Constitution of Afghanistan, Article 548

It is very vital to understand the bond that the Afghan people, especially Pashtuns, have throughout the history of Afghanistan. Since 1923, when the first constitution of Afghanistan was formulated and written, the influence of the family law is very visible when it comes to women’s rights, inheritance matters, marriage, and settling divorces, which in some cases is difficult for women to practice it at all. At the same time Family law plays a very crucial role in issues of protecting women’s rights. Women, especially girls, are always vulnerable and also the targets of human rights violations in their homes and in their communities where they have grown up and live.

If Family law is effectively enforced, it becomes a very effective means for the government to protect all its citizens in public spheres and more importantly in their own privacy of their homes. Historically, the Afghan law has been based on sharia law but in the early 20th century; king Amanullah khan who ruled from 1919 to 1929, introduced legislative law to step up the modernization of Afghanistan. Regardless of all the reforms and developments in the area of the legal rights and family law, the Adat Law still dominates the legal interpretation of the constitution and all other forms of legislative decision making.

The use of Family law with the patriarchal traditions and customs has enormous weight to such an extend that it has influenced the practice of Sharia Law and Islam which has only hurt the women’s rights and their place in the Afghan society. The clerics (Qazi) claim that they base their rulings on the Hanafi fiqh which is not entirely true because they are outrageously influenced by the family law and other customs that are related to the family law. The evidence to prove that the clerics are not honest about the use of Hanafi faith exists everywhere in the legislations regarding women’s rights in Sharia Law like the women’s right to inheritance, custody of children in matters of divorce, trade and ownership, freedom of a widow to choose if she wants to remarry or not, giving of dower to the bride not to her father, marriages of minors, and polygamy. The tribal nature of the Afghan society and the extremely protective family code in family matters is making it difficult to incorporate it into a western style constitution, that is the latest constitution of Afghanistan, and to meet the terms of international human rights norms or to make a law based on the family law.

In the past two decades, the attempts to develop a new family law in the Afghan society are mainly just to protect women’s rights within the premises of their homes and also to give them the right to leave their homes so they can participate as equals in a public sphere. It was finally, in 2004, the new Afghan Constitution and other international agreements such as CEDAW, ANDS, and NAPWA have provided the legal structure for the protection of the Afghan women. Despite, all the new agreements and a new constitution, the afghan society is still bound by the Adat Law as tradition and it is very interesting to observe that there are still people who are willing to swim against the current and promote women’s rights in Afghanistan. It is important to understand the role of the family code that its practice is seen openly in inside the privacy of the homes. The new constitution and the new government is trying to reform the family code so it is also effective in the privacy of the homes. If this role is understood in a proper manner then, and only then, can the new constitution will be a protector of women and children on an international standard.

Historically, the reforms were undertaken by the small group of elite intellectuals during the monarchies of the twentieth century and same was during the communist regime in the 80s. Both had one thing in common which made them ineffective in reforming the family code, they were both modernists and they had no connection of the traditional and conservative rural population of Afghanistan. The Taliban were masters of the family code but they used it for their own benefit and now everyone understood the manipulation of the family code by the Taliban. In order to separate the family code and the legal structure of Afghanistan literacy should be the top agenda. Another reason for the code to be more dominant than any other legal legislative document in Afghanistan is the corruption and slow process of the decision making of the western legal structure. In such a case, people of Afghanistan turn to local shorahs which base their decisions on the family code and the sharia Law, which is usually far quicker in reaching a decision. This has to change if the modernists and the new government want to be more effective in legislative matters and in matters of human rights, namely women’s rights and child protection.

Afghanistan’s constitution is a mixture of the four different legal systems: secular, statutory, Islamic, and customary or pashtunwali. Among these systems the afghan people prefer all the systems but the secular one which is honored by the 2004 constitution. The people prefer the traditional justice system both formal and informal over the new western style justice system.

In the past and even now the reform of the Family Law is happening with the presence of the international community. In the past the reforms started to happen with the presence of the British during the Amanullah’s rule and then during the communist era with the presence of the soviet and now in the post-Taliban Afghanistan in the presence of the international community. Every time the reforms happened were in the presence of the “foreigners” and same is now so it becomes a foreign threat. Even though, the real players behind the reforms are the afghan people still it is foreign so it is a threat because the foreigners introduced new norms and standards of international human rights.

In the same manner, throughout the 20th century and in current post-Taliban era reformation of the family code is politicized. Women’s rights are always used as a pawn or a bargaining chip in the political sphere of Afghanistan. The conservative Islamists in Afghanistan argue that the equality based family law is a feminist influence and since feminism is against Islam hence, the reforms in favor of women’s rights is also considered non-Islamic. A significant population which is also part of the new government is opposed to the strong family laws but cannot protest or reform it because there is no police or a security service that will provide them with protection against the extremists and terrorists. There are also government officials and parliament members who are opposed to the strong family laws but they are too afraid to do something so they just vote along with the Islamists for more strong family laws. The laws are being reformed in the favor of the strong family laws and it is because of the lack of education both religious and non-religious. The Islamists believe that if women are given equal rights then the concept of family will not exist like in the west. If a woman is given the right to divorce she will used it in mere dissatisfaction with the husband or with the children. This cannot be tolerated in Afghan culture because a woman is considered pride and honor of a family and of a man.

In February 2009, the Shia Personal Status Law (SPSL) passed by the parliament and was signed by the president without a debate or anything of such sort. This is another step and evidence of the Afghanistan’s constitution be becoming more codified. This is the first time that the shia minority has a codified family law now. The shia community of Afghanistan were always considered liberal but sadly that is not true anymore. The (SPSL) is a violation of the international agreements like (CEDAW, ICCPR, ICESCR, CRC). The parliament is now formulating a Sunni Family Law (SFL) but that has not been drafted or proposed yet. It is hoped by everyone that (SFL) will propose a Law that it will be under the Afghan Constitution law and will honor the international human rights agreements.

The example mentioned above is one of the many steps taken to codify the afghan society further more. Women are the direct targets of such laws and tradition is now confused and a very serious form of idiocy. These people in power that are legislating these laws are lacking both religious and non-religious education which are making the afghan culture and the ancient family laws look like a senseless and sexist cult rules.

The people of Afghanistan of all ethnicities and religious background need education. These people don’t understand the difference between Islamic law and the family Law. Both have been adjusted by different regimes for their own benefits and that have completely interwoven the two with each other. The Family Law has become more strict because the narrow interpretation of the Sharia Law and the Islamic Law has lost some important laws regarding women and their rights. This is all because of lack if education and the small elite take advantage of the laws by manipulating the lack of knowledge of the people.

The word “Afghan” has been used historically to designate the members of an ethnic group also called Pashtuns. Afghanistan was formed by the political expansion of Pashtun tribes in the middle of the eighteenth century and was ruled by many Pashtun Sultans. The country had not been united until the end of nineteenth century and at the same time Persian-speaking Hazaras were brought into the country for manual labour. Then later during 1900s Turkmen, Uzbek, and Tajik population was also incorporated into the state. These people brought their languages with them- uzbeki spoken by Uzbeks and Persian (officially called Dari) spoken by Hazaras, Tajiks, and Turkmens. By mid 1900s Dari became official language of Afghanistan a long with Pashtoo.

Different Pashtun tribes had ruled Afghanistan for ages, but this trend ended during the communist regime of Afghanistan in 1978. This regime also allowed the “outsiders” to become players of the political “Buzkashi” and the concept of a political party was introduced.

The word Pashtuns also means “people of the mountain” because of which Pashtuns call themselves the direct descendants of Aryans. They take a lot of pride in their identity; they live a very unique lifestyle, which revolves around honour and pride, also known to the outside world as “Pashtunwali”. Pashtunwali is a broad concept, which consists of certain duties that a Pashtun has to follow and stand by it. The world called Pashtunwali is a “code” because of the duties. It is not a written code, one doesn’t inherit it or obtain it, one is expected to develop it and then live by it. There are no government institutions to ensure the implementation of this unwritten code of life but Pashtun members of the society internalize these social norms to such an extent that they directly become a matter of one’s conscience rather than an executive order of a distinct authority.

Central to Pashtunwali is “nang” or honour. A Pashtun child is taught by his or her parents to live an honorable life and live for honor. “Melmastiya” or hospitality is what Pashtuns are known for, at least in Afghanistan. According to Melmastiya you are not only expected to give food and shelter to anyone who knocks on your door but also protection. A Pashtun is supposed to protect a guest from any kind of harm no matter what it takes. “Badal” or revenge, most western writers define it as: “the only way to redeem one’s honor is to avenge it” which is entirely wrong. The concept of Badal exists and it literary means revenge, but in afghan society honor comes from forgiveness not from a barbaric act.

The mentioned “duties” or “code” is a social trait that exits in every society, but when a Pashtun society is discussed in the context of lifestyle, the outside world labels this trait as a form of barbaric “code”. This “code” is also used to explain why the Pashtuns of Afghanistan gave shelter to Osama bin Ladin. Taliban called bin Ladin a “guest” of all Afghans. The western writers use Pashtunwali to explain why is this so; Melmastiya’s main dimension is the need (Nanawati) to provide refuge to a guest no matter what it takes. This is related to the code nang or honour. This is the reason why Osama bin Ladin found a home in Afghanistan when nobody else will have him, according to the outside world.

Pashtuns are very sensitive about their honor, especially about the honor of their women folk. Touching unacquainted women is at times considered a serious and an intolerable offense; in cases of adultery and unlawful relationships the punishment sometimes is death and neither male nor female is pardoned. Casting an evil eye on women is equal to putting one’s life in danger. This is another pillar of Pashtunwali honor known as “Tor”. This obligation has died out over the last few decades among most of the Pashtuns of Afghanistan but still practiced by the Pashtuns or Pakhtuns of Pakistan living in Waziristan region. This was very significant in the life of a Pashtun woman because she had no say in any of the decisions taken by the “Jirga”- a committee of a group of elders of a village or tribe. A Jirga’s decision was the final word; no one could act against it. Fortunately this system is not practiced anymore. Afghanistan has adopted judicial system of courts, which are open for appeals especially by women. Because of this particular reason it has replaced the Jirga system in Pashtun society. Both Tor and the Jirga have vanished or have been abandoned by some Pashtun societies but it still exists for the outside world.

Pashtunwali has ruled the Pashtun world for generations; it is not complex, not written and lies only in the hands of men. The problem with this is that gender boundaries exist, for example, creating different kinds of social spaces and social orders, where women have legal authority and control of limited resources. The segregation of gender does not necessarily result in the total disempowerment of women. In Pashtunwali, women still have influence and access to specific power structures specifically within segregated, homo-socially Pashtun communities, but they have very limited power. Another problem is that Pashtuns find it difficult to practice Pashtunwali because there is economic disparity and especially since they are unable to act autonomously. These are the reasons why Pashtunwali is becoming a myth in Afghanistan and “Democracy” is the new way of life now.

The drug traffickers in Afghanistan are very strong people; some are part of Karzai’s administration, some are part of the new parliament, some are part of ANA, and some are influential political people in south of Afghanistan. South of Afghanistan is majority Pashtun populated, which makes them drug lords of the country. Pashtuns of the southern Afghanistan play a very important role in drug trafficking. They control the local politics and some are part of the security in the south, which makes it very easy for them to transport and cultivate poppy.

Helmand, south of Kandahar, is the capital of opium cultivation in Afghanistan. The majority population is again Pashtuns in this province and one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. The annual revenue of the country that comes from poppy cultivation is about $2.8 billion dollars. The funds by the international community have gone up to fight the drug trafficking; it hasn’t help any bit except the poppy cultivation has grown more. Drug trafficking is most of the time directly designated to Pashtuns of the south or sometimes to all Pashtuns, especially inside the parliament, and it turns into family disputes.

The Taliban’s regime played a key role in the increase in drug trafficking. The only and main source of income for the Taliban government was through poppy cultivation. In the beginning of their regime, the Taliban were very relaxed because almost all of them were involved in drug trafficking. But later they banned growing poppies after the pressure from the United Nations, United States and some European countries. The drug trafficking was banned for the common man of Afghanistan but the government never stopped growing poppies because it was their only source of income. This way the Taliban government actually benefited from this decision. They made their income by taxing poppy growers in different parts of Afghanistan. “This is a windfall for anti-government forces, further evidence of the dangerous link between opium and insurgency,” said Mr. Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime .

Terrorist country, red zone, politically unstable region, warlord tribalism, capital of drug trafficking, Taliban and Al-Qaida and sometimes land of the savages, these are today’s synonyms for Afghanistan. Travel journals, travel guides, and travel websites, stress on not visiting Afghanistan in the present situation. Afghanistan is playing a role of a hosting Osama bin Ladin and because of this it becomes the headquarters of Al-Qiada for which Afghanistan is highly criticized by the international media. There is no evidence to prove bin Ladin’s presence in Jalalabad, Kandahar, or in any other province of Afghanistan but still he is in this country and military campaigns have to be carried out to hunt him down. The Taliban regime has made all the Pashtuns very “radical” and “extremist” towards all other ethnicities present in the country or outside the country. Again pashtunwali is used to prove the argument that Pashtuns want a complete domination in Afghanistan and want to purify the Afghan society from other ethnic groups. Pashtuns have to respect their “code” of honour, pashtunwali, and in doing so it was not possible for the all the Pashtuns of Afghanistan to not provide refuge to Osama bin Ladin and his Arab companions. This is not the only the reason given by the international media for afghans giving refuge to bin Ladin; the other reason is that Pashtuns (Taliban) consider him a holy man because he was always there for the afghan people and their honour when they needed help. Bin Ladin fought the Soviets in Afghanistan during the freedom fighting, part of the mujahideen, and again he supported the Taliban movement to fight evil in the Pashtun or Afghan society inside and outside Afghanistan.

It still sounds very good for the international community to start a book or an article discussing the current political or social situation of Afghanistan by talking about the Jirga system. The Jirga is a council of elders of a particular village or a region; the Jirga settles family disputes, takes political decision for the village or region and acts as the judicial authority of the region also. The council’s word is the last and final word. It has an appeal system but criminal appeal and women’s appeals are very rare and these exist in only some tribal societies. After the fall of Taliban this Jirga system has started to fade out because of the new judicial system, which has introduced the system of courts; this system is more relaxed, gender is not an issue and criminal appeals are taken any time. The Jirga is not the judicial or political representative of a village or a province, but for the international community it still is.

Afghanistan is portrayed very unstable both politically and militarily and the main reason given is the ethnic differences in the country. In a report by Richard P. Cronin, Specialist in Asian Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, to the Congress of United States, it explains the ethnic problem in such words:

Major obstacles to establishing a stable and ideologically moderate Afghan state include: the competing power aspirations of Afghanistan’s several tribal and ethnic groups; a power shift towards the Tajiks and other minority groups and away from the once-dominant Pushtuns; the steady, long-term decline of Afghan state institutions that began with the Communist/Soviet occupation decade of 1979-89, and accelerated under the Taliban; the recent rapid increase in opium production and local power struggles for control over the lucrative drug trade; and, last but not least, the resiliency of politicized Islam, as promoted both by the Taliban and other radical Islamist parties who have been defeated militarily but retain influence in some areas.

The Pashtuns have always dominated and lead the country until the communist regime of Afghanistan. During the communist regime is when the other ethnic groups like Hazaras, Tajiks, and Uzbek came into the political scene. Their involvement in politics, historically in hands of Pashtuns, was first not appreciated by Pashtuns, but an ethnic group other than Pashtuns, leading the country was just not acceptable. That is why the civil war was fought and this is the reason that most of the Pashtun tribes supported the Taliban when their movement first started. This mentality or belief that only Pashtuns have the right to lead Afghanistan has changed during the civil war and during the Taliban regime. People fled to countries where ethnic problems existed but not fought over for decades like in Afghanistan; people adopted new political and social ideologies and became more stable, especially politically, than ever. The unstable Afghanistan did exist but not after the fall of Taliban, Afghanistan has two official languages (Pashtoo and Dari) and an amendment is on the way for the third official language, Uzbeki. The NATO forces and International Community have stayed in Afghanistan after defeating the Taliban in 2001, only to prevent another civil war. It is true that if the NATO forces would have left the country, another civil war would have started but not on the basis of ethnic differences but on the basis of difference in foreign political support. This is never mentioned or analyzed by the international media but instead the same old explanation is given which was given during the civil war two decades ago.

The Taliban rose and swept across late-twentieth-century Afghanistan much as Islam itself had swept across seventh-century Arabia and North Africa, filling the void left by the process of overrunning 80 per cent of the country, the Taliban captured Kabul, in 1996. There they carried out amputations and stonings and seized the Soviet puppet of Afghanistan, Najibullah, from the United Nations compound, castrating and jeep-dragging him before hanging him from a traffic post. (Kaplan 2001)[2]

The word Taliban comes from the word ‘Talib’ that means “a student or a knowledge seeker”. Taliban is a Sunni Islamist and Pashtun Nationalist movement that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when their leaders were removed from power by cooperative military effort between the Northern Alliance[3] and the NATO countries. The Taliban (“Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement”) came to power during the long civil war of Afghanistan. They managed to gain control of 90 per cent of the country’s territory but their policies of treatment of women and supporting the terrorism isolated them from the international community. The Taliban is one of the Mujahideen (“holy warriors” or “freedom fighters”) groups that were formed during the war against the Soviet (1979-89). In 1992 different Mujahideen groups formed an alliance and took control of the capital city, Kabul, setting up a new government with Burhanuddin Rabbani as the interim president. But unfortunately some groups were unable to cooperate and as a result of this they started fighting with each other. Warlords competed with each other and hence Afghanistan was divided into territories.

During the civil war, Taliban (“religious students”) were very loosely organized. Although they represented a potentially strong and huge force, they didn’t emerge as united body until the Taliban of Kandahar made their move in 1994. In 1994, the government of Pakistan chose a group of well-trained Taliban to protect a convoy that was working on opening a trade route from Pakistan and Central Asia. The Taliban proved they were worthy of fighting off rival Mujahideen groups and warlords. Then the Taliban took over Kandahar and began a surprise advance that ended with the capturing of Kabul city in September 1996.[4]

The Taliban are the tribal Pashtuns from the southern and eastern afghan borderland-an anarchic mountain people who have ground up one foreign invader after the other, defying attempts by the Moguls, the Sikhs, the British, the Soviets, and the Pakistanis to control them… Kaplan (2001)[5]

The popularity of Taliban surprised the other warring factions of the country. Taliban replaced some corrupt and brutal warlords and they eliminated corruption, restored peace, and allowed trade and commerce to resume, thus relieving many people. The Taliban under the direction of Mullah Mohammad Omar were able to bring this order under the institution of a very strict interpretation of the sharia or Islamic law. Executions and punishments such as flogging became regular events at the Kabul soccer stadium and activities like kite flying were outlawed. To get rid of “non Islamic” influences, they banned music, television, and especially the Internet. The Taliban took the sharia law to an extreme by making men wear beards and made women wear burkas. If they didn’t, they were subjected to beatings. Although Afghanistan was now re-united, the Taliban weren’t able to end the civil war. Not just that, the condition of cities worsened because access to food, clean water, and employment declined during their rule. Their main income and profit came from smuggling and producing opium in the country.[6]

The Taliban has become the representation of the Pashtun community for a majority of the world. Pashtuns and Taliban are both put in the same category only because a majority of the Taliban commanders and militia are Pashtuns. That Taliban are Pashtuns, fighting against foreign invaders, is a common perception and this is the position of a majority of the governments in the international community today. The Taliban are not an expression of Pashtun identity or Pashtun or Afghan nationalism, though there are people that are fighting foreign troops for such motives. The Taliban make full use of Pashtun tribalism while crossing borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan. As I mentioned earlier, al-Qaida has portrayed Osama bin Ladin and his companions as devout Muslims seeking refuge (Nanawati in Pashtunwali). Pashtun nationalists see Taliban as a threat to Pashtun identity; they are not and cannot be an expression of Pashtun pride, honour, and especially the identity.

Now for instance, if we take the examples of political groups like Hamas or Hizbullah, they are both political groups, they have military wings, they carry out terrorist activities, but not for once they have represented the Arab ethnicity. For the outside world these two groups are terrorist groups but they don’t represent the Arab world. The Uzbeki extremist group fighting in Warziristan, northwest frontier of Pakistan, against the Pakistan national army has never been labeled as an expression or representative of the Uzbek ethnicity. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a terrorist group, known for its suicide attacks and the most organized and dangerous armed group of the world. The LTTE is fighting the Srilankan government for the passed few decades; this organization has claimed many political assassinations in Srilanka like Taliban in Afghanistan, but LTTE does not represent the Tamil population neither in Srilanka or in India. United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), in Assam, India and the Irish National Liberation Army (IRA) are terrorist groups but writers and media persons do not associate them to the ethnic groups that they claim to represent. But on the other hand Taliban always represent Pashtuns of Afghanistan.

Another reason for why the Taliban are an expression of Pashtun ethnicity is because of their capital in Afghanistan. Kabul is the capital city of Afghanistan but during the Taliban regime it never was one, the capital was Kandahar. Kandahar, south of Afghanistan, is a Pashtun dominated province, Pashtoo as the provincial language and center for Pashtun tribalism.  Mullah (Mohammad) Omar lived in Kandahar and his word was the last word in policymaking, especially, foreign policy. Along with Mullah Omar, most of the cabinet members and commanders were living in Kandahar whether they were from Kandahar or not. Kandahar was the center of Taliban administration and almost all the cabinet meetings were being held there. Taliban moving their administration to Kandahar was a very wise move; they used the Pashtun tribalism to cross borders into Pakistan and on the other hand the outside world saw this as a Pashtun tribal re-union and Pashtun domination of the country. Also believed by some writers that the Taliban wanted to defend their “tribe”, the Pashtuns, and because they wanted to protect their tribe, they got along well with pakhtuns (pathans) of Pakistan. Pakhtuns of Pakistan were sympathetic and supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for the same reason.

Pashtoo language is the fundamental and significant part to the argument that is why the Taliban is an expression of Pashtunwali and Pashtun identity? Afghanistan had two official languages-Pashtoo and Dari- before the Taliban regime and they changed it to Pashtoo only. Pashtoo was not only the administrative language but also textbooks from kindergarten level to university level were changed to Pashtoo language only. Pashtoo language also became the means for getting employment and without it employment was not possible.

Taliban discriminated every tribe in Afghanistan other than Pashtuns. Dari speaking people-Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks- were imprisoned for crimes that they did not commit and a lot were forced to move out of their villages. “The policy of the Taliban is to exterminate the Hazaras,” said Maulawi Mohammed Hanif, Taliban Commander
 announcing their policy to a crowd of 300
 people summoned to a mosque [after killing
 15,000 Hazaras people in a day]. Speaking to a crowd in a mosque after the 
 fall of mazar-e-sharif city, Mullah Manon Niazi, Governor of Mazar-e Sharif, said, “Hazaras are not Muslim. You can kill them. It is not a sin.”[7]

While the inhuman execution of the innocent civilians are carried out in Afghanistan, the “champions of democracy”, including the USA, Great Britian, all the Western powers and the so-called civilized institutions such as the United Nations remain as spectators on the side.[8]

The Taliban are no more in Afghanistan, their defeat is seen by everyone. They do not represent the Afghans, especially Pashtuns, at all; a terrorist group funded by the neighboring countries of Afghanistan who has killed people of every ethnic group during their regime and during their fall. They cannot be designated to any ethnic group even if they belong to one. Still they are the representation of the Pashtun tribe for the outside world; it doesn’t matter for the international community, especially for the international media, even if all the Afghans say that they are not an expression of Pashtuns.

[2] Kaplan Robert, D. (2001) Soldiers of God 3^rd ed. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random house, Inc.

[3] Northern Alliance is a military-political group created in 1996 uniting various afghan groups fighting each other to fight the Taliban instead.

[4] Laura Hayes and Borgna Brunner, who are the Taliban. Available from: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html [Accessed March 4, 2008]

[5] Kaplan Robert, D. (2001) Soldiers of God 3^rd ed. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random house, Inc.

[6] Laura Hayes and Borgna Brunner, who are the Taliban. Available from: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html [Accessed March 4, 2008]

[7] Taliban in their Own Words. Available from: http://www.hazara.net/taliban/taliban.html [Accessed 5 March 2008]

[8] Taliban in their Own Words. Available from: http://www.hazara.net/taliban/taliban.html [Accessed 5 March 2008]

Terrorist activities, or ‘Taliban activities”, are reported every day, not only in the Afghan media, but also in the international media, without any confirmation of the people involved in the incident or their connections with the Taliban. There have been instances where incidents of personal vendetta have been reported as Taliban attacks.

The term Taliban has become a convenient means for the government and the ISAF to shift focus away from their own failure to maintain security. Anything that goes wrong – even complete failure in military campaigns – is blamed on the Taliban. . A recent report by the ISAF said that attacks by the Taliban went up by 30 per cent in 2007. The Force has good reason to exaggerate the figures.

The ISAF needs to keep mentioning the Taliban’s name to justify its presence in Afghanistan and to influence Afghan politics The Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) that is part of the ISAF has considerable influence on provincial politics because it is responsible for the security of the province. It also provides security to the provincial administration and funds most of the government departments. The threat of the Taliban needs to be kept alive by the Afghan government to continue receiving massive funding from the international community for the ‘security’ of the region.

It’s hard to believe that the ISAF and ANA together cannot destroy the Taliban, given their access to modern technology and unlimited funds, whereas the Taliban has few sources of funding, finding new recruits, weapons, and training camps. So who is supporting the Taliban? The ISAF blame Iranian ‘interference’. The Afghan government, for its part, blames Pakistan for not only funding the Taliban but also giving them shelter.

The Afghan public no longer cares for the government campaigns to ‘wipe out’ the Taliban, because they understand that the Taliban, the ISAF, and the Afghan government exist and work for each other’s interests, and this leaves only one choice to an Afghan: sit back and watch.

I think I have already mentioned that I started my day with positive thinking about my trip, and while I was  waiting outside in the cold, I kept telling myself that I am going to Poland so I should bear some sacrifice after all. The hour past somehow and I just couldnt feel my toes anymore and the security allowed us to get on the buses that took us to the terminal. Here, we had to open our baggage for “security” reasons, whatever that means, and it took me another 25 minutes to get inside. I thought it will take me forever even inside but the only good thing that happened that morning was that the I was the first one to get my boarding pass. I was done with everything in less than 10 minutes except when I got to the passport control. At the passport control counter this guy took my picture and then asked for my passport. He looked at my passport and visa and told me to wait in a coner for sometime. I said to him, ” ok, but how long?” he told me the samething again. After waiting in a nearby corner for 10 minutes I went to the same guy and asked him if he was done with my passport. He told me that it will take some time and I have to wait. This time I went and sat with all those people that had their passports cleared already, I didnt care I was tired of waiting and I wanted to just sit somewhere. Now There was about 15 minutes left for my flight and I went to the guy and told him that i dont have time cuase my flight is in 10 minutes so please whatever you are doing, do it quickly. He didnt say anything and just handed me my passport. I got very curious and asked him that what was wrong? He said that it was just a “random check”. To make my day better, my own people thought that I was a terrorist, so you can imagine how I felt about going to airports in Europe!

The funny think was that the guy at the passport control told me that they ran a computrized check on me and I fortunately check out. My day was just going great. Now I have my passport with me and thought that I will be out of all this in 10 minutes but guess what? My flight from kabul to Istanbul got delayed for an hour and 15 minutes. Why? Because of some “VIP movement”, I dont know whatever the hell that means. Finally I get on the plane, but as I was walking toward the plane I was trying to figure out that whether I will miss my connecting flight from Istanbul or not. Fortunately I was safe and thought that I will have enough time to take care of my baggage and all and board the plane on time. Now we got on the plane and I was trying to figure out where my seat was but I couldnt find it because the plane was very old and almost everything was broken. So to make it easier for myself I asked one the plane crew people and she told that I can sit anywhere I want. You might be thinking that it was very nice of her to tell me that but I totally disagree. After telling me she went and anounnced it that all the passangers can sit anywhere they want. I couldnt really understand why they just did that because seat numbers are assigned for a reason, so that people dont kill each other over seats. Well, you can imagine how it was done in civilized manner, right after the announcment the whole plane turned into a market place. Everyone wanted a window  seat and people were pushing each other to get some nice place. I just stood near the toilet and didnt know what to do but managed to find myself a seat. The plane was mostly empty so almost everyone got a window seat. Just in case if you are wondering, I didnt get a window seat.

I sat next to 3 old men, nothing is wrong sitting next to old men but just to be respectful I didnt listen to music and instead read the newspaper. Fortunately, I found myself a window seat once the plane was in the air. In fact, I got the whole row all to myself. The plane smelled like a pig hole and it was my longest flight ever. It lasted for eight and half hours. It usually takes 5 hours to get to Istanbul from kabul-even on Ariana airlines-but guess what? suprises kept coming all day long. I booked a direct ticket to Istanbul from kabul but it stopped in Anqara to drop a few passanger. I was more than sure that I missed my next flight. I made it half and hour before my flight so I really had to rush through Istanbul airport and I did. I went straight to the transit desk, transfered my baggage and boarded the plane. I was so hungry that I could have eaten a whole cow but guess what? I hate plane food so all day I didnt eat anything. This flight was the nicest one through out my journey from kabul to Poland.

It was much better compared to the last one I was on half and hour ago, nice people, very attractive air attendents , and comfortable seats. This nice lady gave me some very good coffee and after a while I almost bought a watch on the plane but fortunately didnt. This flight from Istanbul to Frankfurt was about 2 hours and 40 minutes. I took a nice rest on the flight because I was not worried about my next flight. I had a 9 hour saty in Frankfurt. I had heard so much about Frankfurt International Airport for being very nice and beautiful. I was so disappointed when I reached there because I was planning to have a nice dinner and then find a place to sleep a little. But Frankfurt was just a disaster for me. Let me start from my baggage. I go through the security stuff and then went straight to the transit desk to transfer my baggage again but here they told that I have a lot of time so I should go out, get my baggage and then check in. I go to get my stuff and I am just waiting for it to come. I waited and waited and all the passangers got their stuff and I was the only one left with no baggage.

My emotions here suddenly got confused, I didnt know whether to be angry or worried because I didnt have the energy to be both at the same time. Now I started hunting for the baggage claim desks, found one and told them. This lady kept typing for like 5 minutes and then she turns to me with a smile on her face and says, “sorry sir, your baggage is not on the list at all.” I had a baggage tag which I got in Istanbul and I showed her that as well, still she had no clue where my baggage was. I didnt know what to do now and I was very hungry too. So I decided to go and eat something first and then think about what to do. I will say that frankfurt airport is a big airport so I had to walk for a little while to find something to eat. Now, I knew that I have to be pissed because it was 11 pm and every restuarant and food place was shut. Simply, there was nothing to eat. I sat all night long infront of a coffee shop until it opened at 4 am. That coffee was heavenly, I had never enjoyed my coffee so much. I boarded my next plane in the morning without my baggage.

Warsaw International Airport. I tought I landed in a bus stop or something. This airport was one small and boring place I have ever been to in my little life. My journry from Kabul to Warsaw took about 28 hours and all this time I havent slept or eaten a proper meal. To some up the journey in a less exciting way, some people were waiting for me at the airport and they drove me to my city from Warsaw. Just in case if you are wondering, my baggage was sent to me three days later.

The very name Pakhtun spells honor and glory,

Lacking that honor, what is the Afghan story?

Khushal Khan Khatak