"Pakistani or Pashtun?" The Frustrating Question of Identity

Apparently, the below article is very ... "controversial"... then again, I love controversy and enjoy raising it; it's sometimes the only way to get a discussion started.

It was originally published on Pashtun Women Viewpoint, of which I'm a team member and an editor, but a couple of readers misunderstood the whole point and thought it was *Pashtun Women Viewpoint's* attempt to divide Pashtuns (whereas this is written by me and nothing on the website there necessarily reflects the team's perspective), and so we had to remove it from there to stop the ignorant remarks. I decided that I want to continue this discussion on identity so am posting it here for interested readers' pleasure. I can handle "attacks" on myself but not on Pashtun Women Viewpoint, so stop being stupid, you small lot of people, and reply here instead of attacking the website! Geez, you know what one of our many problems is, folks? We can't handle disagreements and think anyone who disagrees with us is not from us, is a fake Pashtun, is trying to divide everyone. Oh the lies you tell yourselves...

Anyway, bismillah. Here it goes!

"Pakistani or Pashtun?" The Frustrating Question of Identity

One of the most frustrating questions that the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and those of Pakistan who believe in the independence of Pashtuns from Pakistan pose to Pakistani Pashtuns is: “Do you consider yourself Pakistani or Afghan?” (Sometimes also, “Are you Pashtun or Pakistani?” as though one can’t be both.) The questioner’s understanding is that the person’s answer will determine how “real” a Pashtun she/he is: if the answer is, “I am Afghan,” the person is indeed a real Pashtun; if otherwise, they must prepare themselves for a circular, exasperating, and never-ending debate that is initiated often solely so that the questioner can inform them of how brainwashed and less informed they are of their origin and history.

When Pashtun Women Viewpoint first launched, we received a similarly challenging question: “Why did you guys name this ‘Pashtun’ women viewpoint and not ‘Afghan’ women viewpoint?” In fact, naming this platform took some time to reach a consensus, as many members of the team had anticipated that we would have to explain ourselves to our readers, especially our Afghan readers. Some suggest that it is racist to highlight the needs and concerns of “Pashtuns”—but that it is not racist to do the same with “Afghans.”

Here, I want to discuss two main sides of the issue as I understand it as a participant in the conversation between our team members and some of our readers.

 First, I’ll address the pro-“Afghan” perspective.

Afghanistan has suffered immensely from, among innumerable other issues, ethnic tension and racism of many sorts within the country; some factions for political reasons have been trying to divide Afghans based on their ethnicities in an effort to root out Afghaniyat, or being an Afghan, from the Afghan society. It appears that each Afghan ethnic group—that is, an ethnic group holding the nationality of Afghanistan, such as the Hazars, the Tajiks, the Pashtuns—vies for the highest recognition, struggling to make it to the top and attain full equality, insisting that it is just as Afghan as any other ethnic group in the country. Many citizens of Afghanistan, whom we will refer to here as Afghans regardless of their ethnicity, have realized the harm of the racist attitudes among them and are working hard towards promoting unity and eliminating ethnic-oriented attitudes, such as “I am Pashtun!” or “I am Hazara!” They instead urge each other to identify as Afghans, as children and citizen of Afghanistan, no matter their ethnicity, because their nation can no longer afford to be sacrificed in the name of ethnicity. The Pashtuns of Afghanistan can no longer claim that to be Afghan is to be Pashtun necessarily, or that the title of “Afghan” belongs only to the Pashtuns, when “Afghan” today refers to any citizen of Afghanistan. As such, when, for example, the Hazaras or the Pashtuns of Afghanistan do privilege their “Hazaraness” or “Pashtunness” over their “Afghanness,” they are doing a disservice to the country and those of its people who are working towards eliminating any sense of racism or ethnocentrism.

However, the pro-“Pashtun” perspective, though embracing the efforts of eliminating racism among Pashtuns and Afghans, also acknowledges the reality that the Pashtuns of Pakistan are just as valuable as the Pashtuns of Afghanistan. While there are those Pashtuns in Pakistan who believe in the struggle for Pashtunistan, or independence of Pashtuns from Pakistan, there are some others who do not support this struggle. There are also those Pashtuns who are patriotic towards Pakistan and value their Pakistani national identity while acknowledging and honoring their ethnic identity as Pashtuns. Since to be an Afghan today does not necessarily mean Pashtun, such as in the case of Hazaras or Tajiks as Afghans, and instead refers to a citizen of Afghanistan, the Pashtuns of Pakistan, who prefer their Pakistani identity, might feel excluded from any group that works primarily for Afghans. Whereas Khushal Khan Khattak famously wrote that “Afghans are Pashtuns, and Pashtuns are Afghans,” he did not, in mid-1600s, take into consideration the birth of new nations, such as Pakistan, and his quote possibly does not apply to all times and circumstances and needs to be regarded in its specific context; today, identity issue are far more complex, and to be an Afghan is not simply to be a Pashtun. Importantly also, the pro-“Pashtun” side points to the concerted efforts anywhere, whether in Afghanistan or Pakistan, to eliminate the use of the word “Pashto” and “Pashtun.” While many Afghans arguing that “We’re all Afghans—not Hazara, not Pashtun, not Tajik, just Afghans!” regardless of the positive meaning behind it to unite all Afghans under the banner of unity, this can be interpreted as an effort to get rid of the word “Pashtun” or “Pashto.” Meanwhile on the other side of the Durand Line, in Pakistan, one observes that the re-naming of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, instead of simply Pakhtunkhwa, is an indication that “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” detracts one’s attention from the actual name; it also makes it easier for non-Pashtuns to reduce the name, indeed Pashtuns’ identity, to “KPK,” and not all who refer to “KPK” know what the acronym stands for.

As Pashtuns political circumstances continue to evolve, it becomes necessary for the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and those of Pakistan to understand that not all Pashtuns are going to have the same views on what it means to be Pashtuns—or what a “real” Pashtun is like, if there really is such a thing. The Pashtuns of Afghanistan need to acknowledge that today, being Afghan is not just being a Pashtun; it more generally means being a citizen of Afghanistan, which the Pashtuns of Pakistan are not. Hence, the Pashtuns of Pakistan embrace their identity as Pashtuns ethnically—and many also accept their identity as Pakistanis nationally, often proudly—and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan need to recognize, if not also respect, this fact. Similarly, the Pashtuns of Pakistan need to recognize that Pakistan history is taught to them from too biased a perspective, as all history is, for them to be able to learn their history in a more complete way; when Afghan-Pashtuns then tell the Pakistani Pashtuns that all Pashtuns are originally from Afghanistan, that the Durand Line is an artificial and arbitrary boundary demarcated by the British to keep Pashtuns as divided as possible, or that Pakistan does not mean well for Pashtuns, there is at least some truth to each statement. It would thus be in our best interest to re-view Pashtun history from as many different perspectives as possible so that we get a more complete picture of the reality of where we are today and how we got here, whether we are in Afghanistan or Pakistan. At the very least, the most important things we have in common are our shared history and lineage—and our language.