Democracy and Unity

Many of my non Afghan acquaintances usually ask me whether democracy will work for Afghanistan as they see Afghanistan as being so divided and a novice to the concept. I don’t think Afghanistan is divided or new to democracy. We are let to believe this by the media. In actual fact our first democratic government was established in 1747. It took numerous Jirgas (grand assemblies) to elect the new King after the assassination of Nadir Shah.

Ahmad Shah Abdali (also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani and Ahmad Shah Baba) was elected King of the Durrani Empire. He was not a royal but viewed as someone who had the ability to lead the empire by those who elected him. It was a democratic kingdom, which had the support of almost all tribes. During this period, Afghanistan saw a time of prosperity, peace and power. Although one cannot say there was no opposition of the Kingdom, there wasn’t any significant uprising. While the rest of the world was diseased with slavery, the Durrani Empire could take credit for being a slave free Kingdom. There is no doubt that Ahmad Shah Abdali was a capable and charismatic King, however, his success was enhanced with the support of those that elected him.

Unfortunately the tradition of the Jirga electing the King was not continued. The Kingdom was passed to Abdali’s son Taimur Shah, who didn’t have the capability of retaining the Empire. Had the tradition of democratically electing a King continued, Afghanistan may have had a completely different history. If it worked for Afghanistan then it can work now!

As far as division is concerned, a true democratic government represents all with no threats to any ethnicity or religious groups. There maybe disagreement between political parties in Afghanistan but then what country doesn’t have that? A political party represents the view of its constituents so it cannot be interpreted as division. Afghanistan is more united today than ever. Everyone is working towards the country so how can it be divided??

It is remarkable that even after decades of war Afghanistan rapidly got itself back on the road to recovery. Some believe that it is the aid of the international community that has enabled Afghanistan but I think with all the help in the world Afghanistan would not have recovered, had it not been for the deep love of the Afghan nation for their country.

Every Afghan carries a great amount of love for the country regardless of their political opinions. To many non-Afghans that I have met, Afghanistan is an inspiration. Those that had the privilege of visiting the country or are in touch with Afghans in the Diaspora are all admirers of the enthusiasm of the Afghan people who are all working so hard to rebuild the country.

In a generation where most young people can only think about having fun, the Afghan youth across the world are taking ownership of the problems faced by our country and are continuously striving to do something constructive. Our country may have been destroyed by a long war but seeing the enthusiasm Afghans are channelling into rebuild Afghanistan it predicts a bright future for Afghanistan. A collective action by such a big mass of Afghans shows unity to me. If this is not unity then what is?

The Kite Runner

A week after watching the Kite Runner at a premier screening held by Relief International on the 17^th of December, I still don’t know what I should think of the film.

Almost all Afghans are looking forward to the film’s world wide screening because lets face it, nothing good has happened to Afghans for a few decades now. This film is sort of our hope for something of world-class quality.

From a production point of view the film was great. The cast was excellent. The film quality was fantastic; all in all everything was impressive. It was also something new. In the past few months, I have never seen a film made by Hollywood that didn’t resemble a previous one, so the Kite Runner was entirely a fresh idea. Knowing Hollywood, one can predict the Kite Runner II, depending on the success of the first one.

What concerns me is the message presented to a widely conservative nation. The reason for Afghanistan being so backward is due to the fact that our hot blood always kicks in before our brain does.

Like most young Afghans, all I have seen in life is the degraded status of Afghanistan. There was war from before I was born and it still continues. The nightmares of it staying the same or getting even worst keeps me awake at night like many others. So while everyone is anxiously waiting for the films to come out in cinemas, I am anxiously waiting for the reaction of our people after the film.

Will it be the first and last good thing that happened or will we be able to see it with a more open mind?

When I first heard the saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures”, I thought it was the wisest thing I ever heard but seeing what desperate actions have done to Afghanistan, I am now wondering if taking desperate measures is even a characteristic of wisdom? The more I think about it the more I get sure that it is not.

Maybe I am just paranoid but once you have tasted degradation, it is hard not to be.

My hope is that the film opens a new positive horizon in the progress of Afghanistan towards a just and open-minded society.

Bad-mouthing – an Afghan culture?

I have heard many people say they don’t want to hang around Afghans and I have always wondered why.

There was a time when I hardly had any Afghan friends and I thought there was one thing missing in my life and that was a lack of Afghan friends.

Almost all my friends today are Afghans. I don’t have major problems but I have realised why Afghans don’t like to be around other Afghans.

We all do what we want do but then we criticise and judge others for the choices they make.

The thing I don’t understand though is why we do that? The only person that is going to be affected by their choices good or bad is themselves. Why do we judge others? How much do we know about their life?

It is hard enough to maintain our cultural identity whilst living in a western country. Then we have to face persecution from our peers who we think understand us and are doing exactly the same thing. Therefore they are in no position to judge but that does not seem to stop them.

We always have to pretend around other Afghans, so can never be ourselves. Who would like to be in a situation where they can’t be themselves? I know I wouldn’t.

We are distancing our own people from ourselves by doing this. With each generation that passes there is a shift away from the path our parents want us to follow. Hence you would think that there is a change in the narrow mindedness that we seem to possess but this does not seem to be the case. This will not change until people look at their own actions before judging others.

We should be making people comfortable amongst us and that cannot be achieved until we lose the habit of bad mouthing others.

On the bright side, this habit is something we all have in common. We always fight over our differences so if we can’t change the habit at least put it to a good cause. Let’s unite over this bad habit and respect each other because we are all the same in one way or another!