Comments on: Digging Deeper into the Pashtun Tribal Areas

By: Josh SN

Josh SN — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:08:41 +0000

Joshua,

Thank you for your review here.

I’d quibble on a couple points, but not to undermine your basic claims. They do say the Nuristanis have the most holdover traditions in their brand of Islam, but the next sentence says many other Pashtuns have similar traditions:

“The Nuristanis still sometimes use animist gravesite effigies, which are prohibited in Islam, suggesting that they have grafted Islamic beliefs onto existing traditional customs. This is also true of the Pashtuns, where Hanaa Sunni beliefs are layered over a much older social code.”

They also say, as you do, that the Taliban is not a tribally based organization, quite the opposite. They say that the Taliban are replacing the previous tribal leadership, which they describe as Pashtun Nationalist, with Islamism.

That said, thanks again for pointing out the problems with Mason and Johnson to the inexpert reader.

By: Richard Strand

Richard Strand — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:29:20 +0000

You state, “many peoples within Nuristan do maintain some animist and polytheist-like traditions.” Not any more; the mullahs have done their job well.

Thanks for a good blog.

By: Abdullah Ichiqzai

Abdullah Ichiqzai — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:41:50 +0000

Joshua you write, “Thomas Johnson of the Naval Post Graduate School,”.

Don’t you expect that an Afghan expert is required to have lived in Afghans for atleast a year, have fluency in one of the native languages, and have completed graduate courses related to Afghanistan or have written his master’s thesis on Afghanistan.

Mr. Johnson has never lived in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Occassional trips to Afghanistan or Pakistan to interview people don’t suffix.

Mr. Johnson has never spoken a word of Dari or Pashto, which is important to understand Afghanistan.

Mr. Johnson never lists where he got his master’s degree from. When you check the Naval Post Graduate School website you notice that crucial piece of information missing. He also does not correct people who assume he must have a prestigious PH.D. during meetings, conferences, seminars or when considering him for publications in peer reviewed journals. By faking this Ph.D. perception he passes himself off as a doctorate trained expert on Afghanistan.

By very cautious of the sophmoric expert who does not have training, education, language abilities, faking his credentials.

By: Iason Athanasiadis

Iason Athanasiadis — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:12:54 +0000

Excellent weblog – thanks for the excellent analysis that makes Registan indispensable in interpreting the tea-leaves.
I’d be delighted if you might consider posting a link about my upcoming exhibition at DC’s Wilson Center on the third generation of the Revolution in Iran. I’m a journalist currently at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation who spent the past three years in Iran and photographed the youth undergrounds there.
If you send me an email I’ll be delighted to email you an illustrated poster invite.
all best,
Iason

By: Isupzai

Isupzai — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:54:27 +0000

My dear Mr Guraiz:
True Pashtunwali is on the wane in the cities of Pukhtunkhwa.
But if you would be so kind as to step off your high road into the FATA of PATA or even into the Kakar’s and Achakzai’s of Baluchistan, you will find that Pashtunwali is alive and well. Having said that not all aspect of Pashtunwali are compatible with 2008, such as womens right issues, however the latter confirms the point.
You see the Brits divided the Pashtuns into many pieces.
The settled areas of Mardan and Charsadda
The 7 FATA
The tribes kept within Baluchistan administration
And now the Paki made PATA.
What we need is to redraw the obsolete British boundaries and unify the Pashtun people. But that will never happen because it is a scary idea to many.
“TAL daye vee Pakhtunwali”
With respect,
Isupzai

By: Askar-Guraiz

Askar-Guraiz — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:41:37 +0000

To the very end of your analysis, you unlock what is essential to the archaic imaginations of Johnson and Mason that has led them to write such a self-contradicting piece. That Shalwar-Kameez pose. To have put that on is perhaps a claim to credibility on a matter—Pushtunwali—that exists not beyond the imagination of some curious academics and literate Pushtoons who needed to put structure to the chaos that represented Pushtoon public life. Back in the old days. No more.

It is absolutely disheartening to see this article pass through the scrutiny of the journal’s peer-reviewers. The sad part is that these guys have access to people who really are going believe them: soldiers and officers who will be deployed!