Afghanistan

F

Way of Life

Although the Afghan population is composed of many distinct ethnic groups, certain elements of their way of life are much the same. Characteristically, the family is the mainstay of Afghan society. Extremely close bonds exist within the family, which consists of the members of several generations. The family is headed by the oldest man, or patriarch, whose word is law for the whole family. Family honor, pride, and respect toward other members are highly prized qualities. Among both villagers and nomads the family lives together and forms a self-sufficient group. In the villages each family generally occupies either one mud-brick house or a walled compound containing mud-brick or stonewalled houses. The same pattern prevails among the nomads, except they live in round, felt-covered tents called yurts, which are portable yet extremely sturdy.

Each village has three sources of authority within it: the malik (village headman), the mirab (master of the water distribution), and the mullah (teacher of Islamic laws). Commonly, a khan (landlord) will control the whole village by assuming the role of both malik and mirab. The village mosque is the center of religious life and is often used as the village guest house.

Baggy cotton trousers are standard dress for both men and women. Afghan men wear long cotton shirts, which hang over their trousers, and wide sashes around their waists. They also wear a skullcap, and over that, a turban. Afghan women wear a long loose shirt or a high-bodice dress with a swirling skirt over their trousers; they drape a wide shawl around their heads. Many women wear jewelry, which is collected as a form of family wealth. Some Afghan women wear a tentlike garment called a burka (also known as a chador or shadri), which covers them from head to foot and hides their faces behind mesh screens. Wearing the burka is part of the ancient custom of purdah, which requires women to be concealed from men outside the home. Purdah is prevalent in some Islamic societies. Educated urban Afghan women had discarded the custom as backward, but the Taliban enforced a strict dress code that required all Muslim women to wear a burka in public. After the fall of the repressive Taliban regime, women continued to wear the burka in some places, usually not of their own choosing but as a requirement imposed by local maliks and mullahs.

Twice a year groups of nomads may pass through villages on their routes from summer highland grazing grounds to the lowlands where they camp during the winter. The villagers traditionally permit the nomads to graze their animals over the harvested fields, which the flocks fertilize by depositing manure. The nomads buy supplies such as tea, wheat, and kerosene from the villagers; the villagers buy wool and milk products from the nomads. For food and clothing, the nomads depend on the milk products, meat, wool, and skins of their flocks; for transportation they depend on their camels. Nomadic women are freer and less secluded than village women.

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A favorite sport in northern Afghanistan is a game called buzkashi, in which teams of horsemen compete to deposit a calf carcass in a goal circle. Afghans also play polo and ghosai, a team sport similar to wrestling. The most important holiday in Afghanistan is Nowruz, or New Year’s Day, which is celebrated on the first day of spring in March.

G

Social Issues

A variety of social ills are common in Afghanistan, such as poverty, interethnic strife, inequality of women, and widespread thievery, kidnapping, and banditry. Blood feuds handed down through generations are legendary, and revenge is regarded as a necessary redress of wrongs. The civil war strengthened these tendencies to the point where little travel was safe in the country without an adequate supply of money to buy safe passage. The civil war killed, wounded, and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. Water and telephone systems and sewage ditches were destroyed. Years of war separated and impoverished extended families that traditionally cared for widows and fatherless children. Some provinces began experiencing famine in the 1990s, and diseases of malnutrition began to be reported for the first time in decades.

Traditional Afghan custom, which was revived by the Taliban and other fundamentalist rebel groups, imposes limits on women’s activities outside the home. In 1996, after the Taliban came to power, the United Nations reported a series of 21 new ordinances governing the behavior of women in Afghanistan. Women were prohibited from working outside the home, attending school, wearing perfume, participating in sports, and walking outside the home without the escort of a male relative. Women were reportedly stoned to death for infractions, a practice that had been suppressed for decades.

IV

Culture

Since ancient times Afghanistan has been a cultural crossroads for many different peoples and their traditions. Although the people of Afghanistan may have been sorely stressed by centuries of warfare and a difficult environment, their arts have prospered nonetheless. The Islamic traditions of calligraphy and graphic arts are evoked in the fine filigreed flourishes that decorate many buildings. Poetry and poets are revered. Afghans take pride in their handicrafts; even common grain bags to carry produce to market are often embroidered to make them beautiful. A caravan of nomads often looks like a colorful parade, with the animals decked out in woven finery.

A

Literature

The ancient art of storytelling continues to flourish in Afghanistan, partly in response to widespread illiteracy. This age-old practice of telling folktales, through music and the spoken word, is a highly developed and much appreciated art form. The use of folklore has become the thread that links the past with the present in Afghan society. Folktales concern all parts of Afghan life and often teach traditional values, beliefs, and behaviors. They are also a major form of entertainment in Afghanistan.

Literature in both the Dari and Pashto languages originated in the Islamic era of Persian literature, when the Arabic script became widely used. Shah nameh (Book of Kings), the great epic poem completed in 1010 by the Persian poet Firdawsi, consists of 60,000 rhyming couplets in Dari. Many other poems and tales were written in Dari and Turkic languages as well. In the 13th century Jalal al-Din Rumi, a Sufi mystic and poet originally from Balkh, composed the epic poem Masnavi-ye Manavi (Spiritual Couplets), which had an enormous influence on Islamic literature and thought. Khushhal Kattak, a famous 17th-century Pashtun warrior and poet, used verse to express the tribal code.

Modern writings have attempted to bring Afghans closer to understanding the changes associated with the modern world, and especially to comprehend the destruction of their country by war. In 1972 Sayyed Burhanuddin Majruh wrote several volumes in classical, rhythmic Dari prose about a traveler who joins his countrymen in exile, where they exchange ideas and narratives from ancient times in the light of modern concepts of reason, logic, science, and psychoanalysis. During the war with the Soviets, writings focused on the twin concerns of Islam and freedom. Resistance to the Soviets was especially pronounced in the Pashto province of Paktīā; in 1983 Gulzarak Zadran published “Afghanistan the Land of Jihad: Paktīāin Uprising Waves” in the Pashto language. The Afghanistan Historical Society and the Pashto Academy published literary magazines and encouraged new writers in recent years, although much of their effort was stopped by the civil war.

B

Art and Architecture

Afghanistan contains striking architectural remnants of all ages, including Greek and Buddhist stupas (shrines or reliquaries) and monasteries, arches, monuments, intricate Islamic minarets (the tall, slender towers on mosques), temples, and forts. Among the most famous sites are the great mosques of Herāt and Mazār-e Sharīf; the minaret of a mosque at Jām in the west central highlands; the 1,000-year-old Great Arch of Qal‘eh-ye Bost; the Chel Zina (Forty Steps) and rock inscriptions made by Mughal emperor Babur in Kandahār; the Great Buddha of Bāmīān, destroyed by Taliban militants in March 2001; the “Towers of Victory” in Ghaznī; and Emperor Babur’s tomb and the great Bala Hissar fort in Kābul.

In the smaller arts, magnificent light blue-green fired tile work is famous in Herāt, along with other fine work in book illumination (colored or gilded calligraphy), illustration, bronze, stone, and wood. Afghan cultural life is characterized by traditional arts and pastimes; gold and silver jewelry, marvelous decorative embroidery, and various leather goods are still made in homes. By far the greatest art forms known widely from Afghanistan are the Persian-style woven carpets.

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