What is the message of the "ethnic army" song of the Pashtun Taliban?
Author: Yaqub Yasna, Professor of History, Culture, and Literature, Member of the Sangar Advisory Board
The white flag is the flag of the Pashtuns,
It's on my shoulder,
I will conquer the Panjshir,
I raise it over the Panjshir...
This song is sung by a number of Pashtun Taliban in the presence of a group of Pashtun spectators with the Athan dance, which is characteristic of the Pashtun people. Many people have condemned this song, but in my opinion, condemning this song is a kind of shrug and simplistic disclaimer. Instead of condemning this song, let's pay attention to the ethnic, cultural, and semiotic function and message of this song because the song expresses the reality of our social and political relations.
The performers of this song consider the places of residence of other ethnic groups, especially the place of residence of the Panjshirs, as part of their ethnic conquest and booty, and they say that we will occupy this land and raise the Pashtun flag in this land. In this song there is no mention of a country called Afghanistan, no mention of a nation, no mention of fellow countrymen, no mention of followers of the Hanafi religion, no mention of Muslims; There is only news about Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns. The white flag belongs to the Pashtuns, and the tribal army raises this flag in these lands, occupying the lands of non-Pashtun tribes in order to make these lands part of the possessions of the Pashtun people.
Although the message of this song is not new, it is clear. The message of this song has been expressed in different ways in the past by Karzai, Ghani, Usuli, and others. There is an interview with Karzai who says that if Afghan guys - Taliban - occupy a place, we have no right to say why they took it. Karzai uses Afghan instead of Pashtun, and the word Afghan can be applied to the whole country, and Afghan is the second name for the Pashtun people. There is also an interview with Ghani, who says that it is unfair to the Taliban prisoners that most Bagram prisoners are from the same tribe. Usuli has said in several interviews that this land belongs to the Pashtuns.
The Taliban cannot be classified in any other category than a backward ethnic army. The Taliban is an ethnic army that first preserves and adapts reactionary and backward cultural and religious structures among the Pashtun people, and in the second stage spreads these reactionary and backward structures as Pashtun values among other ethnic groups.
It is true that in the short term, everyone sees the Taliban as the victorious army of the Pashtun people, and Pashtun nationalists (liberals, secularists, technocrats, secularists, etc.) also support the Taliban as the victorious army of the Pashtun people. But in the end, the first victims of the Pashtun Taliban are the Pashtuns, and the second victims are the Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek people.
If we (Tajiks, Hazaras, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, etc.) want to get rid of harmful social and cultural primitive attitudes, we must adopt a modern attitude towards the concept of nation, country, territory, government, government, individual, etc. Let's look at and consider our differences from a modern point of view, resolve our differences through democratic means, and recognize our differences. Otherwise, today the Pashtun army will sing the song of the conquest and occupation of the Tajik land, and tomorrow will sing this in another land and the song of revenge will be repeated more and more.
And the last thing: in the song of the ethnic army a special place has Panjshir, not Mazar Sharif, not Herat, not Bamiyan, etc. Because Panjshir, even conquered and broken, was and remains a nightmare for the invaders...
