The aspect of revenge among the Pashtun ethnic group in Afghanistan continues to be not well understood by Westerners, especially by those belonging to countries where this practice is not in use. Giuseppe Gagliano’s analysis
Most Italian newspapers talk about Pashtuns. But who they are and what role they played
The Pashtuns are a stateless ethnic-linguistic group currently made up of about fifty million people (the majority in Pakistan and in Afghan territory). The Pashtuns were divided between two countries when, in 1893, the British decided to establish the Durand line (let’s see in passing the destabilizing role of English colonialism in the nineteenth century!).
In addition to the ethnic variety present in Afghanistan among the Pashtuns, the Tajiks, the Hazaras, the Uzbeks and the Turkmen, in his essay “This is how the world is controlled” (Rizzoli) the Spanish colonel Pedro Banos underlines how only sixty have been identified among the first different tribes and from which another four hundred sub-tribes are born, also different from each other. With a political structure that responds only to the family or the clan, this group has always been proud of its independence, so it has never accepted the Afghan leader on duty who, over the last 150 years, has almost always been imposed by ‘external.
The only laws that reign among these people – with over five centuries of history that some extend to 2,500 years, since the Greek historian Herodotus had already placed them on these lands – are those that emerge from their unwritten code, Pashtunwali, where the principles that constitute the true founding values ​​of their society are collected: melmastia, the duty of hospitality; nanawatai, to give asylum and refuge to the fugitive; badal, revenge in the face of any insult, theft, injury to personal or family reputation, or for having wounded or killed a family member.
The aspect of revenge continues to be not well understood by Westerners, especially by those belonging to countries where this practice is not in use. Particularly in countries with a Catholic tradition it is almost impossible to understand the profound meaning of revenge: when someone is the victim of an affront, even a serious one, the reaction that has always been inculcated is that of forgiveness, not the search for satisfaction through personal retaliation. But when a Pashtun believes he has suffered an offense, especially in the case of the death of a loved one, and forced to avenge the offense, how long it may have passed. Exactly as it also happens in other cultures: although in fact some want to associate it with religion, in this case with Islam, revenge is a phenomenon rooted in cultural tradition, more than in the religious one. However, this is an aspect that is too easily forgotten, therefore, every time a Pashtun settlement is attacked or bombed, his people are called to retaliate against the perpetrators of the gesture or the citizens of the country that outraged them. Thus, instead of solving the problems, which are already very complex in this part of the world, they are sharpened and rooted.
In short, we must understand – and Dario Fabbri and Lucio Caracciolo have rightly emphasized this on Limes – that our values ​​are neither universal nor objective, but are values ​​that were born and arose in certain historical contexts such as, for example, Marcello Flores is very well illustrated in an essay by the Mill. entitled “History of human rights”.
Winston Churchill himself – whose responsibilities in the context of colonial destabilization in the Middle East are far from marginal – after a stay in Afghanistan in 1897, described his impressions of the Pashtuns in terms that can still be applied today: “Except for the Harvest time, when self-preservation benefits from a temporary respite, the Pathan [Pashtun] tribes are always engaged in private or public wars. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a true feudal fortress […]. Each village has its own defense system. Each family cultivates its own revenge; each clan its own feud. The numerous tribes and combinations of tribes all have accounts to settle with each other. Nothing is ever forgotten, and very few debts remain unpaid.
And despite this, there will always be those who will stubbornly want to subdue an indomitable people, which can only be conquered by annihilating every single member. Since this is obviously impossible and unacceptable, those who persist in trying to do so will only get to bump into the human wall set up by the proud Afghan people over and over again.
Equally interesting is the recent interview by the Colonel, who describes Biden’s speech as “deplorable” because “he does not remember the allies” who fought alongside the United States in the war in Afghanistan. Twenty years later, the president of the United States argued that the intention was not to bring about democracy, but to exclusively guarantee the security of the United States.
Furthermore, Banos criticizes that, after spending $ 100 trillion to train and arm the Afghan army and police, it was found that they were either not effective enough in pacifying Afghanistan or that they had no interest in it.
There are actually many reasons behind the ineffectiveness of Afghan troops, including deep corruption at all levels of the administration, including the police. Likewise, there were “ghost soldier lists” in which soldiers who existed and did not go to work appeared, simply received their salary, or even did not exist. On the other hand, the colonel specifies, there were many reasons to be wary: in fact the foreign armies produced various internal reports in which they had already warned what would happen when they withdrew from the country. Regarding the recent statements by the Taliban, the colonel is very clear from this point of view:
“Although the Taliban proclaim a general amnesty, it is hard to believe,” says Banos, who explains that most of the fleeing Afghan refugees will seek refuge in neighboring countries such as Iran, Pakistan or other countries.
The colonel believes that the Taliban act “very cleverly” by using social networks to send messages of calm, tolerance and a certain openness. They want to give the impression of being something else. But the well-founded fear is that it is simply a “facelift”.
