Pashtunwali

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Pashtunwali (

Islamic times.[3][4]

Overview

The native Pashtun tribes, often described as fiercely independent people,[5] have inhabited the Pashtunistan region (eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan) since at least the 1st millennium BC.[6][7][8] During that period, much of their mountainous territory has remained outside government rule or control. Pashtun resistance to outside rule and the terrain they reside in is sometimes speculated to be why Indigenous Pashtuns still follow the "code of life".[citation needed]

Pashtunwali rules are accepted in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and also in some Pashtun communities around the world. Some non-Pashtun Afghans and others have also adopted its ideology or practices for their own benefit. Conversely, many urbanized Pashtuns tend to ignore the rules of Pashtunwali. Passed on from generation to generation, Pashtunwali guides both individual and communal conduct. Practiced by the majority of Pashtuns, it helps to promote Pashtunization.[2]

Ideal Pukhtun behaviour approximates the features of Pukhtunwali, the code of the Pukhtuns, which includes the following traditional features: courage (tora), revenge (badal), hospitality (melmestia), generosity to a defeated...[9]

— Maliha Zulfacar, 1999

Pashtuns embrace an ancient traditional, spiritual, and communal identity tied to a set of moral codes and rules of behaviour, as well as to a record of history spanning some seventeen hundred years.[10]

Pashtunwali promotes

Pashtuns. We have melmestia, being a good host, nanawatai, giving asylum, and badal, vengeance. Pashtuns live by these things.[12]

The Pashtun tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress. ... Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud. ... Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid.
Winston Churchill (My Early Life, Chapter 11: "The Mahmund Valley")

Pashtun institutions

Pashtuns are organised into tribal or extended family groups often led by a "Khan" (a wealthy and influential leader from the group). Disputes within clans are settled by a jirga (traditionally a tribal assembly involving all adult males).[13] In times of foreign invasion, Pashtuns have been known to unite under Pashtun religious leaders such as Saidullah Baba in the Siege of Malakand[14] and even under Pashtána female leaders such as Malalai of Maiwand in the Battle of Maiwand.[15]

Main principles

Jamaluddin Badar, Nuristan governor, Fazlullah Wahidi, Kunar governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, Nangarhar governor, and Lutfullah Mashal, Laghman governor, listen to speakers talk about peace, prosperity and the rehabilitation of Afghanistan during the first regional Jirga
in 2009.

Although not exclusive, the following thirteen principles form the major components of Pashtunwali.

The three primary[16] principles:

  1. Hospitality (مېلمستيا, melmastyā́) – Showing hospitality and profound respect to all visitors, regardless of race, religion, national affiliation or economic status and doing so without any hope of remuneration or favour. Pashtuns will go to great lengths to show their hospitality.[2][17][18]
  2. Asylum (ننواتې, nənawā́te) – Derived from the verb meaning to go in, this refers to the protection given to a person against his enemies. People are protected at all costs; even those running from the law must be given refuge until the situation can be clarified.[2] Nənawā́te can also be used when the vanquished party in a dispute is prepared to go into the house of the victors and ask for their forgiveness: this is a peculiar form of "chivalrous" surrender, in which an enemy seeks "sanctuary" at the house of their foe. A notable example, is that of Mullah Mohammed Omar, who refused to handover Osama bin Laden, to the US, claiming that in doing so they would violate the Pashtun tradition of asylum, according to Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, he said:

    I don't want to go down in history as someone who betrayed his guest. I am willing to give my life, my regime. Since we have given him refuge, I cannot throw him out now.[19]

  3. Justice and revenge (نياو او بدل, nyāw aw badál) – To seek justice or take revenge against the wrongdoer. No time limit restricts the period in which revenge can be taken. Justice in Pashtun lore needs elaborating: even a mere taunt (پېغور, peghor) counts as an insult.[2] Monetary compensation can be an alternative to Badal, for example in murder cases.

The other main principles:

  1. Bravery (توره, túra). A Pashtun must defend his land, property, and family from incursions. Death can follow if anyone offends this principle.[2]
  2. Loyalty (وفا, wapā́).[20] A Pashtun owes loyalty to family, friends and tribe members.[citation needed]
  3. Kindness (ښېګړه, x̌egә́ṛa). Pashtuns should act in the welfare of others.[20]
  4. Arbitration (جرګه, jergá). Disputes are resolved through the Jirga.[20]
  5. Faith (ګروه, groh) contains a wider notion of trust or faith in Allah.[2] The notion of trusting in one Creator generally comports to Islamic monotheism or tawhid.
  6. Respect (پت, pat) and pride (وياړ, wyāṛ). A Pashtun's pride, has great importance in society and must be preserved. Pashtuns must respect themselves and others in order to be able to do so, especially those they do not know. Respect begins at home, among family members and relatives. Someone who lacks these qualities is not considered worthy of being a Pashtun.[2] As per the poetry by Khushal Khattak, “The loss of life and wealth should not matter, what matters is pat.[21]
  7. Female honour (ناموس, nāmús). A Pashtun must defend the honour of women at all costs and must protect them from vocal and every harm.[22]
  8. Honour (ننګ, nang). A Pashtun must defend the weak around him.[23]
  9. Courage, manhood, or chivalry (مېړانه, meṛā́na).[24] A Pashtun must demonstrate courage. A turban is considered a symbol of a Pashtun's chivalry.[citation needed]
  10. Country (هېواد, hewā́d). A Pashtun is obliged to protect the land of the Pashtuns. Defense of the nation means the protection of Pashtun custom.[13]

See also

References

Notes

Citations

  1. ^ Rzehak, Lutz (2011). Doing Pashto: Pashtunwali also known as Afghaniyat as the Ideal of Honourable Behaviour and Tribal Life Among the Pashtuns. Afghanistan Analysts Network.
  2. ^ . Retrieved 29 October 2010. Erinn Banting.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2020-09-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. .
  5. ^ Shane, Scott (December 5, 2009). "The War in Pashtunistan". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
  6. . Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  7. ^ "The History of Herodotus Chapter 7". Translated by George Rawlinson. The History Files. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  8. . Retrieved 2010-09-24.
  9. .
  10. ^ "Afghan and Afghanistan". Abdul Hai Habibi. alamahabibi.com. 1969. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  11. .
  12. ^ Leonard Schonberg, Morgen's War (2005) p. 218.
  13. ^ a b H. Cathell, Major John. "Human Geography in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region: Undermining the Taliban Using Traditional Pashtun Social Structures" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 8, 2019.
  14. ^ Swat), Sir Abdul Wadud (Wali of; K̲h̲ān̲, Muḥammad Āṣif (1963). The Story of Swat. Ferozsons.
  15. .
  16. . The three primary pillars of Pashtunwali are badal, or revenge, melamstia, or hospitality, and nanawatia, or refuge.
  17. .
  18. .
  19. ^ Analyst, Peter Bergen, CNN National Security (29 July 2015). "The enigmatic Mullah Omar and his legacy". CNN. Retrieved 2021-09-27. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ a b c Junaid, Muhammad (March–June 2011). "Poetics of Identity: On Entrepreneurial Selves of Afghan Migrants in Pakistan". Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry. 9 (1–2): 44 – via Research Gate.
  21. ^ Junaid, Muhammad (March–June 2011). "Poetics of Identity: On Entrepreneurial Selves of Afghan Migrants in Pakistan". Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry. 9 (1–2): 45 – via Research Gate.
  22. ISBN 9781780622170.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  23. .
  24. SSRN 2083022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )

External links