hazara boy Hassan. “Born to a German mother and Afghan father, the blond, blue-eyed Assef towered over the other kids.” He admires Hitler: “About Hitler. Now, there was a leader. A great leader. A man of vision.” Assef’s “blue eyes flicked to Hassan [the Hazara boy]” and said: “Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood.” Assef “will ask the president [Prince Mohammad Daud, the founder of the Republic of Afghanistan in 1973] to do what the king[Mohammad Zaher Shah, 1933-1973] didn’t have the quwat [power] to do. To rid Afghanistan of al the dirty, kaseef Hazaras.” (pp. 38-40) Assef brought Amir a birthday gift. “It was a biography of Hitler.”(pp.96-97) Assef, who became leader of Taleban, took Sohrab (son of Hassan) from orphanage in Kabul and forced him to prostitution: “How is that whore these days?” While Assef was present in his office, “One of the guards pressed a button and Pashtu[or Pashto is the language of Pashtuns] music filled the room” and Sohrab “danced in a circle.”(pp. 278-280) The Taleb with the whip “shouted something in Pashtu.”(p.272) Or the guard said “something in Pashtu, in a hard voice”( p.279). Or “One of the guards said something in Pashtu”(p.291). The tribe of the Taleban is Taleban. But the author tries to connect Taleban and Pashtuns through their language Pashto and this way diminish and discredit the majority Pashtuns, succinctly to dehumanize them. Soon after the 911 catastrophe, “America bombed Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance [a collection of non-Pashtun warlords who collected U.S. $70 millions within the first few weeks of the war] moved in, and the Taliban scurried like rats into the caves.”(p. 362) Dr. Hosseini’s statements are embedded in social discrimination based on basic psychological impulses of fear and Pashtun-bashing. “…the kind of thinking which presents any ethnic or national group in terms of a crude, unflattering caricature is undesirable and sloppy at best.” Dr. Michael F. Connors, Dealing in Hate: Anti-German Propaganda. Institute of Historical Review, Newport Beach, CA, 1996, 48 pages. Electronic version [Nov. 11, 2009]. CONCLUSIONS Why is Dr. Hosseini, who belongs to a well educated family, involved in Pashtun-bashing? He is originally a “Sayed” (honorific title used for male descendants of the Islamic Prophet Mohammad.) However, his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are members of the ruling lineage of nobility (Mohammadzai-Pashtuns). So he is half Pashtun (Mohammadzai nobility) and half non-Pashtun. Besides, Dr. Hosseini’s aunt is the mother of Prince Mostapha Zaher, the grandson of King Zaher Shah (he died in Kabul in 2007). But culturally Dr. Hosseini is a non-Pashtun, or apparently an anti-Pashtun non-Pashtun. In 1973 Prince Mohammad Daud overthrew his nephew King Mohammad Zaher Shah (1914-2007), declared Republic and proclaimed himself president. The Pashtun faction of the leftist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan overthrew Daud and thereby ended once and for all the reign of the Mohammadzai nobility. This might be one of the reasons why Dr. Hosseini (as the privileged half) has taken revenge on Pashtuns as collectivity. Culturally non-Pashtun Dr. Khaled Hosseini’s biography reveals that he had limited opportunity to expand his knowledge of Afghan history. He “feel[s] like a tourist in my own country” (p.231). Farid (a character) who escorted Dr. Hosseini to Afghanistan, told him: “Agha Saheb[Sir]….You? You’ve always been a tourist here” in Afghanistan (p.232). To transcribe Afghan terms, Dr. Hosseini uses in his novel Iranian Persian (Farsi) pronunciation rather than Dari (Afghan version of Farsi) phonetic transcription. For example, “Ghargha”Lake (p.13), “Sabzi challow” (p. 173), “Maghbool” (p.178), and “Topeh chasht” (p. 245).Their Dari-Farsi pronunciations are: “Qargha” Lake, “Sabzi chalau”, “Maqbool”, and “Tope chast”. Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. In the early 1970s he lived with his family in Teheran, Iran, where his father worked for the Afghan embassy. In 1973, he and his family returned to Kabul, and in 1976, Hosseini and his family moved to Paris, France, where his father was assigned to the Afghan embassy. The Hosseinis were still in Paris when the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on December 25, 1979. The 15-year old Hosseini, along with his family, left Paris for the United States of America, where they arrived in the fall of 1980. From this, I can assume that Dr. Hosseini is a victim of his superficial knowledge of the Afghan history. I am assuming that “Setam-e meli” ideology was influential in his political socialization. Setam-e meli (national oppression) looks like a class struggle, which is based on the alleged oppression of non-Pashtun minorities by the Pashtun majority. The concept of Setam-e meli originated in the former Soviet-Communist literature, and it influenced the outlook of non-Pashtun leftists. The Soviet Union needed this ideology to divide Afghanistan into north and south regions. The Soviet design was to integrate ten Northern provinces into a “submissive, civilized” Socialist Republic of Afghanistan and to merge the southern provinces into a “resistant, less civilized” Democratic Republic of Afghanistan as a buffer zone for the defense of the civilized North. Who would think that U.S. strategist Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski cannot learn from Soviet Arbatov?! The idea of dividing Afghanistan was also appealing to non-Pashtun Ahmad Shah Masood, the leader of the Northern Alliance, who might have been interested in establishing “Masoodistan” in Northern Afghanistan. This anti-Pashtun mutation became intensified during the Soviet occupation (1979-1989), Parcham rule (1980-1992) and during Masood-Rabani chaotic “unholy victory” (1992-1996). Dr. Hosseini may have been influenced by the opinions, suggestions and/or guidance of other Afghans. They could have used his historical-political inexperience and his excellent writing skills for their own political-ideological orientation. Or presumably, someone has co-opted his thinking? The Kite Runner by Dr. Hosseini is a biased book. It is patronizing the Western audience and plays into war mongering. It is a common feeling among Pashtuns that this novel participated in dancing to the drum of Bush’s war which was a virtue of supreme importance in the post-911 political and cultural climate. The war party will move heaven and earth to make sure the war, propaganda, collapse of mainstream media integrity, and the proliferation of doublespeak are working harmoniously. (See Cold War Fantasies: Film, Fiction, and Foreign Policy by Prof. of Political Science Ronnie D. Lipschutz. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, October 2001. The World Factbook by CIA is published in the middle of each year. Until 1991, this type of “finished intelligence” registered Pashtuns as majority of the Afghan population (50% as ethnic group and as language group). Almost a year later in April 1992, the Northern Alliance (Masood-Rabani group) took over the power in Kabul. The World Factbook 1992, considerably lowered the statistical significance of the Pashtun ethnic group and their language (Pashto): 38% as ethnic group, and 35% as language group. In World Factbook 2009, statistical data for Pashtuns shows improvement as ethnic group (42%) but remained the same as language group (35%). For the record, a six-year survey and research project (1991-1996) was conducted by WAK-Foundation for Afghanistan, the results of which was published in 1998 (1377 A.H.). According to this source, from the total population of Afghanistan, Pashtuns make up 62.73 percent as ethnic group and 55 percent as language group. (See The Ethnic Composition of Afghanistan by Wak-Foundation for Afghanistan. Published by Sapi’s Center for Pashto Research and Development, Peshawar, Pashtunkhwa, 1998=1377 A.H., 250 pages). An eminent U.S. expert on Afghanistan Bruce G. Richardson took notice of this phenomenon shortly after 911 catastrophe: “Of late, we have been subjected to a variety of published ethnographic data in the broadcast and print media in which we are assured that the Pashtun majority is barely a majority at all and that the time has come to end ‘Pashtun domination of Afghanistan.’ The source for much of this data is reported as ‘taken from CIA analysis.’ But is this data reliable? Or is this data self-serving, a cover for U.S. support for minority rule in Afghanistan?”(Richardson, “Post-Taliban Afghanistan”, Afghanistan Mirror, Serial Nr. 87/ January 2002, pp. 10-12; Dawat,Vol. 134-135). Dr. Hosseini’s novel has functioned successfully as a non-military psychological operation in the service of U.S. “Congress-Military-Industrial Complex’s” war on Afghanistan (October 7, 2001). Soon after the U.S. troops conquered the city of Kabul, I saw the then Secretary of State Colin Powell on TV talking enthusiastically about a boy whose kite was flying in the sky of that city. Powell might have been implying that kite flying was symbolizing the independence of Afghanistan under the occupation of foreign troops?
- Zirakyar -

Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel

Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel
Thursday, 10 June 2010 Genetic study sets out to uncover if there is a 2,700-year-old link to Afghanistan and Pakistan Rory McCarthy, Jerusalem Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world who claim a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case. Paradoxically it is from the Pashtuns that the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan emerged. Pashtuns themselves sometimes talk of their Israelite connection, but show few signs of sympathy with, or any wish to migrate to, the modern Israeli state. Now an Indian researcher has collected blood samples from members of the Afridi tribe of Pashtuns who today live in Malihabad, near Lucknow, in northern India. Shahnaz Ali, from the National Institute of Immuno haematology in Mumbai, is to spend several months studying her findings at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. A previous genetic study in the same area did not provide proof one way or the other. The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel some 2,730 years ago, scattering 10 of the 12 tribes into exile, supposedly beyond the mythical Sambation river. The two remaining tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became the modern-day Jewish people, according to Jewish history, and the search for the lost tribes has continued ever since. Some have claimed to have found traces of them in modern day China, Burma, Nigeria, Central Asia, Ethiopia and even in the West. But it is believed that the tribes were dispersed in an area around modern-day northern Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes the Pashtun connection the strongest. ´´Of all the groups, there is more convincing evidence about the Pathans than anybody else, but the Pathans are the ones who would reject Israel most ferociously. That is the sweet irony,´´ said Shalva Weil, an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Pashtuns have a proud oral history that talks of descending from the Israelites. Their tribal groupings have similar names, including Yusufzai, which means sons of Joseph; and Afridi, thought by some to come from Ephraim. Some customs and practices are said to be similar to Jewish traditions: lighting candles on the sabbath, refraining from eating certain foods, using a canopy during a wedding ceremony and some similarities in garments. Weil cautioned, however, that this is not proof of any genetic connection. DNA might be able to determine which area of the world the Pashtuns originated from, but it is not at all certain that it could identify a specific genetic link to the Jewish people. So far Shahnaz Ali has been cautious. ´´The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don´t know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction,´´ she told the Times of India last year. Some are more certain, among them Navras Aafreedi, an academic at Luck now University, himself a Pashtun from the Afridi tribe. His family trace their roots back to Pathans from the Khyber Agency of what is today north-west Pakistan, but he believes they stretch back further to the tribe of Ephraim. ´´Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists,´´ Aafreedi said. The implications of any find are uncertain. Other groups that claim ­Israelite descent, including those known as the Bnei Menashe in India and some in Ethiopia, have migrated to Israel. That is unlikely with the Pashtuns. But Weil said the work was absorbing, well beyond questions of immigration. ´´I find a myth that has been so persistent for so long, for 2,000 years, really fascinating,´´ she said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun *** Lucknow Pathans have Jewish roots Sachin Parashar, TNN, 11 January 2010, 02:52am IST NEW DELHI: Despite their animosity, do Jews and the Pathans in India come from the same ancestral stock — the biblical lost tribes of Israel? A subject of speculation among academicians in the past, the Israeli government has now asked an Indian geneticist, Shahnaz Ali, to study the link between the Afridi Pathans based in the Lucknow region and certain tribes of Israel who migrated from their native place to all over Asia a few thousand years ago. Ali, who has been granted a scholarship by Israel´s foreign ministry to work on the project, is genetically analysing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad near Lucknow which she collected earlier to confirm their Israeli origin. Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with the prestigious Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. ´´Shahnaz´s research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large,´´ Dr Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common-origin theory in India, told TOI. It is believed that the Pathan are descendants of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian invaders in 721BC. Some descendants of these lost tribes are said to have settled in India between AD1202 and AD1761, Afridi Pathans of Malihabad being one of them. According to experts, Israel´s decision to facilitate the research could also be because of the theory supported by many that Afghanistan´s Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans. ´´Malihabad in Lucknow district is the only Pathan, or Pashtun, territory safely and easily accessible to those interested in the probable Israelite origins of Pathans. It is certainly not possible to collect DNA samples in Afghanistan or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, where most of the Pathans or Pashtuns live,´´ Aafreedi said. India has only a sprinkling of Pathans, primarily at places like Malihabad near Lucknow and Qayamganj in Farrukhabad, predominantly of the Afridi tribe. But these were the only Pathans, said Aafreedi, who could be approached for academic purposes. According to Aafreedi, the Afridi Pathans in India, even though they claim Israeli origin, are just as hostile and antagonistic towards Israel as Muslims anywhere else in the world. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lucknow-Pathans-have-Jewish-roots/articleshow/5431654.cms Israelis and Taliban Separated at Birth Israel Finances Study About Pashtun Bloodlines By SIMON McGREGOR-WOOD JERUSALEM, Jan. 12, 2010 Don´t tell the Taliban, but their ancestors may be Jewish. Israel´s foreign ministry is funding research into whether members of the ethnic tribe from which the Taliban draws its manpower have Jewish ancestors. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic community in Afghanistan. It is widely believed they are an offshoot of the Pathans whose members are scattered across northern India and Pakistan. Both are today exclusively Muslim. Neither has any sympathy for modern Israel. Scientists are now trying to determine whether the Pathans themselves are directly descended from the tribe of Ephraim which was exiled from the land of Israel by the invading Assyrians in 721 B.C. Pathan folklore and culture are filled with references to an Israelite past. The last king of Afghanistan Zahir Shah who reigned in Kabul until 1973 reportedly claimed his family was descended from what he called the tribe of Benjamin. The Taliban spare no effort in expressing their hatred for Israel. Any genetic link they may have with people of Jewish descent would be a dark irony. Last year, a Persian blog item set off rumors suggesting that Iran´s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is of Jewish descent. Several global news outlets picked up the story and examined the notion of a Jewish Ahmadinejad, rooted in the claim that his original family name of ´´Sabourjian´´ links him to weavers of the Jewish prayer shawl. But Meir Javednafar, an Iranian Jewish scholar on the Middle East, dismissed the idea, telling ABC News that the political vetting process would make it nearly impossible for someone to reach the post of president of the Islamic Republic without solid Muslim credentials. Until now the supposed link between Pathans and Jews has only been discussed on the fringes of the academic and anthropological worlds. But now Shahnaz Ali, an Indian researcher from the National Institute of Immunohaematology in Mumbai has received a grant from Israel to test the theory with DNA samples she collected from Pathans in India. She will conduct her research at the prestigious Technion Institute in Haifa. abcnews.go.com/Technology/taliban-jewish-roots/story?id=9535559 Could the Taliban be genetically linked to the Jews? By Haaretz Service Israel has asked an Indian geneticist to study the link between the Indian Pathans tribe and certain tribes of Israel, the Times of India reported this week. Geneticist Shahnaz Ali has been asked to study the link between the Afridi Pathans, based in the Lucknow region of India, and certain tribes of Israel who migrated across Asia thousands of years ago. Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with Israel´s prestigious university the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Some experts attribute Israel´s decision to fund the research to a theory supported by many that Afghanistan´s Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans. This is not the first time speculations of a deep rooted connection between the two seemingly unrelated people have been raised, yet this is the first time Israel´s Foreign Ministry has offered to fund the research. Ali has been genetically analyzing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad which she collected earlier to confirm their Jewish origin. In an interview with the Times of India, Dr. Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common-origin theory in India said ´´Shahnaz´s research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large.´´ The Pahtans in India are believed to be descendants of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian invaders in 721 B.C.E. Some descendants of these lost tribes are said to have settled in India between 1202 C.E. and 1761 C.E., Afridi Pathans of Malihabad being one of them. ´´Malihabad in Lucknow district is the only Pathan, or Pashtun, territory safely and easily accessible to those interested in the probable Israelite origins of Pathans. It is certainly not possible to collect DNA samples in Afghanistan or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, where most of the Pathans or Pashtuns live,´´ Aafreedi said. There are few Pathans left in India, primarily at places like Malihabad near Lucknow and Qayamganj in Farrukhabad, all of whom Aafreedi approached for the academic research. According to Aafreedi, the Afridi Pathans in India, even though they claim Israeli origin, are just as hostile and antagonistic towards Israel as Muslims anywhere else in the world. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142690.html Are Taliban descendants of Israelites? By AMIR MIZROCH Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago? This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research. But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today´s Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim. Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putative Israelite origin. Shahnaz, an expert in DNA profiling and population genetics, will be supervised by Prof. Karl Skorecki, director of Nephrology and Molecular Medicine at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. Skorecki is famous for his breakthrough work on Jewish genetic research. Shahnaz´s research, which is expected to last anywhere between three months and a year, will be supported by a scholarship from the Foreign Ministry for the 2009-2010 academic year. Shahnaz, who is staying in Haifa for the duration of her research, earlier worked at the prestigious Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). While the scholarship only provides her with $600 per month (excluding travel to and from India), her work will be followed closely by many here and abroad. While the vast majority of Afghan Taliban are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, the theory that they are descendants of the Afridi Pathans is widespread in the area. The theory is based on a variety of ancient historical texts and oral traditions of the Pashtun people themselves, but no scientific studies by any accredited organizations have upheld the claim. It continues to be believed by many Pashtuns, and has found advocates among some contemporary Muslim and (to a lesser extent) Jewish scholars. Official confirmation of the link by the Technion would lend immense weight to the argument. Afridi Pathans have an age-old tradition of Israelite origin, which finds mention in texts dating from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars. According to some researchers, members of the tribe still observe many Israelite customs in their native places in eastern Afghanistan and in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan´s North West Frontier Province, though they have lost all these traditions of theirs in India. In Afghanistan and Pakistan they are all Muslim today and form the core of the Taliban. In his 1957 The Exiled and the Redeemed, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel´s second president, wrote that Hebrew migrations into Afghanistan began ´´with a sprinkling of exiles from Samaria who had been transplanted there by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria (719 BC).´´ Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, when asked about his ancestors, claimed that the royal family descended from the tribe of Benjamin. On the academic level, British researcher Dr. Theodore Parfitt has been conducting research on genetic effects and chromosome Y among numerous tribes around the world. In India he is assisted by a young researcher from the University of Lucknow - Dr. Navras Afreedi - who claims that his ancestors were Afreedi, descendants of the tribe of Efraim, and that many of the Pathans and other tribes are descendants of the Ten Tribes. Afreedi did his post-doctoral work at Tel Aviv University, titled ´´Indian Jewry and the Self-professed Lost Tribes of Israel in India.´´ Shahnaz´s genetic research would examine Navras´s theory that Afridi Pathans are descendants of the tribe of Ephraim, which was exiled in 721 BCE. The research uses DNA analysis to trace shared ancestries and origins of certain populations of interest in the eastern provinces of India, to map the cause of a certain disorder that is very frequent in the large populations of those provinces, and to see if the DNA mutations originate in a certain ´´founder event.´´ Shahnaz traveled to Malihabad and collected blood samples from the tribal population there. It is thought that the Afridi Pathans migrated from the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, areas that are now ´´ground zero´´ in the war on terror. Shahnaz herself, while aware of the possible connection, is cautious to jump to conclusions. ´´The research itself will take some three months, and after that we´ll see what happens. It could take a huge amount of time to analyze all the data, as it was taken from tribal people in India, and we will need to examine how much the men from this tribe mixed in with the local population,´´ she said. Navras welcomed Shahnaz´s research grant. ´´It´s a great news that now my research would be analyzed scientifically,´´ he said on his blog. ´´I don´t know what would be the outcome of the DNA analysis, but it would provide us a direction to resolve the complex issue. I also hope that such effort will have positive ramifications and will bring the Muslims and Jews close and enable them to forget historical animosity,´´ Navras wrote. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339436797&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Life of Rahman Baba

Despite the persistence of enchanting oral traditions, Kamil´s comment that ´´the circumstances of Rahman Baba´s life lie very much in the dark” is still the most apt summary of what we know about the life of Abdul Rahman Baba. The uncertainty about his life is increased by the lack of any eyewitness accounts, and is compounded by the enthusiastic cultivation of hagiographic legend

The legend portrays Rahman as a reclusive poet, scratching his poems in the mud of the Bara river, while strumming a rebab. At times he is overcome by a single note, and falls unconscious as tears wound his cheeks. Rahman is found in the company of a young boy named Mujnoon, with whom he elopes. Some of these oral traditions have become enshrined as accepted fact among Pushtuns, and many are repeated in books without consideration of their authenticity. Below is some information about Rahman Baba that is based on evidence from the Diwan.
Rahman´s Background
Lineage is of great importance in tribal societies, and Rahman leaves us in no doubt about his own Pushtun pedigree. Rahman claims to be of the Sarban tribe, who are recognized as the ´true Afghans´ because they can trace their ancestry back to the eldest son of the putative Pushtun ancestor Qais. The Sarban tribe originated in Kandahar, and migrated into the Peshawar valley from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. This period of history was characterized by a fierce rivalry between the different branches of the tribes.
Rahman was a Mohmund, of the Ghoriah khel (tribe), who lived in a small pocket of Mohmand settlers on the outskirts of Peshawar. From 1550 A.D. the Yusufzai tribe had come to dominate the area, following the defeat of the Ghoriah Khel in the battle of Sheikh Tapur. Rahman apparently lived peacefully in the area, and never mentions his involvement in these inter-tribal conflicts.
Opinion is divided about Rahman´s family background. Several commentators are convinced that his family were village maliks (chieftains), while Aqab finds no evidence for this view. Whether malik or not, Rahman describes himself as a poor man:
´´May no one be without life and livelihood, As I am lifeless and penniless. Though the wealthy drink water from a golden cup, I like this clay bowl of mine. ”

There is no specific mention of family members in the diwan, but there has been speculation about the identity of Aziz Khan, who has been variously identified as Rahman´s brother, or the Malik of Bahadur village. Other unsupported stories claim Rahman´s father was named Abdul Sattar, and that offspring of his own daughter´s family are still living in the village today.
If the body of Muhammad had not been born, God would not have created the world.´´
-- Rahman Baba

Rahman´s Village
There is agreement that Rahman lived and died in the area to the southwest of Peshawar, along what is now the outer ring-road of the city. His birth-place was Bahadar village, but he also lived in Hazarkhani. Oral tradition maintains that he moved to Kohat, and that he wandered as far as India.
As several have noticed, internal evidence from the diwan refutes the view that Rahman traveled. It seems likely that Rahman spent his whole life in his own village, as he himself claims:
´´I can swear to the fact that I do not move from my place, nor am I thankful to any creature whatsoever for anything. Neither have I seen countries down or up. My home is in the village, I don´t consider it a home, but a desert grave. ”
Rahman´s Dates
Since Rahman lived in relative obscurity, the exact dates of his birth and death are not known. Approximate dates can be deduced from two historical events mentioned in the Diwan. Rahman´s date of birth can be calculated from his mention of the end of the reign of the Mughal king Aurangzeb (1659-1707 A.D.). In D46/24 he mentions his age as being ´past 55´, and later in the same poem he refers to the accession of Shah Alum to the throne:
´´This was the name of Aurangzeb, a chapter eaten by a cow. Now is the turn of Shah Alum, a different time and style.”

Since Shah Alum took the throne in 1707 A.D., and as Rahman is as he states ´at least 55´, that would put Rahman´s birth at no later than 1652 A.D. It would be speculative to guess just how old ´past 55´ implies, but it would seem to rule out the date of 1632 A.D. given in Puta Khazana. If Rahman had been born then, he would have been more likely to have said ´past 75´. In a similar vein, the birth-date of 1653 A.D. given by Enevoldsen is wrong by at least a year (by simple subtraction). It is unlikely that Rahman was over 60 when he claimed to be ´past 55´, and if this assumption is correct, then his birth date lies somewhere between 1647 and 1652 A.D.
The date of Rahman´s death is linked with poem D 102. In it he tells of the brutal revenge killings of Gul Khan and Jamal Khan, who were burnt alive with an entire wedding party. According to Raverty this event took place around 1711 A.D. Many commentators assume that Rahman´s death was also around this time, though there is no evidence that he died then. All that can be said is that he was still alive in 1711. He could well have lived for several more years. A reasonable conclusion from these two events in Rahman´s life, is that his dates are approximately 1650 – 1715 A.D.
Rahman the Sheikh?
Rahman´s diwan itself provides the best evidence to disprove Andreyev´s view that the ´´highly illiterate Pashtun tribal society …..lay far away from the centres of Muslim scholarship and was not directly influenced by sophisticated intellectual traditions.”
Rahman´s diwan displays a subtle use of several languages including Pushtu, Arabic and Persian, as well as a wide knowledge of history, philosophy and theology. Particularly relevant to this study is the certainty that Rahman must have been trained in both fiqa (jurisprudence ) and tasawwuf (sufism) to have been capable of writing as he did. Though apparently at odds with each other, the teaching of both disciplines may have been the norm during his era, and it is recorded that other poets like Sadi (d.1292 A.D.) had received both. Rahman would not have had to have gone far to get this training, as Peshawar was starting to gain a reputation as a centre for religious learning that was later to make it a rival to Bokhara. Pata Khazana claims that Rahman´s teacher was known to have been Mullah Mohammed Yusafzai.
Rahman was anything but the uneducated Mullah that Aqab claims him to have been. Rather than suffering from too little education, Rahman complains that ´´learning drove me mad.” His thorough education is in keeping with Lewis´ view that ´´Sufism is essentially the work of sophisticated and highly literate urban men of learning.”
There can be no doubt that Rahman was a practicing Sufi, but was he attached to a particular order, either as a murid (follower) or a sheikh? Practitioners of Sufism were known by their patched cloak, which Hujwiri describes as the ´bondage of aspirants to Sufism.´ Likely from personal experience Rahman complains of the ´´service of the Fakir´s cloak,” and of the need to ´´ wash the bluish cloak.”. Although Rahman calls himself a Sheikh, it seems unlikely that he ever performed in this role, or that he was associated with any particular order.
A tradition states that a guide is needed for training in tasawwuf. Perhaps in response to this need, various unfounded theories have been made about who Rahman´s guide may have been, and to which order he was attached. Sabir suggests that Rahman had a Naqshabandi initiation in Kohat, as well as training from the sons of Pir Baba. Schimmel casually assigns Rahman to the Chishti order perhaps basing this on Raverty´s incorrect assumption that Sufis practicing musical sam? were Chishti by default. Aqab, himself of the Qadiri order, claims Rahman was a Qadiri.
There is no overwhelming evidence to prove any of these claims. If Rahman had been a member of one of the Sufi orders, modern followers of that group would no doubt claim him as one of their own. Such is not the case. It is more likely that Rahman was independent, with an individualistic practice of Sufism similar to that of Shah Abdul Latif in the Sind. It is even possible that he was a uwaysi after the pattern of Pir Roshan, as is hinted at in several lines: ´´Those who have perfect intention of heart are guided without the guidance of a Pir´´ and ´´On the path which I travel to see my love, make holy Khizer and Ilyas my guides.”
´´Do not be fooled by the outer appearance of a man, Look to the inside of the nut to see whether it is soft or hard.´´
-- Rahman Baba

Rahman in Crisis
The reverence with which Rahman is honoured by Pushtuns today is no reflection of how he may have been regarded during his lifetime. The issue was Rahman´s neglect of the outward practices of Islam. There is a popular tradition that is still held by some Pushtuns, that Rahman´s pursuit of God outside the mosque led to confrontation with the established religious hierarchy. His quest for God made him a solitary mystic with little interest in formal religion. Hughes records that in 1883 one old man still knew the tree under which the villagers said Rahman used to sit and compose his poems. Rahman relates his dereliction of duty this way:
´´Ever since I took up the work of love in my hands, I have withdrawn from any other work. ”
´´If this is not the passion of love, then what is it? Otherwise who would bandon their customs? ”
Other lines from the diwan suggest that Rahman´s activities might have further inflamed the village Mullahs:
´´I got nothing from being a sheikh or from my righteousness. ”
´´From now on it is my turn, to do whatever I can at the tavern. ”
I washed my hands of piety when the musician picked up the rebab. ”
Though no date is given for confrontation with the religious establishment, D 242 points to Rahman´s clear choice to no longer sit under the Tooba tree and instead to pursue tasawwuf with reckless abandon:
´´Rather than the unacceptable worship of the hypocrite, I prefer to be drunk on Saqi´s wine. ”
´´Whether knowledge, rosary or recitation, I am happier asleep than awake with these. ”
´´I don´t like the Tooba tree´s shade, but prefer to be burnt like a kebab in the flames of your face.”

Kamil suggests that ´´Rahman Baba reached such a profound abandonment to God, that he also abandoned all religious and worldly duties”. Afghani states that Rahman not only left the mosque, but that a kufr fatwa (death sentence for apostasy) was passed on him by the local mullahs. Raverty reports that he was later reconciled back into the community. Again, there are no written records to corroborate these events, but there is some evidence from the diwan that suggests that the tension may have been peacefully resolved:
´´I couldn´t find peace in my search for him. It became unlawful for me to be careless in my religion.”
Source:rahmanbabadiwan.com

- Rashid Hanif -

Glazed Pottery Art of Peshawar

Glazed Pottery Art of Peshawar
Text & Photos By Sher Alam Shinwari PESHAWAR: During my childhood, I used to collect my coins in a clay pot; we used to call it khazana meaning ´´treasure´´. I broke my khazana on every happy occasion, be it Eid or my birthday to meet my expenses. That small clay pot was a fascinating thing and it brought immense joy for me as it was a rare personal possession. During summer season, clay pot makers bring their donkeys laden with household utensils especially pitchers and bowls to sell out in cities. Drinking cold and fresh water from a pitcher made of clay gives us a sense of real joy during summer. The art of making clay pots seems to be as old as human race itself. Necessity of the past has now become a fashion. People no more purchase clay pottery to fulfil their household needs but keep it in their homes just for the sake of decoration. The clay pottery of Peshawar has gained a widespread reputation for its unique artistic beauty. Glazed pottery was once a great art in the subcontinent. But unfortunately clay pottery as an art is on the decline as ceramics, ground crystal, glass and plastic works have captured the markets. Kashmiri were the most accomplished masters of this unique art. ´´In 1860 some Kashmiris had brought the art of glazed pottery to Peshawar and trained a few people here who later on adopted it as a profession under the supervision of my father Muhammad Daud Khan,´´ says Abdur Rauf Seemab, 84, a graduate of the Edwards College, Peshawar. ´´My father started patronising this art in 1900 and established two furnaces where glazed pottery was made. Soon it gained tremendous popularity among the locals as well as foreigners. English and Arab visitors would demand it in great quantity,´´ Seemab explains adding that several artisans from Kashmir, Punjab and Frontier were also engaged to fulfil the demands of the foreign buyers. Various items were made as per buyers´ demands. Snaking through the narrowest dark lanes of Shah Wali Qitaal behind the famous Misgaraan Bazaar, one can find the corner where Seemab still runs a small shop in which he has showcased 500 rare and precious pieces of glazed pottery. He says his family had given great boost to the art of glazed pottery by blending its indigenous innovations and kept this art alive for three generations. ´´After the Russian invasion in Afghanistan, the number of foreigners visiting Peshawar declined greatly and the incident of 9/11 further blocked the way for foreigners, which badly influenced pottery art,´´ reveals Seemab. He further adds, ´´I had to switch over to another business, so I razed the furnaces, built two shopping centres instead and relieved some 20 artisans due to lack of any substantial demand. Also locals lost their interest in purchasing pottery. The art pieces showcased here are available at the rate of Rs50 to Rs500,000. I am not an artisan myself but my father had trained me to supervise every step of making glazed pottery.´´ The clay for making glazed pottery used to be brought from White Clay Mountain in Kalabagh. Among rare pieces there are two urns more than 100 years old. Seemab is waiting for a potential international buyer as they had been made in a very special manner in different stages by utilising precious clay and glazed items. ´´I don´t clearly remember when these urns were made but they may be more than 100 years old and are very special as my father would not sell them out and kept them in corner as symbol of unique art,´´ says Seemab. ´´My first offer is for my own country, if there is a government-sponsored buyer I can sell out to him at a low price on the condition that these pieces are showcased at a national museum. There are two main reasons behind this decision, first they are rare pieces and second, the artwork employed in their making is a symbol of cultural heritage,´´ Seemab states. He says if the government makes efforts for reviving this beautiful art of glazed pottery, there are many jobless artisans who could be hired and international buyers would also take interest in this original handicraft. He regrets that even simple pottery art is on the decline. There are only 100 furnaces, called ´´paja´´ in local dialect, around Peshawar where aged potters are making clay pots. ´´This is my ancestral profession but our young ones are not at all interested in this profession which is a beautiful art at the same time. It is not a lucrative job and also it needs hard labour and expertise,´´ says Tawab Gul, 65. Baked pottery is least used in homes nowadays even in remote villages, only clay pitchers and bowls are used during summer while affluent families purchase vases for plants and flowers. According to Ahmed Khan, 67, the places at the outskirts of Peshawar city from where red clay was found have been consumed. ´´We buy a trolley for Rs1,500 to Rs2,000. It takes a week to make a clay pot with simple mosaic work but it´s not sold at a high price. One day we will have to say goodbye to this profession,´´ he says regretfully. Affluent people in lavish hotels still cherish food cooked in clay pots (Haandi) and water being served in clay bowls. Four hundred years ago, Rahman Baba, a legendary Pashto folk poet, preferred clay bowls over golden jug. In a Pashto couplet he said, ´´Badhshahaan Ka Uba Skee Pajaam Da Zaroo/ Ma Rahman Lara Da Khawaro Kandul Kha De´´(kings are served water in golden jugs but I, Rahman, would prefer clay bowl). ´´To drink water in a clay bowl is good for health. It contains natural flavour and it maintains healthy elements intact which kill germs that are harmful to human health,´´ says Dr Faheem a general physician at a local hospital. ´´Food cooked in a haandi tastes better. The people should use clay pots because they not only prevent various stomach diseases but also enliven beautiful old traditions,´´ advises the doctor. Shera Alam Shinwari د پښتنو قامي سنګر
- Sher Alam Shinwari -

we are Pakhtoons

Pukhoonkhwa: Historical Prospective

Historical Significance
Pakhtunkhwa, Pashtoonkhwa, or Pakhtoonkhwa means ´´The Land of the Pakhtuns´´or ´´near the Pakhtuns´´. This name was used for the area where Pakhtuns were dominant before the creation and forming of modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Historically Pakhtunkhwa the name of the territory or area where the Pashtoons, Pakhtuns or Afghans have lived for a long time, was between the river Oxus from the North and river Indus from the South East, in its North East Himalayan mountain ranges and in the West its boundaries lies with the Russian states.
Greek historian Herodotus has recorded the area as Paktia, but Pakhto poets from the time of Shahabuddin Mohammad Ghori down to the present age, have been referring to it as Pakhtunkwa. The earliest available historical proof is Akhund Darweza´s (d. 1638) Makhzanul Islam (written between 1603 and 1612). A verse in this book reads:
´´Pakhtunkhwa pa misal shpa wa, dai deewa wo pa andher ke´´
پختونخوا په مثال شپه وه، دې ډيوه وه په اندهير کښې

(Translation: Pakhtunkhwa was like a night and he [Pir Baba Syed Ali Termezi] was like a candle).
Khushal Khan Khattak (1613 - 1689) Pakhtun warrior, poet and tribal chief of the Khattak tribe wrote in his book ´´Kulyat Khushaal Khan Khattak´´ writes

´´Nora warda Pakhtunkhwa peh zai maishta wa
KhoYao ze de zamaney paka Mansur krdm´´
نوره واړه پختونخوا په ځائي مېشتۀ وه
خو يو زه دې زمانې په کښې منصور کړم


(Translation: The whole Pakhtunkhwa stood in its place, only I was made Mansur by time)
Another great Pakhtun poet Ameer Hamzar Shinwari (1907 – 1994) writes:

La peh ofaq da Pakhtunkhwa hum zaleydalay na yum,
Ze agha lamr yum da afaq chi rakhataley na yum.
لا په افق د پختونخوا لا ځلېدلی نه يم
زه هغه لمر يم ده افاق چې راختلی نه يم

(Translation: I have not yet shown on the horizon of Pakhtukhwa, I am that universal sun which has not risen.)
Similarly, the often-quoted two lines of a poem by Ahmad Shah Abdali (1723-1773), the Founding Father of Afghan state, clearly mention Pakhtunkhwa as the land of the Pashtoons or Pakhtuns. Here are the lines:
Da Dehli takht herawoma che rayad kram
Zama da khpale Pakhtunkhwa da ghro saroona
ده ډيلي تخت هېرووم چې راپه ياد کړم
زما د خپلې پختونخوا د غرو سرونه

(Translation: I forget my Delhi throne when I recall the mountain peaks of my own Pakhtunkhwa).
Pakhtu poets and writers have frequently used this name for the area which was later named as North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) by the British rulers after they occupied and separated it from Afghanistan dividing the Pakhtuns into four divisions.
The name Pakhtunkhwa was also used in the modern poetry by contemporary poets like Qalandar Momand (1930 – 2003) long before it was suggested as the nomenclature for the NWFP.
Besides Pakhtuns, there are many non-Pakhtuns who have mentioned this name in their writings. A book by French orientalist James Darmesteter (March 28, 1849-October 10, 1894) has the title, ´´Da Pakhtunkhwa Da Shaer Har w Bahar´´, a selection of Pashto poems with a valuable essay on this Afghan language.
During Lord Hastings (1786-1796) term a delegation sent to Afghanistan use of the name Pakhtunkhwa is mentioned in Henry George Raverty´s book Notes on Afghanistan and Baluchistan as follows:
´´When you lose it altogether and reach the crest of the great western range of Mihtar Suliman or Kohisiyah the outer most slopes of which the extreme boundary in this direction between the territory of Ghazni and Afghanistan or Pushtun khwa.”
In 1867, Dr. Henry Walter Bello in his Pushtu grammar book has referred to Pakhtunkhwa in the following words:
´´More especially as the nation though it has for many centuries occupied its present ground at the point of junction between the Indian and Persian empires in the country known as Afghanistan to the stranger and as Pakhtunkhwa to the Afghans or the Pukhtuns.´´
Dr. A. H. Dani, a well known historian and archaeologist, told Dawn that ´´Pakhunistan is a political name where as Pakhtunkhwa is not. Culturally there´s no doubt that the land was called Pakhtunkhwa in Pushtu literature since the 15th century (we have a trace of literature since that time only). The term has been applied for both tribal and settled areas, he added.”
Political Relevance
The name Pakhtunkhwa or Pashtunkhwa should be understood as it draws support as well as opposition within Pakistan and should thus be understood on its own terms, independent of Afghanistan´s claim over Pakhtunistan or Pashtunistan.
The Pakhtuns are the majority ethnic group in the NWFP, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northern Balochistan. About two-thirds of the two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, who are mostly ethnic Pakhtuns, live in the NWFP. This is excluding the roughly 14 million population of the NWFP 9as per the 1998 census). According to the NWFP government statistics, 68 per cent of the people in the Province speak Pakhtu or Pashtu, 18 per cent speak Hindko, 8 per cent speak Seraiki and about 2 per cent speak Urdu and Punjabi. Proponents of the struggle to rename the British created NWFP, such as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Khan Abdul Wali Khan, viewed it as not just a change of name, but as an issue of safeguarding the Provincial autonomy and more importantly preserving the indigenous culture and language of the Pakhtuns.
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan, proposed the name as an alternative to Pakhtunistan to the military dictator, General Zia ul Haq in 1978 when the latter refused to accept the demand from the latter to rename the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Pakhtunistan. Presently, what is known as the NWFP is home to the majority of the Pakhtuns or Pashtuns as well as other smaller ethnic groups. The Province borders Afghanistan to the North West, the Northern Areas to the North East, Azad Kashmir to the East, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the West and South, and the Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory to the South East. The principal language spoken is Pakhtu or Pashtu and the Provincial capital is Peshawar.
The detractors of Pakhtunkhwa say that unlike Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan, there are several linguistic groups in NWFP and hence their opposition to give an assumed purely ethnic name to a Province. However, Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan, also have sizeable linguistic groups, probably more than in the NWFP and these Provinces acquired their respective names to reflect the majority ethnic inhabitants. The main opposition to the name by the Pakistan Muslim Leagues is because of their political base in Hazara. However, the arguments presented don´t have much substance. Hazara division is the biggest division of NWFP and has five districts — Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan. The population of the area was some 4.5 million in 2005. Hindko is main language in Haripur, Abbottabad and Manshera. Pashto is major language in Battagram, followed by Hindko. Kohistani is the main language in Kohistan district followed by Gujri and Pashto. Pashto is also spoken in pockets of Mansehra and Haripur districts
Although Hindko is the main language in Hazara division, most of the people who speak Hindko are Afghan by ethnicity. Tanoli, Jadoon, Tareen, Mishwani, Swati, Tahirkheli, Dilazak, etc, are all Afghan by race but speak Hindko. Same is the case of Kakar, Durrani, Popalzai, Saddozai, Khogyani, Rohila, Ghaznavi, Akhunzadas, etc and several others who belong to Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat, who speak Hindko but are Afghan/Pakhtun by race. Even the genealogy of Awans of NWFP is traced to Qutub Shah, who was a prominent ruler of Herat province of Afghanistan.
A very prominent pashtun nationalist leader of 20th century Khan shaheed{Abdusamad Khan Achakzai} named his party as Pashtunkhwa National Awami Party after parting ways with Awami National Party in 1969.

The name Pakhtunkhwa for NWFP was heard for the first time in the 1980s in the Provincial Assembly when the then Awami National Party (ANP) leaders wanted to move a resolution for changing the name of the Province. The matter echoed in the National Assembly in November 1990 when Afzal Khan of PDA referred to the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa. The name Pakhtunkhwa is popular with the ordinary Pakthun and has been approved by the democratically elected Provincial Assembly, in 1997 and again in 2008. In the general elections in 2008 Pakhtunkhwa was one of the most important election slogans of ANP and people voted for it. But it should also be made clear that support for the name Pakhtunkhwa as the new name of the province is not any more confined to Pakhtunn nationalists. Pakhtunkhwa as the name for NWFP has attracted the support of the mainstream political parties such as Pakistan Peoples Party [Parliamentarian], JUI [f], PPP [Sherpao], National Party Pakistan, MQM, PML [F] and a number of other parties of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. If Pakhtunkhwa is approved by the parliament as the new name of the province the credit will belong to all the democratic political forces of the country. The proposed change if approved by the parliament will be a big boost for the state–building and nation-buillding process in Pakistan as Pakhtuns will feel more integrated after having proper identity in Pakistan. We should also keep it in mind that names like NWFP, FATA and PATA sound more like chemistary formulas than a name with cultural identity. It is worth mentioning that the name Pakhtunkhwa was used for the first time in the United Nation´s General Assembly by Pakistan´s head of state, President Asif Ali Zardari on September 26, 2008 in his address to the General Assembly.People of Pakistan have already accepted the name. We hope the democratic political forces will implement it.
- ANP -