Literature review

The topic i researched upon is Pakhtunwali and the tribal customs 'Riwaj' and the area i
taregetted are the tribal areas of Pakistan which has 90% Pakhtuns. South and North
Waziristan, Thull, Bagan, Parachinar, Hangu and other areas that lie in the Kurram and
Khyber agencies bordering Afghanistan.

I found a few conversations online and held various interviews about this topic and
these customs.

Are these customs still practiced after FATA being merged in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
region?

How important are these customs for the men and the women?

Are these customs changing and evolving with time?

Interview 1

Baryalay a villager living in the tribal areas of Pakistan answered

'I am not like these people [the inhabitants of his village]. I have seen other places,

I have lived in a different way. I have gone to university far from home, and met

people from all over. Many of these people have never left their village, they don’t

know how to live properly. They are ignorant and uneducated. That’s why they are

constantly fighting against each other, backbiting…they don’t have trust in each

other, in anyone…I don’t like this kind of life, to me it doesn’t make sense'

On asking how his relationship is with his elders at home he added

 People in my family are afraid of my father. He is illiterate, he is violent

[zurawaar], he lives like the other people in the village, he lives by the same rules.

He went to live with his new wife and his children in another house in the village.

We don’t meet very often, we live separate lives now. We see each other only for

ghamuna and khoshaluna [the joyful and sorrowful occasions in the life of a family,

mostly weddings and funerals, when relatives from the same lineage gather

together..

Q ; Are you angry at your father?

No, I guess not…I don’t care anymore, I just don’t consider him…I have

no interest in having a relationship with him at this point.

The educated young tribesmen who donot accept these customs which are toxic for a
woman and sometimes for a man aswell rage and rebel against their elders.

I also wanted to know how these customs have shaped them and made them fearful and
violent.

Interview 2

Umer an educated individual who works as a government servant in khyber agency on

asking if his friends visited his house often added

Do your friends come often to see you at your house?

Umar – Yes, pretty often.

Q – Do they come with their wives?

 Umar – No, only my friends come to visit.

Q – So, you never have dinner all together with your friends and their spouses.

Umar – No, it never happens.

Q – Not even with your best friend?

Umar – No.

Q– Why is it so?

Umar – Well, it is not appropriate [munasib], we do not do that…people would

know about it, they would start talking…it would give us a bad name…

Q– What would they say?

Umar – Well, they would probably say that I am beghairata [without honor, without

manly attributes], because I let my wife be seen by others.

People like umar had very different views about Honour. He is fearful that his friends or
relatives might call him 'Beghairat' because he didn't follow the custom of Pardah and
honor.

Interview 3

Zahid a 24 year old boy talking about his village which is located near the border of
Afghanistan says

I hate when I have to go to the village. I try to go as little as possible, and when I

go, I stay for just a few days. Everybody is edgy there, everybody is always anxious,

always ready for something bad to happen. They are aggressive, pushy. It makes

me uncomfortable. When I go there, I change, I become a different person. I start

doing things like they do them. I start to talk like them, to act like them. I also
become more aggressive. I have to adjust to how they do things, because otherwise

they would consider me a weak person, they would make fun of me. I know the rules,

I know how to behave, I adjust. Every time I get in the car to go back from

the village, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

on asking why these people have this agressive attitude he answered

I think it had a lot to do with the war. They were born and raised in this

provincial environment and then the civil war

after that, affected society a lot. There was a lot of violence every day, a lot of

conflicts also among local people, everybody was against everybody else. It’s

difficult to live that way. After a while I guess it becomes normal. But it also has to

do with ghairat. Ghairat is deeply engrained in Pashtun culture. A Pashtun man

has to be ghairati

Interview 4

You know, there are two kinds of ghairat. There is good ghairat, and bad ghairat.

For example, imagine you are walking in the street with your sister, and a strange

man passes by and looks at your sister intensely, as if she knew her. If you start

speculating that they are having an illicit relationship, and kill them both without

even inquiring with any of them, you are not a ghairati man, you are ignorant and

stupid [besauada aw kamaqal]. On the contrary, if you discover that your wife has

been the object of bad verbal or physical harassment against her will, and you kill
 the culprit, this is good ghairat, something obligatory.

A pakhtun man has to be Ghairati to be able to live in such kind of a society to be

accepted. He fears that he wont be accepted by these people who follow these customs
rigidly.

Respect comes from this state of fear, they follow these unwritten laws and inreturn the
villagers respect them whether they like it or not.

Pakhtunwali was formed 5000 years ago and ancient set of rules and customs to control
the rebellious pakhtuns. These unwritten laws promised to protect men and women's
rights but after the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1980's, 2001's 9/11 incident, then
Waziristan Operation and the war happened in 2007 in kurram agency affected these
areas and Pakhtunwali code was transformed. People became more violent and
agressive towards these customs and outsiders.

ZAN, ZAR, ZAMEEN

Zan zar and zameen means Land, Women & Money. These are the main pillars of
Pakhtun codes and they were damaged because of the war and hence a violent and
more destructive Pakhtunwali was formed and is now in practice.

Pakhtun literature

Pakhtun women have been expressing their thoughts and emotions through two lined
poetry called Tappay, Lobay or Landays.

Here are a few verses i found online which beautifully express women's fears and love
through poetry snippets.

You sold me to an old man, father.

 May God destroy your home, I was your daughter.

"When sisters sit together, they always praise their brothers.

When brothers sit together, they sell their sisters to others."

"Your eyes aren’t eyes. They’re bees.

I can find no cure for their sting."

"Come, let’s leave these village idiots

and marry Kabul men with Bollywood haircuts"

"You wound a thick turban around your bald head

to hide your age. Why, you’re nearly dead!"

"My body belongs to me;

to others its mastery"

"May God destroy the Taliban and end their wars.

 They’ve made Afghan women widows and whores"

"I dream I am the president.

When I awake, I am the beggar of the world"

"O darling, you’re American in my eyes.

You are guilty; I apologize."

Concept
To bring back what was lost and to forget the past's damage and to move on with a new
set of mind is what's needed in those affected areas for those people.

The children are being taught in the madrassas about who the enemy is and what the
danger is. Instead of passing the violence to the young ones who's minds are still young,
innocent and unaware, I plan to plant seeds of the True Pakhtun values which were
taught by the great just Pakhtuns like Rehman Baba and Bacha khan. Counsel them their
own Customs in a different non violent way where women feel protected and men are
not violent.

Research Question: