#pashtun people

[dashingwishes]

Eid Mubarak everyone may all of our prayers be accepted & also remember to always be kind & don’t forget spend time with your loved ones, eat well and enjoy! 🌙 💖✨

#Don’t take anyone for granted! #Talk to people when you need help. #I’m still thinking about Moonbin I was missing him so much #allah #eid #eid Mubarak #prayers #ramadan #healing #positivity #positive #love #eid ul fitr #eid al adha #muslims #islam #text #afghans #pashtuns

[peopleofafghanistan]

Building a school in Shah Joy, Zabul province.

Source: Dan Bohmer

#afghanistan #afghan #afghan man #afghan people #man #construction #work #labour #school #smile #portrait #zabul #building #high res #asia #asian man #central asia #south asia #pashtun #pathan #pakhtun

[dummerjan]

this time of the year always has a special feel to it for me almost 40% of my city's population are uni students and now that the winter semester is about to start the city is filling up again and there's also a huge influx of international students every bus ride is a smorgasbord of languages from all over the world i think most of them are the students from india, latin america, northern africa, (south) east asia and i just really enjoy hearing all the different languages they disperse after a few weeks, probably once the joint events are over and they have all settled in but for now it's buzzing with excitement

#there's a huge asylum seeker accomodation and i live close to one of the housings so there's already #a significant variety of languages i get to hear on my way to town and obviously also in town #granted i often can't tell what the languages are not like i can tell pashtun from dari or tigrinya from amharic #even ukrainian from russian from sound alone probably though i really should be able to #but i still really enjoy it (as long as noone is screaming into their phone on louspeaker srsly why do people do that on the bus?!) #meins

[chaiaurchaandni]

does throwing a stone at a tank

make a child a terrorist?

is terrorism about resisting oppression? is terrorism about demanding your birthright to live safely and peacefully in your homeland? is terrorism about hating the killers of your family, your friends and your people?

accusations of terrorism are often weaponized against those fighting for liberation and sovereignty and dignity. the french settlers called the algerians terrorists. the indian government calls the kashmiris terrorists. the pakistani army calls pashtun activists terrorists. the turkish government calls the kurds terrorists. apartheid south africa called nelson mandela a terrorist. americans called the vietcong and the black panthers terrorists. the israelis call the palestinians terrorists. all oppressive regimes are connected. all oppressed people are connected. injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

#fares odeh #this is the justification that israel uses to imprison and kill palestinian children #accusations of terrorism are often weaponized against poc who fight for liberation #'wider impact: after odeh's picture became famous israeli tanks were told to start shooting at stone throwers' absolutely insane #free palestine #palestine #gaza #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #glory to the martyrs #long live palestine #death to israel #long live the resistance #save the children #palestinian resistance

[stackslip]

In 2020, Uma Mirkhail got a firsthand demonstration of how damaging a bad translation can be. A crisis translator specializing in Afghan languages, Mirkhail was working with a Pashto-speaking refugee who had fled Afghanistan. A U.S. court had denied the refugee’s asylum bid because her written application didn’t match the story told in the initial interviews. In the interviews, the refugee had first maintained that she’d made it through one particular event alone, but the written statement seemed to reference other people with her at the time — a discrepancy large enough for a judge to reject her asylum claim. After Mirkhail went over the documents, she saw what had gone wrong: An automated translation tool had swapped the “I” pronouns in the woman’s statement to “we.” (...) Whether automated or not, translation flubs in Pashto and Dari have become commonplace. As recently as early April, the German Embassy to Afghanistan posted a tweet in Pashto decrying the Taliban’s ban on women working. The tweet was quickly ridiculed by native speakers, with some quote tweets claiming that not a single sentence was legible. “Kindly please don’t insult our language. Thousands [of] Pashtun are living in Germany but still they don’t hire an expert for Pashto,” posted one user, researcher Afzal Zarghoni. The German Embassy later deleted the tweet. Seemingly trivial translation errors can sometimes lead to harmful distortions when drafting asylum applications.

#ai #tech #asylum #abolish borders #pol #obviously the issue here is far deeper than ai or machine translation but man this is so depressing

[olderthannetfic]

some anti demanded I prove I'm a POC in order to be allowed to write a main character who's not white. I explained I'm Turkish, Armenian, Pashtun, Uzbek, Kazakh and Koryo-saram by heritage and grew up primarily in Uzbekistan. they are having a stroke trying to figure out if I'm white or not. they're debating this with other people in the comments of my fic and I'm too interested in seeing Americans' opinions to stop it. it's fascinating, like a trainwreck

--

Oh god.

Well, we all remember the best tumblr post of all time:

(Also, this is hilarious because if you're Koryo-saram, then by US standards, you're not white. The chances of them knowing what Koryo-saram means are extremely low, however.)

[normal-thoughts-official]

One of my (many) favorite details on TOG is how each of them reacts after dreaming about Nile. Presumably, they all had the same dream (considering both Booker and Joe saw the same things, Joe just needed Booker to jumpstart his memory to realize them, and also that the flashes we get for each character aren't necessarily the same things they mention after they wake up) but what each of them retains is wildly different. Joe remembers the people best; the first thing he says is "I saw an older woman in a hijab", and he draws Nile near perfectly without needing any help remembering her features. Nicky remembers the environmental information best; dirt floor, clay walls, the knife was a pesh-kabz, Pashtun. Booker has some flashes of information, but he doesn't retain it well (saw a part of a name tag but doesn't remember what it said, vaguely recalls a medevac) but what really sticks with him is the way he felt when she died. And Andy remembers the military information best ("she's a marine. combat or near-combat duty")

It's really consistent with their characters in many ways. Joe approached this with the empathy (in its literal sense) that he always does, latching unto the people, paying attention to their stories. Nicky was cataloguing information, sniper's eye, focused on anything that would give them clues as to her location, which is what matters best; Booker tries to focus on the objective details, but he's stuck on the pain; and Andy focuses on the military information (uniform and weapons, presumably). I find it really cool how they all retain different things from the dream, focus on different things, because even the same visions are different when you consider how wildly different their points of view and personalities are, and they showed their characters through that scene flawlessly

#tog #the old guard #yusuf al kaysani #nicolò di genova #andromache of scythia #sébastien le livre #nicolo di genova #andromache the scythian #sebastien le livre #meta #kinda

[mapsontheweb]

Pashtun Tribes Series - Sarbani (North) Confederation

by generic_maps

The Sarbani are a confederation of various Pashtun tribes living across Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are said to be descendants of Sarban, the eldest son of Qais Abdur Rashid whom is thought to be the ancestor of all Pashtun tribes and thus the founding father of the Pashtun people. The Northern branch of the Sarbani migrated during 1490-1530 from their native homeland around Kandahar in modern day Afghanistan towards the northern slopes of the Spin Ghar mountains along with conquering Peshawar Valley and the Sultanate of Swat who ruled over the hills to the North, thereby displacing and/or absorbing the pre-existing indigenous Dardic and Hindkowan tribes inhabiting the region.

The Northern Sarbani are divided into 10 tribes within 4 sub-confederations based on descent and lineage: ■ Khakhey Khel • Yusufzai • Tarkani • Gigyani ■ Ghoriya Khel • Mohmand • Daudzai • Khalil • Chamkani • Mullagori ■ Zamand • Muhammadzai ■ Kansi • Shinwari

#maps #generic_maps #igsourced #pakistan #tribes

[livelaughlovechai]

Things to keep in mind while writing a south asian character-

(Since I'm a mixed south-north indian and a hindu-sikh I've mainly included details about indian-hindu characters(ill try to include more abt sikh characters aswell)tho ive tried to include as much info as I can abt other south asian countries aswell !also ,if you want,feel free to add more details in :)

And please forgive my grammar in some of these places XD

1.The most common one,of course being that south asia is not all india.countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri lanka,Bhutan etc exist to.

2.Religion tends to be a big part of many south asian people’s lives , and If not a big part of their life,than most south asians are atleast religious in one way or the other.Different religions are in majority in different regions of south asia.For example,Sri lanka is majority buddhist, mainly in the sinhalese majority while the tamil minority there is majority hindu. But it's more than valid if ur character is atheist to tho!

3.For indian characters specifically ,it's is important to know what state they are from and that state’s culture . For example,most (or almost all)tamil characters won't wear a salwar kameez.(if they do then mostly muslim tamils)(reminder;I'm talking about traditional wear. Yes a lot of Tamil's could wear a salwar kameez if they want but it is not the traditional dress of tamil nadu)

4.India itself is very diverse,so don't make every character hindu.in some regions one religion is more in the majority than the others.If you decide to make a christian-indian character ,than they usually are from south-west india and north-east india.

5.If you decide to make a hindu-indian character as maybe a marvel/dc oc or something , its best to do some research on hindu stories and history.trust me,it helps alot. If not a hindu character than do research on the folk tales of that characters region,as that can help to.

6.NOT EVERY INDIAN SPEAKS HINDI.INDIAN/HINDU ARE NOT LANGUAGES.istg please . All it takes is one search of your characters state and the states description almost always mentions the state’s official language.while some character from non Hindi speaking areas of the country, for example a malyalee person could know how to speak hindi (most probably by living somewhere like delhi),they would still talk in malayalam with family and stuff . Also a pakistani character and Hindi speaking indian can almost always communicate easily since since the most spoken language in Pakistan,Urdu is very similar to Hindi in sound(also a lot of indians,specifically muslim indian’s have urdu as their first language.)Also punjabi Pakistani's and Indian's don't have any problem in communication(the script they write punjabi in is different tho)Also since a lot of people from the north had their ancestors migrate from pakistan to india during partition regional languages of Pakistan such as sindhi,multani,balochi etc can be understood by some people of such descent living in India.And a bengali speaking indian and a Bangladeshi can communicate just as well.Nepali speaking indians and Nepali people can also communicate with each other.But when it comes to Sri Lankan tamil people their dialect is different than the one of indian tamilians,so their tamil is better understood by malyalees,but they can still communicate well enough with each other.afghan people speak pashto and dari.pashto is also understood by a small amount of ethnic pashtuns who live throughout the sub continent.People from the Maldives speak the language of dhivehi.

7.Indians overall have many festivals that all people of usually a certain community celebrate regardless of religion,caste,etc.For example ,the people in kerela celebrate onam.Infact in alot of the state’s people from a specific region have their on festivities.

8.Physical features vary from area to area of South Asia.So there is no definite“south asian“look.

9.Sikh’s don’t cut their hair , that’s why most Sikh women have long hair and most Sikh men wear turbans. Although some do, like my uncle from my mom’s side and my mom herself and etc. Though socially it's more acceptable for a sikh woman to cut her hair then a sikh man. But a load of times sikh immigrants do have to sadly cut their hair and take off their turbans in order to get jobs and all.

10.-And Hindu’s don’t eat beef.Most Sikh’s and overall all Indians tend to avoid beef to.a lot of Hindus are vegetarians due to religious beliefs. Tho mallus and some people from the north east for example usualy do eat beef(mainly the non hindus)

11.-For characters specially from south india(that to mainly kerala and tamil Nadu) the naming tradition that is used most commonly is that the child and wife use the father’s name as their last name. Though I've noticed that outside of their states atleast they tend to use their family names, but very rarely caste names.

12.- Believe it or not, in a show( I'm not sure about the name) a pakistani character had the name“shiv reddy“.pissed me of sm.yes pakistani hindus exist but if I havent already mentioned before,CERTAIN LAST NAMES BELONG TO CERTAIN AREAS. Reddy is an indian telugu hindu last name.please do your research.

13.-This applies to a good amount of north indians and just overall non south indians.south india is not one state.madras was the OLD name for Chennai, which is just one CITY in one state of south india.There are 5 states,6(and more) languages spoken. Please do not confuse those cultures.

14.-As for a good amount of non punjabis...please.punjabis are not all “balle-balle“ sikh people.please. And they're not all angry people looking for a fight either.

15.-Talking abt north india,I need to mention bollywood and how they stereotype.bombay aka the film city is in Maharashtra.yet they still stereotype Maharashtrians as poor people.gujjus are always the rich snobbish ppl.bengali ppl are sweet shy people and nepali people are Chinese. Goans are always english speaking drunkards or high attitude aunties.rajasthanis all have a heavy accent and are royalty and Uttar pradeshis-biharis are poor illiterate people. PLEASE STOP WITH THIS STEREOTYPICAL BULLSHIT ISTG. See,stereotypes exist because they are true, but only a part of the truth and over exaggerated asf.

16.-India does have a poverty issue but we are far from a third world country.most indians are middle class,that to is split in between lower middle class,middle middle class and upper middle class.and until or unless you live in a rural area casteism really isn't a problem.but remember,while casteism is illegal in indian law,it still affects people.it’s just a little less prevelant in big cities. While india is the farthest ahead in south asia atleast the rest of the countries are doing well for themselves as well.

17.-hindu culture specifically has so much lgbtqia+ stuff in it.but the fucking brit’s and Mughals ruined it. The only transgender festival of Asia is held in tamil nadu.seriously, I advise you do research of your own on it and you'll love it to!♥️

18.-Btw, hindi is a language,hindu religion. (had to add this again)Your character prolly from some place like madhya pradesh,bihar,Uttar pradesh,Delhi,uttarakhand or himachal pradesh if they are hindi speaking. Some people have the same confusion with malayalam. Malayalam is a language, malyalee’s are the people who speak it or at from kerala.

19.-talking about food.curry is a wide ass term.wdym by curry?fish curry,mutton curry or is it paneer curry?is it more creamy or not?do you eat it by itself,with rice,a paratha/parotta or all?like seriously stop with “curry“ ITS ANNOYINGGG.again food varries alot area by area.even in a specific area food varries. For example,Kerala-Tamil nadu sambar is damn spicy but sambar from karnataka and telugu states tends to be sweeter.also food from Karnataka is much milder in spice then food from Andhra,but still capable of burning the mouths of most non south asians 😍😘🥰.also,we tend to eat most of our food with hands(THE best way.)famous delicacies vary from country to country in south asia and area to area of india btw. And our food is not ’smelly’, it's FRAGRANT.

20.ok so ive in total had 2 specific segments dedicated to language and this is the third one.India,while having only 22 offical languages(again;i remind you,we do not have a national language)actually has like thousands of languages. Native people from even just one state can have different mother tongues(for example-three people who were born and raised in karnataka and have families that are native to the state could have the languages of kannada,tulu and kodava as their mother tongues).And again,dialects also differ.For example,Bombay hindi and the hindi of a person from Uttarakhand would be different, and so would Bangalore tamil and a Madurai native’s tamil.Also,let’s say a telugu person has been living in mumbai for a while,very rarely will they ever have an ’accent’ while speaking hindi or english.

21.so above i mentioned that alot of people from the north have had ancestors move in from pakistan during the partition(and vice versa for some Pakistani's).Similarly,a good amount of people from west bengal had their ancestors move in from bangladesh(and vice versa again,but unlike the north india-pakistan thing indian bong’s and bangladeshi people don’t exactly have that ’divide’).Adding this in specifically not only because of how important this is but it can give more depth to your characters if they are from any of these areas.

22.Every state has different art forms.be it dance,music or just art,every state has it different.India has 8 classical dances(bharatanatyam,kuchipudi, mohiniyattam,kathakali,oddisi,kathak, manipuri and sattriya) and has countless many more.Music also varies and so does art as i said above.

23.our culture is super feminist but fucked by the brits and mughals again. We had so many queens and princesses that fought wars and also many female warriors.In the ancient times women only wore single drape saris and didn’t cover their breasts because they were not seen as sexual,but infact as a sign of motherhood(and there forth strength).If they were covered,it was for support.

24.Most people know atleast 3+ languages and almost everyone knows 2 at the very least. Sometimes they can even understand(which can range from basic to great) some other languages. For eg.- my dad can speak english,hindi,telugu,konkani,tulu,punjabi,urdu and multani+ he can understand malayalam,kannada,sindhi and tamil well enough.

That's it(for now):) hope this can help.feel free to ask questions!+random songs from my playlist✨✨✨

(ps,check this post of mine out cause y not lol)

#indian #desi culture #writing #south asia #desi character #hinduism #desi academia #desi aesthetic #desi tag #Spotify #desi tumblr #desi shit posting #Indian culture #writing advice #character #character writing #all is not well #desi #desiblr #desi shit

[postoctobrist]

Hey this is a weird thing to ask but you seem like you would know (based on the time on WTYP you started explaining Wahabism): what ARE the Taliban? What's up with them philosophically, who/what is Talib(?), etc. All the American education system ever taught me was "the Evil Government of Afghanistan who we are righteously overthrowing, oo-rah, USA!, etc."

So a ‘talib’ is a student of an Islamic religious school, ‘taliban’ just means ‘students’. That’s where they started out, a network of religious schools in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Who they are and what they believe is sort of the same question - when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, they provoked a huge resistance that was essentially Islamist in character, both because Afghanistan was already a conservative and religious place, because it was now suddenly full of Russian atheist communists doing war crimes, and because the intelligence services of the US, Pakistan and several Arab countries saw an opportunity to stick it to the Soviets. You can loosely call all of these insurgents ‘mujahideen,’ ‘guys who do jihad,’ and like a lot of insurgencies it depended on individual leaders holding together coalitions of tribal and ethnic loyalties. A lot of these leaders were also not what you might call good guys themselves.

The insurgents win, the Soviets get forced out of Afghanistan, and what follows is an immediate and brutal civil war to determine who gets control of what’s left. The Taliban are in an interesting position because they hate all the warlords equally and have been themselves propped up by particularly Pakistani intelligence, who see them as controllable. They also benefit from a lot of the traditional popularity fascists get: they seem personally clean, orderly, they’re going to restore tradition and brutally punish the right people. They actually seem serious about being Muslims, which matters if you are a serious Muslim and have previously been beholden to a bribe-taking rapist blasphemer. We saw some of these dynamics again with the rise of Daesh/ISIS/whatever. And while they’re mostly Pashtun they’re far less tribalist and far more able to incorporate members of other ethnicities. Yeah, they seem a bit weird and foreign and alienating and they have this look in their eyes, but you should see the other guy.

Anyway, the Taliban win the civil war and establish the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It’s really bad. Their idea of government is extremely strict, theocratic, and perhaps most of all misogynistic. You get a lot of executions, women being stoned to death in football stadiums, things of this nature. They rule Afghanistan in this way for years but resistance continues from former warlords, most notably a guy called Ahmad Shah Massoud, ‘Afghanistan’s George Washington.’ They successfully assassinate Massoud on September 10th, 2001, with a bomb concealed in a TV camera during an interview.

Unfortunately for the Taliban, they had also welcomed back into Afghanistan an old Saudi mujahid called Osama bin Laden so that he had somewhere to do his side hustle, something called ‘the base,’ ‘al-Qaeda,’ and the day after their big triumph he does something else.

[REEL MISSING] Anyway now they’re back and Afghanistan is an Islamic Emirate again. Foreign policy feels great, doesn’t it?

#afghanistan #taliban #history #please correct me I’m sure I have some of this wrong

[bobemajses]

Do the Pashtun people of Afghanistan and Pakistan have Jewish ancestry?

The Pashtuns, now Afghanistan’s majority ethnic group and heavily involved in the establishment of the Taliban, sometimes call themselves "Bani Israel" and have a tribal legend which states that a Jewish group settled near the modern town of Herat and later converted to Islam after their leader met with Prophet Mohammed. Jewish Virtual Library writes that some Pashtuns have Jewish sounding names such as Asheri, Binyamin and Naftali, and that they practice Jewish customs such as marrying under a chuppah, lighting candles on fridays and circumcising their sons eight days after birth. This could also be explained through the Pashtuns’ connection with Jewish warriors, merchants, and administrative officers who traveled and settled on the Silk Road and left their influence on the local residents — but it is certainly intriguing.

The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel some 2,730 years ago, scattering 10 of the 12 tribes into exile, supposedly beyond the mythical Sambation river. The two remaining tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became the modern-day Jewish people, and the search for the lost tribes has continued ever since. Some have claimed to have found traces of them in modern day China, Burma, Nigeria, India, Central Asia and Ethiopia. But it is believed that the tribes were dispersed in an area around modern-day northern Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes the Pashtun connection the strongest.

However, an Israeli government-funded DNA test found no genetic link between Jews and Pashtuns. They seem to share a greater affinity with Central Asian populations such as Tajiks or Turkmens, as well as with some Iranian and Caucasian groups. Whatever might be true, most Pashtuns today are strict Muslims with their own language and culture and have no interest in reconnecting with these assumed Jewish roots.

#pashtun #afghanistan #pakistan #jewish #pathans #afghan

[molkolsdal]

thinking about the identity crisis i went though as a kid cuz my parents had told me very simply that my mom was pashtun and my dad was punjabi and they were both from peshawar and that was that. understandably they had simplified it so much for me cuz i was a kid, but whenever other brown people asked where i was from or "what are you" and i mentioned punjabi and they'd be like oh wow where? lahore? and i'd just be like nope lol peshawar and they would press me about how my dad could be punjabi if he was from peshawar and i just didn't have an answer. when i got a little older, i started saying well borders are manmade, you don't necessarily have to be from one ethnicity cuz you're from a certain area (and i was right! i just didn't know at the time why i was right).

as i got older and i found out more about our family background, it all made more sense to me as i came to know that the punjabi side of us was allegedly from a great-great-great grandfather from gurdaspur who had moved to bannu way back when. but as my interest in linguistics and anthropology and history grew, i realized that my old explanation of "borders are manmade" was true anyway!!! prime examples being speakers of Hindko and Derawali, as well as the Hazarewal community in general. anyways, i could go on about this, but it's all just so endlessly fascinating that i wouldn't know where to stop so i'll stop now.

#also thinking about the fact that my dads family speaks derawali / seraiki and i keep wondering how his family managed to maintain such a #strong punjabi identity despite being only a fraction punjabi 'by blood' and living in kpk for generations #their ancestral home is in bannu and they have no ties to gurdaspur anymore as far as i know #and we have more recent kashmiri and tibetan ancestors but that gets completely overlooked (that could prob be for patriarchal reasons too #since i rmr my dad once saying 'you are what your dad is' which is so stupid and makes no sense. made me roll my eyes so hard) #but anyways im wondering if any of his great-grandparents or whoever were originally from bannu/surrounding areas and thats why they kept #the language OH BUT IM ALSO REMEMBERING NOW my grandma grew up in gujarat (present day pakistan) and also both my grandparents lived in #qadian in india for quite some time in their youth bc they were ahmadi #wondering how many of my other ancestors lived in qadian as well since they all very strongly identify as ahmadi #qadian is in punjab so maybe they married people there as well!!! #anyways just... so many unanswered questions!

[sivavakkiyar]

I wonder how many people posting the Mao ‘I don’t speak Chinese’ joke (not a criticism, it’s funny) are actually reading ‘PashtunStalinist’ into the joke? Probably almost no one right? I would be thrilled if more people recognized ‘Pashtun’ but I’m assuming it’s unlikely. The internet is wild

[mariacallous]

The mass shooting and fire at the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow on March 22 was the deadliest terrorist attack Russia has seen since the 2004 Beslan school siege. The gunmen’s actions claimed at least 137 lives and injured 180 others. The four suspects currently in custody are citizens of Tajikistan. But Russian authorities are doing their best to connect the attack to Ukraine. Sources in Western intelligence, meanwhile, say it was the work of the Islamic State-Khorasan, a branch of the Islamic State also known as ISIS-K. Experts note that ISIS-K has declared Russia among its main enemies (along with the U.S. and China). Meduza breaks down what you need to know about ISIS-K and why the group has Russia in its sights.

What is ISIS-K?

ISIS-K, or the Islamic State-Khorasan, is a branch of the Islamic State that operates primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Formally, the organization governs an ISIS province (wilayah, in Arabic) and reports to the ISIS caliph. Currently, this position is held by Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, whose four predecessors were killed in U.S. operations.

According to ISIS ideology, its caliphate, or state, aims to span the entire globe. The organization has divided the world into provinces, some of which are headed by local Islamist movements that operated before ISIS came into existence (for instance, ones connected to Al-Qaeda). In fact, ISIS itself emerged when the Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq severed ties with the global Al-Qaeda leadership.

Similarly, the Afghan-Pakistani branch of the Islamic State, ISIS-K, emerged in 2015 as a local movement. Initially, the group was composed of several thousand opponents of Afghanistan’s pro-American government, mostly Pashtuns, who were disillusioned with the Taliban. ISIS-K immediately started engaging in armed conflicts with the U.S. army, the Afghan government, and, even more brutally, with the Taliban.

The Taliban’s ideology fundamentally differs from that of ISIS. The Taliban aim to establish a national Islamic State in Afghanistan, while ISIS supporters advocate for world domination and the defeat of all “infidels.” Islamic nationalism won out in Afghanistan (and neighboring Pakistan), and by 2018, the Taliban (with the unofficial help of U.S. air support) had virtually destroyed ISIS-K’s organized resistance in the eastern provinces. U.S. forces killed several of the group’s leaders and, according to experts, the organization’s numbers were severely depleted, going from several thousand to a few hundred people.

Sanaullah Ghafari, who took over ISIS-K’s leadership, shifted the group’s strategy from direct armed confrontations to increasingly ruthless acts of terrorism against the Taliban, religious minorities, and Americans. During the U.S. troop withdrawal from Kabul in August 2021, he allegedly orchestrated a suicide bombing at the airport gate through which refugees fleeing Taliban rule were trying to enter. The attack killed 182 people, including 13 U.S. servicemen.

ISIS-K later expanded its list of enemies to include Russia, among others. On September 5, 2022, an explosion near the Russian embassy in Kabul killed five people, including two embassy staff. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack. In January 2024, more than 90 people were killed in twin explosions in Kerman in Iran. U.S. intelligence confirmed ISIS-K orchestrated the attacks. However, Taliban agents allegedly killed Ghafari in 2023, and it’s unclear who’s currently at the helm of ISIS-K. That said, judging by the Iran attacks, its strategy remains unchanged.

Why Russia?

Radical Islamists have long accused Russia of being a state that “oppresses Muslims” both at home and abroad. ISIS propaganda regularly mentions Russia’s past military campaigns in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and Moscow’s intervention in support of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria put an even bigger target on its back.

ISIS-K leadership has seen the initial success of ISIS leadership, which capitalized politically on the global struggle against “infidel empires” such as the United States, China, Iran, and Russia. Prioritizing “external operations” could yield far greater political and financial benefits (in the form of donations) than working with local resources.

There are also deeper reasons for the particular hostility towards Russia. In recent years, ISIS-K has been trying to expand the movement’s ethnic base — both in Afghanistan and beyond. In the northern regions of Afghanistan, where many ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks live, its numbers are growing. ISIS-K regularly threatens Central Asian authorities, calling them “puppets of the Russian empire.” In this sense, the struggle against Russia is a fight for resources: primarily for radically minded supporters in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and neighboring countries.

Was ISIS-K behind the attack?

There’s still no publicly available indisputable evidence that ISIS-K organized the attack. However, ISIS has claimed responsibility, and sources told CNN that the U.S. is in possession of intelligence confirming these claims. The New York Times also reported that Washington considers ISIS-K to be behind the attack.

Ruslan Suleymanov, a Middle East expert, expressed skepticism to Meduza about whether ISIS-K currently possesses the necessary resources to organize such a large-scale terrorist attack on the outskirts of Moscow. However, the attack doesn’t appear to have been “high-tech” in nature: the perpetrators clearly had problems with their escape plan, as well as with weapons. (In a video from the attack, sparks are seen flying from the barrel of one of the machine guns, which could indicate that either the ammunition or the weapons themselves were in poor condition.)

Suleymanov said it’s also difficult to confirm whether messages on ISIS Telegram channels are authentic as the group’s accounts are regularly blocked, forcing it to create new ones. The posts about the Moscow attack come from ISIS-linked Amaq News Agency, not from ISIS-K directly. In one picture, the four alleged “participants in the operation” are shown with blurred faces against the backdrop of the Islamic State flag. Amaq later released a first-person body-cam video that clearly shows the attack on Crocus City Hall, corroborating the Islamic State’s involvement.

[saharathorn]

“The real Jews are African Americans/Ethiopians/Pashtuns/Latinos/Christians/White People!” Or maybe… the real Jews… are… Jews…

#crazy idea i know

[indizombie]

Naya, not her real name, is just 11 but is no longer attending school in her home province of Kandahar. Her father says the government has "abandoned" her because she looks older than she is. "She is larger than average, and that was the reason the government told us she couldn't go to school. She must wear the veil (hijab) and stay at home." He doesn't hold out much hope for the rules changing under the current regime, but was keen to stress one point: the idea the people of Afghanistan backed the Taliban's ban was an "absolute lie". "It is absolutely an accusation on Afghans and Pashtuns that they don't want daughter's education, but the issue is vice-versa," he said. "Specially in Kandahar and other Pashtun provinces (where Pashtun people live), a lot people are ready to send their daughters to schools and universities to get education."

'Afghanistan: Teen girls despair as Taliban school ban continues', BBC

#Afghanistan #BBC #Pashtuns #Afghans #female literacy #Taliban #Kandahar